How To Pitch A Knuckleball-- The REAL No-Spin Zone

In batting practice, the batter is expected to swing at everything within reach and hit it all square and fair. So if the pitcher throws an obvious strike that freezes that batter, that was one filthy pitch. That pitch was probably a knuckleball. A knuckleball is not hard to throw if you know how to pitch already, provided you know a few critical points. From there, you can add it to your bag of tricks and possibly have a weapon that'll take you wherever you want to go. Anyone who can pitch average velocity for a middle-schooler and can throw strikes at will has about enough to throw knuckleballs exactly like a legendary Hall-Of-Famer. Provided you have your fastball mechanics down and are consistent with them, here are a few basic tips to get that knuckleball going: 1. Place the ball against your palm just below the fleshy part at the base of your index and middle fingers. 2. Lay your thumb along the side of the ball and press the side of the top of your ring finger up against the exact opposite side to hold the ball snugly against the palm. This is important. If you let the ball out into your fingers at all, you'll probably allow too much spin. If your grip points are not across from each other, you may get too much forward or back spin. Adjust accordingly; up slightly to reduce forward spin and down slightly to reduce backspin. A HAIR of forward rotation may be the most desirable; this may produce more sink than side-to-side, and just a couple of inches of surprise last-moment sink will more likely miss the bat than any other movement. 3. Curl your index and ring fingertips down so your fingernails slightly dig into the ball surface and the flat parts almost contact the ball. What you'll try to do is to generate your velocity as early in your windup as you can and release the ball just slightly ahead of your shoulder, with no wrist snap. (Keeping your hand gently in line with your forearm is another way to think of it.) Release the ball with your thumb and ring finger and let it roll out from your palm and try to keep your fingernails on the very back of the ball for as long as you can. You will fire the ball with a lot of shoulder and torso snap and DO NOT try to push it with your fingernails. You're firing it hard and straight at your target point and trying to use the dug-in fingernails to hold back the last little bit of spin. You'll follow-through standing up almost vertically, with a fairly short stride toward the plate. If you do it right, you'll feel your fingernails make a light "tick" as they gee off the back of the ball, and it'll fly forward with the spin killed enough so you can see the stitch pattern. It will be helpful to throw about half-distance to someone until you get the feel and mechanics down well. Your catcher will also be the one to tell you if the ball is wobbling, and how. You shouldn't be looking at the ball, but at your target, and if you throw it right, all the best moves will happen at the plate, too far away for you to see much. Once you get it down, and can keep almost all the spin off, you may want to make little adjustments, such as use three fingers, or orient the ball differently, or shift your fignertips that dig in to take the last little bit of rotation away. You can also try to release with different fingers the highest one at release, or release the ball with a slight inward or outward rotation of your hand, in order to remove as much spin as possible. Once you have it down, you have to think about how you're going to use it, because now it's one more pitch you can mix in to fool the batter as often as possible. Some pitchers throw almost all knuckleballs, which can work if they're really consistent and it's working for them. It's a useful pitch when a changeup is called for, which may be only a few times in a game, but it may begee your killer "out" pitch, or the one to set up something else you throw. If your fastball isn't noticeably faster than your knuckleball, make sure not to tip your fastball and throw them both as identically as possible; having just those two pitches makes your fastball the easier one to hit, so hide it well. If you throw a knuckleball, you're not a circus sideshow act. You're a legitimate pitcher who happens to throw knuckleballs, so learn how to be a geplete and effective pitching master, from mixing speeds and throwing strikes and keeping the ball usually down in the zone to being a good smart fielder to having a solid pickoff move. There are outstanding books to help you begee all the pitcher you can be; incorporating a knuckleball with what you learn from one of these is just a matter of understanding how to use it in relation to your other pitches. Suggested books include:The Pitching Edge by Tom Houseformer major league pitcher;Pitch Like A Proby former Braves pitching coach (now with the Orioles) Leo Mazzone;Sports Illustrated Pitchingby former major leaguer Pat Jordan.Doing searches for books, DVDs and videos using keywords such as pitching, pitchers, and baseball pitching, may find you additional sources of information.As you can see above, searches one okay for photos of legendary knuckleballers such as Phil and Joe Niekro, Hoyt Wilhelm, Tim Wakefield, Tom Candiotti, Charlie Hough, and Wilbur Wood (among many others) may unearth action shots that will help you get those proper pitching mechanics down. Throwing a pitch that needs Mapquest is your next step... and may your pitching mastery prove fruitful.See you in the Show!--Dave Clark