Why was my drop ball so effective?

​It seems like every pitcher and their families (I apologize for generalizing; I know there are some who are not doing this!) rush to learn 6 pitches by the time they hit high school. Most end up with 6 pitches that do nothing but sit and spin due to the lack of actual development. Pitching coaches are constantly trying to bait families into paying for more lessons, so they feel the need to teach pitches too early.
 
Many of you know a lot of my story as a pitcher, but I’ve never really broken down what pitches I learned when or what MY own progression looked like. I say MY because yours will look different, just like it will look different than the other pitchers on your team!
 
7 years old – Played for our local Cinderella Softball League. Started pitching in the back yard with Mom and Dad, was completely awful - like literally sat there with a bucket and just launched them over my Dad’s head for an hour then went inside. I pitched in games when we were WAY ahead or WAY behind and never for more than a few innings. We attended weekly winter clinics with our local rec league but did not pay for private instruction.
 
8 years old - Played for our local Cinderella Softball League, and played All-Stars that summer. I continued to attend weekly winter Cinderella pitching clinics, started working one on one with a pitching coach once a week (still could barely throw strikes.) This year I pitched my first full game - we lost 8-0 in 5 innings and it was UGLY.
 
9 years old – Played for our local Cinderella Softball League, All-Stars, and after All-Stars a local travel league put together a 10u team taking the top few players from each league’s All-Star teams (The NY Lady Bandits). We played three tournaments after All-Stars, I mostly played first base and was a “Pool Play Pitcher” (Ugh. I hate the terms pool play and bracket pitchers, but I digress.) I still struggled to throw strikes, and had something that I guess we called a change up.
 
10 years old – Played Cinderella Softball, and my family decided to play a longer summer travel schedule with the Bandits, so I did not play All-Stars. I was still only pitching a fastball and a change up, working on accuracy and mechanics. At this point, I was working with a private pitching instructor. We attended 5 summer tournaments, without any trips outside of NY/PA. We did not play any fall or winter dome ball (crazy, dome softball wasn’t even really a thing) – but practiced on Sundays so we could all play fall and winter sports.
 
11 years old – Still played Cinderella softball, and was still with the Bandits. I almost quit pitching. I physically grew A LOT this year, and that combined with the move to 40ft and the 12” ball I was riding the struggle bus. On top of this, my private pitching coach wanted me to learn how to pitch a drop ball and it took my mechanics back at least two years. We made the decision to no longer work with that pitching coach, and I continued to work on my fastball and change up at home with my parents. It seemed silly to pay for private instruction when I hated going, and didn’t even know if I wanted to pitch anymore. Spent a lot of time in the back yard, worked through it, learned how to use my newly “grown up” body. Lots of tears, arguments, and balls later we (and I saw we because it was truly a family affair) finally came through it and I started to regain my confidence in the circle. 
 
12 years old – Played Cinderella softball,  played with the Bandits, and made the varsity softball team. This was my last year of Cinderella softball, as I missed most of the season due to making the varsity softball team. While I did not pitch on Varsity as a 7th grader, I did begin to work with our Varsity pitching coach. He also became my private pitching coach. After working to consistently hitting fastball spots and change ups we reintroduced the drop ball (a roll over, instead of the peel I had been taught previously) and it was legit (well, legit for a 12 year old). That summer I became a consistent pitcher (“bracket pitcher”) for our travel team and logged 2/3 of the innings.
 
13 years old (8th grade) – Played Varsity, still with the Bandits too. Halfway through our varsity season the senior pitcher was injured, so as an 8th grader I was pitching the second half of the season. I held my own and we made it to play offs – remember I was only throwing a fastball, change up, and a recently learned drop ball!
 
14 years old (Freshman Year) – Played Varsity, still with the Bandits too. The winter going into my freshman year of HS season (I was the starting Varsity pitcher now) I learned a curve ball. By the time high school season started the curve was okay – I threw it in games but it was really just a different look pitch that supported my drop. I also added an off speed pitch because my flip change was not good, to put it nicely…it was really never reliable throughout my entire career. During a random bullpen we were messing around with pressure points on the ball and somehow (I still don’t really know how) my off-speed turned into a really nice knuckle curve. That year during high school/travel season I probably pitched 50% drops, 20% knuckle curves, and 30% fastballs with a few curves and change ups mixed in.
 
15 years old (Sophomore Year) – Played varsity, still with the Bandits too. Still only threw a fastball, change up, offspeed/knuckle curve, regular curve, and a drop. We started attending some local showcase type tournaments, and I started to narrow down what I was looking for in a school and softball program. I also started attending camps and clinics of schools that matched what I was looking for.
 
16 years old (Junior Year) – Played Varsity, transitioned to a national travel ball team, the NJ Nightmare, working to get recruited. Learned a screwball over the winter – originally it was extremely effective and I threw it a lot. It started to breakdown my mechanics and I struggled to stay within the legal lines of the pitching rubber. Went back to old faithfuls with the drop and curve. The winter going into my junior year HS season I verbaled to play DII college softball.
 
17 years old (Senior year) – Played Varsity, continued to play with the Nightmare even though I had already signed to play at the next level. Continued to rely heavily on my fastball, knuckle curve, and drop ball. Occasionally threw curves and screws, I NEVER learned to throw a rise or a drop curve.
 
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Everyone’s journey looks different but for those that go on to play at the next level they all have one thing in common. They are a master at something, and good at a few other things. Without my drop ball – I wouldn’t have been nearly as effective as I was as a pitcher, or been recruited as heavily as I was. Was I the fastest? Absolutely not. Was I the biggest or the strongest or the most mechanically perfect? Absolutely not. Did I have the most strikeouts, no hitters, or best stats? Absolutely not. BUT I had something that made me different, something I had spent years and years mastering that college coaches were drawn to. 
 
Why was my drop ball so effective? I threw it at two different heights – one that started at the knees and broke out of the zone, and one that started and the hips and broke to the knees. I could throw it inside at your hip like it was going to hit you and it would finish at your ankle after you swung through out. I could cut it across the outside corner and it would finish one ball off the plate – umpires almost always called it a strike even if you didn’t swing. I spent SEVEN YEARS enhancing and evolving my drop ball, instead of adding other pitches to my arsenal. I didn’t need a rise or a drop curve (or whatever other pitch you want to plug in there) to be effective and get looks from college coaches, because my drop ball was THAT consistent and could do THAT many different things.
 
When people ask me what I look for in a pitcher when I’m out recruiting, they are often surprised by my answer. Everyone wants to know the secret to being looked at as a pitcher who can compete at the next level right? My answer is always “I want a pitcher who brings something to the staff that we don’t already have.” To stand out, you have to do something different. Seems simple right? So why when it comes to pitching do we make it more complicated? More often than not, when I pitcher starts an email with “I throw 6 pitches”, I don’t bother to finish reading the email. If you throw that many pitches, how much time do you really spend mastering your best pitch? 

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