How fast for a good riseball?

[riseball]

If you do not have proper posture and a mastery of IR a riseball usually ends up as a high bulletspin FB. I have found that focusing on a great IR FB/Drop and CU by breaking the mechanics sets the pitcher up for long term success.

 

[JJsqueeze]

My dd is 14 and no where near ready for a riseball. When I read all these 12u kids with riseballs I get manic and I start asking dd to practice 3x's a day,


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Don't get manic...we are not talking riseballs that jump here, we are talking about just enough float to trick their eye into thinking the ball should be falling more than it does at this speed and a pitch that can spread the zone on the high end. We saw a girl today that had a real riseball and it was deadly...she was a second year 14u player throwing it at 58-59. My advice is just to start working it. it took a year to go from 'ehy let's try this" to..."ok, throw it in games" but it was not like she worked it every day for an hour, we would play catch with riseball spins, have a little contest, work it from a K, and eventually she went from getting good spin every 1 in 10 pitches to every 4 out of 5 but she still couldn't locate it near the zone, so we worked locations until she could keep it around the zone more often than not. All it is right now is a waste pitch to set up a high CU that drops in for a strike on a frozen batter or as a pitch to set up something low in the zone. The fact that it is getting some Ks is just a big fat BONUS. Please don't think they are oodles of 12 year olds out there throwing great riseballs, there are not, but some pitchers have started down the road to getting this pitch mastered in a a couple of years.

 

[Little Angels Softball]

Don't get manic...we are not talking riseballs that jump here, we are talking about just enough float to trick their eye into thinking the ball should be falling more than it does at this speed and a pitch that can spread the zone on the high end. We saw a girl today that had a real riseball and it was deadly...she was a second year 14u player throwing it at 58-59. My advice is just to start working it. it took a year to go from 'ehy let's try this" to..."ok, throw it in games" but it was not like she worked it every day for an hour, we would play catch with riseball spins, have a little contest, work it from a K, and eventually she went from getting good spin every 1 in 10 pitches to every 4 out of 5 but she still couldn't locate it near the zone, so we worked locations until she could keep it around the zone more often than not. All it is right now is a waste pitch to set up a high CU that drops in for a strike on a frozen batter or as a pitch to set up something low in the zone. The fact that it is getting some Ks is just a big fat BONUS. Please don't think they are oodles of 12 year olds out there throwing great riseballs, there are not, but some pitchers have started down the road to getting this pitch mastered in a a couple of years.

Same with me. I am calling RBs for my 12U pitchers only when they're way ahead in the count and usually as a burn pitch to set up a better out pitch that will be down. If they manage to locate it well, we get some strikeouts and a few popups as a bonus, which saves that out pitch for next time.

 

[mothgirl]

If you do not have proper posture and a mastery of IR a riseball usually ends up as a high bulletspin FB. I have found that focusing on a great IR FB/Drop and CU by breaking the mechanics sets the pitcher up for long term success.

That sounds good! I know she could get her CU and drop down pretty quickly if she can get her posture and whip right.




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[JJS]

Same with me. I am calling RBs for my 12U pitchers only when they're way ahead in the count and usually as a burn pitch to set up a better out pitch that will be down. If they manage to locate it well, we get some strikeouts and a few popups as a bonus, which saves that out pitch for next time.

At 12U the riseball didn't fool many because the normal fastball isn't falling as much from 40'. When we went back to 43' the riseball became a big strikeout pitch.

 

[coach james]

I think any pitcher that has a fb and change up with good control of both should at least be learning how to spin a rb....not necessarily in games, but working towards it. My 10u girls are no where close to 55+ mph, but all 3 of them have a basic knowledge of how to grip and spin a rb

 

[xygent1]

my DD throws it in the low 50s but we are still in the early stages of game play with it she practiced just the spin for 10months b4 we implemented it in a game a few times and most of the time its still a floating type of ball, it will be exciting to watch it as she gains more speed as time goes on, her pc has been having her practice nothing but spin and rev's the last few weeks in preparation for the ASA nationals in sacramento ca, coming up.

 

[RetiredCoach]

I've seen so few good rise balls out there at just about every level of play. I have certainly see a number of pitchers throw what amounted to a high FB with some backspin that didn't drop as much as it normally would. Until my DDs (14 and 16) want to put in some serious time learning the RB what I have having them throw are high FBs out of the zone for their high pitch. Mostly, DBs on the corners, CUs, and spotted FBs.

No doubt the RB is an awesome pitch once perfected! However, it seems to me that very few pitchers get there even at the collegiate level. Thereby, unless a pitcher wants to put in some serious work I don't recommend it. Some pitchers do have significant success without a RB.

 

[JAD]

To throw a true riseball you need a combination of speed and spin, which is why it is usually the last pitch learned. I would bet that 80% of pitchers who claim to have a riseball are really throwing a high fastball. A good riseball will "jump" within the last 10' of the plate and you can usually tell when the catcher "flinches" right before catching it.

 

[xygent1]

That sounds good! I know she could get her CU and drop down pretty quickly if she can get her posture and whip right.



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that's where the blk electrical tape comes in to play you can definitely see the spin whether or not they are doing it correctly bullet,6-12, (7-2 (which is what my dd has) ) still working on that 6-12 tuff to get but shes determined hehe