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- The basic fastball grips are the two-seam and four-seam fastball.
- The two-seam fastball is gripped along the two short seams. If thrown with the correct motion, this pitch will tend to sink and tail away slightly.
- The four-seam fastball is gripped across seams. This pitch will provide for a harder straighter pitch. The four-seam grip is the grip that ideally should be used by the fielders to generate a hard straight throw.
- The second recommended pitch to develop is the change-up. Four time NL Cy Young winner Greg Maddux has used this pitch extremely effectively over his career. There are multiple grips that can be used.
- One of them is the circle change (Maddux’s ) grip where the pitcher forms a circle with his thumb and pointer finger and places it on the side of the ball and then he places his next 2 fingers on the top of the ball. His pinky finger rests underneath.
- Many young pitchers hands will not be large enough to throw the circle change and may have to throw the 3 finger change where he grips the ball deep into his hand with his 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers on top of the ball with his thumb and pinky underneath.
- Another is the football change where the ball is gripped land thrown like a football.
- Once the young pitcher has developed a good fastball and change-up, then he can develop the curve. The curve should be thrown with the same arm slot as the fastball and change, but with a different grip and hand location.
- The curve is gripped with the pointer and the middle finger, with the middle finger along the bottom of the horseshoe shaped seam.
- Instead of releasing the ball with your hand behind the ball like you would with a fastball, you should release it with your hand to the side of the ball, over the top, with a pull down of the ball.
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