How a Knuckle Ball Moves

The knuckleball is one of the strangest phenomena in sports. While baseball pitchers usually pride themselves on throwing the ball hard in a desired location, the knuckleball breaks all the rules. It is thrown slowly and neither the pitcher nor the catcher knows where it will end up, because of its lack of spin. Nonetheless, it has proven an effective pitch over the years by such baseball greats as Phil Niekro and Tim Wakefield. Throw a knuckleball properly and understand the physics of how the knuckleball's unpredictable movement works.

Instructions

    • 1

      Grip the baseball by pulling back your index and middle fingers and pushing their nails into the top of the baseball. Secure the ball at the sides and below with your other fingers or thumb. Release the ball by pushing out with your index and middle fingers, letting the ball move toward home plate with little or no spin. Because the ball does not spin, it pushes against the air rather than cutting through it, causing random air pockets that make the ball appear to "dance."

    • 2

      Change the movement on the ball by varying your grip. The baseball's seams affect the knuckleball's movements. Throw the knuckleball with a seam facing forward and see what happens. The seam is likely to create airflow moving below the ball, giving the ball a slightly upward movement. Experiment with facing the seam in different directions, creating a variety of different airflows and ball movements.

    • 3

      Give the baseball a slight rotation and see what happens. Try to make it rotate no more than twice on its way to home plate. Without the lift produced by rapid spinning, a good knuckleball produces a larger wake behind the ball, which can cause a sudden drop near the end of the pitch. Try various slow spins and experiment with how much the ball drops.