How to Grip a Baseball on Pitches

Series Summary

Baseball, the great American pastime, is actually considered the official sport of the United States, though it is enjoyed by many fans in several countries throughout the world. Developed in the late 18th century, the game of baseball was probably derived from older British bat and ball games and then brought over to America. Today, baseball teams consist of nine or ten players and a pitcher. In some leagues the pitcher is the tenth player and must bat for the team, while other leagues allow a designated hitter to bat in place of the pitcher. Baseball enjoys great popularity as both a professional spectator sport, and an amateur or youth league sport.

In this free video series, our expert baseball coach will demonstrate how to pitch a baseball. The pitcher is one of the most important players on the baseball diamond and learning proper stance and throwing technique can make or break a game for a pitcher. These step-by-step instructions on how to grip a baseball on pitches, how to position your body for a pitch and how to wind up for a pitch will be extremely valuable for any young player who want to learn to pitch a baseball, or just needs some tips and advice.

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Mike Lumley on behalf of Expert Village and I am here to teach you pitching. The first thing we want to talk to about today is the grip. The grip is actually one of the most important things for flight, movement, accuracy on the end result of the target. So we have two different options. One is a four seam and that is where we put our fingers across the seam, across the fat part of the seam and why it is called four seam is when the ball rotates, four seam cuts through the air. Four seam is a little straighter, a little truer and then we move to two seam. On two seam, you can either go with the small part of the laces or across the small part of the laces. From there, we gain a little more movement so the theory is as the ball goes, it slips through the air and creates a little bit of drag and starts to tail out to whatever side that the pitcher is. So right hander to the left side and left hander to the right side. Most young kids should start with a four seam but understand that some of the younger kids have small hands so if they want to go with the two seam, that's fine because movement at that age isn't really a big factor because of lack of velocity. "