How To Throw A Slider

How To Throw A Slider

In this post I teach you how to throw a slider. And I will knock your socks off!

Do you throw a good slider? As in, a slider that destroys hitters and makes them go home and cry on their pillow at night?

Here is how you know if you have a great slider…

When you throw a slider, in a breaking ball count (that a hitter is waiting for), and he still swings and misses. Thus he looks really bad and you look really good. Often times this looks like a hitter swinging at a pitch in the dirt. Nothing makes a hitter more angry than swinging a pitch in the dirt… I love making hitters angry. It’s hilarious.

That means you have a good slider.

Here is how you know if your slider sucks…

If you throw it over and over and the hitter still fouls is off. If you try to throw the slider better and better, yet it gets fouled off every time. This means your slider is not only bad, but sets you up for failure.

Here is why a bad slider sets you up for failure…

The more pitches a hitter fouls off, the more your pitch count goes up, which leads to earlier fatigue and thus a greater chance at making a mistake on the pitcher’s mound. Leading to what we all know, goes a long way, a hanging breaking ball…

Gosh dang it I hate it when I hang a pitch and the hitters get a hold of it…

How To Throw A Slider That Destroys Hitters

Here is my stats from my sophomore year in college:

I can guarantee, that 97% of those strikeouts where from sliders… I threw it all the time. It was my best pitch. And it was an awesome strikeout pitch.

In order to have success with a slider you must understand the physics of why a slider is such a dominating pitch.

The Spin

The spin of a slider, will rotate on a axis that is visible to the catcher and the hitter. This spin will cause the laces of the ball cut into the air in such a way that causes the ball to move in a sharp breaking motion.

This break is what causes the hitter to miss and thus make you look like a stud on the mound.

The break occurs once the force from the spin is greater than the force behind the actual throw.

So when people say that the slider has a “late break,” this means that the pitch looks like a fastball initially, and at the last possible moment, it breaks and moves.

Now this is common knowledge across most baseball players and coaches.

But here is what you need to think about in order to have a breaking ball that is late breaking and dominate every time you throw it…

The spin of the slider must be extremely fast in order to break as late as possible.

If you accomplish a slider that has extremely fast spin, your slider will be “tight” and you are guaranteed to strike out more hitters. Because, when a slider is throw with extremely tight spin, the spin itself becomes invisible to the hitter. This leads to him swinging at pitches in the dirt. Not because he is a bad hitter, but because the pitch itself cannot be seen or “picked up” by the hitters eye. It’s not humanly possible.

That means, you will have a unfair advantage against the hitters you face… That is AWESOME!

If you would like to know the grip and drill I used in order to throw a safe, and effective slider that strikes out every hitter, comment below.

If enough people want to hear exactly how I threw an “invisible” slider, I will make a video and show you exactly how I did it.

I love you all,

Zach

PS: Comment below with something like this “tell me Zach!”or say “teach me how to throw a slider!”

Tags: grip, grips, how to throw a slider, Pitches, Pitching, pitching grips