Gbucz
WNY native now in Charlotte, NC
My DD is only 5' 9" and can stride/step almost to the circle. When she really leaps she is beyond the circle. As Jennie Finch said, "How much closer to a Busto type hitter do you really want to be?" Their hit is coming off at 98 mph, you are recovering from throwing the pitch and you need to react faster than the batter or you'll get hurt - learn to step and rotate instead of leap as your power comes from rotation.
As for illegal pitches, some umps call them and others don't. This girl definitely illegal. We were in a 14U tournament and our pitcher (not my DD but the coaches DD) was warned repeatedly but never called on it. I measured her in video and she was a good 4-6" off the ground with her back toe pointed up making it more pronounced! It got so bad that before the championship game the director and UIC came to warn us. My DD was ready to go so we were just waiting for the calls. We won the tourney but many coaches were not happy.
As for illegal pitches, some umps call them and others don't. This girl definitely illegal. We were in a 14U tournament and our pitcher (not my DD but the coaches DD) was warned repeatedly but never called on it. I measured her in video and she was a good 4-6" off the ground with her back toe pointed up making it more pronounced! It got so bad that before the championship game the director and UIC came to warn us. My DD was ready to go so we were just waiting for the calls. We won the tourney but many coaches were not happy.
