Boardmember's Excellent Curve Ball and Screw Ball Videos link?

[Softballs]

BM's corkscrew curve requires a twist of the shoulders and hips. You must throw across your body (from pocket to pocket) to make the ball go right to left. You also must cut under the ball to get good 9-3 spin(pitchers perspective).

The corkscrew curve, when thrown correctly is very nice pitch to have. Look at BM's video, he explains it in detail.

 

[Perfect Circle]

Yea we watched...discussed, then went out to give it a go as something new... that it to be funner than the ice bucket challenge Maybe we could have the Corkscrew Challenge...

 

[Ken B]

I think the shot below depicts the corkscrew curve/cutter. I'd love to hear the physics behind what makes this ball move. I assume it's similar to how a cricket ball cuts in that one side is rough. With the cutter (because of the axis) one side maintains a smooth surface while the other side disrupts air with the seam. Am I close?
From the catcher's perspective:



Like this:




Below is the pitchers perspective:

 

[javasource]

BM's corkscrew curve requires a twist of the shoulders and hips. You must throw across your body (from pocket to pocket) to make the ball go right to left. You also must cut under the ball to get good 9-3 spin(pitchers perspective).

The cut down the backside of the ball is what makes the palm orient up.

As far as twisting the shoulders and hips... I'd recommend less of a focus on that... and more of a focus on bringing the throwing hand to the gloveside hip with palm -up. That will get you to close plenty.

Also, when learning this curve, take a sharpie and write "fastball" on the top of their hand and "curve" on the palm. At the conclusion of their throw, have them look down at their hand... which should be on their glove hip... to see that they did indeed throw a "curve".

I like to see them get vertical... with their weight (COM) over the stride foot... some call it 'stacked'. That rear leg needs to gather inward to do so... which is easiest/best to do by forcefully contracting the glutes and adducting like a beast... providing they have powerfully driven off the plate and don't have a bend in the waist towards 3rd (RHP). IMO... if your DD shows either of these traits... I'd work out those issues first.

The twist BM speaks of is very important. With good palm-up on the backside, the elbow should get sucked in/straighten during this phase. If the arm is winging a bit or continuing too straight to the target, they didn't twist down the backside well enough... and/or were too closed coming into release.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Boardmember-

if you are out there lurking, could you clarify the spin you are looking for on this? From a catcher's perspective should I see a dot in the center of the ball or should the dot be on the left hand side of the ball as Ken suggests? From the description as a "corkscrew curve" it does not seem like this is supposed to have traditional 9-3 spin. is this correct?

 

[Ken B]

JJ--thanks for the bump! I see my pic is showing the spin from the pitcher's perspective. I'll see if I can flip it over to show the catcher's perspective.

 

[JJsqueeze]

JJ--thanks for the bump! I see my pic is showing the spin from the pitcher's perspective. I'll see if I can flip it over to show the catcher's perspective.

I don't think you have it wrong. I understand there are two ways to get the pitch to curve. the first is 4 seams to the wind, 9-3 for a curve 12-6 for a drop etc. Traditional 4 seam stuff. Then there are the cricket swing types of curves you mention (DR. Nathan explains this well here for those who have not seen it before Dissecting a mystery pitch)....they curve due to a smooth and a rough side with a bald part of the ball on one side and the seams on the other side with the break going toward the rough side of the ball.

I have seem some weird stuff on the bucket, I may not have seen the ball that stopped mid air like our friend Hal, but I have seen DDs stuff break great on missed spins that cannot be explained with the seams spinning alone. A couple of weeks ago she converted me to a believer in late sharp break (nod to Michelle Smith's announcing style). She was working on a palm up curve and somehow threw a pitch that took a dive low and in about 4 feet from the plate. This thing took a serious turn, it just bit a few feet in front of the plate, the spin was a sort of corkscrew but it only popped up once so I could not get a read on it exactly. She was throwing a bunch of corkscrew misses that day as she worked on her rise spin and curve spin but this one pitch just took a severe left turn. I am not imagining it either, I sit on a bucket a lot and see the pitches over and over and this has never happened, if we can find out what caused it will be lighting in a bottle and I think it is a cousin of this corkscrew curve

 

[Softballs]

From the description as a "corkscrew curve" it does not seem like this is supposed to have traditional 9-3 spin. is this correct?

hmm in my mind i interpreted the "corkscrew " part to be the pitcher, not the ball that corkscrews.

now i'm not so sure.

send up the bat signal JJ

 

[Ken B]

I'm guessing the corkscrew curve hangs while the traditional two-seam cutter (opposite rotation) drops.

I love this video:

 

[JJsqueeze]

more on this concept