Illegal Pitch

[Antonella]

Originally Posted by Dakota

ISF, to indicated I suppose that they are serious about the touch and go being illegal, says the hands have to be together for a minimum of 2 seconds.

ISF is on the way to get fastpitch softball as much as 'broadcastable' as possible. Tv and fans attention come especially when you have a 8-7 game instead of a 1-0 game played almost by pitchers...
That's the INTENT of the rule: give less advantage to pitchers.
And I agree it's a great rule when you deal with good pitchers.
The higher the level is, the most umpires should enforce this rule.
Because the 'touch and go' movement give a serious advantage, because of the (accidenti, non so bene how to say it in english!!) FLOWING, because of the cinetics... Sorry, I am not able to explain that...
In Italian league umpires have often something to explaying to pitchers from abroad (especially from USA and Australia) in the beginning of the season... But after a while they get used to ISF rules.

Ciao