How to
pitch

Grip and line up

Hold the ball in your fingertips — two fingers across the seams on top, thumb underneath for support. Same idea as throwing: fingertips, not your palm.

Stand on the pitching rubber with your throwing-side foot on it, pointing toward home plate. Picture a straight line drawn in the dirt from the rubber all the way to home plate — this is your power line. Everything you do is aimed along that line. Your whole body stays on it and drives down it.

Start with the ball tucked in your glove in front of you. Take a breath. Both hands together, eyes on your target.

Fingertips on the ball. Eyes on the target.

Load your hips back

Before you drive forward, you need to load back first — like pulling a slingshot before you let it go.

Shift your weight back onto your throwing-side leg by pushing your hips back — not by bending your knees and dropping straight down. Dropping down kills the drive. Instead, think about your hips going back behind you while your knees stay bent and your back heel comes up off the ground slightly. Your body should look like you're just about to take off sprinting.

Keep your shoulders roughly square to home plate. Don't let your upper body rotate toward your throwing arm side yet — that turn comes later, and only after your legs have done their job.

Hips go back first, like a slingshot.

Push off and drive toward home

Now release that slingshot. Push off your back leg hard — straighten your hip, knee, and foot all at once — and drive your whole body toward home plate along the power line.

Your front foot steps forward and lands on the power line, pointed slightly toward the batter's side (not straight ahead, not wide open — just a little angled). Land on the ball of your foot, not your heel.

Your body stays tall as you drive. Don't lean or lurch forward from the waist — keep your chest up. The force you're generating right now is what makes the pitch fast. Your arm hasn't done much yet, and that's exactly right.

Push off hard, stay tall, land on the line.

Let your arm circle through

As you drive forward, your arm starts its circle. Keep it loose — your arm is not the engine here, it's the last thing to fire. A tense arm slows the pitch down. A relaxed arm whips fast.

The circle goes: forward and down, then back and up, then over the top, then down and through. Keep the circle close to your body — not wide and swinging out to the side. Imagine you're keeping your arm close to a wall the whole way around.

When your arm reaches the bottom of the circle — right at your hip — that's where the ball comes out. Your fingers push it toward home plate as your arm passes. Don't try to guide it or muscle it. Let your body's rotation finish the job.

Your hips go before your arm. If you start the arm circle before your hips have driven forward, the pitch loses power and goes off-target. Hips lead, arm follows. Loose arm, close circle, release at the hip.

Finish ready to field

After the ball leaves your hand, your arm keeps going — it crosses in front of your body and finishes on the other side. Don't stop it early. A full follow-through protects your arm by letting it slow down naturally instead of jerking to a stop.

You should end up balanced on your front leg, facing home plate, with your glove up in front of you. You are now a fielder. The pitch is gone — be ready for the ball to come back at you.

Arm finishes across. Glove up, eyes forward.