pitching footage

[wannahit]

is their game footage available for purchase of advanced pitchers and their delivery demonstrating their mechanics of the various pitches they throw

 

[Hillhouse]

wannahit, I would be VERY careful about listening to the commentator's telling you what pitches are being thrown. In my opinion, it gets brutally obnoxious when everything thrown high is a rise, anything inside is a screw, anything outside is a curve, anything low is a drop, etc. then there's the "backdoor curve". What the hell is a backdoor curve? Why do they have to dumb down the audience with all of this? Call me crazy (you won't be the first) but from where I sit in my living room and when I'm doing lessons, 99% of the people who say they have a "screwball" simply step to the left and throw the ball to the right. I see that all the time and it just baffles me how someone can be teaching such things. By that logic, just throw it high for a rise and low for a drop while you're at it.

Bill

 

[CoachFP]

Come on Bill. The screwball is the best pitch in the college game. lol. Other than the ball being angled in from one side to the other, I have never seen a screwball thrown that would even have the appropriate spin (which would be the direct opposite of the curveball spin) and has any kind of movement because it can't. The people who believe in screwballs are the same kind of people that come to one of your clinics and see you throw a riseball and are amazed. They are amazed because what they thought they were seeing over the years wasn't a riseball and low and behold you show them one that does indeed go up. They are watching this angled pitch, the screwball, and are thinking that it "moves". It boggles my mind when the whole topic of screwballs is discussed because virtually no one really throws one.

 

[tojo]

CoachFP, apparently you have not seen Stacy Nelson or Caitlin Noble throw a screwball just to mention a few good screwballers. However, I do agree that a lot of screwballs are corkscrew fastballs thrown at an angle.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

Come on Bill. The screwball is the best pitch in the college game. lol. Other than the ball being angled in from one side to the other, I have never seen a screwball thrown that would even have the appropriate spin (which would be the direct opposite of the curveball spin) and has any kind of movement because it can't. The people who believe in screwballs are the same kind of people that come to one of your clinics and see you throw a riseball and are amazed. They are amazed because what they thought they were seeing over the years wasn't a riseball and low and behold you show them one that does indeed go up. They are watching this angled pitch, the screwball, and are thinking that it "moves". It boggles my mind when the whole topic of screwballs is discussed because virtually no one really throws one.

A little suprised by these comments. While I agree with Hillhouse that some pitchers claim to have a screwball but are just leaping to the left (for a RHP) and throwing a fastball to the right, which isn't a screwball. However, if a pitcher can throw a curve (or drop curve) using side spin, not sure why its difficult to believe that a ball with side spin in the other direction won't have movement?

At the CWS in 2010, Meg Langenfeld (UCLA) had lots of success throwing 80% screwballs. Sure looked to me on TV that her ball had lots of movement.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

I'm hoping Mr. Hillhouse was kidding about "what the heck is a backdoor curve". A beast pitch from a lefty if you can control it and set the pitch up correctly. A outside pitch ( to a RT batter ) that breaks back in across the corner. Get ahead in the count, waste a couple off the plate pitches outside, then throw the backdoor curve. Most will lay off it because they are not expecting the curve back in.

Somewhere in all my mess I have some footage of Michelle Smith throwing some good 'movement' screwballs for those that say they won't break. Been a while since I watched them but it might also have a backdoor curve example.

I'm going out on a limb, I would figure with the success and as many games as Bill has played and watched he has seen a backdoor curve. Maybe he is just not a fan. I wasn't a fan until I had a lefty DD.

 

[wannahit]

the footage i was looking to purchase was more in the lines of what is shown in the model pitchers thread, maybe a collection of various pitchers to comapare, with the quality of olearys posting of chelsea thomas. right view seems to have something available but you need their analyzing software to view it, i already have different software. has anyone had experience with the rightview collection of pitchers they have, and do you reccomend? is someone else selling something similiar that you dont need their software to view?

 

[CoachFP]

SoCalSoftballDad, I admit that I have not seen Stacy Nelson in person. I believe that I am very used to seeing the spin on thrown softballs and also looking at how the pitcher is releasing the ball. I have never seen a college pitcher with the spin that is opposite a curveball, which in my opinion would be a screwball. I have just not seen it. And the dumb drill that plenty of top college pitchers use to practice the screwball would break your arm if you actually did it at full speed. If the screwball was truly a pitch that was used and spun correctly, Stacy Nelson would not have to step so far left to throw it inside to a right handed hitter. She could step straight and break the ball inside like other pitchers break curve balls away. She is just a big strong girl who steps left and throws hard straight pitches inside to right handed hitters that can't turn on them and people think the ball is breaking inside. Doesn't happen.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

SoCalSoftballDad, I admit that I have not seen Stacy Nelson in person. I believe that I am very used to seeing the spin on thrown softballs and also looking at how the pitcher is releasing the ball. I have never seen a college pitcher with the spin that is opposite a curveball, which in my opinion would be a screwball. I have just not seen it. And the dumb drill that plenty of top college pitchers use to practice the screwball would break your arm if you actually did it at full speed. If the screwball was truly a pitch that was used and spun correctly, Stacy Nelson would not have to step so far left to throw it inside to a right handed hitter. She could step straight and break the ball inside like other pitchers break curve balls away. She is just a big strong girl who steps left and throws hard straight pitches inside to right handed hitters that can't turn on them and people think the ball is breaking inside. Doesn't happen.

CoachFP - you cannot change the laws of physics. All things being equal (velocity and spin rate per second), if a drop curve has 10 - 4 spin (as seen from the catcher) which breaks down and away from a right-handed batter; than the opposite is true, a screwball thrown with 2 - 8 spin has to move down and inside to a right-handed batter.

Are you suggesting that all screwballs are thrown with 12 - 6 fastball spin?

I know when I am catching my team's pitchers, the ball will move/break in the direction it is spinning.

 

[CoachFP]

I have seen purported "screwballs" thrown with every conceivable spin except 2-8 spin and definitely not 3-9. Most of the ones I have seen have bullet spin or the same spin as the curve and since it is thrown from left to right won't break like a curve (right handed pitchers). I have also seen fathers and coaches of kids say that a ball moves and when I watch them it doesn't do anything and every pitch has the same spin. Movement does not mean starting out at the left side of the rubber and landing on the inside of the plate to a right handed batter. Now having said that, by using finger pressure you can make a ball run somewhat opposite a curve ball but you don't need to step way out to do that.