Is crow hopping legal in men's leagues?

When I first started learning about fastpitch (my experience has been from baseball my whole life) I was told that the drove foot has to remain in contact with the ground from drive to stride to finish. I started watching videos from men's fast pitch and found that all of their drives involve their foot comming off the ground, replanting, then throwing. Do the rules differ between men's and women's leagues? Or is it something that umps have just turned a blind eye too?

StormChase said:

When I first started learning about fastpitch (my experience has been from baseball my whole life) I was told that the drove foot has to remain in contact with the ground from drive to stride to finish. I started watching videos from men's fast pitch and found that all of their drives involve their foot comming off the ground, replanting, then throwing. Do the rules differ between men's and women's leagues? Or is it something that umps have just turned a blind eye too?

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Rules are different. Leaping is allowed in most mens fastpitch (crowhopping - which is basically a replanted second push is still technically illegal but is also pretty common). Leaping is still apparently illegal in Japan men's pro fastpitch last time I looked.

You will also learn that woman's pitching rules are different in the USA than they are in International play or in Japanese leagues. Also even in the USA they are enforced differently at some levels and within some organizations and sometimes seemingly randomly. Yes it is BS but no one really seems to want to do anything serious about it.

StormChase said:

When I first started learning about fastpitch (my experience has been from baseball my whole life) I was told that the drove foot has to remain in contact with the ground from drive to stride to finish. I started watching videos from men's fast pitch and found that all of their drives involve their foot comming off the ground, replanting, then throwing. Do the rules differ between men's and women's leagues? Or is it something that umps have just turned a blind eye too?

Click to expand...

There really isn't a lot in men's fastpitch that is "illegal". The registration numbers are so dwindled that the governing bodies allow an "anything goes" type attitude in order to keep guys playing. In 1990, they tried to change the Men's FP rules back to the rules of yesteryear (2 feet on the rubber, no jumping, etc) and it was a disaster. Pitchers quit. Teams quit. Teams moved away from ASA to other organizations that were more liberal. These days, if you go on YouTube and watch the ISC Fastpitch channel from the 2018 World Tournament you will see guys looking like they are in the triple jump olympics. And nobody cares, not the other team, not the hitters, not the umpires, not the fans. Only a few guys don't jump, crowhop, etc. and these are the guys who also make big bucks in Japan, where the rules are more conservative. Andrew Kirkpatrick from the Gremlins is a perfect example. He is "legal" by any definition. And the Gremlins won the world championship in 2018, along with the last 3 ASA National championships. The important thing to remember is, even though the RULES are different, the overall mechanics are not. Yes, men are stronger and can throw harder but that doesn't necessarily mean they are doing it "correctly". It just means they can get away with not doing it correctly easier. And for some, it takes a toll on the body.

Bill