How to Pitch Underhanded

Throwing a baseball or softball underhand can feel unnatural and difficult, especially if you've always pitched overhand. Yet with time, practice, and a little patience, you'll feel just as comfortable with an underhand pitch as an overhand one. Underhand pitching is rarely seen in baseball, but standard practice in softball. Whether you're a baseball player who has signed up for a softball league, or are entirely new to stick-and-ball sports, you'll want to learn how to pitch underhand.

Things You'll Need

  • Softball
  • Glove
  • Catcher
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Instructions

    • 1

      Stand facing home plate on the pitcher's mound. Hold the ball in your glove at waist level.

    • 2

      Grip the ball with your thumb and little finger, using your middle three fingers to support it. Drop the hand holding the ball to your side.

    • 3

      Focus your eyes on the catcher's glove and with your dominant foot, step onto the rubber. Bend your knee opposite the one on the rubber and let your back bow out slightly.

    • 4

      Pull your ball hand in one semicircular motion past your hip and behind you. As you do so, step forward, leaving your dominant foot on the rubber. Shift your weight to the dominant leg.

    • 5

      Plant your front foot as you move forward, keeping your dominant foot on the rubber, and shift your weight from your dominant leg to the leg in front of you. Bend your body forward and sweep your arm quickly forward to gather speed.

    • 6

      Release the ball off of your middle three fingers when it is about belt level and throw it in an arc that is between 10 and 13 feet high toward the catcher.

    • 7

      Follow through with your hands ending up high above your head. The ball should descend from the top of its arc and cross the strike zone of the batter, landing in the catcher's mitt.