Peel Drop

Below is some video of a couple of my pitching students. They are different ages and skill level, but they both throw a peel drop.

[video=dailymotion;xdxnnf]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdxnnf_peel-drop[/video]

There are a few things that would cause a peel drop to slow down.

It should be just as fast if not faster than your fastball or if you want you can do a pull back peel drop as an off speed pitch.

Some pitchers will start to naturally throw a peel drop as they increase their finger strength and dexterity without even trying to.

A 4 seam fastball spins with downward movement, and when you increase that spin you then increase the downward movement, and there is the peel drop. That sounds easy right.... Well actually it depends on the pitchers stride and release point.

Some pitchers need to shorten their stride, Fernandez shortens her stride by 6 inches, but it may be different for each individual pitcher on how much they must shorten their stride if they need to shorten it at all.

Release starts right before reaching rear leg/push off leg. I say leg, because release should happen in front of the thigh not beside the hip. The door should be open!! (When individuals say "hip" many times this causes pitchers to close their hips prior to releasing the ball....)

Peel the fingers forcefully off of the ball in an upward motion, the follow through usually looks like you just gave an uppercut punch. But to keep speed the arm should continue forward and not pull back unless you are trying to throw and off speed peel drop.

Hope that helps some, as I did not read all the posts, and everything I covered may of already been posted.

I teach both the peel and the roll over as well as the drop curve. They all move differently and at different speeds, so having different dropping balls that are moving horizontally as well is always nice!

Good Luck!!

Glipski said:

Why is Fernandez stepping forward with her drag foot when starting her windup? Ain't that somewhat against the rules of pitching? Looks weird anyway...

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I believe she is not stepping but scooting her foot to a central power line on the pitching rubber... But I may be incorrect, as there are some pitchers that will slide their foot prior to pushing, but maintain contact with the pitching rubber.

My dd throws her peel drop just as fast as her fastball. The only difference in the two pitches, at least with her, is when the peel is thrown the front leg comes down about a shoe lenght shorter and there is an emphasis in having the middle finger be the last part of the hand to touch the ball and having the thumb in line with the middle finger. To train on this we have a ball with a black line drawn around four seams and if thrown correctly the black line is plainly seen as the true 12 to 6 spin is present. while throwing with the ball she has learned on her own that her fastball can be imparted with a slight curve or srew by moving her thumb to the right...curve..... or to the left... screw and an emphasis as to which finger is the last to touch the ball. She really like to throw the fastball with the thumb to the left of the black line, a relaxed pointer finger and thinking of her ring finger touching the ball last. She loves to throw inside anyway and when she puts her thumb on the left of the black line it tails in on the batter and is very effective. She had an umpire come out give her the game ball in a Cincinatti tourney and tell her he had never seen someone paint the "black" on the inside like she did and he loved her screwball... she didnt have the heart to tell him those were fastballs
anyway what im trying to get at is the spins of various pitches are a function of both finger action and where the wrist is traveling compared to the powerline. for a righty of course a curve has the fingers twisting right to left with the wrist going to the right of the powerline and back across. A rise is finger twisting like twisting a doorknob with thumb pointing toward third base... my dd comments she tries to push down with her thumb on the back of the ball as much as the other fingers are pulling up from the bottom to the front...this pitch seems to come out of the side of her hand much like an overhand curve.
Now the rollover drop she has never tried.... way to obvious as to what is coming at the batter. the true peel drop does not show nearly as much to the batter. If the batter has the time and eyesight to notice her left foot landing about four inches shorter and that she is slightly more on top of the ball as compared to the fastball then more power to her. But fwiw all roll over drops i have seen thrown are slower than the fastballs the pitchers throw.

----Bump----

BTW, Did OMR ever reveal himself?

Thanks for the bump Ken...great thread...

Interesting thread. My DD originally learned a peel drop. Was a great pitch until she really started working on her rise ball and started throwing curves and screws. Now she has a tendency to get her hand in the rise ball/curve/screw position on her peel drop. Doesn't work very well. PC taught her a "snap over" which I believe is the same as a turn over or roll over. He explained her fingers are still peeling off the ball but the snap over action forces her to get behind the ball like a peel. Great pitch when she gets her weight a little more onto her front leg. That's the new challenge. She keeps letting her weight get back and then the pitch isn't low. PC said working on rise would mess with drop for awhile. Just have to work on it.

Edited to add: Snap over is also her fastest pitch. Is consistently a couple mph faster than her peel.

BoardMember said:

A "flip drop" or "flip change" are off speed pitches..........

Roll Drop, when thrown properly can/should be thrown as hard as any other high velocity pitch......

Maybe I need to give you a "Roll Drop" lesson big fella.................

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I know this comment wasn't intended for me but, I would love love love a roll drop Lesson from BM.!! I know my dd is not ready to learn it yet, but will hopefully be ready sometime in the near future!

reviewing this whole issue again.... Bump

BoardMember said:

Again, it is physically impossible to throw a ball forward if the fingers were actually to "get in front of the ball".........

Imparting 6/12 OR 12/6 spin on the ball with the wrist inside the ball (IE NOT STRAIGHT PEEL) is controled by when the thumb releases from contact AS the fingers are working down the BACK of the ball and "slicing" rotation from UNDER the ball through release............

Sarah is a world class pitcher.....With a world class Rise Ball....This clip is filmed at 300 frames per second...........Please tell me her finger ACTUALLY WORK up the front of the ball.............They WANT TO........And the feeling is that she is.........But it's physically impossible.......From a bio-mechanical stand point.......The ball is GONE and spin has been imparted DOWN THE BACK AND ACROSS THE BOTTOM of the ball............



This curve ball is also filmed at 300 frames per second........Keep in mind that in order for her fingers to work AROUND the front of the ball, her fingers would have to be able to point UP VERTICAL TO THE SKY with a flat wrist (level to the ground)..........It's bio-mechanically PHYSICALLY to do WHAT YOU THINK is happening........



BECAUSE THE BALL IS GONE and headed for it's intended target...........

The fingers WILL WORK TO THE FRONT OF THE BOTTOM OF THE BALL.......BUT NOT UP THE FRONT........EVER..........

So while we "feel" as if what we're doing is in front of the ball.........IT NEVER GETS THERE WHILE IN CONTACT WITH THE BALL..........

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Why is this screwball spin

BoardMember said:

Again, it is physically impossible to throw a ball forward if the fingers were actually to "get in front of the ball".........

Imparting 6/12 OR 12/6 spin on the ball with the wrist inside the ball (IE NOT STRAIGHT PEEL) is controled by when the thumb releases from contact AS the fingers are working down the BACK of the ball and "slicing" rotation from UNDER the ball through release............

Sarah is a world class pitcher.....With a world class Rise Ball....This clip is filmed at 300 frames per second...........Please tell me her finger ACTUALLY WORK up the front of the ball.............They WANT TO........And the feeling is that she is.........But it's physically impossible.......From a bio-mechanical stand point.......The ball is GONE and spin has been imparted DOWN THE BACK AND ACROSS THE BOTTOM of the ball............



This curve ball is also filmed at 300 frames per second........Keep in mind that in order for her fingers to work AROUND the front of the ball, her fingers would have to be able to point UP VERTICAL TO THE SKY with a flat wrist (level to the ground)..........It's bio-mechanically PHYSICALLY to do WHAT YOU THINK is happening........



BECAUSE THE BALL IS GONE and headed for it's intended target...........

The fingers WILL WORK TO THE FRONT OF THE BOTTOM OF THE BALL.......BUT NOT UP THE FRONT........EVER..........

So while we "feel" as if what we're doing is in front of the ball.........IT NEVER GETS THERE WHILE IN CONTACT WITH THE BALL..........

Click to expand...

This is screwball???