Probably the best explanation on CZcams...I appreciate the help brother. My regards!!
Dan I've been a baseball fan for over 50 years and I have to say your coaching techniques are some of the best I've ever seen.
This has got to be the best breakdown I’ve found on CZcams. I’ve probably watched 30 videos!! By far the best!! Thanks for your time and detail!
thanks, I put a lot of planning and effort into my videos. Appreciate the kind words!
Great video, great explanation!
Love the art work!!
Thank you so much! I really needed it for tryouts for my little major league team for 10-13
Excellent video.
Informative video thanks Coach Dan
great video!
I grew up reading about pitching from a book written by Ferguson Jenkins. He taught me how to pitch when I was a kid. Help me win games. I sure miss those days of playing.
Great video. Concise, useful, dense. It's perfect.
I learned to throw a good curveball when I was 10 years old and at that age I was the only pitcher in my league who threw a curveball. The conventional wisdom at that time was that youngsters should avoid throwing breaking pitches while young because of the potential harm to their arms' underdeveloped bones and muscles. I found this to be a non-issue so long as one learns the proper way to throw pitches. I never had any issues with my arm due to throwing curveball from a young age and throwing a curveball properly places no more strain on the arm than any other pitch. What I did learn is to try not to force the ball out of my hand in my zeal to impart optimum spin to the curveball. I learned that the most important factor in throwing a curveball is the downward follow-through of the arm that makes it work, trusting to release the pitch and letting the follow-through do the work. I also consciously tried to use as wide an arc swing with my arm coming over the top and bringing my entire arm down without trying to force the ball out of my hand as in that case, my curveballs would hang. Curveballs are thrown with the entire arm follow-through and not the hand or forearm.
I've taken the time to write what I know from my own experience to be relevant and helpful to anyone willing to learn. That means that anyone can benefit by learning for free what has taken me pains to learn. It's still a free country despite all of the effort made to ruin it, so you can either read or ignore anything that I've written pursuant to your own happiness. And BTW your sentence is missing the question mark punctuation. How can America be made great again if its people are barely literate in their country's own language? Thank you and God Bless.
@@DDEENYI respect u, I know my own language. Most comments don’t use any punctuation except the comma
@@DDEENY I pitch some in little league but that's because I have no idea why people can't throw 46 feet and can't throw a strike but anyway I was a hitter and could play anywhere so I batted 3rd and mostly short stop made travel teams. Oh yeah in my 5 years in little league I finish 3rd 3 times and 1st and 2nd got trophies so back then you just worked harder and at 13 played center field because I had a growth spurt and could throw and run like hell the coach had a guy who could play shortstop not as good as me but okay and the coach had a problem with hiding not very good players so he stuck them in left and right field and me between them ok I just want to win and we did 1st place but 14 I played shortstop again and could throw hard so I could fill some innings on the mound but it was a shit team but with my stick I cleaned up and for a while in pickup games at the park I had to bat left handed so I did and then practice my lefty swing oh yeah 14 had a make up game on Saturday was pitching and winning by a lot like a dumb ass I said I could hit this guy left handed and you know I got ripped too shreds on the bench so I had to the coach was yelling his head off but I said it and the right handed pitcher threw me a curveball that broke right over the middle of the plate and I hit it a mile over the right fielders head I was shocked but from then on I was a switch hitter ..15 first again 16 they lost my sign up sheet so I got fucked I was finally sent to a shit team that just had their allstar catcher move out of town. So the couch blame me for It and I played half a game that's it no matter what if I batted twice and hit a double and triple not good enough so we would yell at each other a lot and I told him and I mean when we were yelling you see that shortstop I'm better than him 3rd base I'm better than him and so on...So he lost a catcher number 2 in the score book right so I'll be number 1 and pitch so by then I threw a 2 seam fastball and 2 seam 6-12 drop no curveball and when I showed him I was his best friend and all I did was win so anyway I though a 2 seam on the video he though a 4 seam right?? Oh yeah I was The MVP of the high school baseball team..sorry so long of a story that video brings back memories of 51 years ago.....
Ur the goat man happy new year
That's a very helpful video.
Hey Coach! I love your descriptions and information about the how and why! I tend to be more of a Visual/Feel type of learner….could you possibly incorporate more footage of these pitches? I love the slow-mo shots from behind! Maybe so bad vs good videos as you describe each bullet point?
Love the content!
Great video thanks buddy
This helped a lot
Great video. When I was 12 or 13, my coach showed me the first grip you showed but told me to throw it overhead as if I was going to throw a fastball but as soon as it's over my head, throw it as if I was going to be karate chopping something with a full follow through. Sounds kinda stupid in hindsight but I had the best fastball and curveball in the league that year and the 2 following years. After that I switched to mainly catcher because we didn't have anyone who could throw runners out on 2nd and 3rd base. Loved playing both positions.
Playing baseball all the way through college I never learned to throw a curveball :P I played middle infield so I just never learned how to do it. I find this video interesting
Thanks coach for explaining this to my boy he says he want a more deceiving curve ball or even a knee buckler. You keep it simple !! Thanks !!
Fantastic
8:45 hey coach im 61 and still can bring it. Thanks because I've never know the actual best advice on whether to throw it hard or take something off. You're explanation is spot on I think, because if i take something off , no matter how nasty it breaks they adjust and hit it. So my problem is when i throw it hard it stays in my hand too long and I bounce a lot of curves. They have good tight spin but bounce. Im an over the top slot with 12-6 rotation
Dan, idk if u already made a video like about how often should we throw offspeed pitches. idk if this change a lot from pitcher to pitcher.
In my case, i am in a situtation that my fastball do notg have low spinrate to cause groundballs and i'm not throwing hard enough to overpower the hitters with my fastball. i think they r hitting my fastball too easily but they have really hard time hitting my offspeed stuff. i am thinking on replacing my FB with my cutter. Anyway, THANK YOU for ur videos. they r really helping me and my teammates. Thanks Dan!
Hey this is a good topic! I’ll put it on the list! Thank you for watching and keep spreading the word!
Exellent!
Awesome. I always thought we were supposed to rotate that wrist sideways. Learned something new today. Thanks!
Thx before my curve was super slow but filthy it was either a k or a crushed ball I will work on throwing it harder and better grip 😁😁
I used to throw mine with two fingers but I’ve found that if you throw it with a spike grip, it helps with velocity and also has a lot of movement
You have no idea how much this video has helped my son and I. I have successfully learned how to throw a nasty curve in turn teaching my son how to do it even better. He is 16 and has been striking out batters left and right. He was on the news, during the sports segment and earned the player of the week. All because I watched this video and put forth effort into learning it. Thank you.
I pitched for the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jack's.....fastball....curveball/slider
Binge watching these videos on a bus from Atlantic City to Philly
Great content.
Lived in Fishtown when I played for the Camden Riversharks in 2014-2015. Love that town.
@@DanBlewett cool shyt man can’t wait to show my son your videos
Thanks
Nice.
This very good explanation and my teammates shock because they only know that I can picth change up,fastball and screwball.
I think my career will improve thank you very much
Thanks for the tip I am going to double a and I’ve never pitched and they want me to learn how to throw a curveball thanks. 👍😁
I used to throw what you might call an ordinary curve, and it frequently seemed to be affected by wind directions, etc, as there were times where it just wouldn't do much. Once I found an Earl Weaver device in the comic book ads, and never ordered it, but it did have a picture of it, and from there, I just did with my hand what I saw was the intent of the device, to develop more snap. I throw index and thumb only for curves with no concentration at all in regards to stitching, but with that new technique, my curves got wicked, and I could throw it always no matter the circumstances. Only caveat is I'm not sure how much you should throw it that way, because it's unnatural and seems to beg injury. This is achieved by one thing, and one thing alone. You bend your wrist back as far as it will go, and hold this through the entire pitch, until, of course, it straightens to release the ball at the end. Night and day difference. I think it worked slow as much as fast, because that extra snap makes a large difference. Naturally, if it's good to throw that way (I never found out) you can vary the curve by how much you bend your hand back.
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I have a bace ball tunment and I need this bc I'm a picher
Thanks! But I still don't know how to control my pitch. It's always a wild pitch to bottom left to me.
Do I HAVE to stab the ball through the center with a screwdriver? First off, baseballs are pretty expensive to abuse like that; secondly, something sharper than a screwdriver would be easier to stab though the ball. I HAVE tried out all 3 commonly-available screwdriver types - common, Phillips, Torx - and they all work about the same. 3:11
I tried this, but I found it really really hard with a screwdriver stabbed through the ball. It was also super difficult to get the screwdriver through the ball.
What about elbow -wrist wear and tear? isn't that the pitchers shouldn't throw?
Thanks I'm pitcher now
No my coach said if I can't learn to do a curve ball I can't pitch
@@DanBlewett no it's not he is the owner of all the feeilds and thinks he can do what he wants
Dan, have you ever seen a pitching motion that can’t produce a curve? I can’t get mine to break. My motion is no snap from the elbow - picture a limber fishing rod throwing a lure.
thank you man!! i pitched yesterday and didnt know how to throw a curve ball and was getting destroyed
It is my belief that those boys arms harness the heat of the sun.
im confused. do i twist my wrist away from my body as a righty as i throw it?
@@DanBlewett really? because the first clip i noticed the kid started moving his wrist away from his body
I am Belgian coach for U16 and I would say that I probably have read the best explanations on the web concerning the effect that a curve ball is doing; so I thank you very much for that . I have copy your link to put on my facebook's page called " Dream On The Diamond" ; a page dedicated toward U16 kids playing baseball ; this page is open to coach, trainers, leaders, players, so you are welcome on and you will meet others coaches as Duke Baxter or Steve Nivorak and other from foreign countries as Africa... I please you to come because your explanations are real accurate, Thank you very much.
after 8 years of throwing straight fastballs today boys i’ve finally thrown a curveball
I have an 11 year old that I feel would greatly benefit from one on one instruction with you. Do you offer anything?
The real way to develop breaking pitch is by playing blitz ball. I’m 12 and everyone in my grade knows me for my killer curveball and I got it good by my dad showing me the grip and I just threw it with blitzballs and now it is really good with actual baseballs
Dude, I learned a crap ton! But yet, I still can't see the curveball curve, slider slide, etc... what am I missing? I know a knuckle cause there's no movement, can't decipher 2 or 4 seam either
I’m 36 years old and never learned how to throw a curveball in little league. Thank you for this video! Well taught!
Probably should mention that one shouldn’t start learning a curveball until they’re at least in high school. Basically for body development, speaking from experience learned when I was 12 and now can’t straighten my are due to tendon damage from pitching a curveball made it through high school and college with just 4 fastballs, a circle change, and a knuckleball
you're an extreme example and it's not good to make rules from extreme examples, not to mention this information is for others to use how they see fit. I teach curveballs to kids at 14, and I have a video explaining why. Research shows that curveballs are not more stressful than fastballs, so your experience getting injured is less about the curveball than other factors unique to you.
The last curveball in beginning was dirt
As a former professional myself, I'd say decent video. However, throwing a curveball with an extended index finger is bad practice unless you want to tip off the batter; and while finishing the pitch out front at release is paramount to induce great spin, throwing the pitch as hard as you can is unnecessary and actually being able to throw your breaking ball at different speeds is valuable. Look at some of the best curveballs in the game. Kershaw's has a big loop in it. How about Aaron Sele's back in the day? Have you seen Bert Blylevin's hook. Big hump. The curveball is also an offspeed pitch.
i think you're out of touch with the modern game. There's a reason curveballs are not big and loopy anymore - because Trackman data has proven they're vastly more effective. Kershaw is now an outlier. It's easy physics - the harder you throw a breaking ball, the longer it looks like a fastball. Also, Wainright threw his with his index finger sticking up...and it was one of the best curveballs in the last 30 years. I dont recommend the index finger up, but clearly MLB hitters could not pick it up from him.
It’s reverse lift. The lower pressure sucks the balls down.
Is a curve ball the same as a breaking ball?
Breaking ball = any pitch that curves, such as a cutter, slider or curveball. It's a general term for anything that breaks.
What's a breaker ball?
what is wrong with you? "Breaking ball" is the term - if I stumbled over a word or the captions said "breaker ball" fine - I explained it. Do you have some other issue?
I will say this, if you can't throw a good curve ball don't try because when I played it was I teed off on.... Hanging anything isn't good if the batter has great eye hand coordination...
The spin will make it curve down but it has the opposite air pressure. It’s not Bernoulli’s principle that moves the ball down. It’s the Magnus force. Totally different.
Thanks - I'm aware its magnus force, just trying to relate things in an understandable way to kids.
@@DanBlewett there is technically higher air pressure on the bottom of a ball with top-spin. Overall good explanation of grip and spin though . Will help my pitching. Thanks.
He never says how a curve ball is supposed to break. I thought it was supposed to break down and to the left for a right handed pitcher.
How hard should a 15 year old be throwing?
@@DanBlewett I’m 14 gonna be 15 in a couple months and can probaly only throw 60 but I mostly play first and third is that bad ?
I can throw a 30 😢
Do they still use empty coke cans to teach kids the curve? Worked well back in the day.
The thing I don’t like with all these videos they do not show the most important part. They do not show what to do with your arm
You just throw it. I explained everything you actually need to know. you dont need to know anything else, and real curveballs are shown at the beginning.
I looked this up only to see if if it was being taught correctly. You have 70% okay. A good good curve should swirl. get to the point where you feel you will hit the batter. or to where he thinks its a ball. not hard. speed is hard.
Most of what you said is wrong, and is just your opinion, which you're entitled to.
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I have taken BP on the field b4, what a coincidence!