The Secret to Throwing Hard
May 20, 2013
Be This Type of Baseball Pitcher!
September 1, 2013
I get asked by hundreds of coaches, parents and students each year to teach them how to throw a 12-6 curveball. My response surprises most people when I tell them there is no such thing as a 12-6 curveball.
When your sitting on the third or first base side of the ballpark and a pitcher throws a nasty curveball you could be thinking, Wow! that pitch just fell right off the table. It dropped straight down. That is what your eyes are telling you, you saw. In all reality, if you were behind home plate you would see something completely different. The curveball would curve, but it would tail to the right or left of the plate.
Pitchers try all of the time to throw a 12-6 curve to impress. What most pitchers do in an effort to throw this curveball is to dip their front glove arm shoulder down to throw over the top of the ball.
This does two things you don’t want any part of.
One, if its not your natural arm slot, you don’t want to be messing with that arm angle. I can guarantee you its not your natural arm slot anyway. If you throw like that someone has taught you how to throw that way and shame on them. This damages arms and should not be taught.
Two, if you throw over the top on your curveball to try to throw the 12-6 and then throw your fastball and every other pitch differently, the hitter will know what’s coming.
If your me and you know a curveball or an off speed pitch is coming you don’t want any part of it anyway, even if its a strike; unless you are protecting the plate. You just wait for a fastball opportunity and send it sailing.
If you really want to know how to throw a great curveball that catches the scouts attention, then take a look at our pitching grips dvd. This will not only teach you how to throw a nasty curveball, it will instruct you how to add movement to any pitch. And last I checked, that is what gets hitters out.
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