Posted by: Jim (jwelborn@lexcominc.net) on Thu Jun 23 21:53:18 2005

> > I coach a 10 year old tournament team. My boys are constantly having trouble hitting a changeup. Any suggestions?
>
> Hi,
>
> Have you seen the hands back hitter? www.swingbuster.com
>
> This will help teach how to hit the change up. You can do the same thing with soft toss by holding the ball while the player takes his stride, and then flip the ball.
>
> After they have learned what it feels like to adjust to a change up, it's all about the approach at the plate. It's a simple thought process of thinking fastball/change up. You think fastball first and change up second. If the change up comes you adjust (learned from soft toss) accordingly. The thought process allows you to adust your swing/timing according to what you see, think fastball hit change up. The thought process ties into your mechanics/timing and allows you to make an adjustment.




Good ideas!

To expand on the thought process:

Think fast, adjust to slow
Think high, adjust to low
Think inside, adjust to outside

(Think high, adjust to low is especially important when facing a fastpitch softball rise ball pitcher.)


Hitting the changeup is a challenge in all age groups.