WCWS - ball spin

First, recent lurker and found much good info for new 13yo pitcher. Thank you all.
Watching the WCWS the slo mo shots of pitchers throwing to the batters hightlighted some things for me and DD. However I saw alot of pitches coming in "bullet" spin after commentator would comment on "beautiful X" pitch. Thought I had the basic understanding of breaking pitches, magnus effect etc. And I understand deviation from "perfect rotation" but still left me scratching my head.
Thanks!

It is best to hit the mute button when the commentators are speaking.

It is the same in person where I notice a good amount of bullet spin. DW and I get a kick when they comment good or bad about our DD throwing a pitch that she has never thrown. If you listen to the talking heads every pitcher is an emotional basket case and regular trips to the circle are required to "settle them down."

Yeah, if you have TV that lets you slow mo thing this is what I would do, with sound completely muted.

Watch the pitch normal speed and then slo mo and see what kind of movement you actually see.

Then watch the slo mo spin they show from the pitchers hand and see what you think.

Actually I'm with you some of these pitches make me wonder if the ball is doing much of anything at all.

Most of the time seems like the announcers are just going off location not any actual movement when they describe pitches.

I was amazed at how many pitches were tubed right down the middle of the box and the hitter just watched it go by. Especially first pitches.

Thought I had the basic understanding of breaking pitches, magnus effect etc.

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No, you do. What confuses you is the mythology about breaking pitches in fastpitch softball.

The truth:

1) No pitcher can put "screwball" spin on a ball at any velocity. It is physically impossible.
2) Curveball spin can be done, but never "true" curveball spin. It is always a drop curve.
3) Riseball spin (backspin) is possible, but very, very few people ever achieve true backspin.
4) Drop ball spin is possible, but the spin rate has to be very high when compared with the fastball spin rate...unless, of course, the fastball is a bullet spin pitch.
5) Fastballs can be thrown either with down spin (top spin) or with bullet spin.
6) Pitchers throw more bullet spin pitches than anyone imagined.

A pitch with bullet spin has a different movement than a pitch with down spin (AKA top spin). A bullet spin drops less than a pitch with down spin. If a pitcher has other pitches with down spin and then throws a bullet spin pitch, then there is a possibility that the batter will be confused. By using pitches with down spin and bullet spin, the batter is more likely to be confused.

PERCEPTUAL SIDE OF PITCHING

Daddies and pitching coaches focus on the pitcher throwing a pitch. But, that isn't the "pitching game". A breaking pitch is not judged on how far it moves or how fast it is thrown. No one hold up cards rating a breaking pitch from 1 to 10 at a game (except for maybe Daddy).

Pitching is judged by how well a pitcher, over the course of 100 pitches, facing 9 batters about three times each, confuses the batter.

So, pitching effectiveness is how well a pitcher uses her pitches in combination over the course of a game.

The key to using pitches effectively is primarily about making breaking pitches look like fastballs than about how much the ball moves.

The key to using pitches effectively is primarily about making breaking pitches look like fastballs than about how much the ball moves.

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I tell my pitchers the ball needs to look like a hittable strike until it isn't. I work with them to find the speed and spin combinations that allows the ball keep moving away from where the hitter thinks it will be when it crosses the plate.

So are all bullet spin pitches equal, in other words, do some of them rotate slightly off axis giving the ball some kind of movement even if it is not much.

It does seems really crazy to listen to the announcers if you are righty on righty inside = screwball, outside = curveball, any high pitch = rise and anything low = drop

Am I to off base to think that a lot of these pitches a located fastball with bulletspin.

sluggers said:

1) No pitcher can put "screwball" spin on a ball at any velocity. It is physically impossible.

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I have pretty much accepted that the screwball is mostly a movement pitch due to the angle thrown than a true breaking pitch. Especially after failing miserably at trying to impart anything close to 3 to 9 spin without throwing sidearm.

Then I saw a pitch from Ueno that looked like it had actual break. Check out her pitch at around the 4:00 mark. Maybe it is just an optical illusion (eyes not what they use to be) but I swore there was some break there.

The only thing you can really trust is the slow motion shown of the pitch where you can actually see the rotation for yourself. Otherwise it is simply whatever they want to say with "late sharp break" Ugh....