2 grips???

[GOINGDEEP]

We went to the Cat Osterman ( Pro Softball league ) tour/camp a couple of weeks ago. During the pitching instruction the pro's said they only use 2 different grips for all their arsenal of pitches. Very hard for me to understand but I'm sure they know what their talking about. Their reply to my question was they only use the 2 grips but rely on mastered wrist and elbow snaps for breaking pitches. They said at that level the batters can read the grips too well, so that's the reason for the 'deuce' of grips.

Any of you pitching experts use this technic??

 

[sluggers]

People are fascinated by grips when they learn about pitching. But, grips are secondary to actually throwing breaking pitches.

Young girls have small hands and are physically weak. So, grips help them hold onto the ball. A woman who has practiced pitching for 10 or 15 years, has much stronger hands and much more flexible fingers. So, grips aren't that critical.

Once a pitcher develops a feel for how the hand works on the ball in order to spin the ball during a pitch, the grip doesn't matter. When I'm throwing (just for fun), I use a three finger grip to throw a rise or drop. It doesn't matter what grip I use--if I get the right wrist action and have a good grip on the seams, the ball moves.

 

[Hillhouse]

Goingdeep...

2 things, in no particular order. #1. The fact that these hitters can say they see grips very easily is a direct result of the mechanics these pitchers are using where they drop the ball out of their glove premature and/or do that "arm swing" backward thing. Don't want the hitter to see your grip? Then keep the ball in your glove! #2. There are a lot of ways people can "read a pitcher" that doesn't have to do with the grip. Reading the grip is the easiest form of reading the pitcher which is why it always baffles me when girls show the ball to the hitter as much as they do. As more and more men's fastpitch players become college coaches and coaches at other levels (I could list about a dozen former US team teammates of mine that now coach Division 1 softball) the more hitters will be trained to read pitchers, read their grips, etc. So its all well and good to have multiple grips but a pitcher is kidding themselves if they think they can keep doing the same mechanics (showing the ball, etc) and think that having a secondary grip is going to fool anyone.

I'm not sure I'm in favor of having multiple grips anyway. It's the spin that counts and I believe one should perfect how they spin the ball with the grip they choose. I'm not saying little "tweaks" can't be made based on the ball (weight, seam size, etc) but a grip overhaul could effect the 4 seam rotation needed for all pitches. Yes, 4 seasm! Not 2. If a hitter is not already reading the pitcher in another way, the next thing a hitter tries to identify is the way the ball is spinning out of the hand. 2 seams spins much "looser" than 4. It's easier to see the direction of the ball spin.

Bill