Student warm up, Legal or illegal motion?

[starsnuffer]

The leap is def illegal on the one pitch as mentioned.

The "pivot foot step" prior to the pitch appears to be her attempt to turn out her toe before pitching. What is more concerning about this is that she is also turning out her knee. This is making all of the pent up energy in her load go sideways instead of straight ahead towards the catcher (like a sprinter off the line) and the rest of her pitching motion has her compensating in the other direction for this.

Then again, it seems she's throwing a screwball which isn't exactly the best pitch to get an idea of her mechanics from and what I'm seeing may simply be a result of how she's trying to throw that particular pitch.

-W

 

[bobbyb]

This is the most controversial technique that I have run across in my limited experience with softball and is THE pitching technique that I have seen the most complaints and ugliest arguments about… between coaches, umps and dads. It is THE pitch that the governing bodies should make a statement on and call illegal or simply say its legal, so it can be taught as a technique cause it does provide an advantage.

Forget illegal leap for a moment and say she drags ground good enough to not make a leap call…….This pitcher is landing with the weight on the pivot leg or simultaneously landing with weight on pivot foot and replanting and pushing off again.

My opinion is that it is an illegal pitch….However…. the governing body’s haven’t defined “replant” therefore..... ITS LEGAL as far as I can tell because of two reasons.

ONE….Most umps I have spoke to about it…..take it that a CROW HOP or replant happens BEFORE HANDS SEPARATE (pitch begins)….. even NFHS uses that in their #2 crow hop sample here.

Dartfish.tv - Collection Pitching videos

Read what other umps say in regards to replant…

NFHS Forum: Pitcher dragging pivot foot or replanting?

TWO …As you see…IF THEY DON”T KNOW FOR SURE ITS ILLEGAL……. it is legal.

My question with this technique has been….. WHAT CONSTITUTES A RE PLANT…. that’s the problem to me and others I know…. when we see a pitcher that ….“seemingly”….. lands on pivot foot and pushes off again whether hands are separated or not.

By LAND I mean…. the WEIGHT of the body….causes the forward momentum of the PIVOT FOOT to STOP/PAUSE…. because it is accepting the weight of the body…that pause point is the land.

I spoke with our states head ump and discussed this technique during last years off season….I was trying offer some more objective ways to help take the grey area out of what a replant is….so they could consider studying it and/or make rules to define a replant especially to this technique. Didn’t get far with it.

Whats funny is I can ask young pitchers what they think about this technique, most will say it’s a crow hop cause she lands the weight on the back leg first…they get it and its simple..don’t know why adults and governing bodies don’t.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

What level is she pitching at? And is she in the states? As far as this being a warm up, nothing is illegal during a warm up.

 

[RMGC]

Amy, she is going into her senior year in high school. She lives in New York and goes to school in Connecticut. The sliding step at the beginning of the motion is because she is not starting on a rubber. She really doesn't do that when she pitches. She does, however leap sideways now and I think that she is replanting and pushing just by the way her pivot knee flexes toward straightening instead of continuing to bend and it slides forward. I have been working with her using a 2x4 to get her to roll over her pivot foot coming off the mound. It is working when she pays attention to it but it is not muscle memory yet so when she pitches she goes right back to her comfort zone of leaping sideways and replanting. I'm going to start working on her leap more to keep her moving forward. That and rolling over the toe should eventually correct this I think.

 

[Sweet Pitch 96]

My 13yo dd saw one pitch and said.....(drumroll.......) "She's illegal."