No snap semi curve ball?

General Pitching Topics
#1

My son is 8 1/2 and just finished LL minor B and did pretty well for his first “real” season. His best outing was striking out 9 in 3 innnings with 35 pitches. He is 4’3" and 61lb so I guess average size. I have a velocity ball that says he is pitching 45 to 48 which seems good for his size.

He is very coachable and can learn and incorporate new things into his pitching rather quickly however, he wants to throw a curve ball which of course is forbidden at this age. I was talking to a minor A ump who said a kid was throwing some kind of pitch that was not a 2 seam fastball or a curveball yet the ball was gettin “some” curve ball action without snapping the wrist.

Does anyone know what kind of grip this might be? Again, this is not 2 seam fast ball movement. I am trying to satisfy my son who is getting kind of bored throwing fast balls.

Thanks
adam55
Huntington Beach, CA

#2

Sounds like the ump was talking about a cutter which breaks about 6"-8". The pitch is thrown with a slight amount of supination but it is clost to fastball velocity. The concern I would have is that I’ve seen kids who were taught the cutter become unhappy with the small amount of break and before long they’ve figured out how to turn that pitch into an incorrectly thrown curve.

My suggestion is to have your son start working on a change-up.

#3

At 8 1/2 why? Seriously.

Commmand of fastball both 2 and 4 seam varieties is enough. Frankly, I would not even start a change up yet because of his hand size.

What Rogers said was true as well. Kids do get impatient.

I have Played (Pitched) and coached pitching for almost all my life and I am 51.

Here’s how I would start my son (minus the mistakes I made)

  1. Fastball-teach both varieties-2 and 4 seam.
  2. Throw strikes-best pitch in baseball is strike one
  3. Learn Command of the 4 corners of the plate up and in,up and away, down and in, down and away.
  4. Never throw the ball in what Ted Williams called the 500 zone (belt high over the middle).

This is enough until they get to 60’6.

First year at 60’6, Bring on the change up.
Location, location, location
Movement,movement, movment
Down, down, down, and farther down-keep it down!

at 15 1/2 start the curve:

proper mechanics
proper spin-downward break!!!

Jr Year of HS-probably age 17
talk about slider if needs 4th pitch

Ian

#4

Well, despite agreeing with the others, I could actually provide maybe the thing you were asking for - a breaking ball with a fastball wrist action.

This is a slider-type pitch wich is very easy to learn and use. But remeber, monitor your son’s wrist action and make sure that he does not use anything but his normal fastball arm and wrist movement.

The grip is the simplest in the world.

  1. take the normal 2-seam grip
  2. put your index and middle finger together and then put them on the place where the middle finger is on the 2-seam grip, which is the right seam for a right handed pitcher and vice versa.
  3. apply finger pressure and just throw it.

This is just simply shifting the pressure from the center of the ball to the right side of the ball. When you throw like you were throwing a fastball, instead of applying the force on both seams, you apply them only on the one that is on the outer half of the ball, resulting in an altered, bullet-like spin that should break a little. Should be kinda like a… voilá, a breaking fastball.

But again, be careful and watch after your son and make sure he does everything like he does when throwing a fastball.

Hope this helps.

#5

There is a pitch called a knuckle curve…my kids pitching coach teaches this pitch by knuckling the pointer finger and middle finger and then just throw with fastball arm swing. Throw it with a little softer touch and you get a big curve and harder for a splitter action. The pitch really curves and is a great pitch even for my 14 year old and he can get it to break from one side of the plate to the other. I can’t find it described anywhere on the web page but give it a try.

#6

antonio, you’ve just described a cutter.

#7

you got a yound mariano rivera on your hands. hes got natural cutting action on the ball. when this kids turns 12 you should start TEACHING him how to throw a cutter. i capilitized that because he shouldnt start using has a main pitch until like 13. but make him get the feel and throw i in bullpen sessions.

P.S. a lot of kids have natural tail on the ball