Make Hitters LOOK SILLY With These Nasty Pitches! - Baseball Pitching Tips.

Hey guys, it's Coach Zach with Ultimate Baseball Training. Glad to have you back for another video. Today we're going to be talking about how to grip and release the sinker, the slider, and the cutter. But more importantly, we're going to talk about how to throw each of these pitches effectively to make those hitters look silly in the box. Without further ado, let's get to it. First pitch we're going to talk about today is the slider. A lot of the reliever guys in the big leagues, you know, really make their money on their slider. It really can be very effective for them. So today I'm going to try to show you how you can implement that into your game and have the same results. A slider is a lot different than a curveball. You know, the grip is different and the movement is different. The point of the pitch is not the top to bottom as you would with the curveball. With the curveball you get the 12-6 reference a lot. The 12 on the clock to the 6, making sure you're getting that top to bottom rotation. With the slider however, that's not what we want. We want more horizontal movement with the slider, but we also want some vertical, some vertical break as well, making sure we're still getting two planes of action. And what I mean by two planes is that it's not just a horizontal. We're going over and down. So making sure we're getting that two-plane action and getting the right spin. The spin that we want for a slider, I'm not sure if you've heard the term, seeing a dot on the ball. What the dot means is when we got these laces in the middle spinning and getting that good spin on it and that's what is going to make the dot once you throw it full speed. So how we're going to hold this pitch is find the ball and a couple different ways you can hold it. I'm going to introduce you a couple. So the first one I want to talk about is hold the ball as normal and we want to get on top of that logo and get right there. With the curveball, we want it kind of on that seam, but the slider, we're going to flip that ball around so we can, when we release that ball, we can really get that action right there and get that dot that we've been talking about. The release point with the slider is a lot different than the curveball. It's more of a fastball release point where we want that wrist to be loose and really get that whip. With the fastball, we're going straight down. We want to try to get through that and get some ride or carry on that ball for velocity. The slider is fairly similar, but with the slider you want to get more that action. So we're really getting horizontal and vertical almost with our release point because that's what we want the ball to do as well. A couple other grips you can work with on the slider are find that two seam fastball and kind of how we were talking about getting that pressure point on the inside finger. Get that pressure point on the middle finger and that's going to allow that ball, instead of to fade off towards your arm side, to really cut and get that playing action on your glove side for a slider movement. Next pitch we're going to talk about is the sinker. The next two are going to be the sinker and the cutter and they're both variants of the fastball, but I like to use the term a fastball with action. Different kinds of action. A sinker is going to be more or less a harder two seam fastball with more depth. If you see Blake Tryon, that's what he uses. That's how he pitches and he has one of the best sinkers in the game. I'm fortunate enough to have talked to him about his grip and can kind of bring that information straight to you guys. So with his, he likes to go almost called a one seam where he's having that ball and going where his fingers are splitting that seam on the bottom where his middle finger can kind of get right on top of that seam. Right below that logo and so when he throws that he's trying to put all that pressure on the end of that middle finger and really driving through that ball and getting the good the spin that he wants. So when we're throwing this just like the fastball we want to have that same release point and the pressure is good is what's going to make that pitch move. So when we throw and release that sinker out in front we want to get that good spin and almost almost have some side spin but still have that vertical spin as well. Now you want you don't want a slider or a sinker to be slow and loopy. You want that pitch to almost just drive down and almost keep riding down. If it stays straight and then goes down that's even better but even if you can't get that yet and you just have that pitch just riding down on one plane that's fine. You can really tear up guys by utilizing and mastering this pitch in your game. The last pitch we're going to talk about today is the cutter. A lot of you guys watching this video right now probably know who Mariano Rivera is. The great closer for the Yankees back a couple years ago. He was the mastermind of the cutter. He was known for that cutter and he really got a lot of hitters timings off and a lot of strikeouts by using that cutter and mastering it. So I'm going to try to show you guys how to throw a cutter. What is a cutter? A cutter is essentially just a cut fastball. It's a fastball around the same speed maybe two three mile an hour slower that cuts to your glove side. So where the sinker you want that to cut to your arm side the cutter is the opposite. Now a lot of times the common mistake is we try to make that cutter move when in reality once you try to do that it's going to be a lot slower and it's just going to turn into a slider. So the really key thing here on that cutter is to making sure we're repeating the same fastball mechanics and the spin and the grip is what's going to make that ball cut. So there's a couple different ways you can do this. For the cutter you want to have that dot based on what kind of grip that you use. So with the cutter we want to hold that ball like our two seam fastball and get our middle finger on the outside of that outside seam and kind of put some more pressure on our middle finger than we do on the pointer finger. The reason being is because when we release that ball that middle finger is going to going to be the last thing that comes in contact with the friction of the ball and it's going to get that spin on it and once you get that spin the circle spin and we're going to get that dot on the ball. And like we mentioned when you get that dot it's a lot more deceptive for hitters to see that and especially with the same the proper arm action and technique that we're throwing this pitch with if we're throwing like a fastball it's going to make that ball come out hard and we don't want our cutter to be moving you know this much we want that cutter to be you know very short even if it only breaks an inch that's what we want because any movement we can get can disrupt that hitter's time and give them a different look and can move that ball hitting the barrel to being a ground ball off the cap. Another way you can throw this pitch if you're having a hard time grasping that concept is almost a running running four seam fastball as I like to call it. This pitch it has the same effect as a cutter same action just a different way to throw it. So we have our two our four seam fastball excuse me our four seam fastball right here we want to get to the outside of that and almost be on the very edge of that ball even if we're getting around it a little bit and make sure our fingers are together so we can really drive through that area and part of the baseball. When we do this and come straight through our release point is going to make that ball just tilt and get that spin away towards our glove side and when we do that the ball is going to have the ball is going to be moving that way and ultimately give you some sort of movement towards your glove side that cut or the run that we want. So that's it I really hope you enjoyed today's video and really quickly before you go coach Zach and I put together a free gift for you that's going to help any pitcher at any level take their velocity to that next level so improve your velocity a few miles per hour as well as just keep your arms safe healthy and strong all year long. So this gift is 100% free all you have to do to grab it is just click on this card right here that'll take you to a page all we need is your email address so we know where to send this free gift so go ahead do that right now click on this card go grab your free gift. Last thing if you're not subscribed to our channel be sure to hit that subscribe button we're coming out with brand new baseball videos every single week and I don't want you to miss any of them so hit that subscribe button go grab your free gift thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time