ASA Pitching Rule Help

[sc7475]

Question?

In ASA 14U Girls Fastpitch-Can a girl step BACK when she starts her motion?

Rule states "Both feet must remain in contact with the pitchers' plate at all times prior to the forward step".

Looks to me NO.

Pony,USSSA you can.

Why wouldn't everyone be the same?????

Thanks

 

[sluggers]

The ASA--> NO.

Pony, USSSA, and most state high school rules, YES.

IN THE BEGINNING:

The only fastpitch softball being played was through the ASA, the high schools and college.

The ASA put the rule in place in order to reduce the advantage of the pitcher.

For a state high school softball program, some very small schools field teams. It isn't unheard of to have high schools of 100 or 200 kids. In order to make it easier to develop a pitcher for the small schools, the state high school athletic associations adopted a less strict "step back" rule.

The USSSA and Pony are relatively young national softball organizations. When they created their rule books, they chose the high school version.

 

[BretMan]

No step back is allowed for female players in ASA. Or NSA. Or NCAA.

It is allowed in NFHS (high school) and USSSA (I'll have to take your word about PONY, one organization I've never umpires for).

If you were to take a point-by-point survey of the rule book for each of these sanctioning bodies, you would find DOZENS of rule differences. This happens to be one of them. It's about a 50/50 split down the middle of organizations that allow the step back and and those that don't.

ASA wrote the first official book of softball rules in 1933. As other organizations sprung up, they copied many of those rules and modified a few of them, too. Changes might be made to accomodate certain age groups or the goals of the organization (recreation, rather than competition; participation, rather than exclusion). A new organization might think that they have "a better idea". They might change rules to better fit the skill level of their participants. They might have different notions of safety requirements.

Remember- all these different organization are essentially competitors. There really shouldn't be any expectation that their rules would all perfectly match any more those of any other competing businesses, be it an insurance company, an automaker or a cable provider. Each will operate in a way that they think best suits their interests and those of their customers.

Go back about 25 years and ASA and most others did allow the step back. In the 80's there was a perception that the game was becoming too pitching dominated. ASA modified their pitching rules to even the balance between offense and defense and the step back, which was thought to generate more momentum for the pitcher, was eliminated.

Some associations retained the step back. For instance, high school softball. Their thinking was that the high school pitcher might be less skilled than the tournament player and they didn't see the need to tinker with that particular rule. USSSA is a relative late-comer to the fastpitch softball world and when they wrote their rule book they essentially copied the high school pitching rules word-for-word. NSA, on the other hand, has pitching rules that match up closely with ASA.

Rule differences can be the bane of teams that play games under multiple sanctioning bodies- and a real pain for the umpires who work these games, too!

 

[Batperson]

Little League and PONY, also, allow the step back. I prefer my girls to learn to pitch under ASA guidelines.

 

[redhawkridge]

WIAA (Wisconsin high school governing body) has changed from allowing the step-back to going along with ASA.
In coaching pitchers, I find it far more difficult to change a pitcher from step-back to both-feet-on-rubber than the other way around. They get very dependent on that extra "step" when they can step-back.
So it helps when they are playing both HS and summer ball, plus if they get to college, they have one less change to make.
jim

 

[crystlemc]

It would make the most sense for them to all learn to pitch under ASA guidelines if they ever plan on pitching NCAA. I mean, why have them pitching one way their whole career, only to have to change it long after the behavior is deeply ingrained into their mechanics? JMHO

 

[redhawkridge]

I erred in my previous post. After checking the Wis WIAA website, I could find nothing about a change in the step-back rule, as yet.
jim