What's up guys? Coach Madden, YouGoProBaseball.com and today's
pitching question comes from Licari Elyon and he asked how much pressure on
the baseball should you have as in should you hold the ball tight or loose
with the slider if tight which finger should have the most pressure on it
that's a great question Eliana and I got a great answer for you in fact I'm not
just gonna tell you the grip pressure on the slider but I want to share with you
the five filthiest pitches that I know the grip pressure on those finger
pressure how to hold them tight or loose explain all those five pitches so you
can add them into your pitching Arsenal and start dominating those hitters but
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line! So first let's talk about tight versus loose grip pretty much on all of
my pictures you hear coaches a lot of the time saying you want to be loose
hold it like an egg right I've never found this to be beneficial I've never
felt good with this I've never had control with any pitch when I'm being
real loose like an egg like this right having this much space in between the
ball that doesn't feel good at all doesn't feel powerful no matter what
pitch I was throwing I always held it a lot tighter for example let's just go to
the slider because that was your first question on the slider look at how much
space I have in here not a whole lot at all really none maybe a tiny bit there
you can see but I'm pretty tight now I'm not choking this ball I'm not like
squeezing it like I'm trying to crush it but I've got a good firm grip on it
right I want to be pretty firm I'd say my my pressure like as far as if I was
squeezing 100% and not squeezing at all I'd say I'm probably more towards like
the 60 70 percent range as far as grip pressure okay and that's on all my
pictures that was on my singer my slider fork balls a little bit different we'll
get into it because that's one of the pictures I want to show you but let's
talk a little bit more about the finger pressure on the slider because that was
your question now for the slider for me I would grip it right here on this part
of the horse so I'm right here I put this middle
finger right there hook that horseshoe pointer finger goes right next to it
thumb in line with the middle finger this way with more baseball coming out
this side of the ball than this side so that was my grip now the pressure is
more on my middle finger but it's not pressure in the way that I've always
heard coaches explain it to me coaches always explained it like put more
pressure on that middle finger when you're throwing it but to me I'm not
trying to put more pressure on that middle finger I'm just into that ball
more into that lace more this way and the thumb is kind of hooked there so
it's putting more pressure into that finger I'm not like pushing harder down
with that finger does that make sense it's just the way that my grip is on
holding the ball that I have more pressure right on the inside part of
this middle finger here I've also got some good pressure right here on the
thumb the pointer finger right here is on the ball it's not loose you know but
it's it's not I'm not asked that's how I would like to describe this pressure as
being more hooked into the ball than the middle finger okay or the middle finger
is more hook than the pointer finger so that's how that feels okay as far as
throwing that ball I'm just trying to get those four laces moving at the angle
that I want the pitch to break on so if I'm trying to get some downward angle
this way I'm trying to throw that right here and get those four seams moving
that way so the ball breaks down late with some depth on it now let's talk
about the sinker cuz that was my best pitch I mean it's a great pitch and I
recommend pretty much anyone throwing the sinker what I would do is I would
put my pointer finger right here right here on the skinny part of the where the
lace is coming together pointer finger right here on this lace middle finger
right next to it now I'm hooking that ball right here with the inside part of
my pointer finger so that's where the pressure to me is now again it's not
pressure as in I'm pushing down with that finger but it's just hooking it so
I'm kind of I'm kind of hooking into that lace right when I'm setting my
finger into that lace I hope that makes sense
thumb straight underneath this right more ball coming out this side of the
ball and again you can see I'm pretty tight not a whole lot of space on the
thumb underneath I've got some good press
on the thumb right here again probably at that 60 70 percent as far as grip
pressure overall but the pointer is definitely more hooked or more finger
pressure than the middle finger okay again I'm not really pushing on it it's
just more hooked okay that's the best way I can really explain the finger
pressure pressure in my opinion for the sinker all we're trying to do is we're
trying to especially me I was I was a like a straight sidearm guy I'm trying
to rip right over top of that ball this way so I'm trying to get that pointer
finger to roll right off the top this way and that middle finger to catch the
last last second and get some good pronation right over the ball rip over
it and I'm trying to get this movement going down an arm side mostly down but a
little bit of arm side guys who throw a to seem very similar to my sinker except
guys who are a little bit higher with their arm shot might throw two seams so
they might get more arm side movement than depths for me I was trying to get
more depth than arm side movements so you could take that for the two seam as
well if you throw it two-seam now let's talk about the change-up okay the
change-up is a little bit different circle change up we're going to talk
about so I used to grip the circle change up like this I would hook the
middle finger right here ring finger on the other side of the horseshoe on the
open side put that circle on this side of the ball thumb right here
got a little bit more space in this one right this one my grip pressure isn't as
much I definitely feel it more in the fingers you can see I'm not down in the
palm at all I'm not very deep right so definitely different than the first two
pitches I was explaining and I'd say probably grip wise pressure wise I'm
more in the 50% range on this one 50 maybe even 45% range here so a little
bit less grip pressure more of a feel pitch right for me thinking back to the
sinker and the and the slider as well I want to say that I was max effort on
those pitches too so there was no feel in those pitches I was drawing of course
you have that feel in any pitch at your zone but I was throwing it as hard as I
possibly could both of those pitches this one I'm taking a little bit off
right changeup we're trying to throw this pitch slower now you hear coaches
all the time say don't slow your arm down when you're throwing the change-up
they're going to see that there press if you saw your
not a lot they're gonna see that but guess what you have to slow your arm
down a little bit right one way to slow the pitch down without slowing your arm
down or helping slow the pitch down while slowing your arm down just a
little bit is taking a little bit of off of the grip right so we're here and all
we're trying to do with the with the the change-up for me I was very similar to
the sinker since off my arm saw it was here I'm just trying to rip overtop of
it with these fingers I get the pressure on the middle and the pointer finger and
try to rip over both of those two seams that way that would give me that depth
and the arm side movement also that change of speed that we're looking for
on the change-up so that was a changeup now the fourth pitch I want to talk
about is the fork ball and I would just split this ball right down the middle of
the ball no laces right here and basically what I wanted that ball to do
is slip out of my fingers thumb pressure sometimes I would have the thumb on
sometimes I wouldn't even have the thumb on at all the pressure I feel is inside
of the fingers right here more towards the middle of the finger this part of
the finger right here but in the inside obviously on both fingers and all I'm
trying to do is feel this ball slip out of the of my fingers here so I'm
throwing it and I'm trying to slip it out of my fingers at release point I'm
not forcing it to slip out all I'm doing is creating enough arm speed and you
have to have good feel with this pitch to understand how much arm speed you
need to give to get it to slip out when you do that and you come straight
through it you're gonna get like a knuckle drop
effect okay you could also tilt this pitch in with the pointer finger just a
little bit and you'll get a knuckle down arm side movement you could also tilt
this pitch with the middle finger side and you'll get a knuckle glove side
movement so you can play with this pitches the way it moves by the way you
pronate or move your wrist your wrist angle at release point you can make this
pitch move different ways as goes with all your pitches play with your wrist
angle at release point because that's going to be a huge way to manipulate the
pitch to your benefit the last pitch I want to talk about and as far as finger
pressure and grip pressure goes is the dead fish the dead fish is just
basically a BP fastball and you may be asking why would you ever
want to throw a BP fastball to a live hitter and I thought the same thing when
I learned this pitch I was like why why would I want to do that why would I just
want to throw a bpv fastball in there let me tell you my story I was in the
middle of a game and the coach came out there was a runner on first base
pitching coach came out and he said hey once you throw a BP fastball he wants to
throw a dead fish that's a dead fish he said you just move your thumb up a
little bit on your sinker and you take a little bit off just throw it in there
nice and easy and I was like what I was blown away like why do you want me to do
that he's like no listen he's gonna he's gonna roll over it we're gonna get a
double play right here and I was like all right whatever so he left and went
back in the catch was like hey nice and easy you just turn it over you know turn
it over so all I did was I took my sinker my sinkers thumb was normally
here I just slid that thumb up a little bit here a little bit less pressure
overall so I'd probably be in this one I'm probably in the 50% range as far as
total grip pressure and and then I just tried to rip right over top of it and
sure enough I threw the pitch BP fastball threw it right down the middle
let the ball move a little bit it was probably seven eight mile an hour
slower and they got boom ground ball to the shortstop DoublePlay out of the
inning I was so surprised and every once in a while when I have the right hitter
up there with a guy on first base one we needed two outs
I will go ahead and throw that dead fish so there you go that's the fifth pitch
that those are five pitches that you could use try to mess around with play
around with the grip pressure play around with the grips play around with
your wrist angle that release point and maybe add one of those to your pitching
Arsenal I hope you liked that video drop down in the comments below let me know
which one of these pitches you're gonna steal and also let me know if there's
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