Back when I was in Little League my coach pretty much told me this when it came to throwing- “Ya see this white round thing with red stripes on it? Throw it as hard as you can!” As much as I appreciate his coaching and the “grip it & rip it” philosophy, we both know that there is a lot more to how we hold the baseball.
Let’s start with where our fingers and thumb should be placed on the ball. You want your middle finger and thumb to cut the ball in half. Pretend that these 2 digits are like a pair of scissors and place them over the middle of the ball with the middle finger on top and thumb on the bottom. Your middle finger is your longest, strongest & most powerful and you want this on the ball as long as possible. You also want the fingers that are on top of the ball to be together for 2 main reasons: the ball is more balanced in your hand & you get more power through the baseball.
The next step is to place your fingers in a position known as the 4 seam grip. Look at the ball and place it in your non-throwing hand so the seams are facing in a direction that resembles a backwards letter “C”. Place the fingers of your throwing hand over the “C” and throw. The reason it has this name is because 4 seams will rotate when it is thrown.
It is important to note that it does not matter if your hands are small or large when gripping the ball. You eventually want to just have the index and middle finger on top, but if your hands are smaller just place the ring finger on top as well. The pinkie will be off to the side.
T. P. Waligora assisted in the writing of this article.
