Simple Drills to Teach How to Throw a Curveball

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 Simple Drills to Teach How to Throw a Curveball

"My curveball is a blessing. My father taught it to me. He felt that it was a pitch he wanted me to learn, right on the side of the house, and it just ended up working. I never asked what the tricks were, or anything like that." - Gio Gonzalez


There is a myth in baseball that you shouldn't teach a player a curveball until he can shave. Studies have shown that this belief is incorrect. A curveball does less damage on your arm than a fastball, but there is a big if with all of this. The if is, if the player is taught how to throw a curveball correctly. Knowing this, there is quite a lot of pressure that is placed on a parent or volunteer coach at the Little League level. Therefore, the myth becomes a reality because the volunteer coach or parent is afraid of injuring a young arm so the curveball is more than often tabled for the Middle School/Junior High or High School coach to handle. 

Taking all of this into account, I will discuss two simple drills that can help coaches at all levels of baseball teach the curveball properly. To teach the curveball properly the hand and arm should go in a karate chop motion with the thumb pointing up, and going down at the end of the chop. The two drills going to be discussed in the post will require one object that is inexpensive. 

Soda Bottle Drill

The first drill that I will discuss today requires an empty plastic soda bottle. A player can either be standing and throw it like a regular baseball or sitting down. The player holds the bottle on the fat part using the curveball grip. When the player throws the bottle like a karate chop then the ends of the bottle will go end over end with the top or the bottom of the bottle hitting the target or being caught by the player's throwing partner. 

(The player holds the bottle like a curveball)

Hockey Puck Drill

The last drill that I will go over is called the hockey puck drill. This drill is helpful for all pitches not just a curveball. It is also helpful because the puck is the same weight as a baseball. The player grips the skinny part of the puck with a curveball grip. The puck is thrown in a karate chop motion to have success. The player can be standing, on two knees, or in a seated position for this drill. The player can also have either a throwing partner or use a wall. This drill is efficient because it gives instant feedback. If the player is throwing with a partner, the partner and player will notice if the puck is wiggling or not. If the puck is thrown properly then there will be no wiggle in it. If the player is throwing against a wall, the player is looking for the puck to come back to him. If the puck doesn't come back to him then he will realize that he did not throw the puck properly. 

In conclusion, we should not be afraid of teaching young players how to throw a curveball. Instead, we should use both of these drills along with a baseball to master the pitch for game readiness. The key to all of these drills and mastering the curveball pitch is practice, practice, and more practice. A disclaimer though, if the player feels any sharp pain then he should stop throwing. That is a throwing rule of thumb. With this all in mind, both of these drills along with having patience and practice will allow any youth player to learn how to throw a proper curveball. 

Supplementary Resource

This podcast goes into length about both of these drills among other fantastic coaching advice.  



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