The fundamentals of throwing a baseball

After hours of scrounging around on the internet, I have still not been able to find a quality guide to the fundamentals of throwing a baseball. When I was younger, I read one on the mechanics of a perfect jumpshot, and it dramaticaly improved my performance. However, I should say it in no way made me a skill basketball player, it did improve my jumpshot by leaps and bounds. After many years I have forgotten where I read it, it may have been popular mechanics or science or something. I have now decided to write one myself using my own experience as my guide. Hopefully, this will be easy to understand and help anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of a correct throw.

Items you need:
1 Baseball

Fundamentals of a throw (baseball)
Step 1: Determine a target. Your target should be one that is about 20 feet away and approxamatly chest height. Throwing at a target is advised for two reasons: First, you have a good way to guage progress, and second to help with focus.

Step 2: Hold the ball in your throwing hand. The correct way to hold the ball is with your fingers, not against the palm. Two or three fingers on the top and thumb underneath the ball . All other fingers should be closed in a light fist. The ball should be held securely, not in a death grip nor too loosely.

Step 3: Stand and face your target squarely (feet and shoulders should be facing the target.) Turn your body one quarter turn in the direction of your throwing arm.

Step 4: Turn your non-throwing foot and head so that they face the target.

Step 5: Point at the target using your non-throwing arm. Position your throwing arm so it is slightly bent just behind your waist with your thumb in the direction of the target.

Step 6: Begin to move the ball from your waist to about eye level (in a comfortable circular motion) The ball should move away from the target at the begining. Shift your weight to follow the ball. Your wrist should bend naturally allowing for aluid movement.

Step 7: As the ball reaches eye level your back heel should rotate until your back foot is pointing directly at your target. Your non-throwing arm should also begin being pulled into your body.

Step 8: Relax your grip on the ball, and continue the motion until your are pointing at the target.

The intent of this guide is to help explain the motions of a correct throw.

This guide is not intended to replace a real coach or to be used as an end all be all training guide. I am not liable for any injuries or damage as a result of using this guide.

New robot projects. Coming Soon!!!

After building my rudimentry BUGbot last weekend, I find I can not stop looking for more projects to build. I think I may have single handedly increased the ranking of the keywords: Robot and robotics. Since I was looking for some pretty specific things and ideas to see if they had been published. I went over a lot of sites with a fine tooth comb, and certain places seemed to have a very good reputation. So I have included links to them in the bottom of the post.

Although I was looking for a very specific project to build (which I didn't quite find), I found a few other projects that looked like a lot of fun. These projects have pretty detailed instructions and have been built by a lot of people, I intend to do them with the help of my girlfriend and her two children, which I think will help them as an introduction. As I said they are well documented so any problems we run into should be pretty easy to solve and we have something to show for it after a few hours worth of work (important for small children). Ok, ok, and me too.

Now the first robot we built was the BUGbot which is here. For the second robot, I was thinking of the Sandwich robot created by David Cook. Which unfortunately means I have to buy his book Robot Building for Beginers, but I'm a good sport so I'll pick up his other book, Intemediate Robot Building, also. David Cook also hosts Robotroom.com, and that is where I saw his Sandwich robots to begin with.

Another place where I found the $40 and $50 robots was societyofrobots.com. Both have step by step tutorials online as well as parts lists. I almost decided to do these two before attempting Sandwich, but decided that I could probably learn a few things when I read the aforementioned books, and since I am going to buy them anyway, I figured I might as well read them too.

Now the other project I want to build is the Twittering Plants project. It can be found here at the Botanicalls.com. This project seems like alot of fun because it will, hopefully allow my plants to live longer and provide a voice to an inanimate object. I figure if I can actually get this one too work then the possibilities are endless. This one uses Twitter. If you have twitter you can follow me here.
Well now that I have a bit of an outline. I will post more as I begin and during these projects.

See you then.

Recomended Parts suppliers:
sparkfun.com
digikey.com
mouserelectronics.com
robotpower.com

More robot links:
robots.freehostia.com
mcmanis.com/chuck/robotics/tutorial
tedlarson.com
tlb.org/scooter.html
ridgesoft.com/articles/balancebot/buildingabalancingrobot.pdf
teamhassenplug.org/robots/legway
ben.jellybaby.net
geology.smu.edu/~dpa-www/robo/nbot

A bug robot

This weekend, I was a bit on the sick side, I got bored and decided to build a simple robot.
It is a very simple design that uses two motors for movement and two switches for inputs. When turned on it moves in a fairly straight line. However, when it comes into contact with an object, via the two switches located in the front, it causes one of the motors to change direction. This allows the little guy to move around a room, the only real problem is that chair legs and corners tend to cause it to get stuck.


I used a similar design to the ones shown here and here. But, I also did a bit of modifications of my own.
I purchased all the parts from radioshack and it costed less than Ten Dollars.

My girlfriends dogs hated it. But it was fun watching them run around attacking it. So, maybe they actually loved it.

Grammar rules

I learned that grammar rules apply for a reason.

1. Capitalization - A world of difference can be made by the use of a capital letter. This example makes the most valid point.

I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse.
I helped my uncle jack off a horse.

2. Punctuation - Meaning is carried by these little marks. A classic example of this has been handed down from generation to generation.

No. Don't. Stop.
No dont stop.

3. Subject then Predicate - This one can dramatically can change who you are talking to or about.

Peter, don't touch.
Don't touch peter.

4. Spaces - a space between words can mean the difference between a night out and jail time.

We are going together.
We are going to get her.
or
My pen is leaking.
My penis leaking.

Any or all of these gramatical mistakes can be embarassing or even mentally damaging to yourself. So remember always reread what you write and check your grammar.

4 great articles to learn about blogging

Being that I'm very new to blogging, I needed to learn a few things. So up comes the google page and I start searching for everything I can think of. I started off with alot of stuff I didn't need, so I kept refining and linking and eventually I found these articles which are old but give the needed information.

1. Problogger
Problogger has alot of usefull information on every step of the blogging process. Even if you dont use the other links this one is worth reading. Begginer and Season blogger alike.

2. Kalsey.com
Kalsey.com has alot of good articles relating to business and a few other articles relating to Law and advanced bloggers

3. Lorelle.wordpress.com
Lorelle.wordpress.com is actually where I stared and found links to other sites as well as links to other article written there. A good place to start and learn what blogging is and how to begin. As well as tips and suggestions.

4. How not to coment on comments
This article is a must read. When blogging, I have learned, you must be active in the community. This article give some very good advice on commenting on others blogs as well as moderating your own.

Now I know there are many others, these four should give you enough to get started. The links can also lead you to into more indepth processes and instuction on blogging.