It looks like a fastball, but it's not

When I'm working with junior high and high school pitchers, we work quite a bit on the changeup.

I feel it's one of the most important pitches you can own because it places minimal stress on the arm and can frustrate a lot of hitters.

In collegiate baseball, for instance, most hitters, particularly those in the middle of the lineup, are looking for the fastball. They're looking for fastball arm speed, fastball rotation, and a fastball release point. 

The changeup is the only pitch that "looks" like a fastball to a hitter: it comes out of the hand at the same spot, it's thrown with the same arm speed, etc.

I'd say 8 or 9 times out of 10, you're ability (and confidence) to throw a changeup will enable you to get the hitter to swing through the pitch or take it, both of which are to your advantage. So why not start working on the pitch now if you don't have one? And if you do have a changeup, now's a good time to make it better.

That's what my high school pitchers are doing. You'll be happy with the results.

Where pitchers' power comes from

There are certainly a lot of mechanical flaws in baseball pitching that can lead to decreased performance and loss of power.

But having a mechanical flaw is only part of the problem. Being able to recognize the flaw is always the bigger challenge.

That's where a good pitching coach or instructor and some video analysis of your delivery can help.

One thing I continually see in the pitchers I observe and work with is poor hip action during the "stride phase" of the pitching delivery.

Most pitchers either open their hips too early, or they don’t open their hips at all. Both, of course, are mechanical faults that can cause a decrease in power.

The primary reason for the improper hip action usually happens after the pitcher's reached his balance point. (That's the position where the lift knee reaches its highest point in its leg-up movement, by the way.)

Instead of leading the forward movement toward the plate with their stride foot, many pitchers lead with their front knee or front shoulder.

Leading with the front shoulder more times than not leaves the lower half behind and puts the top half out of sync with the lower half. Leading with the stride knee immediately opens the hips, which squares off the shoulders too early. As a result of the latter, all rotational forces and power are lost.

So what’s a quick fix? For one, stride out toward home plate leading with the stride foot, keep your weight on the back leg, and land toes to the target or slightly closed as opposed to open. ("Open" happens when the inside ankle of their stride foot faces the target instead of the toes.)

Major League pitcher Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays, shown here, has excellent mechanics. Notice his stride foot is leading the forward movement. His hips and stride foot are closed.

The hips will always go where the stride foot goes. So, in this case, if the stride foot lands open, the hips will land open. If the stride foot lands closed, the hips will stay closed -- which is what you want.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Then, once that stride foot lands, it’s the action of the "backside knee drive," thrusting forward and inward, that explosively rotates the hips, which rotates the shoulders and creates power.

And power equates to pitching velocity.

How pitchers can make hitters make adjustments

Forcing hitters to make adjustments is job No. 1 for baseball pitchers. But how to do that is where the art of pitching comes to play -- and how the big league pitchers you watch on TV make their living.

There are actually a few things you can do to make hitters make adjustments -- and make you more successful on the mound.

Here are three:

1. Change speeds. Throw fastballs to increase a hitters bat speed, and throw change-ups to slow it down.
2. Change location. Throw breaking balls (or any pitch that dives downward like a splitter or fork ball) to change a hitters focal point down, and throw high heat to bring the eyes up again. Changing the eye-level of a hitter is important because as you advance, it'll become more difficult for you to get a hitter to move his feet in the batters box -- even by pitching inside -- so the next option is to move the hitters eyes.
3. Double up on spots. If a hitter can't hit a pitch in a particular spot, come back with the same pitch in the same spot. If you miss with an off-speed pitch for a ball, come back with the same pitch for a strike. (But a golden rule in pitching is never throw the same pitch three times in a row -- not even a fastball.)