Screwball help

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Apr 12, 2015
792
93
Screwball don't break all that much, if any. My guess if it is drifting too far inside would be the angle she is throwing is too steep.
 
Sep 29, 2008
1,401
63
Northeast Ohio
Screwball don't break all that much, if any. My guess if it is drifting too far inside would be the angle she is throwing is too steep.

Agreed. One way is you can reduce the stepping outside the powerline (assuming that is what she does) and reduce the angle.
 
Jun 19, 2013
753
28
Watch out with this topic - it's like asking if a rise ball really rises - you might open a giant can of worms. You will get a whole lot of input that says "a screwball isn't a real pitch, it doesn't really move" answers. But just do your thing and wait for the few believers to pipe in and help you. We have a local girls that has an AMAZING screwball with good spin and good movement and when you sit behind the back stop and watch that you don't care what anybody else says.
 
Last edited:
Aug 29, 2011
2,581
83
NorCal
Watch out with this topic - it's like asking if a rise ball really rises - you might open a giant can of works. You will get a whole lot of input that says "a screwball isn't a real pitch, it doesn't really move" answers. But just do your thing and wait for the few believers to pipe in and help you. We have a local girls that has an AMAZING screwball with good spin and good movement and when you sit behind the back stop and watch that you don't care what anybody else says.
A good screwball absolutely will move.

It's much harder to get the spin rate required on a screwball than a curve ball which is why there are so few good screwballs. Most of them look a lot like fastballs thrown inside.

But you are correct if you have a pitcher that can generate the right spin it will for sure break.

As for the OPs question for how to correct I have no good advise other than to adjust where you are throwing the ball to account for the bigger break that day.
 

BLB

May 19, 2008
173
18
Quite a few years ago, I worked with a 14 year old male pitcher on developing a rise ball. He became a national level pitcher known for his exceptional rise ball. I saw him work out one day. He said his rise ball was rising too much and he was working on making it break less. He asked for pointers. I simply told him to throw it lower. Why would you want to lessen the break on any pitch?
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Watch out with this topic - it's like asking if a rise ball really rises - you might open a giant can of works. You will get a whole lot of input that says "a screwball isn't a real pitch, it doesn't really move" answers. But just do your thing and wait for the few believers to pipe in and help you. We have a local girls that has an AMAZING screwball with good spin and good movement and when you sit behind the back stop and watch that you don't care what anybody else says.

Plenty of folks here will tell you that a screwball does not move. Of course they will not tell you why. I think that they are convinced that even if you get the exact amount of spin as a great curve, the screw will not move. This is because of the direction of the spin. If you know anything about pitching and physics you know that this lack of movement is caused by the natural rotation of the earth negating the effect of the spin. So if you want to see a screwball move you need to go to Australia. Of course down there the curve does not break. As to the rise, that behavior is dictated by the position and gravitational effect of the moon. :)
 
Jul 22, 2015
851
93
We certainly don't have it mastered but for my DD (14 yo) the key is not allowing her posture and follow through to angle towards the inside but instead to maintain her correct posture and imagine her hand continuing towards the outside corner in her follow-through. She's still nervous about throwing them to right-handed batters right now though. BTW people can say what they want, when you spin them right they don't just angle inside, they break hard.
 
Apr 12, 2015
792
93
Again, my guess would be the angle the ball is thrown is what is causing it to drift inside. In the second pitch, her shoulders are slightly more open and she has a slightly greater lean toward first than in the first pitch.

Screwball.jpg

the key is not allowing her posture and follow through to angle towards the inside but instead to maintain her correct posture

I agree.

ETA: She is on the right track. I don't really see anything to correct. Just repetition, repetition, then to mix things up, more repetition.
 
Last edited:
Top