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Baseball Pitching - Two & Four-Seam Grips

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Hi, I am Mike Binns, full-time instructor at the Virginia Baseball Club. Today, I am going to talk to you about grips. The two different kind of grips we can have on the ball are Four-Seam and our Two-Seam. Now, whether we are throwing Four-Seam or Two-Seam, there is going to be a couple of things that we do the same. One of the things that we are going to look for is our thumb to be directly underneath of the ball, and our fingers to be on top. So, it should be right here. If we took the ball out of our hand, the thumb should split our fingers right in half, so thats what were looking for there; fingers on top, thumb underneath. Another thing were looking for is we dont want to choke that ball in the back of our hand. We are going to have it out on the fingertips, not right all the way out on the fingertips, but between these two pads of our fingers right here is where we want to hold that baseball. Now, the two different grips that we have are the Two-Seam, which is with the seams, and our Four-Seam, which is across the seams. Now, a Two-Seam is going to be with the seams when we put our fingers right here, and it goes with the seams. Now, that ball is going to move a little bit, so usually its the pitcher that uses that to get that ball to move a little bit. Now, infielders use that good Four-Seam grip, which is we find the C on the baseball when we put our fingers right across, and then thats our good Four-Seam grip because that ball is going to stay straight and that ball is going to stay true for us. So, we have our Four-Seam grip; fingers on top, thumb underneath. We find the C on the baseball, put our fingers across it. We have our Two-Seam grip, where we find the laces or find the seams, and we put our fingers with the seams. Those are our Four-Seam and Two-Seam grips.

Expert: Mike Binns

Mike, a full-time employee at the VBC, is a graduate of O'Connell High School, where he played for Coach Murray. He was the starting third baseman for the 2001 WCAC Championship team (27-3), which finished the season ranked third in the Washington Post. Mike is very involved in youth baseball in Arlington. Coach Binns has been working baseball camps with the VBC and coaching youth baseball since 2001. In More »