Top 3 Things Your Son Must Do Before He Starts Throwing Curveballs
“Hey Coach, how do I throw a curveball?”
If your son is a pitcher, at some point you’re going to have to decide when he can start throwing a curveball. I’ve put together the top 3 things he must do before he starts throwing one.
Let’s set the record straight when it comes to youth baseball players throwing curveballs – ANY pitch thrown improperly can hurt your arm.
For young players, throwing a baseball in general is a little difficult and one of the reasons is the size of the ball.
Baseball is one of the few sports where right from the start, players are using the full-sized adult ball.
Youth football uses a smaller ball, in part to make it easier to throw. Youth basketball and soccer also use smaller balls to help it easier for youngsters to play the respective games.
Baseball? Let’s go right to the adult ball, kids! (As if the game isn’t already hard enough to play.)
As you probably know from listening to me on the air, I am a huge baseball fan. Chris Swendeman and I talk baseball a lot each Friday morning on the Two Minute Drill.
In addition, I am the pitching coach at Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield and over the course of my coaching career, I’ve worked with pitchers from the age of 8 all the way to college.
The two questions I am asked most often are how to increase velocity (learn how to locate your fastball first), and how to throw a curveball.
First, here are a few basics on throwing for young players.
Four-seam grip
For players with smaller hands, I think this is a difficult pitch to throw. It’s harder for a small hand to properly hold the ball with a four-seam grip.
Two-seam grip
Younger players might find this pitch easier to throw. Using the two seams that are closest together, it’s easier for smaller players to get the idea of pulling the seams as they throw when they’re actually able to pull those seams.
Changeup
There are a bunch of ways to throw this pitch. Again, talking about young players, and moving fingers will help.
Moving the index (in baseball terms, the “power”) finger off the ball and replacing it with the middle finger on that same seam (see the illustration above) will help the ball move a bit slower.
The other trick to helping young players with a changeup?
Tell them to hold it as loose as they can, and throw it as fast as they can.
Most young players are going to slow their hand down when throwing a changeup when in fact what fools the batter is his hand speed.
Having a weaker finger on the ball will help slow it down, and maybe even get it to drop a little bit, which will REALLY confuse young hitters.
Curveballs in youth baseball
Let’s get this out of the way now – kids want to throw curve balls. And they will contort their hands/wrists/arms in an effort to make the ball move.
What you want to do is make sure that they learn how to throw it properly.
One thing to be careful of with young baseball players.
When they throw the ball, their hands are quite often coming off the side of the ball which is either going to have the effect of a cut fastball, or a slider.
If they then try to make the ball curve by snapping their wrist, the ball will curve all right, but the possible strain on the wrist and elbow isn’t good for a developing arm.
Take a look at the drill in the video below. I have used this with kids from the age of 10 through high school who have come to me asking for help with learning how to throw a curve ball.
It’s all in the spin
Throwing an effective curve ball means getting a tight spin on the ball. When a player can do this drill properly (it took my son almost a year to get it down), then you’re ready to start playing catch with it.
When it comes time to introduce it in a game they really only need to throw it once or twice in a game because once the opposing team sees that a pitcher has one, that’s all they’re worried about.
3 things to do before a young pitcher starts to throw a curveball
1 – Get control of your fastball. Whether a two-seam or four-seam, it’s important to be able to throw strikes that pitch.
2 – Develop a changeup. Again, being able to throw it for a strike is super important.
3 – Get the spin down.
When is it time to learn?
When you can throw your fastball consistently for a strike, and you’ve shown you have some command of your changeup, then you can think about adding a third pitch to your arsenal.
And one final thought – remember that Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera was totally dominant throwing just one pitch over the course of his career.
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