Dumb question: i always associated the slider with horizontal movement; if i’m not wrong on that characterization then what’s the reason for referring to the bullet or gyro as a slider still? Is it the same grip still?
it's a good question! the pitching ninja interview with bryan woo does a good job of showing the difference between a bullet slider and a sweeper grip — check out the stretch from 1:45 in to about 3 minutes in.
the reason they're both sliders, as far as i can tell, is that both pitches require the pitcher to get on the side of the ball. in other words, when the ball comes out of the hand, the last finger that comes off the ball is on the side, guiding it in that horizontal direction.
the pitches vary due to the grip orientation as well as seam-shifted wake effects — which is a post for another day!
Dumb question: i always associated the slider with horizontal movement; if i’m not wrong on that characterization then what’s the reason for referring to the bullet or gyro as a slider still? Is it the same grip still?
it's a good question! the pitching ninja interview with bryan woo does a good job of showing the difference between a bullet slider and a sweeper grip — check out the stretch from 1:45 in to about 3 minutes in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VBxkQBXcro&ab_channel=PitchingNinja
the reason they're both sliders, as far as i can tell, is that both pitches require the pitcher to get on the side of the ball. in other words, when the ball comes out of the hand, the last finger that comes off the ball is on the side, guiding it in that horizontal direction.
the pitches vary due to the grip orientation as well as seam-shifted wake effects — which is a post for another day!
Awesome; I really appreciate the explainer!! Makes much more sense now. Loving the posts so far man, killer stuff!