Once we get our grip we need to know how to use our body the most efficient way possible so we can make a strong and accurate throw. This article on the mechanics of throwing is part 2 of 3 on How to Throw a Baseball by MN Twins Doug Bernier.
Continued from How to Throw a Baseball, Part 1 – The four seam grip.
“..throwing hand holding the ball in the middle of our body, around chest height.”
“…it should feel like you are leading your glove to your target.”
Wrist action is a critical component for power
Images by Ed Wolfstein
1.Keep ball at chest. To start our throw lets have our throwing hand holding the ball in our glove right in the middle of our body, around chest height.
2.Line up to your target. Have your feet and shoulders in line with your target.
3.Your front side and back side will be working together. When starting your throwing motion and you separate your glove from the ball. If your glove elbow goes straight towards your target, your throwing hand will be going in the correct position back. If you close your body off, your throwing hand will be far behind your body making an accurate throw much more difficult. Your two sides work opposite of eachother, so if one side is off, your other will be off also. Your body tries to stay in a strong position and to do that, your back side compensates by doing the extreme opposite of what your front side does. Stay in a straight line to your target so you don’t fight against your body. Let it work for you, not against you.
4. When taking the ball out of the glove, keep it facing the ground as long as possible. Your glove hand should follow along with what your throwing hand is doing. It should feel like you are leading your glove to your target with the heel of your glove hand. This is a strong position to throw.
The first instinct for many people is to take the hand out of the glove and have the baseball facing toward where they are throwing. Their glove hand will follow what the throwing hand is doing and this will be a weak throwing position.
5. Take the ball from facing the ground to facing behind you. Once your hand can’t go back any more and it is time for your hand to be in the strongest position to throw the ball from. Keep thinking of taking the ball from facing down to the ground to facing the centerfielder (if you were pitching off the mound). This position will create as much torque as possible for your body.
Your glove hand will continue out and a little upward and your glove will go in the direction of where you are throwing the ball. Some people will use their glove and some will use their glove elbow to line up where you want the ball to go.
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6. When throwing the baseball, take your chest to your glove. You will take your front elbow and bring it back into your body and keep your glove in front of you so that it will eventually touch and meet up with your chest. You want to keep everything tight. The tighter you are the quicker you will fire. This is similar to ice skaters that when they want to spin faster they start moving their limbs in closer to their body.
This move will start some torque, at the same time your legs will start to fire and your hips will start to open up toward your target.
7. Throw the baseball. The last thing to fire is your throwing hand and the ball to come out. You will follow your body, the ball will go from facing the centerfielder to turning toward your target. Your elbow will stay at about 90 degrees and you will feel that you are pulling the ball down.
You want to reach and get as much extension as possible as you throw toward your target. This is like a whip effect. The further down the whip the quicker it snaps.
8. Use your fingers and wrist to throw. The big muscles set everything up for your little muscles to really fire and get the most out of your throw. Just working on using your wrist and fingers more you will really see a difference in the velocity of your throws.
Continue to follow through and don’t cut it off until your arm has decelerated as much as possible.
Read More Articles on How to Throw a Baseball:
- How to Throw a Baseball, Part 1: Grip
- How to Throw a Baseball Part 2: Mechanics of Throwing
- Throwing a Baseball Part 3: Feet Position, Upper Body and Feel
- See our pro tips for hitting
- Product reviews by professional baseball players for bats, gloves and more
11 Comments
Great tips on throwing a baseball! I’m definitely going to try some of these out.
Do not abuse your body when practicing your throw. A painful feeling means something’s not right, so learn when to stop and give it time to recover.
While learning to throw a ball harder seems easy, you cannot go wrong with consulting professionals.
You can ask your school coach for tips and corrections on how to pitch fast.
They can spot what you have been doing wrong at a single glance. If you really want to excel in baseball, get a good coach.
wish I’d learned this stuff 60 years ago. Good instruction, thanks.
How can you break a habit When you start by your ear
I was always told to keep the ball facing behind me rather than the ground. Go figure.
i play shortstop and i pitch for my freshman team and everytime i throw a ball it’s not accurate and i feel like i think to much about the throw but at the same time i feel as if there is something wrong in my mechanics. but mainly the ball goes off to the side and is rarely on target. what do you think is wrong?
It sounds like you thumb or your arm is in the wrong place. Take a fastball… Your thumb should be at the bottom or underside of the ball. This keeps the ball true, even at high speed. The other problem could be the angle of your entire arm. If you throw side-armed or even partially, it is difficult to keep your thumb under the ball. Also, if you error in the release, instead of going high/low it goes wide left/right.
Whenever I throw, I’m doing everything right but is there any specific way to throw?
What If you have fell into the custom of throwing side arm? I find it hard to make a strong and accurate throw consistantly. any suggestions?
Great article, I am a freshman playing D3 baseball and have gotten into bad habits with my throwing motion resulting in weaker throws that what I am accustom to, this article really helped.