If Women's Softball.........

[Hillhouse]

Matsuda has some instructional videos, he throws a palm up 'slider' (curve), a rollover drop, and a backhand change up, or thinks he does.

Probably why he didn't do well over the course of a season. It may be something that works over the course of a single week tournament (WBSC) where teams haven't seen him in years.

I can tell you without hesitation, if I pitched against Canada, New Zealand, or against Folkard's club team (Hill United of Ontario) and I used those pitches, I'd end up with a polycore ball imbedded into my forehead.

 

[Hillhouse]

Garcia, Juarez, Ueno, Osterman, etc. all use backswings.

Why do the top pitchers in men's softball have no backswing, and yet the top pitchers in women's softball do?

It very well may be that women can't detect "tells" as quickly as men during a back swing.

Hate to get into gender specific stuff, but men and women process motion differently. There are many articles about the differences in visual perception. Here is one article: https://www.washington.edu/news/201...show-surprising-differences-in-seeing-motion/

As a member of the #metoo movement, I'd like to CANCEL sluggers for his sexist comments about women unable to read pitchers.

 

[Hillhouse]

I agree. I am being told by a couple of the NCAA powers to be in the umpire world that the NCAA is going to drop all the pitching rules in the next couple year and let them pitch like the men do, and they will be able to pitch just like they do in the WBSC. And it will then trickle down to the younger age groups. Hold on, as this will change the game, and pitchers again will dominate!!

ASA/USA isn't going to make the same mistake twice.

First mistake was allowing men to change pitching to 1 foot and "allowing" crow hoping in the 1980s. They did this out of sheer greed as men's teams were dropping, younger guys were not playing softball and they saw this as a way to keep or increase the numbers of the dying sport of men's FP. It was a Band-Aid on a severed artery. The game is almost dead and the only thing it's accomplished is the US men's team could not get pitching who could pitch under the 2 feet rule after they'd "relearned" to do it with 1 foot and jumping. USA lost out on several good pitcher who wouldn't or couldn't switch to 2 feet on the rubber and forego their crowhop. The result is, USA men's team is the laughing stock of WBSC softball. The once powerhouse team now finishes 8th regularly. 2019's 5th or 6th place (can't remember) was actually a surprise. Personally I was on the last USA team to win a medal at the World Championships (2000 in South Africa). Now days USA loses to teams they used to beat handily.

I've been saying this part for years: NCAA is a feeder system for USA softball. And they will follow whatever rules WBSC has in order to keep up with Japan, Australia, Italy and others. If they changed the WBSC rules, but not NCAA rules, the USA team will suffer a lot. Offensively and defensively.

 

[MB2.0LHT]

In the video you just showed if the men's WBSC championship from last year. Unlike the USA, the pitching rules are identical for men and women in the WBSC. ASA/USA is the ONLY organization worldwide who uses different rules for the 2 genders. Female pitchers will be able to pitch like this in the WBSC and Olympics, the women just haven't figured out how to start doing this yet. But they will start soon, mark my words.

Bill- Not knowing anything about men’s Fastpitch and watching that clip of several different countries I would take # 4 pitcher from Argentina to build my team around. Big Aussie Lefty looked awkward and off balance.

 

[Shawn]

Men have a hitch in their arm circle, woman don’t.

 

[Bernie]

Men have a hitch in their arm circle, woman don’t.

They would if they hopped like that.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[ArmWhip]

Probably why he didn't do well over the course of a season. It may be something that works over the course of a single week tournament (WBSC) where teams haven't seen him in years.

I can tell you without hesitation, if I pitched against Canada, New Zealand, or against Folkard's club team (Hill United of Ontario) and I used those pitches, I'd end up with a polycore ball imbedded into my forehead.

He's probably getting paid to do the videos, he doesn't have to use those pitches in competition. He doesn't have a screwball video, or at least not one that I have seen.

 

[Bonesaw]

ASA/USA isn't going to make the same mistake twice.

First mistake was allowing men to change pitching to 1 foot and "allowing" crow hoping in the 1980s. They did this out of sheer greed as men's teams were dropping, younger guys were not playing softball and they saw this as a way to keep or increase the numbers of the dying sport of men's FP. It was a Band-Aid on a severed artery. The game is almost dead and the only thing it's accomplished is the US men's team could not get pitching who could pitch under the 2 feet rule after they'd "relearned" to do it with 1 foot and jumping. USA lost out on several good pitcher who wouldn't or couldn't switch to 2 feet on the rubber and forego their crowhop. The result is, USA men's team is the laughing stock of WBSC softball. The once powerhouse team now finishes 8th regularly. 2019's 5th or 6th place (can't remember) was actually a surprise. Personally I was on the last USA team to win a medal at the World Championships (2000 in South Africa). Now days USA loses to teams they used to beat handily.

I've been saying this part for years: NCAA is a feeder system for USA softball. And they will follow whatever rules WBSC has in order to keep up with Japan, Australia, Italy and others. If they changed the WBSC rules, but not NCAA rules, the USA team will suffer a lot. Offensively and defensively.

NCAA feeder system... This has been a recent realization for me.

For some reason I have had a preconceived notion that D1 is elite softball. I think Ive finally realized that this is not the case at all. It is high level for sure but definitely not elite(elite as in the best of the best). I dont know why it took so long for me to realize this.

Im interested to see how Rachel Garcia does at the olympics. I recently watched a team USA game on youtube where Abbot threw a few shutdown innings. Then another pitcher came in and didnt do so hot. Then Garcia came in and didnt do so hot. Then Abbot came in again to close out her own game.

Im sure the bullet spin riseball argument will be rekindled one way or the other!

 

[ArmWhip]

I just watched a few innings of a 2019 WBSC game, New Zealand vs Netherlands and neither pitcher leaped out as strongly as the men do. Both actually looked like NCAA pitchers with a leap and a mild crow hop landing. There was no huge jump and no slowdown of the arm circle like the men have.

 

[Hillhouse]

NCAA feeder system... This has been a recent realization for me.

For some reason I have had a preconceived notion that D1 is elite softball. I think Ive finally realized that this is not the case at all. It is high level for sure but definitely not elite(elite as in the best of the best). I dont know why it took so long for me to realize this.

Im interested to see how Rachel Garcia does at the olympics. I recently watched a team USA game on youtube where Abbot threw a few shutdown innings. Then another pitcher came in and didnt do so hot. Then Garcia came in and didnt do so hot. Then Abbot came in again to close out her own game.

Im sure the bullet spin riseball argument will be rekindled one way or the other!

Garcia will do well against everyone but, I predict she'll have the hardest time vs. Japan. Japan won't be intimidated by her velocity (they have Ueno) and like the USA team, Japan uses male pitchers for BP. Male pitchers can throw considerably harder with sharper movements. This will prep the Japanese for what the Americans throw at them. On top of that, Japan has seen Osterman and Abbott countless times. They have video, they have pitch patterns, and maybe a pick on each of them. They would ONLY have video of Garcia from ESPN. Japan did an amazing job in the last Olympic cycle to pay the top American players/pitchers top dollar to play in their league. While Abbott, etc. got good money to go play there, Japan used this to make themselves better. 2008 GOLD medal game is a case in point.

This isn't an "I told you so" situation but, I've been saying for YEARS that people should know there is another level beyond college. Moreover, there are other OPPORTUNITIES beyond college that soooooo many young players don't know about. Europe (for example) plays the same time of year as USA. College grads who would want to go play internationally do not have to be Rachel Garcia, Abbott, etc. to go play in Europe. To them, a very good D3 player would be the best player in Europe. Now.... is their "competitive spirit" going to be quenched playing in Europe? Probably not. Outside of Netherlands and Italy, there isn't a lot of top grade softball. But, countries like Denmark (for example) would give almost anything to have Americans come over to play, do some coaching, run some clinics, try to help schools introduce the sport, etc. From Denmark, it's a $100 flight to just about anywhere in Europe where someone can hop over to Rome for a weekend they have off or something. Then, in the winter, teams in NZ/Australia often have "import" players for a season or 2. Heck, I went to NZ for 9 or 10 years, and had 1 in Australia too.