The slider is a ‘poisonous’ combination of curve and fast ball, a throw that is very useful for pitchers and one of the most uncomfortable face battering plots.
At the start of this journey to home the ball is directed with remarkable speed, but just as approaches the batter sees the ball outside, the effect that makes us lose the balance of the batter on the plate.
When a right-handed pitcher throws the slider to a right-handed batter, the ball will land on the outside corner of the home, but the curvature of the ball is different when the ball is for a left-handed batter, because the ball is looking for the hands of the man who consumes at-bats, but in both situations without great radius of action.
In a curved pitching, the movement of the ball is more significant, because this sending is intended for the ball to fall from top to bottom, just before approaching the batter.
This pitch goes like a straight, and that’s what the batter is waiting for, but when the ball goes into the home area, it looks outwards 10 or 20 centimeters, no more than that. The slider is a very effective pitching.
Mechanics
To execute this pitching, it is required to push the ball towards home, with the arm a little more open compared to the movement that is made to throw the curve. Have you seen the body mechanics that a quarterback uses in soccer when he releases the ball? Well, it is something similar, but keeping the distances.
By holding the ball you put all the pressure on the middle finger, in the same way as a straight line is thrown, remembers that for the curve the pressure is exerted with the index finger. When you release the ball, you do not do it with the fingertips, as is the case with the line, but with the edge of the finger.
Similar to the ‘cutter’
Urban coincides with us to trace the movement of the ball with the slider. The ball looks out in the case of the right hitters and towards the body when the slugger is a left-hander. It is a shipment with less speed than the cutter, the launch that has made famous the Panamanian reliever of the New York Yankees, Mariano Rivera.
He must turn completely on the hand and follow the execution with the palm facing up, but cutting the movement quickly, while lowering the arm towards the first base, in the cases of right pitchers.
Control first
As in all baseball pitches, it is vital to keep control of the shipments, so that they fall where they want. No pitcher will be successful in the big leagues or in the amateur ball if he does not throw strikes. To a great extent that is also achieved with the control of your movements towards home, whether it’s a slider, a change, the curve or a line.
You have to notice a detail about the slider. Like the curve, it is necessary to be very careful with this release, because if it is not done with precision you run the risk of suffering an elbow injury, therefore do not recommend it for young boys either.
As is the case with each of the other launcher submissions, making a selection to highlight the pitchers with the best sliders in Major League baseball is very difficult, but you will always find matching names like Bob Gibson and lefties Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson, three outstanding winners of the Cy Young Award.
image source: nydailynews
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