- Aug 21, 2008
- 2,383
- 113
Is the bolded part the case? That's what I understood.
My *only* hesitation is that my DD works on the start back and then in a tournament is told she can't. We play some pretty low-level, country bumpkin tournaments where umpires and tournament directors seem to have their own set of rules. We're now playing more USSSA tournaments than before, but many we play are still under their own set of rules that don't get updated much.
There's nothing you can do about umpires who don't know the rules. It's no different than having someone behind the plate that has no clue where the strike zone is. And there's nothing worse than an umpire on a power trip. All you can do is get in touch with the tournament UIC before the event and make sure he's informed his people. I'd also recommend you have a pre-game discussion with them at homeplate, during coin flip? Just to make sure they know the deal. This way it's done quietly and not in a disrespectful way to them during the game, which just leads to more problems. I'd like to think that after all this hype and discussion that EVERYONE will know the pitching rule has changed, but I'm still seeing people post questions like "Did I hear the pitching rules are changing?" Then commenting on videos saying "why isn't her back foot on the rubber???" It's maddening. 90% reading this probably follow softball 12 months a year yet someone who only picks it up from March-July is going to wonder what the heck is going on. lol.
Bill