Pitching Grips - How To Throw A Corkscrew Knuckleball

By Pustulio, a member of LetsTalkPitching.com

The corkscrew knuckleball is an actual knuckleball that is pretty locatable and has a consistent movement.

Hoyt Wilhelm threw it and called it his spinner. Wilhelm has a lower ERA than the other knuckleballers and definitely lower batting average against.

There are two ways you can throw it.

1. You throw with the normal stiff wrist but at release you pronate or supinate the arm to get a spiral rotation which will make the air catch the seams on that rotation and it will corkscrew.

2. The most recent news on Knuckleball HQ has the idea, though not yet proven to work with everyone, it has gotten to where some people can do it like this (I can get it to corkscrew 7-10 times doing this).

If you follow longer with one finger than the other or put more pressure on one finger than another it will cause it to do the corkscrew and spiral rotation.

This is one of those baseball pitches that is not widely known and is very difficult to learn, much like the gyroball or shuuto of knuckleballs. You can throw it, but you gotta' work hard at it.

Want more tips on throwing the knuckleball? Visit Dave Clark's Knuckleball HQ or purchse his new book on knuckleballs, The Knucklebook.

How do you throw your pitches? Post pictures of your pitching grips on my baseball pitching discussion forums.