I may be opening a can of worms but...

[USC 4]

Keilani Ricketts throws a "crop" or "crop duster" which is a form of the drop curve--that is why it is becoming stylish to throw drop curves. It comes in hard and breaks hard down and into left handers along the lines of slider in baseball.

My suggestion would be to learn a curve with proper mechanics. As the pitcher gets older, she will be able to get to sink. After that it is experimentation on how to make the ball sink more without losing the lateral movement. That being said, Ms. Ricketts can throw hers at 68 mph which is a plus.

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

We were watching some recorded games and the announcers kept saying drop curve on several pitches ...

Most of the announcers for college softball games have no clue what they are talking about.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

Keilani Ricketts throws a "crop" or "crop duster" which is a form of the drop curve--that is why it is becoming stylish to throw drop curves. It comes in hard and breaks hard down and into left handers along the lines of slider in baseball.

You mean Ricketts the left-hander throws that 70mph "crop" into the ankles of right hand batters.

This example is too unique to call it "good for all pitchers" since:
- She IS a lefty
- She throws that thing from first base my goodness..
- She throws it 70mph
- She probably makes all batters tinkle just with her presence in the circle

 

[Westwind]

Peppers does your dd throw her drop for called strike or do batters swing and miss it as it passes under the knees? or both?

I guess my question might be better asked where does the batter think the pitch will be and where does it end up at the plate?

 

[JAD]

My DD throws a drop/curve and it is a very effective pitch for her. It is NOT a poorly thrown drop ball in her case! One note I will add is that my DD was originally taught to throw a curve ball with her hand on top of the ball, so throwing a drop/curve was a natural progression. DD switched to throwing a curve ball with her hand under the ball years ago. She throws the drop/curve off speed and if batters hit it, 90% of the plays will be weak grounders to 2B.

 

[PEPPERS]

Peppers does your dd throw her drop for called strike or do batters swing and miss it as it passes under the knees? or both?

I guess my question might be better asked where does the batter think the pitch will be and where does it end up at the plate?

A good many of the swing and misses are swinging at balls in the dirt or swinging over the top of the ball and a lot ground balls, with the batter hitting the top of the ball.

 

[Phandle]

Drop curve happens when my DD throws a drop ball incorrectly. She throws turnover drop and when she pulls her back shoulder around to throw her dropball the pitch curves and drops at the same time. Everytime she does this her PC will go and correct her as she should.

 

[Coach JV]

Any pitch with sideways movement only, had better be fast, break late and break hard.

THanks Hal

For the past 12 months, this is the sole concentration for my DD. I have invested in
a rev-fire to clock her rotation on breaking pitches. Her rev is in the 22-24 range
the last couple months leading to a very late break on the curve/screw. I call these pitches
'dirty' pitches as they have a nasty and late break. Her K's are up and BB are almost non-existent.

As pitchers mature, this is a valid point(thanks ray)

A great breaking pitch is a pitch that breaks 12 or more inches, that the pitcher can throw with 95% confidence it will break, and that the pitcher can place anywhere, vertically or horizontally, in the strike zone.

Daddies and DDs don't want to do the boring, hard work of perfecting a breaking pitch. So, they jump from one pitch to the another with the DD never really learning any breaking pitch.

I have seen too many pitchers over the years jump to new pitches without mastering one good breaking pitch.
In my dd's case, she throws her curve with confidence but still leans on the rise as her 'go to'.
Why? Her rise comes in with more velocity, she is accurate 65-70% and when the rise misses, it is generally
a very good screwball.

Moral to the story for the bucket dads; be patient, have her perfect one pitch at a time regardless of the
fact that her PC wants to teach her 6 pitches. Stay out of fantasy land as my most accomplished pitchers
throw only 3-4 pitches well. Every dad that tells me his kid can throw 6 pitches is drinking some tainted
kool-aid provided by the PC

 

[sluggers]

DD has a killer drop and drop change, she throws the drop using the peel drop and moves the ball deeper in the palm for the drop change. It just drops off the table I can hardly catch it.

Last year in a HS game the catcher dropped 8 drop ball third strikes in one game and the coach continued to call for the drop.

Sounds great! Everything starts with a great drop ball. Once you get a great breaking pitch, kids can learn other stuff.

 

[Carly]

My DD (13) throws a curve...most times...should she be learning the drop curve also? I have heard opinions around here both ways. One camp says it is a gimmick pitch and the other says it is necessary for college ball. Her current PC does not teach a drop curve or a drop change. Is this a needed pitch going forward?

The only thing that is necessary for college is throwing a few pitches really really well. It really doesn't matter WHAT those pitches are (unless the coach at your target college is closed-minded and doesn't believe in certain pitches... but that's a whole different can of worms); It matters how good they are and if they get people out. Sure, lots of elite pitchers throw/have thrown terrific drops. That's because the drop is/was their best pitch. Lots of elite pitchers never threw drops too, because something else was their best pitch. At 13, you probably do need to go through a few to find out what your best pitch is... but you do have to be careful to keep a balance between discovery/experimentation and just ending up with 6 lousy pitches, as others have said. A good pitching coach should be able to see what your daughter's hand and body want to do naturally and help you determine what pitches to try first based on which are most likely to succeed.

Pitches get reputations as "gimmicks" when there are a whole bunch of pitchers around who don't throw them well. Sure, a drop curve is a poorly thrown drop if you can't throw either of them right, just like any other movement pitch is just a really terrible slow fastball if you don't throw it right. If you CAN truly command a pitch, it's a different story.

I don't usually teach the drop curve as its own pitch unless I see that it would benefit a pitcher. I had one pitcher whose only two movement pitches were the drop and the drop curve. They were distinctly different and both very nasty. We moved to the drop curve when she couldn't get the regular curve; her hand just didn't want to do anything but turn over hard.