Is the Kick Change Safe? What Most Pitchers Get Wrong

Most pitchers are taught grips. Very few are taught whether they’re actually ready to throw them.

The kick change is a perfect example. Some pitchers dominate with it. Others feel awkward, lose command, or even start to feel discomfort in their elbow.

The Kick Change is taking your traditional / normal change up grip, and 'simply' pulling up the middle finger.

So what’s the difference?

It’s not the pitch. It’s whether the athlete has the finger strength to support it.

When most people hear “grip strength,” they think of squeezing a dynamometer. And while that number looks important, it doesn’t tell the full story.

Applied research and internal testing within MLB organizations, including work from the Philadelphia Phillies performance staff, has shown something important: grip strength tests are heavily influenced by how the hand interacts with the device, not just true finger force production.

In a traditional grip test, the object sits in the palm, the thumb stabilizes and anchors the movement, and the fingers press against that thumb. What you end up measuring is largely whole-hand force, thumb contribution, and palm stability—not necessarily finger-specific strength, distal force production, or pitch-specific control.

That’s why pitchers can test “strong”… but still struggle to control the baseball.

A better question isn’t “How strong is your grip?” It’s whether you can produce and transfer force through the fingers that actually control the baseball.

Research from the American Sports Medicine Institute has identified the flexor-pronator mass as a key stabilizer of the elbow. But that system doesn’t stop at the forearm. It continues down into the hand and fingers, forming a continuous chain responsible for applying pressure to the ball, creating spin, and stabilizing the elbow at release.

The key is that force has to be transmitted through the fingers, not just generated in the hand. If that chain breaks down—especially at the fingers—the system becomes inefficient, and stress gets redirected.

This image is from a presentation done by FlexPro Grip. The FPG is a tool used to strengthen fingers, protect your elbow, and increase spin and control.

(The following information is the key principle behind the FlexPro Grip which we, LOP, highly recommend the use of).

These 3 muscle groups are the muscle chains responsible for withstanding the extra torque placed on your elbow after your UCL and the joint itself have been maxed out. For reference...a 90mph fastball creates ~90-120 newton-meters of force. The UCL and the joint, combined, can withstand ~65-80 newton-meters.

So on a 90mph fastball, at best, you're only in a 10nm "deficit". Worst case, 55nm "deficit". That "deficit" is the responsibility of the 3 muscle groups shown above.

This is where the kick change comes into play.

The pitch itself isn’t inherently dangerous. In fact, research has consistently shown that changeups generally produce less elbow stress than fastballs. But not all changeups are the same.

The kick change places more demand on specific fingers to control the baseball while maintaining arm speed.

That requires finger-specific strength, fine motor control, and the ability to apply force without over-squeezing.

Pulling the middle finger up places more responsibility on the pointer and ring fingers to control the ball - and if those fingers already aren't strong enough, we are over taxing underdeveloped muscles - muscles that are critical in protecting your elbow!

Before adding something like a kick change, an athlete should be able to demonstrate adequate finger-specific strength, maintain arm speed while throwing it, and show consistent command without compensating. If those boxes aren’t checked, it’s not a skill issue. It’s a readiness issue.

We utilize the FlexPro Grip device in our facility to help pitchers measure and train their finger specific strength. The FlexPro Grip allows us to train and measure how well an athlete can produce force through the fingers, not just the hand as a whole. That distinction matters, because finger strength is what ultimately influences ball control, spin, and stress distribution at release. It gives us a clearer picture of whether an athlete is truly prepared for advanced pitching demands.

The kick change isn’t dangerous. But asking an athlete to throw it without the strength to support it can be.