Bullet Spin Ueno

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Jul 22, 2015
851
93
An overhand pitch with pure spiral spin is called a "cement mixer" and very often doesn't make it to the catcher. It certainly isn't a good slider. I think the confusion with spiral spin is well illustrated by this question though. A pitch with pure spiral spin (the dot made by spinning seams is directly pointed at the catcher's glove) doesn't move much at all regardless if it is baseball or softball. However, if you have spiral spin but the yaw is off center then there can be good movement. Even with that said, if the spiral spin pitch is consistently located and works then it doesn't matter what you name it
 

BLB

May 19, 2008
173
18
A 6-12 spin is often referred to as the perfect riseball spin by many. Perfect in what way? Perfectly vertical? Yes. Most effective riseball? That has not been my experience over the years. I have played against and have witnessed a large number of elite male pitchers throughout the years. I have found that very few threw a riseball with true vertical spin and those who did were usually less effective than the much more common tilted spin. Recognizing spin direction was a very important part of hitting when I played. I don't remember seeing too many male pitchers throwing bullet spin. I see a lot of bullet spin in college softball. Bottom line...I don't know why young pitchers would spend so much time trying to achieve a vertical spin instead of focusing on getting an east-west axes of rotation even though it has a tilt.
 

shaker1

Softball Junkie
Dec 4, 2014
894
18
On a bucket
since we are on the subject of bullet spin,
what i often wonder is:
what makes an overhand bullet (aka “slider”)
such a nasty unhittable pitch,
yet an underhand bullet is a flat “dinger bait”?
is it the downward trajectory, smaller ball size, greater seam to smooth surface ratio, etc of a baseball pitch that makes the difference?

Found these while lookin for info on slider spin. Especially liked the part on useful spin(truespin) vs gyrospin.
https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2017/11/pitch-grips-changing-fastball-spin-rate/
https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2016/11/spin-rate-part-ii-spin-axis-useful-spin/
 
Last edited:
Jun 19, 2013
753
28
For Bullet Spin:
It is a natural spin when IR is done correctly.
The football drill teaches this.
Better accuracy
More speed
Easier to learn rise, curve, etc later

Against Bullet Spin:
Little to no movement
Easier to hit
Makes it harder to learn peel drop

https://youtu.be/TlIAHa7UOqE?t=814

Ok people have been really gentle on this so far because you are a new poster and I get that. But we have to be honest here too, on your list of pros for the bullet spin the only ones that I think are correct is #3 and #4 possibly. So yeah it may be faster and it might be easier for you to place since it's a lazy fast ball with incorrect spin. But you will get crushed in A ball if you are throwing just this all the time. A ball with no movement even to different quadrants will get hit hard as soon as they time it. But the biggest problem I have is that #5 is ABSOLUTELY wrong. Since no pitch uses bullet spin why would it be easier to learn any of those pitches listed if you've first learned bullet spin?? I mean your only possible one would be the Rise - MAYBE. But we are talking about cream of the crop pitchers who throw a 60mph+ bullet spin RB but they are mixing that in along with their other awesome pitches that DO have correct spin. Or in men's fastpitch where once again it is screaming at the batter at 70 mph high in the zone followed by a curve, drop, etc. that have good spin.
 
Last edited:
Jun 18, 2012
3,183
48
Utah
Rise-curve.... hard to hit

Also note how far to the left she starts on the pitching plate and how far to the right she strides. I'm guessing she does this to create a sharper angle. I doubt that batter thought that pitch was going to end up in the center of the zone.
 
Last edited:

BLB

May 19, 2008
173
18
Like this?


Yes, I would give this pitcher a score of 8 out of 10 on spin direction. For me, that's a very good score. When teaching the rise ball, we first work hard on getting correct spin direction. Once that becomes consistent, then we work on increasing spin rate while maintaining what we have gained on spin direction. Sometimes it's 2 steps forward and 1 step back using a building block approach. Very nice video clip showing a good rise ball spin direction. Thanks Ken.
 

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