does a forkball put any unusual stress on the elbow that could lead to tommy johns? or some other major arm surgery that could be career ending?
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Throwing a baseball overhand is hard on the arm/shoulder/elbow regardless of the pitches you thow. It is generally recommended for youth pitchers to stick with FB's, CU's and CB's. Stay away from Sliders and Fork/Split finger balls until you get in college or beyond. Work on your mechanics, strength and conditioning and developing a good fastball first as this is key to the next level.
my fastball now sits around 80 and tops at 85 would you think that thats a good basis to get started with a fork or do you recommend working on my fastball a little more?
Originally Posted by JaxJacobRoberts:
my fastball now sits around 80 and tops at 85 would you think that thats a good basis to get started with a fork or do you recommend working on my fastball a little more?
Not that a good forkball isn’t a great pitch, but why is it that you believe it’s the most logical pitch for you to add to your repertoire than some other pitch, or that perhaps you should work on some other pitch you already throw to make it top level?
it was self taught then it became a nasty pitch so i stuck with it, and its more of a slow 12-6 curve now.
Originally Posted by JaxJacobRoberts:
it was self taught then it became a nasty pitch so i stuck with it, and its more of a slow 12-6 curve now.
If that’s true I don’t understand why you’re asking the question. You’re throwing it and you think it works for you, so what’s the problem?
Read his post Stats. He asked if it was safe, not if it was good, it's not advisable for youth pitchers.
His fastball is below average and his FB will likely not get good HS hitters out. Work on the FB. What happens with many younger pitchers is that they develop a pitch that gets younger more inexperienced hitters out and stay with it instead of working on what they should be to get higher level hitters out. My advice is to can the fork ball. Go to drivelinebaseball.com and look around at what his kids are doing. You don't see him teaching kids forkballs. They are working on getting bigger, stronger, mechanics and developing their FB's. That's what you should be doing JJR.
A forkball can mean different things to different pitchers. Are you jamming the ball in between your fingers or just spreading them out like a split-fingered fastball? I ask because some throw a split-finger and call it a forkball. IMO, spreading your fingers out(split-finger FB) is fine. Jamming the ball in there (forkball) is not ok for young players.
Originally Posted by BOF:
Read his post Stats. He asked if it was safe, not if it was good, it's not advisable for youth pitchers.
His fastball is below average and his FB will likely not get good HS hitters out. Work on the FB. What happens with many younger pitchers is that they develop a pitch that gets younger more inexperienced hitters out and stay with it instead of working on what they should be to get higher level hitters out. My advice is to can the fork ball. Go to drivelinebaseball.com and look around at what his kids are doing. You don't see him teaching kids forkballs. They are working on getting bigger, stronger, mechanics and developing their FB's. That's what you should be doing JJR.
?????
The OP was asking about how “safe” it was to throw. I was responding to his 2nd and 3rd posts where it sure seemed obvious to me that he was already throwing it and seemed pleased with it. I wasn’t judging him in relation to all the other pitchers in the world, but trying to get at what he was really trying to find out.
I don’t like to judge the way you did because I’ve never seen him throw the thing. A lot of people confuse a true Elroy Face forkball with a change or a splitter. So it may be that what he’s throwing is more “dangerous” than other pitches, but I don’t think anything is to be gained by forcing pitchers to be clones.
Do you get paid by drivelinebaseball to shill for them?
I have longer fingers and when i throw it my fingers cut the ball in half or pretty close to it, and it has a tumbling spin when i throw it, not a fast spin but enough to make it move
Sounds like a true forkball. Let me ask you this ... Does the pitch get batters out because of the downward movement or the speed of the ball? I'm sure it's both but if the speed is what is getting the batters out, you can try moving your fingers a little bit higher (still apart but on the top half of the ball instead of cutting the ball in half) and most importantly, put your thumb on the side of the ball instead of underneath. Doing both often will give you the same type of movement and slow down the ball as well. If you get a lot of batters out because of sharp downward movement then there really isn't much incentive to stop throwing it the way you are. In that case, it becomes an out pitch that you bring out when needed.
Be careful and best of luck!
it is slow (sround 60 mph and my fastball is in the low to mid 80's) and has a sharp downwards drop
I think in order to comment further we would need to see it. Keep tinkering with different grips and see what they do. Best of luck!
