#Underhand throw motion professional

'The pitching motion was different because the role of the pitcher in relation to the batter was different,' Thorn says. If you think that sounds unfair to the pitchers, who were forced into a relatively unnatural throwing motion, you'd be correct. Straight underhand until 1872,' MLB's Official Historian John Thorn says. 'The rule was that your arm had to be perpendicular. It was any year before 1872 and it wasn't because our ball-playing forefathers had yet to master the more masculine-seeming motion, but rather because it was written into the rules.

And why shouldn't they be? An overhand windup is not only iconic and powerful, it's also the natural movement when playing catch with a ball.īut there was a time when all the pitchers threw underhand. Submarine pitchers, whose release point is so low their knuckles practically scrape the ground, are a rare breed in Major League Baseball.

His release is so low that his knuckles often become raw from their periodic drag on the ground.If you're even a casual baseball fan, that second question-why don't more pitchers throw submarine style?-might seem preposterous. He now wears a pad under his uniform to avoid injuring his knee. Watanabe has an even lower release point than the typical submarine pitcher, dropping his pivot knee so low that it scrapes the ground. Japanese pitcher Shunsuke Watanabe is known as 'Mr. Past major league submariners include Carl Mays, Ted Abernathy, Elden Auker, Chad Bradford, Mark Eichhorn, Gene Garber, Kent Tekulve, Todd Frohwirth, and Dan Quisenberry. Kent Tekulve and Gene Garber, two former submarine pitchers, were among the most durable pitchers in baseball history with 1,944 appearances between the two. Though the bending motion required to pitch effectively as a submariner means that submariners may be more at risk of developing back problems, it is commonly thought that the submarine motion is less injurious to the elbow and shoulder. It is not typically a natural style of throwing-it is often a learned style-and because the vast majority of pitchers use an overarm motion, most young pitchers are encouraged to throw overhand. The rarity of submarine pitchers is almost certainly attributable to its unusual technique. This is because the submariner's spin is not perfectly level the ball rotates forward and toward the pitching arm side, jamming same-sided hitters at the last moment, even as the ball drops rapidly through the zone. Submarine pitches are often the toughest for same-side batters to hit (i.e., a right-handed submarine pitcher is the more difficult for a right-handed batter to hit, and likewise for left-handed pitchers and batters). The sinking motion of the submariner's fastball is enhanced by forward rotation, in contrast with the overhand pitcher's hopping backspin. Gravity plays a significant role, for the submariner's ball must be thrown considerably above the strike zone, after which it drops rapidly back through. The 'upside down' release of the submariner causes balls to move differently from pitches generated by other arm slots.

#Underhand throw motion professional

2.1.4 Chinese Professional Baseball League (Taiwan).