by Coach Griff
When pitchers are learning a new pitch, it always sucks for catchers.
You’re the one that has to go and fetch it after each pitch bounces 10ft short of where it was meant to.
Good catchers can drastically improve the quality of a team’s pitching, through motivating their pitchers the right way, and working with their strengths.
A four-seam fastball is the most commonly used grip on a baseball field, it’s what you’ll use as a catcher.
It’s the best way to hold a baseball if you’re trying to throw accurately and with high velocity.
Two fingers resting on top, with the thumb tucked underneath.
This grip should be your default grip when warming up or throwing around the diamond.
Most strikeout pitches are down and in the dirt.
Calling these pitches, and being ready to block the bouncing pitch will help improve your team’s strike outs.
While breaking balls get all the talk, the best pitchers in the world get hitters out with a simple change in speed.
This is because change ups are more difficult to predict. While breaking balls have a distinct rotation, change ups are released just like a fastball and often go undetected.
<aside> <img src="/icons/tortoise_green.svg" alt="/icons/tortoise_green.svg" width="40px" /> Change up Designed to mimic a fastball, a change up is placed further back in the hand to reduce velocity.
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<aside> <img src="/icons/cut_red.svg" alt="/icons/cut_red.svg" width="40px" /> Breaking ball Any pitch that is designed to cut through the air due to a deliberate rotation designed to move sideways on downward (slider, curve, etc.)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj6PT3MFNkk