Charlie Hough Teaches the Knuckleball: Part 1 

Can’t imagine being that young and having a legend step down to teach you fundamentals. What an incredible experience for the young man.

Hough is a legend. Had a career that very few people can match in terms of durability and longevity and had quite a few excellent years as a starter. Coached at the highest level in MLB for four years and is obviously an excellent teacher.

This kid is getting invaluable training and coaching. Thanks Mr. Hough for mentoring the next generation.

What an outstanding teacher. Kind and patient. Gets his teaching points across in a nice manner. Legend.

How much fun is it to watch Mr Hough teach. I really feel the teacher watched the student and tailored this lesson to this pupil. I’d love to see this young man get good at the knuckler.

This Boy is sooo Lucky......Been my dream back in the day to learn the knuckler from a man like him.

I could sit here for hours and just listening to Mr. Hough teach pitching. This is awesome.

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.

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

I’m 55 and until a few years ago I still fantasized about learning the knuckleball and making the big leagues. I never played beyond little league.

Wow! I watched Hough pitch for the Rangers for years! He's my all-time favorite pitcher! He would toss knuckleballs up there all day long and befuddle the hitters. What an amazing blessing to find this video, and what a joy to watch Hough teach. I LOVE IT!!

Thanks mr. Charlie for taking time out of your day to come be apart of my life

Charlie is a great person, met him as child in 1972 winterball in the DR. Always been one of my favorite MLB players!

Nobody Better than Hough and Nowlin! This is Awesome!

Charlie is a treasure. I loved him on those early Marlin teams.

It would be nice to see the knuckleball used in the majors once again. This generation needs guys who could learn that.

Charlie is a master of the knuckleball. Watched him pitch with TX growing up, he was solid as can be. Best pitcher we had

Charlie is a legend of the game ⚾️

Very respectful young man. He's very attentive and seems to be coachable. What a treat to be learning from one of the greats!

Watched RA Dickey his cy young year a lot! Grew up watching the niekros candiotti. I could never learn the knuckler! I was fastball, slider change up! Curve to lefties!

Charlie Hough best Rangers pitcher ever. Sharing his knowledge what a thrill to see

Young man is all over the place. Charlie is being kind. More leg explosion, less arm. Be more compact, with a consistent delivery. If he did those things, he'd throw with more heat and accuracy.

Charlie's my favorite KBe'r of all time. That kid is fortune and it's fun to see him coaching.

Great teacher. And this seems like a good kid.

Charlie Hough is such a great man, always ready to lend his wisdom

Fascinating video, I always enjoyed watching older MLB players like Hough pitch when I was a kid.

I hope this kid appreciates what a privilege this is. That man is one of the greatest to ever do it.

Imagine if we just get a random influx of young kids throwing knuckleballs in Major League Baseball That would be wild

This is awesome!

Legendary

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

when I was 10 and starting my Little League career if you will, my coach that drafted me, yes we had to try out and the coaches drafted us, I was very lucky and my coach had actually played baseball in the minors for the Cardinals organization. He was a stickler for fundemantals and it served me well in my baseball path. He taught me how to throw a knuckle. Back in the early 70's kids trying to throw curve balls and the like can ruin their arms, this was before tommy john surgerty was even thought of. So he tried to teach other pitches that would not hurt our development as we grew older. By the time I was 12 and I had a really good knuckle ball, as long as I did not chew my finger nails, which was had to do and really pissed him off. but I developed 4 really good pitches, fast ball, he taught me a slider, which I though was a curve but the hand postion and release was much better for my elboe as well as it looked like one of my regular pitches. things we did not think about that back then, chnage up and the knuckle ball. After my baseball career was ended in High Scholl with a catastrophic ankle injury I went on to sow pitch softball and some fast pitch for awhile where my knuckle ball was very prominent. I sucummed to the slow pitch lifestyl with beer and the dugout during the week leagues and then traveling on the weeknds to tournaments. Knuckle ball in tow. Funny, you can make the ball move in slow pitch softball

I remember watching him throw that knuckleball when he pitched for the WhiteSox. He was amazing.

I watched Tom candiotti for years in Cleveland, he too had a masterful knuckleball like Charlie had. Such an amazing pitch

playing catch with the greatest living knuckleball pitcher and one of most successful! The first Florida Marlin opening day starting pitcher and won! jealous!

Billy Loes of the 55 Brooklyn Dodgers used to attend my little league games and watch us play stick ball. He never gave me advice. I got everyone out anyway plus all the adults, coaches, hoboes, passer byes, punks, grand dads, etc.😅

Fascinating watch, thanks.

So much wisdom!

This is gold! Thank you!!

Honestly, kid threw a couple wigglers up there. Pretty impressive for a pitch that typically takes a whole career to develop.

Learning here from one the the very very best to ever do it.

Charlie was the starter for the very first game of (then Florida) Marlins history at Joe Robbie stadium in Miami, 1993.

kid is learning from one of the greats

I'd love to see the knuckleball make a come back. When your team needs an out, putting that wiffle ball in the face of an unsuspecting batter will a) get a whiff or ground out or b) clear the benches.

Great video. Let's all get behind the San Diego Padres' Matt Waldron tomorrow (Sunday) at Fenway Park. Tim Wakefield used to throw a knuckler there and now my Padres need some sweet knuckleball lovin' from ya'll and Charlie Hough.

Hoyt Wilhelm was also an excellent knuckle ball pitcher .

WTG Charlie love seeng you pass this info on. Man that was great stuff

Youth we all been there

Love it ! Great job Coach !

I wasn't going to view this video but I saw Charlie Hough's name!

Wish we showed more of the kid.

playing catch with Charlie Hough...

this was a pretty awesome video bro

I would imagine Charlie Hough's time is pretty valuable. Wow! Fast ballers don't throw knuckle balls that well. Totally different delivery.

Charlie's still gotta be chuckin' it somewhere!

Mickey mantle had a good knuckleball he would sneak in when he played catch to make guys miss the ball! 😅

That pitch always amazed me I think it fooled everybody but MR September REGGIE JACKSON . When he was hot ,he was hot .. Had a friend knuckle ball was so active it was hard to catch .

Charlie Hough....Hialeah High School

I predict the first woman major leaguer will be a knuckleball pitcher and the NFL player a kicker!❤

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

Looks like facility where Trevor Bauer filmed his momentum content!

Charlie is like Yoda. Knuckleball Yoda.

Be honrst, need more mechanical delivery from winding up and twisting body working together. Only arm. Which is why he feels every throw twing

If I mayo, to strengthen arm and command. Throwing throws 12 thru 6 at each increment during your workout. Long ball toss, using a towel on off days wip like motions fluent. Push pull. Front leg kick knee back coil up with front thrust hip then arm whip. He's showing you short arm throw at shoulder changes variation. And catch throwing shorting throwing time to second base plus pop time included. Knuckle ball learn hand wrist then arm whip together. Slowly getting form, techniques then add speed or take away. Practicing football drills, softball under arm windmill throwing. And Swimming for repair, refresh, endurance and strength training. Resistance recovery. Apt RU-vid John donanic pool training. Williams recommend IBEW local 94 international NJ. If talk to the dude, let him know said hello

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

What is the person doing laying on the floor in the background?

Alright, where do I sign up for the Charlie Hough Knuckleball Clinic? I throw one sometimes but I'm 40. I can't pitch regularly in men's league anymore. I need to figure it out better and I would sure as hell go swallow my pride and take my old ass to a high school clinic for Charlie Hough to teach me 😂

Tell the kid to put his hat on the right way.

Okay throw me ball, better, better, lets try. Fastball no mechanics we just practiced lol

how cool would it be to get an "atta boy" from Charlie Hough?

"All feel not power"

These kids are very lucky to have parents who are willing to spend money for them to play a game. Mine wouldn't even drive me to Little League

Throw to ceiling almost. Okay. Fast ball

Did he offer you a heater when you were done?

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

Any former major leaguers wanna teach me how to hit? 😅

Ol Hough seemed 47yo when he was a rookie.

getting instruction from the maestro himself. awesome!

Its all bout the push off wiff the fingers....

Yea im not listening

He has to get closer and throw it slower to get it down. At this point is too far too hard.

This kid has a decent arm. But his motion is violent and he hasn't perfected his release point or body elevation so his fastball is too high. I would also add it has has no natural movement on it at all. Its straight and as he faces better competition will get crushed the rare times he gets it in the zone. Charlie correctly discerned that his current mechanics are not conducive to throwing a knuckleball. So he had him slow down, not just his arm speed, but his delivery. And he starts tossing a quality knuckleball. A decision must be made: Either he's a mediocre conventional pitcher with a praying mantis herky jerky arms and legs sprawling delivery, or he decelerates and exclusively throws knuckleballs. His motion will evolve to support the pitch. When he throws a fastball, he's just THROWING. When he follows Charlie's advice and goes full knuckle, he starts PITCHING.

Somone needs to teach him how to wear a hat right.

Now, find a girlfriend to sit across from and catch a couple hundred push throws per day..!

Wear your cap forwards kid and show some respect to Mr. Hough and the game of baseball. Align your throw with the bill of your cap, that’s why it’s there

this kid cant throw a knuckler what is this

Here's an idea that might help, turn your hat around and wear it the right way. Respect the game, especially when you're being instructed by a legend. 😂