I've been flying just thumbs for years but this year I started aerobatics and some pattern.....

....It wasn't going as smoothly as I envisioned it would.

The award-winning pattern guy came over and said: "You're flying just thumbs only, aren't you?" ....."Yes, why?" ...."I can tell, you're not smooth".

"Try this" and he had me put my thumb on top of the stick and then slide my index finger in back of the top of the stick. Not a pinch but a 'staggered-grab'.

That made a big difference but I still found myself going back to the thumbs only by habit.

Whichever method you started with, it's sure hard to change to a different one later (at least for me it is).