Texas Hardball

Throwing - Grip

     The grip we use to throw the baseball is very important for accuracy and velocity. We all know that pitchers use all sorts of grips to make the ball do different things. Move in, move away, move down, etc.  Position players should use only one style grip for accuracy and velocity and that is the four seam grip or in other terms, accross the horse shoe, accross the broad seams.  We want to grip the baseball with four seams working for us.  Thus, we call it a four seam grip.  Used by all position players for better control and better speed with the throw. 
     If I was playing short stop and fielded a ball in the hole then tried to throw the ball to first with a two seam grip, I would actually have to almost aim five or six feet left of my target to allow for the movement of the ball going to first.  Of course, this all is dictated by arm action and arm angle.  With a four seam grip, the ball will stay straighter, spin from top to bottom with more rpm's thus giving us more velocity and less chance of the ball moving off line.
     The problem with the young players is that they do not have time to look at their grip during a play in a game.  So, it becomes important to learn how to feel the ball for a four seam grip.  We can do this by just having a glove and ball, throwing the ball in the glove and grabbing the ball, feeling for the four seam grip.  We can do this while at home, watching tv, or hanging out with the family.  Doing this over and over again promotes youngsters to feel it and not look at it.  I have seen a lot of throws go errand because of not having the right grip.
    We need to understand one thing, there are more throwing errors in baseball than fielding errors so if we can do things right from the start with the grip, we are on our way to reducing the throwing errors in our game.

Coach

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