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Originally Posted by SC Ump
One thing I would like to see more of, and learn more about, is a variation on the crow hop here.
What I think is not specified is the following situation which I see often in local NFHS ball: the pitcher has her pivot foot on the pitching plate, she separates her hands and moves her pitching arm back past the hip, her pivot foot drags forward. Then, as her arm start moving forward into the windmill, she replants her pivot foot and pushes off from that new spot several feet closer to the batter.
My previous understanding of the second situation was that it too was a crow hop. With my new understanding that for a crow hop it "only matters" where the pivot foot is at the time the hands separate, I am now calling it differently than I have over the last x years. I would just like further confirmation that I am understanding it correctly.
Any thoughts?
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I agree with you; it is not a crow hop (based on the hands not separated definition). But it is illegal based on NFHS 6.2.C and ASA 6.3.J: "
Pushing off from any place other than the pitcher's plate is illegal."
Likewise, picking up the pivot foot and replanting it on the plate is not a crow hop (crow hop is replanted in front of the plate), nor does it violate 6.2.C or 6.3.J. But it is still illegal. ASA calls that a "rocking motion" (6.3 H & I), NFHS considers it a step, then when the stride foot "steps" you are illegal because you are only allowed one step.
So if you move that pivot foot around, there are four distinct rules that can be violated - crow hop, step (or rocking), pushing off, and legal drag (or leap). Most umpires, if they are going to make a call, will call any of the first three violations a "crow hop." That's OK, as long as it makes it easy for them to understand, and nobody else knows the difference. Technically they may be wrong, but it is better to call the IP than to let it go as too many umpires are doing.
WMB