How are the ring and pinky positioned? Are the tips resting on the head? Keeping them straight supports the position of the picking fingers in my opinion. Are you keeping your hand down as you play faster or do you tend to lift it off the head as you increase speed? I was always taught to "anchor" my right hand to the banjo head and keep the thumb straight. I would also suggest that if you are "correcting" bad habits play roll patterns slowly to re train your thumb.??

As a teacher, I'd say that it's difficult to offer advice without seeing and hearing you play. Any chance you could post a video of what you're doing, and where it comes off the rails?

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Originally posted by davefier

. . . more pronounced at higher speeds or when my right hand starts to get tired . . .

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My experience is that to play faster, I must relax my hand (including my fingers) and wrist more, and play with a lighter attack. Getting tired may be a symptom of too much stress in the hand/wrist/shoulder/face(?). 

It always amazes me how pre-occupied some people are about perceived 'bad habits'.  All hands are different and so are ways to pick the banjo... 

It seems to me as if you're trying to speed up beyond of what your current technique allows. Staying well below that threshold and focussing on tone, steady rhythm and placing the accents where they're supposed to be, will bring you speed when time's due, making you a better player after all.

Splints, rubber bands, various types of tape are all means of exerting violence against your body and can - worst case- have serious repercussions later. 

I always take plenty time to assess my students and figure out what will be the best way of applying banjo technique to their physical basis instead of the other way round.

Please, don't harm yourself because of assuming you should...

I appreciate the thoughts and suggestions. I do plant my pinky and do not have difficulty keeping it on the head and it slides easily between the bridge and the neck. I will try focus on playing with a lighter at slow speeds and not letting hand tension creep in. I also appreciate the comment from RB-1 on "bad habits". I will work on this and post a video if I am stuck. Thank you!

Anytime when embedding a change, do it by 'nudging' rather than using force.

While it's more of a mental thing, don't think of 'planting'  one or two fingers as something 'solid'.

It's function is sensing where the head is and therefore knowing where the strings are.

Look at some old Martha White videos. You can see how Earl sometines even lifts his ringfinger and pinky completely from the head. Talking about a light touch....

Good luck on your banjo journey.