How much break for a decent drop curve?
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halskinner
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- May 7, 2008
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You are considering the last few feet of travel when the ball breaks and that is good. But, is that the last, lets use 6 feet, before it reaches you catching her, with you right behind that plate?
What alot of parents practicing with their pitcher do not remember or consider is, the batter's 'HIT ZONE.. If the ball does not break untill it is 5 feet in front of you, it will not be very effective as it will reach the Hit Zone before it breaks. That hit zone can vary with the batters position in the box also. If the batter is at the front of the box, it might not break at all before it is hit. Batter at the rear of the box, might break too soon and not get swung at at all.
My suggestion is simple. At practice position yourself, as tha catcher, with your glove at the front of the hit zone and see if it breaks at all before it gets to you. Practice at that distance to get the 'Feel' for it. Then move your glove. move nack to the point your glove is at the rear of the hit zone and practice there also.
Then, place a batter in the box but do not have her swing the bat. Put the batter at the front of the hit zone, middle and at the back of it. See how your pitcher makes those little adjustments. You might need to slightly adjust the height of yout glove to try and get a later break on the ball. She might have to take 2 mph off for a sonner break and more effective pitch if they are up in the box. Get the idea?
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(1) A drop curve is basically a poorly thrown drop ball. As a stand alone pitch, it is not effective against good hitters. It works very well against bad or inexperienced hitters. If your DD is striking out a lot of batters with a drop curve, she likely is facing weak hitters. A good pitcher will throw the drop curve as a variation of a good drop ball.
(2) A good curve ball will break about 5 inches.
(3) A good drop ball will break 12-15 inches.
"Late break"--Late break is a measure of how far a breaking pitch mimics a fastball. Once released, the ball has a flight path defined by its speed and spin. It does not "suddenly" jump left, right, up or down. The trick is for the pitcher to learn the speed, release angle and spin on the ball to make it look like a fastball for most of its flight.
(2) A good curve ball will break about 5 inches.
(3) A good drop ball will break 12-15 inches.
"Late break"--Late break is a measure of how far a breaking pitch mimics a fastball. Once released, the ball has a flight path defined by its speed and spin. It does not "suddenly" jump left, right, up or down. The trick is for the pitcher to learn the speed, release angle and spin on the ball to make it look like a fastball for most of its flight.
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What about drop curve from a lefty to righty or righty to lefty, breaking to the back foot of hitter? Do you think that is an effective pitch against good hitters? I am under the impression that it is a very effective pitch as it breaks across the swing plane, but have no experience as my girls are not at the age where it matters yet.
- Jul 26, 2010
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A drop curve against an opposite handed batter is a very effective pitch for the same reasons that it is an ineffective pitch against like-handed batters. For like handed batters, it breaks on the same plane as the bat. . . so a late break of 5 inches means they hit it further on the end of the bat (which is less of a problem on today's "easybutton" bats with huge sweet spots then it was 10 years ago). For oppisite-handed hitters, it breaks on the perpendicular of their bat plane, meaning they have to hit a bullet with a bullet, with no room for error. It's especially effective against lefty slappers when you have a quick third baseman.
-W
-W
Thanks Hal. I was talking hit zone. I didn't know how much it should move.
Ray, She doesn't strike anyone out with a drop curve. She is a 6' tall lefty who can spin the ball in there playing around and you don't know if it is going to break or not, so I wondered if it was advantageous to refine it. She doesn't throw a curve or screwball.
Ray, She doesn't strike anyone out with a drop curve. She is a 6' tall lefty who can spin the ball in there playing around and you don't know if it is going to break or not, so I wondered if it was advantageous to refine it. She doesn't throw a curve or screwball.
I apologize if I seemed curt. For a pitcher to be "good", she really needs a big time vertical movement pitch. People get enamored with curves, screwballs, curve drops, screw rises, etc. The only thing that works consistently against good hitters are good vertical movement pitches--rises and drops.
If your DD is already getting some down movement on her pitches, then she should be able to learn a "full throttle" drop without much problem.
After she learns a real drop, she will be able to learn how to to modify the spin to throw a curve drop.
If your DD is already getting some down movement on her pitches, then she should be able to learn a "full throttle" drop without much problem.
After she learns a real drop, she will be able to learn how to to modify the spin to throw a curve drop.
Sluggers, I generally agree with you. But as I stated many times location is the most important part of pitching (along with a change of speed). A little movement with great location is better than great movement with lousy location. Until my pitcher can spot the ball on a dime, the movement is my least concern. Having been a pitcher for years and a fan for more the best pitchers are not necessarily the ones with the best pitches.
I agree here. Not everyone can be an overpowering strikeout pitcher - it is all about varying and controlling everything you do have. There are many ways to get it done. While it is nice to have a good movement on a rise and drop if the good batters know it is coming and know how to time it they are going to get to you sooner or later.
A watched a friend's 14U team face a team with a good pitcher last weekend who has a very nice drop and what they call a rise (about 50% of the time it is probably really a high fastball). Knowing this pitcher likes to start it is in the zone and drop out of it or throw it high but just over the zone they took her deep into counts forcing her to throw strikes. Good batting discipline and once the pitcher started to throw strikes they got a number of very strong hits against her.
My DD has a friend on another team - big power hitter right around above the waist to the letters - you can't throw it there - however she also swings at everything above the letters to her eyes. She can't hit those. My DD isn't throwing hard enough for a proper rise, but she has struck this girl out 5 or 6 times in a row without ever throwing a ball in the strike zone.
We have been working lately on making sure we lay off the high ones - they are SO tempting but they ARE balls.
No, not really. The myth that propagates through the lower levels of softball that it is "OK to have a marginal breaking pitch". Parents like to believe that myth because it allows them to believe their DD is exceptional when in fact she is mediocre.
A "good" pitcher (someone who is effective at the collegiate level) has control of the location and has at least one really good vertically breaking pitch.
Then she is not a good hitter. Good hitters don't chase balls out of the strike zone unless it is a nasty breaking pitch.
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