Inside and Outside pitches

When locating these pitches, should a pitcher simply throw a 4 seamer to these spots, or slightly change her grip or release and still aim middle?

One PC has younger pitchers change grips. For a RHP, he instructs to let the ball roll off the index finger ie more pressure at index finger to throw inside to a RHB, while teaching a three finger (almost circle change) grip for an outside pitch (again rolling off these fingers) with a slightly different finish.

What is better? Grab it 4 seam and throw it to your spots? Change grips or finger pressure and throw middle and the english modifies where the ball goes?

Don't want to turn this into a 'FB should never be thrown' thread. Talking about youth who throw FB and CU and admit they don't have a pitch with a huge break yet

Thanks!

You clarified youth and I think at that level, throwing a 4 seem to spots is great. My younger DD just finished U12 and I would have her throw FB under hands and curve on the black (outside to righties) and that was fine. For youth kids to start trying to move the ball around with finger pressure is hard because most of them have trouble locating a 4 seam fastball anyway.

I never like when I hear someone talking about applying finger pressure anyway unless they are talking about removing or altering one finger in order for there to be more pressure (by comparison*) on another finger. Or, if by more pressure with a particular finger they mean that the ball touches that finger for longer as in 'let the ball roll off of such and such finger.'

Seems that when most people hear 'more pressure on this or that finger' they think in terms of how they grip the ball. I don't believe it is possible to grip a ball and then add pressure to a finger on the ball without the wrist becoming less flexible/more tense. Also, I don't believe this changes with age. Therefore, I'll only buy 'more pressure' if it is by comparison to another finger that has been lessened or taken off of the grip.

These are the concepts I believe the PC had in mind when altering pressure. Example, the circle grip removing index pressure to create, by comparison only, more 'pressure' with the third, fourth, and fifth digits.

More food for discussion. Any arguments against just throwing to inside/outside with a 4 seam? Especially if later they will never throw a FB anyway, why use three different grips for one now?

VW

vdubya said:

I never like when I hear someone talking about applying finger pressure anyway unless they are talking about removing or altering one finger in order for there to be more pressure (by comparison*) on another finger. Or, if by more pressure with a particular finger they mean that the ball touches that finger for longer as in 'let the ball roll off of such and such finger.'

Seems that when most people hear 'more pressure on this or that finger' they think in terms of how they grip the ball. I don't believe it is possible to grip a ball and then add pressure to a finger on the ball without the wrist becoming less flexible/more tense. Also, I don't believe this changes with age. Therefore, I'll only buy 'more pressure' if it is by comparison to another finger that has been lessened or taken off of the grip.

These are the concepts I believe the PC had in mind when altering pressure. Example, the circle grip removing index pressure to create, by comparison only, more 'pressure' with the third, fourth, and fifth digits.

More food for discussion. Any arguments against just throwing to inside/outside with a 4 seam? Especially if later they will never throw a FB anyway, why use three different grips for one now?

VW

Click to expand...

Just curious why so many college prospects have youtube video showing all of their pitches, including fastball, if as you suggest it is never used in a game? At the higher levels (high school & college) why would a coach even care how hard they throw a fastball?

I don't know if this is correct but my 10 yo DD's PC has her use the same grip but just has her throw to different spots inside/outside. The only thing that she modifies slightly is where her front foot lands for inside/outside.

I'm sure you can get some added movement either way with different finger pressure, I just dont know if my DD would really be able to execute that properly just yet.

SoCal, I'm not one of those who commonly asserts this. There are those on here who do, so I wrote "IF..."

There is certainly a fair amount of conflicting opinion even on this board. Example, do you listen to someone who says that hardly anyone has even one good breaking pitch, or someone who asks why anyone would ever throw a fastball? If you listen to both, I guess you only throw changeups, LOL!

Also, why is a FB thrown in MLB? Why is it thrown over the dead center of the strike zone on 3-0 if this pitch routinely gets parked by 12-16yo girls as many seem to think?? Never understood why this is an automatic take in MLB if girls hit the cover off of this pitch. Why don't professional hitters just kill that pitch? Or is the danger in throwing over the middle to girls overdone just a tad?

Personally, I am at the youth level. Everything pitch wise is based off of a controlled fastball IMO. That said, my kids already throw just fast enough that there is movement on the FB--Natural drop with a 4 seam, moves left or right with a 2 seam grip. Since these aren't the "big breaking pitches" we call them 2 seam or 4 seam FB. If I were betting, I'd say that in several years these kids will still be throwing those, only with additional speed/spin they gain with physical growth, those pitches will be called things like dropball and curve, for example, whether they really are or not. I have more questions than answers, so hopefully others will chime in.

VW

vdubya said:

When locating these pitches, should a pitcher simply throw a 4 seamer to these spots, or slightly change her grip or release and still aim middle?

One PC has younger pitchers change grips. For a RHP, he instructs to let the ball roll off the index finger ie more pressure at index finger to throw inside to a RHB, while teaching a three finger (almost circle change) grip for an outside pitch (again rolling off these fingers) with a slightly different finish.

What is better? Grab it 4 seam and throw it to your spots? Change grips or finger pressure and throw middle and the english modifies where the ball goes?

Don't want to turn this into a 'FB should never be thrown' thread. Talking about youth who throw FB and CU and admit they don't have a pitch with a huge break yet

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Since you are talking youth here, I'd stick to grabbing the four seamer and throw fastball. Step the same for inside and outside at this point in time---don't over complicate it.
The finger pressure thing is really advanced stuff and honestly not used much. In most cases what finger pressure really does is to create a variation in the amount of wrist rotation at time of release. This slightly changes the orientation of the seams and causes a slight "sliding/movement" effect.