Buzz
For those with even a passing interest in baseball, the question of why more pitchers don't use the submarine technique might seem strange. These pitchers, who release the ball so low that their knuckles nearly touch the ground, are a rare presence in Major League Baseball. But why aren't they more common? After all, an overhand windup is not only iconic and powerful, it's also the most natural motion when throwing a ball during a casual game of catch.
But it wasn't always this way. Back before 1872, all pitchers threw underhand. This wasn't because players hadn't figured out the more forceful overhand motion, but because the rules of the game dictated it.
"The rule was that your arm had to be perpendicular. Straight underhand until 1872," says John Thorn, MLB's Official Historian. If you think this put pitchers at a disadvantage by forcing them into an awkward motion, you'd be right. That was actually part of the design of the rule.
"The pitching motion was different because the pitcher's role in relation to the batter was different," says Thorn. "The pitcher wasn't seen as someone in direct conflict with the batter. The goal was to deliver pitches that the batter would hit, as the crowd preferred seeing excellent fielding and plenty of base running."
However, it didn't take long for pitchers to realize that by pushing their release points just beyond the legal limit, they could gain a competitive advantage. In 1872, the rules bent to this trend, allowing a sidearm delivery. But once pitchers had gained a few inches, they pushed even further, continuing to raise their release points in defiance of the official guidelines. Eventually, the League presidents made another concession, allowing straight pitches from the shoulder until 1883 and 1884, when all restrictions on pitching styles were lifted in both leagues.
Not everyone adopted the new style immediately. Many submariners stuck with their submarine deliveries. But as the distance from the mound to home plate grew from 45 feet before 1880 to the current 60 feet 6 inches, newer pitchers found that the overhand style was more effective for controlling the ball over a greater distance.
Moreover, the overhand style allows pitchers to throw more advanced breaking pitches. "A curveball thrown with an underhand or sidearm delivery tends to be more of a schoolboy curve, which any Little Leaguer can throw. It breaks horizontally, not vertically," Thorn explains. "At the collegiate, Minor League, and Major League levels, curveballs break in both directions—laterally and downward."
If early pitchers understood that a higher release point gave them a competitive edge and that it enhanced their curveball's movement, then we come to the key question: why does anyone still choose to pitch using the submarine style?
A brief note on submarine pitching: although I’ve used it interchangeably with "underhand," there is a subtle difference in its modern form. Submarine pitchers lean their entire upper body toward the ground but generally keep their hand positioned on top of the ball. This contrasts with the softball underhand delivery, where the ball is thrown in an upright position.
Now, back to the main point. The reason this style is rare today is because nearly all submarine pitchers are relief pitchers. "As a reliever, you have the advantage of five or six innings where the batters have seen conventional pitching, so your unique delivery is a big change, making it difficult for batters to adjust," explains Thorn. What used to be the dominant pitching style has now become valuable for its rarity. If you were to pitch this way to the same team more than once a game, major league hitters would quickly figure out how to counteract the one-dimensional movement.
Thorn also claims that "underhand is much less strain." This is a bold statement, especially in an era where pitch counts force starters out of games earlier and Tommy John surgeries have sidelined pitchers for entire seasons. Let’s break that down.
I reached out to Dr. Glenn S. Fleisig, the Research Director at the American Sports Medicine Institute. He explains that, when throwing at the same speed—say 80 miles per hour—the amount of force on the shoulder and elbow joints is roughly the same for both underhand and overhand deliveries. However, submarine pitchers and traditional pitchers usually throw at different speeds at the Major League level.
"I would say the average fastball pitcher puts more stress on his arm than the average sidearm pitcher in Major League Baseball, because the typical overhand pitcher throws with more velocity," says Dr. Fleisig. But it’s important to make the distinction between causation and correlation here. "[Submariners] throw with less speed, not because sidearm pitching is inherently less forceful, but because those who throw this way were the ones who didn’t throw as hard when using the overhand style."
To elaborate further on Thorn's point: "In many cases, these are pitchers who’ve injured their arms or don’t possess dominant fastballs, so they turn to submarine pitching as a way to grab the attention of scouts." Additionally, "If a pitcher shows real promise at age 11 or 12, their coaches typically advise against adopting a sidearm style."
Now, let’s address those big questions more directly:
Why do some pitchers throw submarine style? Because it offers struggling or injured pitchers a chance to reinvent themselves as a valuable bullpen asset by using an unconventional delivery that disrupts the batter's ability to time the ball.
Why don't more pitchers try it? It makes one of your pitches more vulnerable to being hit, which prevents it from being an effective option for starting pitchers. Culturally, young, talented players are often encouraged to stick with traditional pitching styles to make the most of their athletic abilities.
