Drop curve...not really

DD throws her curve ball with her palm under the ball, while a drop curve her palm is on top of the ball and instead of finishing around her waist, she finishing over her left knee (RHP).

sluggers said:

The reason her drop isn't getting the big movement is because she is letting her right hand come up. The hand needs to be pointed to the ground as much as possible during the release.

It might help to have her to think about "screwing the ball into the ground" at release.

This is the drill my DD did to perfect the drop release. When she wasn't getting enough "bite" on the drop, she would do this drill.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LDU6KNYVgEE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The 1st, 4th and the others are when she did the drill correctly. Note that the ball bounces almost up with top spin. The last two times she did the drill are perfect.

The 2nd and 3rd throws are *WRONG*. The ball goes forward with top spin, not up.

Note that her arm starts at 7 or 7:30 to do the drill.

Click to expand...

Do you really think that the ball is thrown like this?

This is a joke!

You do not roll the ball over the hand like this. Get a good camera and learn the truth

You do not roll the ball over the hand like this. Get a good camera and learn the truth

Click to expand...

I did that already...4 years ago. I have shared the photo sequence below many, many times.

As with all other drills, the drill shown in the video isolates a particular part of the motion. Specifically, the drill focuses on the movement of the forearm and hand during release. This is no different than any other pitching drills which focuses on one aspect of the pitching motion.

During a real pitch, the hand is moving toward the batter at 55 to 60 MPH during the pitch. The hand orientation changes such that the hand is behind the ball at release.

Note also that I said that throws 2 & 3 were wrong.

The background of the drill? My DD was a successful D1 pitcher. Her only pitch, more or less, was the drop ball. She had to have the drop ball working at the beginning of the game. There were many occasions when the game started 30 minutes after the bus arrived at the park. She developed this drill as a way to get her drop ball working quickly without needing to spend time in the bullpen.

The other picture is from many years ago when my DD beat Purdue 6-1.