Pitching regulation

[chapmaja]

7/8 grade fastpitch - league modified ASA rules. The question isn't covered in the league rules.

What is the required position of the elbow and the hand of the pitching arm during the pitching motion.

I was the BU yesterday and I noticed one of the pitchers during the game had the following motion. When she would bring her arm through to release, she would tuck the elbow in towards her body with the lower arm at about a 40 degree angle out away from the body, so her hand position was well outside the elbow upon the release. My first thought was this was illegal, but I wasn't sure. Having tried the motion, I don't like the way it put pressure on the elbow.

[RKBUmp]

Sounds to me like you are describing exactly what is in this video. It is illegal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQPwY1yDb8

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by chapmaja

7/8 grade fastpitch - league modified ASA rules. The question isn't covered in the league rules.

What is the required position of the elbow and the hand of the pitching arm during the pitching motion.

I was the BU yesterday and I noticed one of the pitchers during the game had the following motion. When she would bring her arm through to release, she would tuck the elbow in towards her body with the lower arm at about a 40 degree angle out away from the body, so her hand position was well outside the elbow upon the release. My first thought was this was illegal, but I wasn't sure. Having tried the motion, I don't like the way it put pressure on the elbow.

There is no rule requiring a "hand" position or location. The rule clearly refers to the WRIST being no further from the body than the elbow.

You may have been seeing an illegal pitch, but clearly looking at, or at least referring to, the wrong thing. If you look at the hand, or if the rule referred to the hand, all almost curve balls, rise balls, and screwballs would be illegal.

[chapmaja]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

There is no rule requiring a "hand" position or location. The rule clearly refers to the WRIST being no further from the body than the elbow.

You may have been seeing an illegal pitch, but clearly looking at, or at least referring to, the wrong thing. If you look at the hand, or if the rule referred to the hand, all almost curve balls, rise balls, and screwballs would be illegal.

I'm not a pitcher, but I did do a few practice arm swings in a pitching motion. It is nearly impossible to really keep the wrist truly below or inside the elbow. The key is that if it is so close you can't tell, it's legal.

What I was seeing was almost a perfect copy of the video, and was clearly an illegal pitch.

The problem is my plate umpire is a baseball umpire doing a little softball. I only had a couple times when I was out of position to see it clearly. Most of the time she was pitching I was over watching the runners on third.