Charlie Hough Teaches You The Knuckleball: Part One

Charlie Hough guest instructed Knuckleball Nation's Los Angeles Clinic on January 14th, 2024. The 24-year Major League Knuckleball Pitcher served six years as Major League Pitching Coach. That's 30 years in the bigs with teams like the Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox, Marlins and Mets!
The knuckleball guru took each pitcher aside for 12-minutes one-on-one lessons. And pitchers of all ages from as far away as Long Island and Wisconsin flew in for the experience of a lifetime.
Here he works with high schooler Beau Huckemeyer from Parker, Colorado.
_____________________
Cy Young winner RA Dickey, Hall of Famer Phil Niekro & 24-year MLB knuckleballer Charlie Hough taught Chris Nowlin the knuckleball. Learn their secrets at:
knuckleballnation.com/
*Instructional videos
*Online training
*Worldwide clinics featuring Major League legends
*Personal Lessons

[@remme6]

First Chris, thank you very much for these videos. They're terrific! Secondly, Mr. Hough is a national treasure. What a great teacher. Patient. Generous with his knowledge. Please keep teaching.

[@KnuckleballNation]

Thanks for the kind words and I'll protect Charlie the treasure as much as possible

[@4nik8]

Absolute gems here. Normally, with this generation I'd say "why bother with these kids?", but these kids could possibly bring the best pitch in baseball history back into play. Good on them for soaking in everything Charlie has to teach. Wakefield was already an MLB pitcher and he seeked out help from the Niekro brothers

[@KnuckleballNation]

Wakefield first went to Hough in Florida during Spring Training. Hough said that Tim brought a pen, pad of paper, and a tape recorder. Hough also said that he never pitched as well as Timmy... or as bad. He's got some great quotes.

[@KnuckleballNation]

But the next great knuckleballer is out there, so I'm hoping my small business -- Knuckleball Nation -- brings them the info they need because that's all that's required to make it happen. I've been working with Alex Blandino -- former first rounder and MLB infielder -- as he's currently making a comeback with the Reds as a full-time knuckleballer. He's got a shot. Look out for him.

[@DavidHuckemeyer-jx3vu]

Nobody Better than Hough and Nowlin! This is Awesome!

[@KnuckleballNation]

Looking forward to seeing Beau in LA again

[@joesharbono]

This is awesome!

[@KnuckleballNation]

There's much more coming in the next few days

[@joesharbono]

Great!

[@aaronburgess4442]

So much wisdom!

[@KnuckleballNation]

30 years in the Big Leagues will earn that wisdom for you. You ever watch him pitch live?

[@yoholmes273]

Charlie is a legend of the game ⚾️

[@KnuckleballNation]

25 years pitching in the show and another 6 years as MLB pitching coach... all he knows is the bigs, and he still works for the dodgers

[@PCRAGE]

If I could like this video a hundred times, I would.

[@KnuckleballNation]

Spread the word, share, subscribe... I'd appreciate every little bit of help to grow the channel because there's much more to come

[@mrmalcolmone]

Watch the footage of Charlie Knuckleball at the 86Allstar Game. You will notice he has a ritual of grabbing the rosin bag then a handful of dirt from mound and tossing it back down while still bent over. IMO.... This is to keep his hand free from directly coming into contact with the ball minimizing as much friction as possible upon release. I began throwing the knuckleball since Little League and throwing it correctly since my senior year... And conscious of what it was I did to throw them correctly. What makes the knuckleball difficult to learn is it os one of the few pitches you have to make up your own rules of thumb to master. *if the one's floating around out there don't work for you or you have never heard them. The most important part of a knuckleball grip is your hips and your big toe. Your thumb is 8-11% as important as the other 2, 3, 4!? fingers gripping the ball. One should manifest the abandon of throwing a dart accurately enough to hit any partbof a dartboard from ~35-40 feet away 5 feet off the ground. because.......one is perfectly conscious of throwing a dart without making it tumble, etc. without having to short arm it or push it upon release. It's being conscious of where one's particular release point is where one needs to already have the maximum inertia one's arm and !!!!HIPS!!!!!HIPS!!!!!!HIPS!!!!! can comfortably manufacture in time. That is why I suspect he had him throwing them half speed. To "feeeeeeel......." the release point. And most importantly. When someone throws their firt successful knuckleball, one that performs the optical illusion of a corkscrew*. or takes a wrong turn at Albuquerque then dives straight down like a nail hitting a knot while being hammered onto a post, etc.... STOP Let it sink in what it was you did on thst particular throw to make it happen. Write it down. Then the next day warm up throwing fastballs adequate enough to make that soft hiss even if indoors but never so hard your going "balls out". Then start applying all them rules of thumb you wrote down and..... NO MATTER HOW FAST YOU THROW IT YOU GOTTA BE FASTER AT SLOWING YOUR ROLL! use the fource.................. its not so much flicking it as it is your thum agreeing with your fingers as they agree with the ball getting heavy with momentum. Any torque you create with your arm makes your release point shrink to near impossible far as successfully releasing the ball void of spin. One must be conscious of creating torque with their hips and having their release occur as this is st it's maximum potential and or just beginning to retard. A window of ~just less than a second. One must compartmenta lize everything one must be focused on throwing a good knuckleball and getting into fielding position as 2 separate, independent souls. Like catching a football then...... running for the touchdown! don't you hate it when they start thinking touchdown a second too soon then drop it wide open!? Your hips take 3/4 of the spin off for generating

[@KnuckleballNation]

Charlie talks about why he did that in this video here kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJS2nWx5jtutppo

[@TheRoadLessChosen]

Really cool. What about kids with big hands? Also do you keep the wrist locked the whole way or do you allow the wrist to flop like in basketball? I noticed Hough did that at the very end. Snapped his wrist like a shooter would

[@KnuckleballNation]

Charlie has big hands. It's helpful. And there are two ways to approach the wrist. Charlie was taught by Hoyt Wilhelm and then Charlie taught me the loose wrist. Wakefield and Niekro used a stiff wrist, but the stiff wrist is foreign to me. I feel like you can micro adjust DURING the throw with a loose wrist and you can gradually clamp down with just enough force. You have to be mechanically perfect with a stiff wrist because there are no in-throw adjustments. You're literally wrist locked in.

[@denniscoffey1247]

"All feel not power"

[@KnuckleballNation]

It takes quite a bit of power to throw a baseball off your fingernails 65+ mph, so I wouldn't say no power. I'd say less power.

[@denniscoffey1247]

@@KnuckleballNation I was quoting Charlie

[@denniscoffey1247]

@@KnuckleballNation But I do agree with you

[@SupaNami]

Give him a softball ... he'll learn it pretty quick

[@KnuckleballNation]

He'll learn a knuckleball with a softball? Charlie always said to throw a softball like a baseball to find the squared-up hand position for the knuckleball. You have to make the softball spin true.