Comments on: Increase Pitch Movement Through Knowledge & Competition

By: Ed Haberkorn

Ed Haberkorn — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:12:59 +0000

Cindy, I was re reading the article on increasing pitch movement thru spin. In that article you mentioned to prerequisites to a ball moving. 1) the ball moves in the direction of the spin – this is guaranteed. 2)the ball moves as fast as it spins – this I have a little problem with. It has always been my position as a pitcher and a coach that in order for a ball to move, it must be spinning faster than it is moving. It is possible to throw a ball too hard because it is traveling forward faster than it is spinning. Sometimes you can get a ball to move more by taking some speed off the pitch and keep the spin the same because now the spin is faster that tne speed. It is sort of like a put in golf where a slow putt will break more than a faster putt from the same place. I have had success with this and I am interested in your opinion.

By: Cindy Bristow

Cindy Bristow — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:33:44 +0000

Hi Mark – it sounds like your daughter works hard at trying to improve her pitches, that you feel her RevFire spin numbers are lower than they should be and yet you feel her ball moves great. Sounds like you might be struggling to get more break at the end of her pitches (meaning they start to break but don’t finish breaking). I’ll be addressing this topic in my next Insider Newsletter. Cindy

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:58:26 +0000

I also have a daughter that has very average spin rates per the Revfire but her balls moves great. We work and work on increasing her spins but I can not get them to improve and we throw four times a week for the entire year working on this. I have heard two theories regarding spin rate. One is the loose wrist snap and the other centered on the grip and the friction the fingers put on the ball. I am sure it is a combination of both, but does anyone have any ideas to help me out in order to really improve numbers in this area. My daughter has very small hands and fingers, do you think this might be a limiting factor?

By: Rex

Rex — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:08:07 +0000

Marc and I are equal witnesses to ball movement with less spin speed than most advocate. I attribute that phenomenon to the knuckle ball effect. If a knuckle ball is rotating (slowly) in one direction when thrown it has a tendency to move that way a lot.

By: Cindy Bristow

Cindy Bristow — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:07:48 +0000

Marc – I only use the RevFire for spin readout and not for speed as that reading tends to be about 3-5 mph slower than her normal speed. The focus of the RevFire is measuring spin so I completely agree that it’s speed readings would be under what you might expect.

George – I agree that too much spin focus on a fastball will slow down the fastball. I only mentioned fastball in my article as a comparison to the drop as both pitches spin in the same direction but since the focus is different for each (spin for the drop and speed for the fastball) that the result is obviously different. I am not suggesting to make your fastball spin more as that would certainly detract from it’s objective which is speed. Sorry if I confused you.

By: George J. Perlotto

George J. Perlotto — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:17:35 +0000

I have been using the Revfire system since it was released to market over 3 years ago. You can see my Testamonial on the Revfire Web Site. I would like to share with you, my experience that in terms of generaging top speeds that more spin in not better. The premise that more spin creates more speed is incorrect.I have seen an increase of up to 5 mph at least 5 of my pitcher’s fastballs by decreasing their spin. Spin is energy and if that energy is channeled into spin, the result is a slower fastball. I am having remarkable success in increasing my pitchers fastball speed by decreasing their spin rates not increasing it, by concentrating on improved snapping techiques. If you would like to discuss this, I would be happy to share my experience with you.

By: Coach Marc - softballperformance.com

Coach Marc - softballperformance.com — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:43:44 +0000

Cindy,

The faster a ball spins in one direction, the more it will move. Simple concept that probably applies in almost all cases.

However, have you ever seen cases of pitchers having great movement and effective pitches while their RevFire readings where below what should be expected for a pitcher of their level / caliber?

I have witness such a case once. That was interesting – ball’s moving very well, pitches are very effective, yet her readings for ball speed are way below what would be expected (and the device is working fine because the numbers for other pitches make sense).