The curve ball and the outside corner

Gags · Jun 4, 2018

Sorry for being a little off topic - but Marriard, are you seeing the ball hit the mitt?

I heard somewhere that umpires are often obstructed the last few inches, which allows catchers to get away with more glove movement.

But if you’re able to consistently see it into the mitt, how do the catchers at nearly all levels get away with some pretty egregious “framing”?

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sluggers · Jun 4, 2018

But it got me thinking in this situation where you have an umpire who just won't call the edge of the plate, do you have any advice for a curve ball pitcher?

Sure..develop a good vertical movement pitch...either a drop or a rise.

When the pitcher develops a good drop and rise, and have good control, then work on the curve.

The kids are never going to be "good" with only a curve or a curve drop. They are just cannon fodder for good batters.

At the higher levels, the trick in pitching is to force the batters to change swing planes. If the pitcher continually keeps pitches on the same swing plane, the batters will murder her.

There was a PC who exclusively taught a curve drop. The kids did great against mediocre 16U batters. Against good batters...not so much.

grcsftbll · Jun 4, 2018

sluggers said:
Sure..develop a good vertical movement pitch...either a drop or a rise.

When the pitcher develops a good drop and rise, and have good control, then work on the curve.

The kids are never going to be "good" with only a curve or a curve drop. They are just cannon fodder for good batters.

At the higher levels, the trick in pitching is to force the batters to change swing planes. If the pitcher continually keeps pitches on the same swing plane, the batters will murder her.

There was a PC who exclusively taught a curve drop. The kids did great against mediocre 16U batters. Against good batters...not so much.

We're first year 12U, and don't subscribe to the learn lots of pitches fast thing, so we haven't started on the rise yet. She does know how to throw a drop but like I said, we haven't been focusing on it much. We'll have to get going with that again.

grcsftbll · Jun 6, 2018

At her lesson Monday night we worked on her drop. She learned from her original instructor but we've since switched to Tincher so it was different just like everything else has been. She totally nailed it, and her assignment is to pitch it a lot. Fortunately her dad calls the pitches so that's easy. We also worked on her change up, which comes in slow and loopy and doesn't fool anybody right now. It looked good by the time we left, but I know applying it in the game is tougher. She's got to focus on looking fierce off the rubber with it so she can fool them better.

The curve ball and the outside corner

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