Curveball grips and spin

     Even at the earliest levels of baseball, most players, parents and coaches are fascinated by the curveball.  I remember very well when I was first "allowed" to throw one in a game.  Even then, it was only reserved for the "good hitters" when I had 2 strikes on them.  Like many, at least I hope, I wanted to throw a nasty curveball.  I wanted hitters to look as bad as possible.  Throughout my career, I was shown many different grips, but I was most comfortable with a spike curve grip (pictured below).  

     I was told by a pitching instructor that Sandy Koufax had the nastiest curveball ever and that the reason his was so good was because of his grip.  He told me that his grip allowed the ball the turn over faster than anyone else's.  Of course, this was before spin rate became something that was talked about in baseball and we definitely can't go back and test the spin on Koufax's curveball now.  I was told that Koufax threw his more like the picture below and then imagine casting a fishing pole.  I couldn't find much on his grip, so without proof, this could or could not be true. 

     Naturally, i tried throwing my curveball this way, but it was never very comfortable to me.  So since I now have technology that can measure spin rates, I decided to do another little test on curveball grips & spin rates.  I looked at 4 fairly common curveball grips (finger up, 2 seam, regular & spike) and also used the Koufax thumb placement (picture above) for all 4, giving us 8 grips in total.  I also got velocities on each pitch.  I wanted to see what grip would yield the highest spin rate.  I essentially knew that the spike curve would have the highest spin rate due to it being the one I used for most of my life.  Nonetheless, I wanted to see what the data would say.  Here are the averages for each grip with the Koufax thumb placement under each: 

 Finger Up

AVG SPIN RATE: 1,893 RPM     AVG VELO: 62.7 MPH

KOUFAX

AVG SPIN RATE: 1,824 RPM     AVG VELO: 64.4 MPH

 2 Seam

AVG SPIN RATE: 1,974 RPM   AVG VELO: 66.9 MPH

KOUFAX

AVG SPIN RATE: 2,013 RPM     AVG VELO: 67.4 MPH

Regular

AVG SPIN RATE: 2,006 RPM     AVG VELO: 66.4 MPH

KOUFAX

AVG SPIN RATE: 1,893 RPM     AVG VELO: 66.6 MPH

Spike 

AVG SPIN RATE: 2,116 RPM     AVG VELO: 68.8 MPH

KOUFAX

AVG SPIN RATE: 1,896 RPM     AVG VELO: 66.6 MPH

     At first glance, nothing really seemed too different than I had anticipated from a spin rate standpoint. I assumed that the highest spin rate would be on my normal grip (spike curve) and it was.  I also assumed that the normal thumb placement would yield higher spin rates and for the most part, it appeared that it did.  The only exception to that was the 2 seam grip.  What I did find interesting were the velocity numbers.  On 3 of the 4 grips, average velocity was up with the Koufax grip. I must note that Koufax is known to have very large hands, which could greatly impact his grip.  

   In would be interesting to see arm speeds for each before jumping to any conclusion.  I have those numbers, but I just haven't tallied them yet.  At some point, I plan to go back and add those numbers in.  My guess is that my arm speed was slow on the regular curveball grip because it was the first grip that I used, meaning that I probably was not at full speed yet.  This could have a big impact on the numbers.  

     As for what this means for any pitcher out there reading, it probably means nothing.  This was a test with just myself and only a few pitches with each grip at sub max effort. Every pitcher will be different.  Just because the Spike Curve yielded the best numbers in this test does not mean that everyone should use that grip.  Also, spin rates on curveballs would generally indicate break, but we know that all spin rate isn't created equal.  In order to determine break definitively, more testing would need to be done with better technology.  I would imagine that the 2 seam grip could be an odd one in terms of useful spin.  So anyone with the technology to measure break along with spin rate, feel free to take over from here.