Legal or Illegal?

You would not

believe the people that has complained. Even seen umpires bend down to see if foot is still in contact with the gound. She has never been called on it. This sure does make a pitcher mad though. Pitcher in #8 photo is one pitch of how many did she throw in the game? She still looks good to me. Sometimes the ground around a pitchers mound is not in the best shape.

 

What U Mean Lefty !!

She's my kid this year !!!

Guru Has Spoken !!!

 

Lefty Pitcher

Cleveland Lefty Beautiful, toe still in contact. Legal

Thank you Charlie and Dobber

 

Pitching

 

Yes she

is mean. She loves the game.

 

There is no clause for the "ground in front of the rubber".

There are some folks that take things too far. I will assure you that there are not any coaches, players, or fans that want the pitching rules called to the letter of the law of the rulebook. To do so would make for a miserable experience for us all. Now, before you say it; we have all seen the "Drill Sargent" official and coach that think they have to control every pitch and every play. A good official will always enforce all rules to the best of his/her ability without impeding play and upholding the integrity of this great game called Fast Pitch Softball.

Now, regarding the pics. With everything as they appear in 1 single frame of a sequence of a pitchers delivery, they are all legal with the exception of #8. This is a leap, which is defined as illegal in all Women's Fast Pitch Softball by NFHS and the NCAA. Would I call this particular pitch illegal? I'll never tell, but my previous paragraph should give you a hint.

The best "assumed" pitching rule I've ever heard is: A winning coach will never complain about an illegal pitch unless his lead is being threatened and even the best coach that is losing or tied will at least think about asking an umpire about it.

I love reading this board and some of you posters are absolutlely a credit to your craft!!!

See you at the park!


PS.... 1 thing to ponder and please think about it before you respond... If an umpire saw you make an "obvious" coaching mistake, would he be out of line to yell and scream at you across the field? I would imagine most all coaches would be offended if an umpire questioned a coaching decision in a quiet, private, and respectful discussion and justifiably so. It would be completely unprofessional to do so. I'm sure all of you have seen bad coaching as well as bad officiating!!!

 

I'm no pitching coach but what advantage would any of the alleged illegal pitches give a pitcher. The only thing I could see is maybe a slight distraction but the hitter should be concentrating on the release point and ball anyway. I agree with several of the other posters, this is only a problem when someone is on the losing side and not hitting the ball.