That's exactly what your pitchers should do. Pitch legally. I don't necessarily buy the argument that pitching illegally produces a better pitcher anyways. If pitchers are taught and practice correct mechanics they will pitch very well. At some point, illegal pitching is going to catch up to the pitcher, if not injuries. Why introduce poor, illegal mechanics that are going to have to be re-taught later on?
Pitching mechanic Jr college pitchers
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That's exactly what your pitchers should do. Pitch legally. I don't necessarily buy the argument that pitching illegally produces a better pitcher anyways. If pitchers are taught and practice correct mechanics they will pitch very well. At some point, illegal pitching is going to catch up to the pitcher, if not injuries. Why introduce poor, illegal mechanics that are going to have to be re-taught later on?
- Oct 22, 2009
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Pitch legal.
When my DD was in college she would get highly upset over illegal pitchers that were not getting called.
Especially because she worked very hard on being legal herself.
She had the ability to pitch illegal at will, and go back to legal with no problem, so whenever an opposing pitcher was pitching illegally she would do whatever she could to gain an advantage.----) even if it was illegal.
If the other team called her on it, they knew they would have to also change their pitcher so they never did.
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She isn't leaping...much.
She is Charity Watson from Pitt CC in North Carolina. Being good in JC ball in NC isn't quite like being good against the Arizona and California JCs.
With due respect, she isn't playing very good competition. She might get lit up like a Christmas tree if they make it very far in the JC playoffs.
She isn't leaping...much.
She is Charity Watson from Pitt CC in North Carolina. Being good in JC ball in NC isn't quite like being good against the Arizona and California JCs.
With due respect, she isn't playing very good competition. She might get lit up like a Christmas tree if they make it very far in the JC playoffs.
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- Jan 18, 2011
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I live in SE PA and I'm not the pitching expert that a lot on here are, but the first thing I noticed was that the first pitcher was illegal. I also help in umpiring (ASA) and I definitely call illegal pitchers. I once had an opposing team's coach argue with me that their pitcher was not illegal, looked just like #1 pitcher, I was coaching at this point, and the ump would not call her illegal. I finally got the other coach so mad at me that she said "she's crow hopping, I did it when I played and it's not illegal!" I just smiled, looked at the ump and he calmly explain to that coach that it was illegal and that pitcher left the game, coached pulled her out. That coach would not shake my hand after the game, in which they won anyway. Go figure. Teach them proper mechanics.
sorry this just reminded me of that game.
sorry this just reminded me of that game.
I'm in NorCal, the somewhat overshadowed sibling of SoCal (I'd like to think that we have just as many talented players on a per capita basis as our more populous sibling down south, but I'd readily admit to not having the stats to prove it).
My dd pitches legally, but has significant problems in her motion that show up under stress (one of which is that she is a 'plower', the diametric opposite of a hopper, and wastes a ton of energy digging a deep trench with her pivot foot, which negatively impacts her motion downstream). The problems seem to have gotten worse as she got older and stronger. We've been working hard to make adjustments, but after you've been pitching a certain way for a number of years, the muscle memory can be extremely difficult to reprogram, especially in a game setting (she is not one of those people who are gifted with the talent to instantly and effortlessly imitate other people). This is another reason I don't think most habitual crow-hoppers would ever try to change, short of being forced to do so by circumstances, such as a sudden and complete volte-face in the way these rules are enforced at the youth level (where it might actually make a lasting difference). I just don't see that happening anytime soon, perhaps because few consider this a significant enough problem at that level to require systematic fixing. Consequently, our local pipeline is full of this type of pitchers, and more of them are being created every season. The vast majority of these girls will have no shot at a high profile D1 program, but there may be a handful who do have what it takes to make it to the very top, whose career may one day be handicapped by their illegal mechanics. Should that happen, they would be the only tangible victims of the laxity and inconsistency in the way these rules are currently enforced, but there are so few of these girls out there that hardly anyone would take notice of their plight, or even make the association.
So far this year, my dd has received more warnings from the umpire for supposedly bringing her hands together too quickly before a pitch (twice) than any of the leaping crow-hoppers (one of whom is our own starting pitcher) have for what they did with their feet (not once). I don't expect this to change as the season progresses.
- Jul 26, 2010
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Which part of norcal? Is your daughter going to a pitching coach now?
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She took them to Jr college world series last year in st george, ut. When she got there she was hitting pretty good.
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I looked up her stats from last years NJCAA tourney
In her first game against a team from Utah, she gave up 8 earned runs in 4.2 innings, including two home runs..
In her second game, she did a little better, but lost. She pitched 8 innings, walked 7, so 15, and was called for one illegal pitch. She gave up one earned run.
I doubt she throws 60+ mph and has a good breaking pitch. More likely is that she throws around 60 mph.
In her first game against a team from Utah, she gave up 8 earned runs in 4.2 innings, including two home runs..
In her second game, she did a little better, but lost. She pitched 8 innings, walked 7, so 15, and was called for one illegal pitch. She gave up one earned run.
I doubt she throws 60+ mph and has a good breaking pitch. More likely is that she throws around 60 mph.
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