Bullet Spin and no movement

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Aug 21, 2008
2,359
113
DNeeld, and this is even more maddening to someone like me because I look at someone (Abbott, Garcia, etc) throwing 70+ and wonder who the hell let them think bullet spin is ok? Why not make the extra effort to get back spin??? Then again, "good enough" has been "good enough" for them I guess. ha ha.

Bill
 
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
Java's clearly demonstrating bullet spin. I have a few pitchers (younger, 8-10u) that have this bullet spin. It's my fault, I'm sure, but I'm not sure what the next step is to progress. Is it just that the turn-over follow-through is lacking? The pitchers that I have that aren't doing bullet spin seem to be pushing down the back side still. Just looking for thoughts.

A bulletish spin is often a result of a kid learning whip. Focus on ingraining whip with good posture and brush--with little regard to spin orientation. When they can hit spots with this spin, then, either learn how to steer then spin into a drop, or teach a change up.

Teaching a kid to steer the spin is MUCH easier than I'd ever thought prior to a year ago. First, teach spin awareness by recognizing the dots made at each axis and what direction they point. Use a clock as a reference. For instance, the bulletish spin might have an axis that is 10/4 (looking down from above.) 16275818-E9E5-4C4E-8CBF-44166DE297DB.jpeg

I start by playing easy catch and ask them to point at the dots on the ball as they see it coming to them, and as they throw it to me. I throw them curve, rise, drop and anything in between and ask them to point to the axis dots. Explain that for their bullety spin to occur, the palm is probably facing around 1 o'clock, so the dots will be visible at 10/4.

From up close (10 feet or so,) teach them to steer their spin with no more than quarter whips. First, throw their regular 10/4 axis. Then throw and recognize an 8/2 spin. Alternate back and forth. Ask them to try a a 9/3 axis (12/6 drop) then alternate between all three. Take a couple steps back and repeat. Move back and increase effort as long as they can maintain this pattern.

From there, refine the spin to perfect/flat 9/3 axis (12/6 rotation.)

BTW, JS gets credit for teaching me this...
 

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Last edited:
May 15, 2008
1,913
113
Cape Cod Mass.
Bulletspin can happen in two basic ways. In the first the palm faces toward third base and the ball rolls off the finger tips (think throwing a football spiral underhand). In the second way the palm faces home at release but the ball comes off the forefinger, or between the finger and the thumb. The first is most common when the pitcher is trying to throw a riseball. The second tends to happen naturally when just throwing a fastball without really thinking about the spin.
 
May 19, 2016
2
3
I love Bill's videos and my daughters would tell people that Bill was their pitching coach if anyone asked. I spent a lot of time learning from his video series which I'd highly recommend. But I digress.
Just a couple observations.
In my opinion, bullet spin is due to a late release especially on a riseball. Bill says that your thumb has to be pointing to third on a riseball to get the correct spin which I think is true if you feather or throw under the ball to get rise spin.

I see two major components in this timing scenario. One is the wrist and the second is the hips/pelvis.

The wrist pronates through a good whipping action and as it pronates the thumb will end up pointing forward. If the ball is released late the thumb will be pointing forward and the ball will have bullet spin.

It appears to me that there also has to be a significant amount of aggressive ulnar deviation to get the ball off the fingers quickly at the correct release point (I don't like the around the barrel analogy because it doesn't feel natural and doesn't include what I see as pronation and unlar deviation).

I've seen some Japanese pitchers throw a rise with a lot more pronation and less unlar deviation which look and feel more natural to me (I've taken Bills advice to try pitching to see what it's like for the girls trying to learn to pitch).

The release point needs to be at or before the thigh for perfect rise spin . Also, if the pelvis and shoulders have closed too much this will also bring the thumb into a forward orientation and produce bullet spin.
 

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