- Hey, Dan Blewett here, and let's talk
about how to hold a softball.
So there's a couple keys that the grip
can make a difference on, and they are accuracy, velocity,
and carry on the ball, how long it'll stay in the air.
When we get backspin, which means
we're through the center of the ball,
we're putting all of our force into the middle of it,
that's gonna give us the best amount of lift on the ball,
because as it spins back, we know if the ground's here,
as it spins with backspin,
it's gonna resist the falling from gravity.
It won't rise, but it'll just resist it a little bit longer.
So if you're an outfielder or an infielder
making a long throw, it'll stay in the air
a little bit better.
Anytime we get any kind of side spin mixed in,
we're not gonna have as much of that lift effect
where it resists gravity.
It's gonna hit the ground sooner.
Just by getting good backspin and the faster your spin rate
and the faster backspin you can produce,
the better your throw's gonna carry
to someone who throws the exact same speed.
To get good backspin, we don't wanna do
this wrist flick drill, that's not useful.
What we wanna do is have good mechanics,
and obviously that's easier said than done.
We wanna build good mechanics,
but what we wanna do is produce mechanics
that allow us to get behind the ball as you rotate through
so that when our arm lays back and then comes through,
we're getting cleanly through the center of it
rather than getting on the sides.
So a lot of softball players that come into me,
they get on the side of the ball,
so as they're releasing it, they're getting here,
and they're imparting side spin, which reduces velocity,
because anytime you get on the side of the ball,
whether you throw a drop ball or a changeup
or a slider in baseball, curveball in baseball,
anytime you get on the side of it,
and produce spin and movement,
you lose velocity into the ball.
You're taking some of your arm speed and creating spin.
So we don't wanna produce any of that slider spin,
that cutter spin that makes the ball,
number one, move off target towards the glove side,
but two, we just lose velocity into it.
If you wanna get every amount, so say you could throw 60,
your arm speed is 60, you wanna get 60 on the ball,
and that's by going through the center of it.
Having good repeatable mechanics is really the way to do it,
and when I see bad spin out of a new player
that works with me, it's really usuall an indicator
of poor mechanics, so something else is wrong
farther up their body, up their chain,
where they're getting ino this position
where their hand is gonna get around the ball,
and once we fix a lot of the mechanical things,
they can usually get behind the ball pretty easy,
and now without even thinking about it,
they get better spin.
So spin is a consideration, but the big thing here,
there's not that many ways to grip a softball,
what we just don't wanna do are the following.
Number one, have our thumb on the side.
If we're palming it like this, we're just not gonna be able
to get as much out of our fingertips
because the ball's gonna wanna roll out earlier.
When our thumb's on the bottom,
our hand can stay more relaxed
and we can allow it to roll up at the right time,
rather than having to kind of stay tense
to keep the ball from flying out too soon.
Also, when you get on the side of the ball with your thumb,
you tend to get around it more.
I don't exactly know why, but I've seen it
time and time again.
The other big thing is we wanna have our three fingers
on top, and this fourth can join them if it wants to,
but really the big thing's the thumb's on the bottom
opposing these ones, so this is where we're gonna get
the best release and the best pop from our fingertips.
But this finger can tuck underneath
if your hands are big, if they're big enough.
Obviously, I'm a grown man, so this is not uncomfortable
for me, but if your hands are small,
it might be tough to get that finger
underneath the ball or even kinda far down the side of it.
So it's perfectly fine if you're on top
as long as this thumb stays on bottom.
There's not really that much difference
throwing it with four fingers on top
and the thumb on the bottom.
This one's not gonna do much,
that's why it's not a big deal.
These three are gonna really provide most of the force.
The last tip is that we want to make sure
our three fingers are pretty close together,
so they work together as a unit,
and they are all producing force
through the center of the ball more evenly
when they're wide like this,
which I see a lot of girls come in like that,
I could put more pressure on this finger
and more pressure on this finger,
and now I'm spinning the ball
because my fingers are so wide apart, right?
So we wanna make sure they mostly line up in the center,
so when you grab the ball,
you're not gonna get a certain grip,
you're just grab it and you're gonna throw it,
just start practicing getting your fingers
comfortably closer together when you grab it,
rather than grabbing it like a big starfish.
So get your fingers a little bit closer
and get comfortable with that,
and then however you grab it is fine,
but when they're closer together,
now the force gets applied evenly to the center of the ball
and you'll get more velocity,
you'll get more consistent spin, and it'll carry a lot truer
and stay in the air a little bit longer.
All right, so that's pretty much all you need to know
as far as how to grip a softball.