Pitch design: Rise ball

3 questions to consider when designing any pitch, specifically the rise ball:

1. what do we want the ball to do?

2. what does physics say is best?

3. what can our body make the ball do?

In this thread I answer the questions and more.

Answer 1: We want the rise ball to stay as flat as possible at the top of the zone in order to create the “rising” elusion to a hitter.

Answer 2: create a spin for the ball to cut through air that best resists gravity-we know that rifles do this by creating bullet or gyro spin

Answer 3: with velocity, we know 12:00 spin is ideal but most bodies cannot create that spin. Instead, most pitchers feel like they throw a 12:00 rise ball but instead throw a gyro spin rise ball because of their body limitations. Example

This is Lauren Haeger, she won 2 National Championships with Florida.

She throws 2 *seperate* pitches with the same spin direction (gyro) rise ball & screw ball. Are they actually different pitches or are they just located differently?

Regardless, she is an elite pitcher throwing throwing a “gyro spin” rise ball.

I’ve heard and seen too many coaches obsess over the 12:00 rise ball spin and discount the gyro spin as a terrible or ineffective pitch.

Not only do we know the gyro spin is effective but it’s more realistic for most pitchers and it’s backed up by science.

Data and video again prove that coaches continue to regurgitate the same misinformation while feeding their own bias.