Legal pitch?

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by jmkupka

Hopefully we're all looking at the same pitcher (red top/white sleeves, black shorts)

Pitcher is starting with pivot foot's heel touching the front of the PP. As the back foot goes forward past the pivot foot, PF goes up on it's ball, breaking contact from that point on. This is during the backswing motion. Caption "All okay."

The caption in picture 4 is "Still doing fine. That heel off the rubber is okay - toe did not go forward, foot just bent."

If that's legal, fine, let me know. But from that point on, she's at least 5-6 inches in front of the PP, and way before any pushoff and slide.

(Draw a straight line down from the gatepost; that's what I'm seeing as the PP.)

This is an NCAA training item (these are college pitchers); and the NCAA rule is clear that this action is legal, as the caption says. The pivot foot can slide, even forward, as long as any part of the foot remains over the plane of the plate; and/or the the pivot foot can arch, turn, or bend, even off the plane of the plate, if the front of the foot (toe) doesn't advance closer to the batter. In this slide set, the front of the foot was 5-6 inches in front of the PP when her heel was flat on the ground and PP at the beginning; it was still at that spot when you saw the heel up on slide #3.

Not written so clearly in ASA or NFHS, but I accept the same first half of that (foot still over the plane) as not illegal, but not the second half (foot not even over the plane, but it hasn't advanced). That said, the foot needs to be clearly off and not over, not just in the vicinity of off, for me to make that call.