Rise-curve

[humpty]

At the bottom of the strike zone?

 

[Rocketech1]

Even though the parents will scream otherwise, most rise balls don't have true backspin but have more curve or bullet spin that is angled upward and many times this will cause the rise ball to move a little left or right (depending on if its a RHP or LHP). Rick Pauly demonstrated this with slo-mo video of Sarah. Very effective pitch even though it isn't close to perfect 6-12 backspin. IMO, the speed, angle of the pitch (mostly thrown low to high in the upper half (or higher) of the strike zone, and less drop than other pitches makes the "rise" ball very effective when combined with the other movement and c/u pitches. The rise-curve spin might be a natural progression to learn after the curve ball.

 

[Doug Romrell]

I like both the inside rise-curve where the batter lays off it only to have it hit the inside edge of stirikezone, and the outside rise-curve that looks like it's coming in the center only to drift outside. Personally, I prefer them thrown mid to low height.

 

[riseball]

At the bottom of the strike zone?

Yes. Put a rag few feet in front of home plate and throw at the rag. Learn to throw the pitch at bottom of zone where hitters will often take it for a strike. If you can throw it low it is easy to throw it at the top or above the zone for a chase pitch. For most pitchers it is much easier to bring a pitch up then to get it to come down. That is why I will not let my catchers sit on buckets. We use milk crates so they can have the pitcher work the bottom of the zone.

 

[Rocketech1]

Yes. Put a rag few feet in front of home plate and throw at the rag. Learn to throw the pitch at bottom of zone where hitters will often take it for a strike.

riseball - not following you here. You want to throw a riseball to a rag that is on the ground in front of home plate? Why would you do that? If you atually aimed there, the ball would bounce in front of home plate and would never be called for a strike.

Maybe you meant BEHIND home plate. That would make more sense...

 

[humpty]

With the low rise do you get the up and away curveball spin?

 

[Doug Romrell]

With the low rise do you get the up and away curveball spin?

With any back-spin at all the ball won't drop as much, but the batter swings at it as if it has a normal drop to it. Being slightly turned and tilted makes i break out. When I catch during pitching practice, I hold my glove lined up a roughly thigh height indicating where the pitcher aims, but I hold a ball about a foot out, indicating where the ball should end up. Right as the pitcher reaches 12:00 I pull the ball in and she releases it. If it works as planned, I have to move the glove to my right from where it started out to catch the ball. That's for a rise-curve that look like it's going to come straight in but ends up further out.

The reason I like the low rise is because pitchers who are learning to throw the rise struggle to get the ball down far enough to get teh batter to swing at it. I always stress that the mechanics of throwing a riseball are such that you more often throw it too high than too low, so I like them to start too low and maybe bring it up a little from there.

 

[riseball]

riseball - not following you here. You want to throw a riseball to a rag that is on the ground in front of home plate? Why would you do that? If you atually aimed there, the ball would bounce in front of home plate and would never be called for a strike.

Maybe you meant BEHIND home plate. That would make more sense...

Re you familiar with Kentucky windage? Same principle here. It is often a leap of faith for them to throw a rise that low. Knowing that where they throw and where it ends up are often entirely different, or many a rag a few feet in front works well. But if they start actually hitting the rag or somewhere in front of home plate you adjust.

 

[Rocketech1]

Re you familiar with Kentucky windage? Same principle here. It is often a leap of faith for them to throw a rise that low. Knowing that where they throw and where it ends up are often entirely different, or many a rag a few feet in front works well. But if they start actually hitting the rag or somewhere in front of home plate you adjust.

Interesting. DD who has only recently started throwing the rise ball has only tried to throw it high in the zone. Next time we practice, I will see if she can throw a low rise and see what happens. She may very well keep it high in the zone and have to aim lower to find the correct release point.

BTW - had a well respected D1 player swear to me and DD that she had faced pitchers in college who started the low rise out of the strike zone that "rose" into the zone by the time it reached home plate. While I am not going to debate the issue, it was a very effective pitch against her and her teammates.

 

[SoCalASABlue]

When I used to catch for DD's lessons, I would sit on a bucket that had a picture of a ball about 4-5 inches off the ground. DD's PC would tell her to concentrate on that picture of the ball when she would throw the riseball.