ASA Fastpitch pitching rule question

sprtfan

Addicted to Softballfans
I'm helping out coaching my daughters 3rd grade team and one of the pitchers on our team will do 2-3 rotations before throwing the ball when pitching. I thought this was probably against the rules but when trying to look it up, the rule I found said no more than two revolutions with her arm before releasing the ball. Can she do two then?
Another question I should ask is what constitutes a revolution? I played a little fast pitch a long time ago and remember something along the lines that whenever the ball past your hip it counted as a revolution.
If its against the rules, I want to give her a chance to practice it the correct way before the first game. Thanks
 

sprtfan

Addicted to Softballfans
Found the official ASA book, and it says "The pitcher must not make two revolutions of the arm on the windmill pitch. A pitcher may drop the arm to the side and to the rear before starting the windmill motion." The info I found before about no more than two revolutions was from some a random league site and appears to have been wrong or some odd exception to the rules for that league. Please let me know if I'm still interpreting it wrong though. Thanks
 

NCASAUmp

Un-Retired
Found the official ASA book, and it says "The pitcher must not make two revolutions of the arm on the windmill pitch. A pitcher may drop the arm to the side and to the rear before starting the windmill motion." The info I found before about no more than two revolutions was from some a random league site and appears to have been wrong or some odd exception to the rules for that league. Please let me know if I'm still interpreting it wrong though. Thanks

I think that you're kind of overthinking it. In slow pitch, we count the number of times the arm goes forward past the hip, and pitchers there are limited to just one.

In fast pitch, we're more concerned with how many revolutions the pitcher makes. Since she's allowed to drop her arm down and to the back, we can't count how many times the arm has moved forward past the hip like we do in slow pitch. Instead, we count the number of times the pitcher's hand has made a distinct revolution before releasing the ball, as well as how many times after she has released the ball.

Before the pitcher has released the ball, it's quite common for the pitcher to release the ball after her arm has made one or even one and a quarter revolutions (if she's brought her pitching arm straight back behind her). That's perfectly legal. However, it's when she makes multiple distinct revolutions before releasing the ball that we have to call an illegal pitch.

Once the ball is released, then the pitcher may not make another revolution of the arm. Umpires won't get ticky-tacky about it and split hairs that she only went 300° around and not a full 360°. If it looks like a revolution of the arm, it is a revolution of the arm.

Cactus Umpires, an organization out of Arizona, is a very well-respected organization that has a great webpage about fast pitch pitching infractions here. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the double windmill in action. If that is what you're seeing, then the pitcher is pitching illegally.

I hope this helps.
 

sprtfan

Addicted to Softballfans
Thanks for the clarification and the link. The player was definitely doing a double windmill action and we'll work with her to stop. Its been interesting trying to coach girls that have little to no experience or in this case, have been taught to do things incorrectly. Thanks again
 

NCASAUmp

Un-Retired
Thanks for the clarification and the link. The player was definitely doing a double windmill action and we'll work with her to stop. Its been interesting trying to coach girls that have little to no experience or in this case, have been taught to do things incorrectly. Thanks again

I'd also take a look at the other videos they have on that page. While those videos come from NFHS (high school sports), they apply towards all major sanctions except ISF. ISF does allow leaping.
 
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