At tryouts today, the person i was playing catch with in warm-ups said that i throw a heavy ball…or like the ball is water logged.
Also i was playing catch last year w/ my coach (injury recovering) and he said i have a heavy arm. That when the ball hits his glove his wrist always snaps back.
Is this good?? or bad??
A heavy ball is a ball with less spin (so it will drop more than a ball with more spin but lose more speed too)
It’s usually preferable because of the late movement involved.
This article provides an interesting read:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_12_63/ai_n6355551
if it means i have less speed then why did my coaches wrist snap back when we were playing catch?
also if i have this should i be throwing 2 seam or 4seam F-balls??
[quote=“Too_Mutch13”]if it means i have less speed then why did my coaches wrist snap back when we were playing catch?
also if i have this should i be throwing 2 seam or 4seam F-balls??[/quote]
I mean the ball loses more speed over it’s trajectory. For example, the typical ball loses 5-7 mph but a fastball with lots of rotation might lose 4 and a heavy ball might lose 8. That’s my take on it.
The article I posted attributes the heavy feeling to the uncertainty of where the ball is because of the late movement so then the ball isn’t caught perfectly (Kind of like when you miss the sweet spot while hitting).
Can you make the 2-seam move a lot with good velocity?
Use whatever pitches you feel comfortable with, knowing that a heavy ball will have some late movement to it.
Just to give an example, I was a guy who was known for a heavy ball, and was primarily a sinker/slider pticher, but used a 4 seam on the corners in counts that were to my favor. The late tailng action of the 4 seamer made guys chase the outside pitch and handcuffed them with the inside pitch that I would start at the thigh. This also caused them to get jammed, which is something that never feels good against heavy armed guy. Plus, the 4-seamer gave them another thing to look for and think about, as the movement was in a different plane than my 2 seam and slider.
In short, its a good thing, that you really dont need to put much thought into; it is what it is. Use the pitches that you’re comfortable and most successful with.
Great article by the way, Spencer- thanks for sharing!
It means you throw a fastball with hard and late downward movement on it.