Sorry but if Sue Enquist can call it the mound, its the mound.
I never saw a parent stand up at one of her talks and say, Coach Enquist its not a mound. I would love to see it though, I am sure it would be epic.
illegal pitch story and question
- Thread starter Hawkeyes
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
Sorry but if Sue Enquist can call it the mound, its the mound.
I never saw a parent stand up at one of her talks and say, Coach Enquist its not a mound. I would love to see it though, I am sure it would be epic.
Who is listening to Sue Enquist? Like listening to Jennie Finch or Michelle Smith talk about pitching. Softball ancient history.
Last edited:
Ask Comp about how this approach worked in some of the leagues in our neighborhood......
Warning or talking to coaches about illegal pitches NEVER fixes the problem. Until it is actually called and the penalty enforced coaches have absolutely no incentive to fix the problem. You can tell them every game, but until its actually called why bother fixing it.
As Ajay said, I worked a local rec league for a number of years and ran into many of these same teams and/or players during club tournaments and high school ball. The rec league took the approach of they didnt want illegal pitches called, they just wanted us to tell the coaches what the pitchers were doing wrong and the coaches could fix it. One particular girl I told the coach for 4 years she was illegal and he really needed to fix it. Never made any attempt to correct anything, after all, why fix it because it wasnt being called and his pitcher was acing everyone. Jump forward 4 years to high school ball and her parents were all excited for their phenom pitcher to pitch in high school. While she did make varsity her freshman year I think she only ever pitched maybe 2 games her entire high school career because she could not pitch legally and was getting called for it. If it had been corrected when the coach was first warned about it she had a very good chance of correcting the problem. After completely ignoring it for 4 years her illegal motion had become so ingrained it was virtually impossible to fix. The worst part was, this same girl continued to play the rec league in the off season and rather than work on correcting the illegal motion there she just continued to pitch illegally.
Coaches will never fix the problem until it becomes a detriment to their team because the pitcher is getting called.
What, exactly, is the advantage of leaping? A vector analysis tells us that going level, rather than up, will be faster and more efficient. They don't land any closer to the batter. I have experimented with this multiple times, and pitchers actually land closer to the batter by using a proper drag.
If its of no advantage then why do so many pitchers do it rather than a legal drag? And how would anyone know if the pitcher is gaining an advantage by doing it or not unless they force the pitcher to actually drag the foot.
Increased front side resistance/torque. Did not do any vector analysis but my Stalker II typically shows a 2 -3 mph gain when LEAPING. To your point I have no data on leaping. Any advantage gained by leaping under the current rules is a moot point. The question is what will be the result when pitchers intentionally LEAP by design? There is a significant difference between leaping versus LEAPING. It is naive to think that if the rules are changed the current behavior and results will remain consistent. Would you expect that a change in a highway speed limit from 65mph to 80mph will not change driving behavior?
Your argument falls under logical fallacy and provides no data that shows advantage.
11 College National Championships player and coach. 4 national championships as a player with Raybestos, multiple hall of fames... I think she is still someone I would listen to. Would you listen to Coach Hutch at U of M? Same age, just one retired and one still coaches.
There may be some weight to the argument of increased front side resistance. However, in my original post is mentioned proper foot drag. Optimally, we would to have as light a drag as possible the decrease drag and increase distance on their stride.
I have taken leaders, to help them realize they can stride as far or further by dragging, and marked both their leaps and their drags. I haven't found on who gets out further by leaping.
As for your data that shows pitchers slower when dragging, part of that is due to a change in mechanics. We'd most likely see the same if took a legal pitcher and asked her to leap. I would not, however, suggest doing that for obvious reasons.
I don't think anyone purposely teaches a pitcher to leap. The bad habit happens and it's extremely difficult to fix it with some kids. Then we get to deal with parents and their, "they don't ever get called, so it's fine" attitude. I'm not advocating leaping. Just in all my years coaching, I stopped worrying about it years ago. And then I really didn't see an advantage in it. I also refuse to let the girls on my teams use it as an excuse for losing when that happens. In a perfect world, they'd follow the rules. In the case of the leaping rule, I will never see the advantage. As for crow-hopping...that's another story.
