Post your pitching grip pictures....

[matthew reel]

hey im a junior in highschool and im looking for some general comments about myself.
pitches i would use in a game and are 100% within my comfort.
* 4 seam fastball (82 mph)
* 2 seam fastball
* curveball (more like a 'slurve') - very tight and thrown only about 10 mph below my fastball speed but has a very abrubt break and falls right off.
*circle change (very dependable and mechanics and arm speed dont change at all but you see a huge speed difference) i watched tape for hours of myself pitching.
*knuckle curve (much more 12/6 - 1/7 than my curve which is more like a 2/7ish.
*splitter (i have very big hands so i utilize them with this pitch)

pitches i work on in practices-
* knuckleball (in progress, serious effort put in) almost no spin and grip is good but not confident in it in games yet.
* palm ball (deciding weather to use circle or palm)
* screwball (through throwing my circle change alot i actually found myself throwing screwballs. about a 10/5 drop that is significantly slower than a fastball) *55-60 mph

i stand at 6 foot about 145 lbs.

im looking for anyone that can help me get better. i love to get coached up and i love baseball as i am sure many others do. anyone who wants to bring up a young pitcher with infinite potential, heart, and drive then please get back to me. thanks everyone.

[ericpalmer]

I have never been able to throw very hard, so I've always relied on movement with all of my pitches, but the normal way of throwing these pitches never worked for me so I decided to play around with it some.
First off, I moved my arm slot down from over the top to 3/4 and sometimes lower, then with my pitches...

4-Seam:
Since my 4-seam never really had a lot of speed to begin with, I decided to sacrifice 1 or 2 MPH for some movement, so now instead of holding my thumb in a straight line underneath the ball, I bend it at the knuckle and it gives it a slight cut-motion. I also place my index and middle finger farther apart than most-with about an inch inbetween fingers instead of them almost touching. This gives it just a touch of a downward break which helps me force more groundballs.

2-Seam:
I switch off between throwing this pitch with my thumb bent at the knuckle underneath the ball for a more exaggerated break and normal (like shown in Steven's pictures) so I can throw the batters off just a tiny bit when I'm forced to throw it more than once in an AB.

Circle Change:
This is my favorite pitch to throw. Instead of circling just the index finger around the side of the ball, I do it with the index AND the pinky. I could never get a lot of movement when I did it with just the one circle, but now my pitch has some wicked drop on it. I hold it either with my middle and ring fingers in a 4-seam placement or a 2-seam placement-it just depends on what worked better in warmups that day.

Knucklecurve:
One day i was just messing around with some hand locations and such when I found out the perfect way for me to throw this pitch. Instead of knuckling just the index finger, I knuckle the index finger, middle finger, and thumb on the ball (my index and middle knuckles are on the 4-seam placement) with my ring and pinky fingers curled around the ball as far as they will go. I'm still working on getting good control of it, but the break it has is unreal.

[The Pitching Academy]

Those are great pics Steven!
Throwing effective pitches requires correct wrist and forearm angle at release of the baseball. When you have the grip and wrist and forearm angle combined with great fastball mechanics; you can learn most pitches quickly.

Thank you for the information,

http://www.thepitchingacademy.net

[kelvinp]

ive never heard about forearm angles
where can i find out more about that?
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$KELVO$

fastball - idk
curve
change
splitter
slider

[ckbayless]

[quote="laflippin"]TheWatch,

Your C-change grip is good food for discussion--there is a school of thought that says every grip, except the splitter/forkball of course, should have the thumb and middle finger exactly splitting the baseball in two equal halves.

My kid can't do that with a C-change grip, so he throws a split-finger FB for his changeup pitch. Also, the C-change is typically thrown with almost screwball-like pronation, right? That also seems more difficult than the splitter.

Do you have the command that you want with your C-change?[/quote]

Ckbayless:
well my pitching coach says that yes it is like a screw ball, same twist at the end.... opposite of the curve ball, you twist in. but when ur kid throws this pitch he needs to come over the top if he doesnt already. also put extra snap on it for more movement. hope this helps

[CaseBaseball2012]

Fastball


Two Seam


Cutter


Curve


Change-Up

[ctpkonflict]

I have a quick question about the 4-seam FB. I'm a lefty and I always throw a 2-seamer ever since I got away from the 4-seamer.

So which way should I see the laces, in a C or a backwards C. Or does it even matter?

[Steven Ellis]

[ctpkonflict]

oh ok, b/c ive heard things that it can affect the movement you get from the pitch but i stopped throwing a 4-seam in like minor league which is just before little league. and i did this b/c i have a lot of movement on everything and the 2-seamer just helped that out.

[LucasBeggs]

Hey i'm 14 and from Ireland where Baseball is not the flavour of the month but i love the sport and have been pitching for my local team for 3 years and going on tours with an all-Ireland team playing in America and in Europe. I was wondering what's more important. Should you pitch the way that you are comfortable even if it's not like everybody else is doing(i.e holding a screwball the way that you think it should be held or the way it's supposed to). I find that i've become as good as i've been by following my instinct's and pitching the way that's comfortable for me. I'm thinking that one day a scout might look at me and think i wont take him because he's all over the place even though i had an ERA of 1.89 over the 20 games that i pitched.

Pitches i use:
Screwball
2-Seamer
4-Seamer
Curve
Slider
3-Finger
Circle

[miller]

Sorry for the length, but I have a lot to say.

Hey, I was searching for pitching help tonight, found the site so I guess I will try and help out a little. I am an assistant coach at one of the smallest schools in the OHSAA in Ohio.

Lucas,

I would recommend that you do what is comfortable to you. I messed around with grips over the past year and developed a couple very comfortable curveballs. One sinks and one either slashes or floats depending on how hard I throw it.

I had two freshmen pitchers(I believe both were about your age) last year that began the year with only a fastball, but they were more like a slow change-up. They did alright, they put the ball over the plate and made teams hit the ball, we got destroyed for the first 2-3 games that each of them pitched. Once we decided that they had good enough control of their fastball, we tossed in the curveball.

So I would also recommend that you master your fastball and changeup. Because unless you have an outstanding curveball and more than an amazing arm, you will likely throw those two, three or four pitches 85-90% of the time.

Good Luck in the future with the scouts.


But yeah, I messed around with pitches this last season and these are the pitches that I can throw. I am right handed:

2 Seam - If I remember correctly it runs in on the right handed hitter.
4 Seam - Goes straight and my freshmen players say it hurts bad to get hit by it.
Circle Changeup - I throw this with my middle finger over the left seam and my fourth finger on the right, just like a two seam on the seams. It feels weird but looks great going to the plate. I believe it does the opposite of my 2 Seam and runs away from a right handed hitter.

4 Curves :
12-6 Curve - This is held almost exactly like CaseBaseball2012's cutter, except on the other seam. Then I bring it as high as I can over my head and flick my wrist a little bit. I wouldnt recommend teaching this pitch or having a pitcher throw it much, I started learning it on my own in high school and used it whenever I got the call for a curve.

I also throw my 12-6 out of a 3/4 arm slot, it has the same effect except in that type of a movement.

Slashing Curve - This is my favorite pitch, but I cannot ever use it because our catchers cant catch it and our batters will never face it. It is a curve like CaseBaseball2012's, but I grip it really hard and throw it as hard as I can. I simply let the ball slide out of my hand with a very small flick of my wrist. I threw it once last year about midway through the season just because I had a catcher and no batter to throw to. The catcher was zoned in on the ball and thought it was a fastball, but then it slid about 2 feet to the left. The catcher thought it was a fastball.

Slow Floating Curve - This is my Slashing Curve, but I dont grip hard and I throw it as slow as I can. This is the curve that we taught our freshmen and the curve that I used in BP when we needed curveball hitting practice.

I also like to throw a knuckle ball from a good 100-150 feet during conditioning just to mess around.

I will post some pictures, but I dont think I own a baseball and it is 1am here.

I am hoping to have one of the top pitching staffs in our area next year. We have a nice group of Seniors that are coming back next year, along with a nice group of sophomores and a talented group of freshmen, all but one pitched this year for a team that two of the parents coached.

[kevinbert28]

How do you post a pic onto here?
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Don't ever walk a batter. Hit him instead, takes less pitches.