How To Throw A Curveball

Can a 12 year old throw a curveball?

STRESS ON THE ELBOW – Kids get injured throwing curves because they twist their elbow. They learned this on their own or from another pitcher. You can stop them from throwing curves in games but, if they’re going to fool around on their own, it’s much better to teach them how to protect their arm.

Is it easy to hit a curveball?

In baseball, the curveball is a monumentally difficult pitch to hit. It turns out there’s a very good scientific reason why. Right when a curveball crosses the plate, the spinning of the seams tricks a hitter’s brain into thinking the ball is diving at a steeper angle than it really is. In the video above, you can see the same illusion at work — the circle is dropping straight down the screen, but its spin makes it seem like it’s moving to the left. This is a well-known phenomenon called the curveball illusion, In a recent paper, a group of University of Rochester cognitive scientists conducted some tests to propose a new model of how the human brain uses motion to estimate the location of an object — and explain why it can sometimes be tricked. They did so by carefully tracking the eye positions of study participants who watched videos of the curveball illusion and the related phenomenon of “peripheral slowing” (in which the circle about 1:10 into the video appears to spin more slowly when you’re not looking directly at it). They argue that both these illusions — which only occur when an object enters your peripheral vision — are caused by assumptions your brain makes about position when it doesn’t have good data and can’t see the object clearly. In essence, it uses what’s called a Kalman filter : an algorithm that involves collecting a bunch of noisy data and making the best possible estimate based on all of it. As the video notes, this is the same sort of algorithm GPS software uses to determine your location when you don’t have a clear line of sight to a satellite. In response, it uses data on where you’d been a minute ago and your previous speed to make an estimate. Of course, it doesn’t always work perfectly: this is why the dot on your phone’s map sometimes shows up blocks away from where you actually are. It seems a similar process goes on in the mind of a batter — and when a ball enters the field of peripheral vision, previous data on location and apparent spin can lead the brain astray. \r\n \r\n vox-mark \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n “,”cross_community”:false,”groups”:,”internal_groups”:,”image”:,”bounds”:,”uploaded_size”:,”focal_point”:null,”image_id”:46596230,”alt_text”:””},”hub_image”:,”bounds”:,”uploaded_size”:,”focal_point”:null,”image_id”:46596230,”alt_text”:””},”lede_image”:,”bounds”:,”uploaded_size”:,”focal_point”:null,”image_id”:46596230,”alt_text”:””},”group_cover_image”:null,”picture_standard_lead_image”:,”bounds”:,”uploaded_size”:,”focal_point”:null,”image_id”:46596230,”alt_text”:””,”picture_element”:,”alt”:””,”default”:,”art_directed”:}},”image_is_placeholder”:false,”image_is_hidden”:false,”network”:”vox”,”omits_labels”:false,”optimizable”:false,”promo_headline”:”Watch: The optical illusion that makes it so hard to hit a curveball”,”recommended_count”:0,”recs_enabled”:false,”slug”:”2015/6/23/8833851/curveball-illusion-science”,”dek”:null,”homepage_title”:”Watch: The optical illusion that makes it so hard to hit a curveball”,”homepage_description”:”See how your brain gets tricked by spinning seams.”,”show_homepage_description”:false,”title_display”:”Watch: The optical illusion that makes it so hard to hit a curveball”,”pull_quote”:null,”voxcreative”:false,”show_entry_time”:true,”show_dates”:true,”paywalled_content”:false,”paywalled_content_box_logo_url”:””,”paywalled_content_page_logo_url”:””,”paywalled_content_main_url”:””,”article_footer_body”:”Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. 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Do curveballs hurt your arm?

Biomechanical Comparisons Between Fastballs and Curveballs – Understanding the unique stresses that each phase of throwing places on the shoulder and elbow is critical to evaluating the relative effects of throwing the curveball. The fastball is thrown with consistently higher velocities than the curveball.5, 18 – 21 Therefore, a proportionally smaller amount of force is required to generate the lower velocities seen when throwing curveballs.

1. This would place less stress on the shoulder and elbow, and in theory, be less harmful to the throwing arm.
2. Several published studies substantiate this line of thinking.
3. Grantham, et al, reviewed 10 biomechanical studies and found no differences in proximal force or torque at the shoulder or elbow when comparing curveballs to fastballs.8 In one of the few biomechanical studies involving youth pitchers, Dun, et al, utilized 3D motion analysis to measure kinetic, kinematic and temporal parameters for fastballs, curveballs, and change-ups.

They found increased proximal forces at the shoulder and elbow, as well as increased varus torque at the elbow and internal rotation torque at the shoulder when throwing fastballs.18 Nissen, et al, collected kinematic data on 33 pitchers with an average age of 16.6 years-old.

They found that, compared to other pitches, fastballs produced increased internal rotation velocity at the shoulder, increased varus moment and increased extension velocity at the elbow.20 Findings also included an increase in radial-to-ulnar wrist deviation of 3 degrees for the curveball, however this has not been linked to any injury risk.

Curveballs are associated with greater forearm supination ( Figure 2 ).8, 18, 20 It has been proposed that this particular forearm positioning leads to more injuries at the elbow. However, in a cadaveric study assessing strain with valgus loading on the anterior and posterior bundles of the UCL, only minimal differences were found with changes in forearm rotation.22 These findings contradict the assertion that the increased forearm supination seen with curveballs elevates the risk of UCL injury. Forearm Supination Seen While Throwing a Curveball (Left-handed Thrower Pictured). Biomechanical studies evaluating different pitch types have not demonstrated higher stresses on the throwing arm with curveballs. In fact, the majority of studies concluded that fastballs place the greatest amount of stress on a pitcher’s arm.

How hard should you throw at 14?

13 And 14-Year-Olds – The pitchers in the 13 and 14-year-old age range can be deeply involved in travel baseball or wrapping up their Little League experience. An average fastball from this age range is anywhere from 55 mph (on the low side) to 75 mph.

How hard can a 15 year old throw a baseball?

Average throwing speed of a 15 year old throw – Depending on the sport they perform and their gender, a 15 year old throw speeds can change. A 15-year-old should strive to throw between 60 and 70 mph in baseball. However, this is only an average, and a young athlete’s throwing speed can be impacted by a variety of variables.

• It’s essential to remember that throwing velocity can vary between boys.
• Due to their larger muscles and higher levels of testosterone, at different body types, bigger players typically have faster throwing speeds.
• Nevertheless, with the right technique and instruction, smaller boys can still hurl with high velocity.

It’s also crucial to remember that there are other aspects of sports achievement besides throwing speed. The importance of accuracy, control, and consistency is equal. In actuality, a pitcher who can reliably throw strikes at a slower pace might be more productive than one who tosses faster but less accurately.

Is it harder to hit a fastball or a curveball?

Hitters are often told by their coaches to “hunt the fastball,” to look to drive a fastball rather than seek out a breaking ball that exchanges velocity for movement. However, amid the Moneyball Era, a group of baseball misfits were already looking to the future and what would become the Statcast Era.

In 2003, professors Gregory S. Sawicki, Mont Hubbard, and William Stronge, published their paper “How to hit home runs: Optimum baseball bat swing parameters for maximum range trajectories.” One of their findings was that ” optimally hit curve ball will travel farther than both the fastball and knuckleball.” This raises the question: Should hitters look to hit the curveball instead of hunting fastballs? (Due to the lack of knuckleballers in today’s game we will only examine hitting curveballs today.

Sorry, Mickey Jannis.) To find the answer to this question, we will look at what are probably the two most fundamental aspects of hitting: contact and power. First, we’ll look at contact. If we were to poll baseball coaches from around the nation to give their thoughts on looking to drive curveballs over fastballs, they would probably give the objection that curveballs are more difficult to contact.

• Congratulations, hypothetical coaches, you would be correct.
• With a whiff rate of 31.2%, batters completely miss curveballs almost twice as often as fastballs (whiff rate of 17.7%).
• On top of that, in general, hitters are more likely to make better contact on fastballs than curveballs, as fastballs lead in basically every contact statistic.

Not to mention, hitters are more likely to hit a home run off a fastball than off a curveball. Before we completely write off hunting curveballs, let’s remember something: we haven’t actually disproved Sawicki et al.’s finding. According to the scientists, an ” optimally hit curveball will travel farther, because of beneficial topspin on the pitched curveball that is enhanced during impact with the bat.” The topspin of a curveball as released by a pitcher translates to backspin off the bat.

• This backspin increases the amount of time the ball spends in the air, which allows the ball to travel farther, leading to better contact metrics and therefore better power.
• When looking at the top 10% of hardest hit balls for the two pitch types, curveballs and fastballs flip their rankings in every statistical category except for average exit velocity, which could be attributed to the frequency of ground balls off fastballs in this subset (36.7%) compared to curveballs (29.5%).

As expected, the home run rate off the best-contacted curveballs is higher than those of the best-contacted fastballs (24.3% vs.23.5%). Simply put, if an MLB hitter really gets ahold of curveball, the pitcher will probably be wishing he threw his heater instead. Surprise, surprise, physics remains the same, even after almost two decades. But what does that mean for baseball? Should hitters start hunting the curveball in lieu of the fastball? The short answer is maybe. There is a tradeoff when trying to hit a curveball.

1. Hitting a curveball optimally is extremely difficult, and hitters are more likely to whiff at a curveball than a fastball.
2. A hitter is more likely to contact a fastball, but curveballs have more power potential.
3. Basically, a hitter is more likely to get on base by hitting a fastball, but a curveball has more capacity for extra bases.

Hunting one pitch over the other may be situational. For example, looking for the fastball when leading off, and sitting curveball with runners on base. Ultimately, this is an area for further research and discussion. There is value in training to hit the bender.

1. Just ask Ronald Acuna Jr., whose 7 home runs off curveballs led the majors in 2019.
2. Thanks to pitching machines that throw more than just your run-of-the-mill fastball, training to hit the bender is now a very plausible.
3. Additionally, with the increasing use of breaking balls and subsequent decreasing usage of fastballs, hitters who learn to hit the curveball proficiently make themselves more versatile and more lethal at the plate.

If anything else, it’s simply more fun to hit bombs, and curveballs are ripe with potential to be put over the fence, even more so than fastballs.

Why doesn’t my curveball break?

A hanging curveball is a curveball that doesn’t break or isn’t thrown low enough in the zone. Because it’s thrown at a slower velocity than a fastball, a hitter has a few more precious moments to react to it.

Who is the king of the curve ball?

Pierce Johnson seriously throws so many curveballs. In the early days of the professional game, curveballs were illegal to throw.

Do you throw a curveball like a fastball?

Curve Ball Overview – The curveball is a staple off-speed for pitchers to add to their arsenal. Generally speaking, a curveball will have a higher spin rate, but be thrown anywhere from 10-15 MPH slower than the fastball. The increase in spin rate, in addition to the axis the pitch is thrown on, will cause the pitch to break, or “curve” much differently than any other pitch.

Having a specific pitch that breaks differently and slower than the fastball can disrupt a hitters timing and throw off their approach at the plate. Ideally, the pitcher will tunnel the curveball off the fastball, making both pitches look similar out of ball release to create an aspect of deception with the pitch.

In this article, we will be taking a deep dive into how to throw a curveball with a few different grips and cues to help you throw it more effectively and efficiently. Desired Curveball Movement Profile Before we talk about the tips and tricks on how to throw a curveball, lets continue to discuss how we want this pitch to move.

• Typically speaking, we look for a curveball to possess more vertical movement (drop) than horizontal movement (sweep).
• However, this won’t always be the case based on the pitchers arm slot.
• A pitcher with a higher arm slot will create a more “12-6” curveball that has more vertical break than horizontal break.

As the arm slot of the pitcher gets lower, the more horizontal movement the pitch will have.

True Curveball – VB > HB True Slider – VB < HB Slurve (CB/SL combo) – VB = HB

Interested in learning more about remote programs, you can simply click below to schedule a phone call.

Do you throw a slider like a curveball?

Grip. Like a curveball, a slider is thrown by a pitcher with a wrist snap and spin. It is generally perceived as somewhere between a cutter and a curveball.

At what age should a pitcher throw a curveball?

In regard to curveballs and sliders, I recommend a player wait until he is 13- or 14- years- old. It all depends on his physical maturation and muscular development. You want to avoid overloading the shoulder and elbow.

Why are curve balls so hard to hit?

Spinning balls are difficult to hit – it may be because they are perceived by two different visual systems (Image: Design Pics Inc / Rex Features) AN ANIMATION that sheds light on why a type of baseball pitch called a “curve ball” often fools batters has been voted Visual Illusion of the Year by the US Vision Sciences Society,

Is a curve ball an illusion?

The common perception of a curveball is that it flies straight after it’s thrown, then breaks and curves at some point midway through the air. In actuality, the curveball is curving the whole time, but human perception cannot detect it. Read on after the jump to see a really neat optical illusion and be inundated with science.

1. Discovery News examines a study published over at PLoS ONE : Batters will use their foveal, or central, vision when the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand.
2. About 20 feet in, the batter will switch to peripheral vision, which occurs outside of the very center of the gaze.
3. By the time the ball crosses home plate, the batter reverts back to central vision.

Humans constantly switch focus like this. The problem is peripheral vision processes first and second order motion in conjunction, while foveal vision distinguishes between the two. During the peripheral stage, batters do not notice that the curveball has been gradually changing direction ever since it left the pitcher’s mound.

Once they switch back to the foveal vision, batters accurately register the changed direction, but consider it a result of the ball’s immediate “break,” instead of their temporary impaired vision. So, basically, our eyes just aren’t up to the task of following the curve. “Whatever, my eyes are perfect!” you might be saying, smugly leaning back in your chair.

Well, click on the image below to check out a neat optical illusion that’ll prove your eyes aren’t up to the task either. Take that, your eyes. ( PLoS ONE via Discovery News via reddit ) Have a tip we should know?

How do you throw a curveball that doesn’t hurt your arm?

How Young Players Can Throw a Safe Curveball Watch the Little League World Series these days and you’ll notice that almost all the pitchers throw breaking pitches. For some, it is their dominant pitch, even more than the fastball. The decision of when you should begin to throw curve balls is something to be discussed with parents and coaches – and if you’ve read this column before, you know I and a lot of other coaches prefer that you master the fastball before moving on to another pitch.

• That belief is based on the fact that, in order to get a baseball to curve, you have to make it spin really, really fast.
• At the major league level, pitchers throw curveballs at close to 2000 RPM.
• That means the ball is spinning at a rate of 2000 revolutions per minute.
• And it puts a lot of stress on younger arms in order to make that happen.

But here’s a pitch you can learn to throw that, even though it breaks like a curveball, shouldn’t put much stress on your arm at all. The traditional curveball grip is where you hold the ball with your middle finger along a seam. The index, or second, finger is alongside that finger. Pressure is applied by the middle finger as you release the ball. The grip I’m talking about is more like a change-up grip, where the ball is held farther back in the hand, in that “V” shape where the thumb and first finger come together.

• In fact, you want to have the back of the ball touching the palm of your hand.
• Figure above ) Hold the ball between your thumb and first finger, without touching a seam.
• That’s what helps it come out of your hand like a change-up.
• Put your ring, or fourth finger, on a seam behind the ball ( Figure below ).

That’s what helps it rotate like a curveball. To throw this pitch, you don’t have to rotate your wrist over the top of the ball, like you do with traditional curveballs. All you have to do is keep your wrist firm and let the ball tumble out of your hand. Just as with the traditional change-up, it’s important that you throw this pitch with exactly the same motion, exactly the same arm speed, as you do your fastball.

Remember that, as with any other pitch, it’s important that you follow-through with your arm coming across your body to the opposite knee. This helps make sure the ball crosses the plate low in the strike zone. Try this pitch the next time you play catch. Watch the ball tumble as it makes its way to the target.

It’s a real easy pitch to learn, an effective pitch to throw. And best of all, it’s relatively safe. : How Young Players Can Throw a Safe Curveball