|
Jennie Finch tips on throwing the devastating rise ball
By Administrator // August 8, 2003
Softball superstar Jennie Finch, 2003 Pan American Games team member, won 60 straight games for Arizona in college an NCAA record. She finished up there and went on to help Team USA win the world title last year. Now, as a correspondent for "This Week in Baseball," she has been giving Major League Baseball players headaches, striking out the men as easily as the women. How does she do it? Well, Finch has a five-pitch arsenal, but her bread-and-butter is the Rise Ball. Go ahead, it's okay … try this at home.
Striking out major leagues with the rise ball
Tip # 1 - The Grip
"First, you start off with the grip. You want to make sure all three of your fingertips are on a seam, something you can really get underneath the ball."
Tip # 2 - The Spin
"Obviously, the more spin on the ball, the more movement you're going to have, so with the rise ball, it's really important to get a lot of tight spin. You want backspin. You really want to focus on getting the right rotation on the ball. When you come to your hip, it's almost like you're turning a doorknob."
Tip # 3 - The Release
"You release behind the hips, snap underneath the ball. When you're releasing it, you really want your weight against that front foot; you're spinning off the landing of your front foot."
Tip # 4 - The Location
"You need to practice location … rise ball in, rise ball out, low rise ball, high rise ball."
Tip # 5 - The Follow Through
"You want to show the catcher the back of your hand when you're finished."
Tip # 6 - The Situation
"A lot of times, when you're seeing someone drop her back shoulder, someone has a big swing … they're pretty good candidates for the rise ball. When you're ahead in the count, that's a great time to go with it, because it's a junk pitch … so throw it above the eyes, hopefully getting them to chase the ball. So coming down to the Pan Am Games, the rise ball is really effective, because (a lot of these teams) are not use to seeing a real moving rise ball, so you'll see a lot of rise balls down here."
|
