- Aug 21, 2008
- 2,379
- 113
NO, I'm not ok. I've been stuck in the world's smallest apartment for 8 straight days and I'm not sure when the end is. Once again I am wrong. Don't mark your calendars, this happens on a daily basis.... just ask my ex.
Bill
I teach a pitch that has a 1-7, or 2-8 spin. The pitch cuts in and drop. Its a fastball release with I/R, so there is NO stride left to throw across the plate. Some girls throw it better than others, for the pitchers that have "mastered" are incredibly effective. One of my 14U pitchers hit no less than 6 girls last year that were swinging. Buy increasing thumb pressure, the spin is closer to 3-9 (never gets that sideways), but at the end of the day it drops less.In 40+ years of watching softball, I have seen *ONE* true screwball thrown at game speed. (I offered a few years ago $100 to anyone who could produce a video of someone throwing a pitch with anything close to 9-3 spin.)
Anyway, this pitcher is stepping left and throwing right. She is probably illegal in NCAA pitching because she is stepping so far left. (Hannah Rogers from Florida actually forced a rule change due.) She has great control, and can move the ball left and right in 3 or 4 inch increments. Although I can't see the spin, but she is probably throwing a bullet spin pitch.
A bullet spin pitch drops less than a pitch with 12-6 spin and "rises" less than a pitch with 6-12 spin.
The way it works is that she throws her fastball with 12-6 spin, and then throws the screwball with bullet spin. So, the batter ends up missing the pitch.
Here this will make you feel better:
Nobody calls these two-seam fastballs in baseball screwballs not sure why softball should be any different..If you are defining a screwball solely by the spin it has, ie... in order to be a screwball it has to have 3-9 spin then yeah you won't find that. But that is an odd way to define a pitch. Seems better to define a pitch by it's movement so if a pitch moves in on a RH, it's a screwball and I have seen tons of pitches move in on RH batters.
If you are defining a screwball solely by the spin it has, ie... in order to be a screwball it has to have 3-9 spin then yeah you won't find that. But that is an odd way to define a pitch. Seems better to define a pitch by it's movement so if a pitch moves in on a RH, it's a screwball and I have seen tons of pitches move in on RH batters.