Do softball pitches "move"?

[bjenkins24]

Educate me. I'm just a bucket dad with a daughter in 10u rec. I definitely don't know what I'm talking about, so would love some insight from the experts here.

Baseball pitches very clearly move to me. They actually break because of the spin the pitchers put on the ball. It's super obvious watching a youtube video that these pitches are breaking:




But baseball is different right? The ball is smaller, the plate is further away, and the ball moves faster. All of that in my naive mind would contribute to the ability for a pitch to come off the pitchers hand with one trajectory and literally move into a different one on its way to the plate.

Softball has a bigger ball, is pitched much closer, and the pitches aren't thrown as hard. So do they actually move? If I watch a similar "nastiest pitches" video on youtube for softball pitches, to my naive eye it looks as if they aren't moving at all. MAYBE a little bit on some of them, but it seems so slight if at all that I wonder if there's really any benefit? Sometimes it looks like it's after it passes the batter almost. Then a lot of them seem like they are just throwing the ball at a different trajectory. Like it's coming off their hand higher or inside. The drop ball looks like it's doing something, but other than that I just don't see it.




I've read that there is no real "rise" ball. Does it just not come down as fast? Does it even do that, or are they just throwing the ball at a different trajectory? How much is spin rate really worth?

My daughter's pitching coach has been starting to teach her spin that is theoretically supposed to move the ball, but at least for my daughter throwing it with different spin it definitely isn't moving. I mean she's throwing it 37mph, so that's most likely the reason, but watching these great pitchers play it's still hard for me to see the movement.

Maybe the answer is "yes they move, you're dumb". But I would love to open a conversation on if I'm just looking at these things wrong or what. Are movement pitches less important in softball? Are "trajectory" pitches softballs "movement" pitches? If they are, why do pitchers care so much about spin?

Educate me. I honestly don't understand thank you!

 

[Rolling Hard]

They do move. Not as much as baseball for sure. Just recently watched a HS pitcher throw a bullpen and I was reminded of this fact.
Also softball pitchers do use angles to their advantage.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Oh, they move a lot. At 37 MPH, they're being impacted by gravity and drag more than anything, but once they start throwing north of 50 MPH, you'll see the movement pick up. My daughter's curve is thrown at 62+, and it's tough to catch when she throws it right because it moves so much.

A drop magnifies gravity's impact, but a good one can fall off the table.

Very few girls throw a true riseball. However, some studies show the ball has to be moving at 72 MPH to counteract gravity, which puts Montana Fouts and one or two others as the college pitchers who throw a true riseball. My daughter's "riseball" is a high fastball that doesn't sink as fast as a typical four-seam fastball. It still is an effective pitch, even if it isn't rising as it crosses the plate.

 

[PharmerBrown]

Check out a video with Littlejohn curve balls. Not Lil' Jon, Sydney Littlejohn. That was eye opening for me.

 

[Shawn]

If you’re watching the CWS and everyone is throwing 70 from 38 ft away. The pitches don’t move as much.

 

[softball dad 6]

If it is still available online, watch the last pitch of the D3 WCWS. Right-handed batter. The pitch starts out in the left batters box. It is caught by the catcher in the right-handed batter box. It broke across the plate for a called 3rd strike. It definitely was a strike, not a blown call by the umpire. Normally, I would say a girl should never take a called 3rd strike to end a game, but I honestly couldn't blame the girl for taking that pitch. After watching that pitch several times, I still can't believe a pitch can break that much

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[_MIA_]

My daughter's "riseball" is a high fastball that doesn't sink as fast as a typical four-seam fastball. It still is an effective pitch, even if it isn't rising as it crosses the plate.

It probably is still rising as it crosses the plate, just not above the path it would have taken sans gravity. Also I think the speed needs to be more than 72 for that to happen..I don’t think it is even possible for male pitchers to throw/spin it hard enough for that to happen..not that it needs to in order for the pitch to be effective.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

It probably is still rising as it crosses the plate, just not above the path it would have taken sans gravity. Also I think the speed needs to be more than 72 for that to happen..I don’t think it is even possible for male pitchers to throw/spin it hard enough for that to happen..not that it needs to in order for the pitch to be effective.

She loves her rise. For a long time, it was her fastest pitch. Her coach wants her to learn a drop now instead because she throws a "heavy ball." His reasoning is a rise ball that misses gets crushed. A drop ball tends to be a ball when it misses. Whether he's right or not remains to be seen.

 

[adm793]

I’ve caught multiple pitchers over the year. They definitely move. When you see it, it’s like a momentary glitch, the ball just seems to float for a rise or change direction for a drop/curve.

 

[CoachJD]

Yes, a softball pitch can have lateral movement, but I'm guessing that it's much less than in baseball. You're not getting Jake Diekman sliders in softball.

Also yes, some "movement pitches" are really just angled straight pitches (and those can be effective, too, so saying they aren't movement pitches is not a negative).

One of my pitchers often gets decent lateral movement on her fastball. I haven't been able to figure out how she does it. It's not all the time, but it kind of moves like a cut fastball, which AFAIK isn't a thing in softball. I wish I knew how she did it because I'd love for her to be able to learn to do it intentionally.