Not sure how to execute French grip on ride properly

[sciomako]

I've been practicing swing pattern on the ride at moderate speed (~140bpm). Naturally, I wanted to use mainly fingers with French grip. But I seldomly use French grip. It felt very foreign and I couldn't get the motion smooth and consistent. When I closed my fingers, my stick had a tendency to go side way instead of downloads (because that's how the stick would move in a German grip). I had a hard time to tell whether it was a problem with the angle of my arm, the angle of my palm or the position/angle of my ride.

I watched Jojo's DVD again. But he touched the topic only lightly and didn't show how the motion would look like on a ride on the right.

Could someone show me a video with some close-up, showing how it should be executed?

[Boomka]

I've been practicing swing pattern on the ride at moderate speed (~140bpm). Naturally, I wanted to use mainly fingers with French grip. But I seldomly use French grip. It felt very foreign and I couldn't get the motion smooth and consistent. When I closed my fingers, my stick had a tendency to go side way instead of downloads (because that's how the stick would move in a German grip). I had a hard time to tell whether it was a problem with the angle of my arm, the angle of my palm or the position/angle of my ride.

I watched Jojo's DVD again. But he touched the topic only lightly and didn't show how the motion would look like on a ride on the right.

Could someone show me a video with some close-up, showing how it should be executed?

There are a few different approaches, but recall that the primary motion in the French Grip is the rotation of the forearm, not the movement of the wrist side to side. As for the grip, simply start with the stick held like a lollipop between your index and thumb. Lightly cradle the stick in the other fingers. The motion in the arm is like pointing at something with the thumb up as if you had a laser pointer at the end of your stick, or like "scolding a dog with a newspaper" (Peter Erskine). At the end of the stroke a motion much like rolling a bill in your fingers is used for the last bit of acceleration onto the surface.

Go find some video of great jazz players and soak it up. I know there are some decent closish shots of contemporary players like Bill Stewart, John Riley, Ed Soph, Ian Fromann and others kicking around on the web.