How to Pitch a Knuckleball in Baseball

Just like with the other two grips, you want your pink finger to arch with the tip facing down, along with your ring, middle, and pointer fingers. For a grip with four fingers, add your pinky finger to the top of the ball. Once again, these fingers should be arranged right under one of the ball’s horseshoe seams. slow pitch softball machine Put these fingers down right under one of the horseshoe seams on the ball. It doesn’t require any twisting of the wrist or arm, which in turn puts no extra pressure on a pitcher’s elbow, shoulder or other parts of the arm. It also looks odd coming out of a pitcher’s hand because it doesn’t spin at all.

If your kid is struggling, tell them to imagine Tim Wakefield imagining lines. It’s very difficult to hit because of the lack of spin and unpredictable movement, but it’s also very difficult to throw. If you keep your knuckles at the top of our hand when you release, you will help reduce the amount of spin you create when you release the baseball. With a fastball, you move your wrist downward on release, which creates steady spin on the baseball, which causes it to move straight to the plate, for the most part. With a knuckleball, make sure that your wrist is up as you release the ball from your hand. That was once true, but nowadays, it’s more generally accepted to throw with your fingertips instead of your actual knuckles.

A pitch thrown completely without spin is less desirable, however, than one with a very slight spin. Even a ball thrown without rotation will “flutter”, due to the “apparent wind” it feels as its trajectory changes throughout its flight path. The following lists knuckleball pitchers who are primarily known for throwing the knuckleball or those who established professional careers based on throwing the knuckleball.

An Eephus pitch is just a slow pitch with a slow spin rate, while a knuckleball has virtually no spin and thus moves in a zigzag formation. If a batter expects an Eephus pitch, they can sit back and swing hard to hit the ball, while a knuckleball pitch has random movement due to the aerodynamic force of the ball, which makes hitting it hard. The most iconic knuckleball pitcher of the 21st century retired in 2012 after 19 seasons and 200 wins, and Tim Wakefield will forever be a Red Sox fan favorite for good reasons. He’s such a standup guy, even Yankees fans don’t have much bad to say about him — plus his stuff drove Jeter insane. One of the most unique and perplexing pitches in all of baseball is the knuckleball.

The first reason is that throwing a knuckleball is challenging to master and control. While the benefit of learning the pitch can prolong your career and be effective, throwing the pitch itself is more complex, especially making it effective to MLB hitters. Big leaguers are always looking for ways to stay relevant in the game. Sometimes, a pitcher in minor league baseball will work on the knuckleball pitch to get into the majors, while some players will pick them up later in their careers. Just as it is hard for batters to hit the knuckle pitch, catchers struggle at catching this pitch as well.