Change up grip

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Nov 16, 2016
13
0
Let's just acknowledge there are a million thoughts on this.

So, I just got thrown a "curveball" by one of "my girls" travel pitching coaches. He has her gripping the ball almost like a rise. Standard fastpitch grip, but tighter and then threw in this slight change. He has her curving her pointer finger in with the flat part of the knuckle up against the ball surface. Kinda like this picture (excuse the weird football thing....too lazy to go grab a sofball):

softball grip.jpg


My pitcher told me this is to increase spin to make it look more like a fastball than a changeup. Is this correct as I haven't heard of this approach before. She also can't seem to hit the broadside of a barn with it. I have no issue helping her reign it in if the thought process is correct. What do you guys think?
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
My dd will throw a variation of her change with 2-3 knuckles on the ball like the one in the photo. She will throw it like a drop curve. Nasty pitch! Breaks very hard when thrown correctly.
 
As long as the grip can't be picked and it works then it is ok. One potential downside is that most girls hands/fingers are small so when they do some version of a knuckle grip they also slow the arm speed down so the ball doesn't fly out of their hand.

Personally, I prefer the exact same grip as the dropball/fastball......keeps things simple. Then just paralyze the fingers to help get the speed off the pitch. There are a few more tricks to this but since we are talking about the grip in this thread I won't stray.
 
Last edited:
May 13, 2012
599
18
DD went to one of Rick's clinics and the paralyzed finger thought stuck with her and her horse shoe grip. LIKE many other threads on CU. The best one is the one she can hide, control and mess up the batters timing with. I think the hardest one to be effective with is flip.types. With that being said have seen a few in 18u that wore us out with it or a variation of it
 
Nov 15, 2016
26
0
Rick Id say its ok to further elaborate on what you are talking about. What do you mean paralyze the fingers? I teach to paralyze the forearm and I am interested in what you are saying here. How are you teaching this?
 
Dec 5, 2012
4,143
63
Mid West
All that REALLY matters here are two things....
1. Was the pitch deceptive? Did you fool the batter into thinking the pitch was hot....
2. Did you effectively remove speed?

Everything else is overcomplicating what shouldn't be complicated!
Grip the ball like a fast/drop, this way if the grip is picked, you haven't really shown them anything.
The paralyzed fingers that Rick mentioned is a reference to not snapping the ball off. He has also called it the cats paw. Hold your hand as if to mimic a cat with its claws out at the release of the ball. Again it's just a verbal que to get through to the kids that the fingers aren't snaping the ball off.
 
Last edited:
Nov 15, 2016
26
0
All that REALLY matters here are two things....
1. Was the pitch deceptive? Did you fool the batter into thinking the pitch was hot....
2. Did you effectively remove speed?

Everything else is overcomplicating what shouldn't be complicated!
Grip the ball like a fast/drop, this way if the grip is picked, you haven't really shown them anything.
The paralyzed fingers that Rick mentioned is a reference to not snapping the ball off. He has also called it the cats paw. Hold your hand as if to mimic a cat with its claws out at the release of the ball. Again it's just a verbal que to get through to the kids that the fingers aren't snaping the ball off.

Thus paralyze the forearm


Several ways to throw a cu. I prefer to spin it like drop curve
Anyone weigh in on how they teach it. Not just what grip. The way I teach it is like you are opening a jar of peanut butter or twisting a lid off. Spin it down and away
 

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