Monday, June 12, 2017

Pitching Grips are overrated

Pitch grips are just a small part of the process to execute consistently. How you put pressure with your fingers on the baseball and how you let the ball go are more important than finding the perfect grip.  Below are two of millions of pictures you can find on Google when you type in "pitch grips" Below is a two seam and circle change grip. The misconception though is pitch grip has to do with the movement of the pitch, it really doesn't. For example, if you have good hand/finger pressure/movements on your 2 seam fastball, you can throw that pitch with any grip, you just have to find the grip that is comfortable and makes your 2 seam move the best with the best control. How you figure that out is you play catch and change your grip. The majority of amateur pitchers play catch with a 4 seam grip and are working on arm strength or their mechanics. Pitching is simply, being accurate with the baseball to the catcher, manipulating the ball to move different ways, and BEING ABLE TO MAKE ADJUSTMENTS IN THE GAME when you don't feel right, or you curveball isn't moving, or you can't locate your FBall etc. At the end of your throwing stand 60 feet away from your partner  and work on your stuff, experiment with different grips and pressure points on the ball. The biggest "grip" different I see between Pro/Amateur is the finger position at release point. Amateurs push the ball out of their hand, Pro's get their fingers on top and pull or extend the ball down at release. As a pitcher if you miss down thats okay the hitter might swing, if you miss up that's bad. Work on holding onto the ball longer and keep you fingers on top of the ball at release. If you hold on to the ball too long, soo what, it's a miss but down is okay. You want to throw pitches that initially look like balls and become strikes and pitches that look like strikes and become balls. That's pitching. Daily pitchers need to experiment with how they hold the ball and the movement their actions create. Velocity is important but not as important as locating and learning how to manipulate the ball the way you want on that pitch.