How to Throw a Knuckleball Pitch

Video Transcript

"The knuckleball is a pitch that takes years to perfect. The ball can be gripped, literally with the knuckles on the ball or with the fingernails on the ball. In either situation, you're trying to create the pitch, as it's thrown, so that there is little to no rotation of the ball whatsoever as it nears the batter. A knuckleball that rotates more than one time, in effect, becomes a batting practice fast ball and usually gets hit very hard. So, it's important to note when you're trying to learn a knuckleball, that you learn to throw it and deaden the ball with the fingertips or with the knuckles to a point where the ball basically does not rotate, or at max rotates it one time. This lack of rotation, with the air catching the seams of the ball, makes the ball flutter, or float, or dive, or curve. All of these movements are effective ways of throwing the knuckleball. (Demo)"