Pitching dominates the game of competitive softball. Pitchers can throw fastballs at speeds approaching 70 mph and that’s the equivalent of a 95 mph fastball in baseball. Additionally, many pitchers can throw drops, risers, curves and changes of pace. The ability to throw these pitches with control and efficiency means that runs are a premium in girls softball.
Pushing Off the Rubber
The push off the rubber can be one of the most important steps in a pitcher’s delivery to the plate. A good push off the mound with your drive leg can give you more whip in your arm motion and make sure your arm has the kind of force behind it to throw with maximum velocity. Pitchers who push off the rubber hard will get maximum torque when they deliver the ball and become a difficult pitcher to hit.
Move the Ball Around
Even if you have a strong fastball, good hitters will eventually time your pitch and hit you hard if you tend to hit the middle of the plate or find the same spot time after time when you pitch. However, even if you don’t have the best stuff, you will keep hitters off balance and guessing. Move the ball in and out, up and down. When you get ahead in the count, throw pitches that appear to be strikes but end up outside the strike zone. This will make you a more effective pitcher.
Field Your Position
Since runs are at a premium in girls softball, you have to be able to field your position. In close games, your opponent will use the sacrifice bunt to move runners and that means you will have to be an active and aggressive fielder who is anticipating the move and knows how to pick up the ball cleanly and make the correct decision when you throw it. Many balls are also hit up the middle and you will do yourself and your teammates a big favor if you can make plays on balls you can reach.
About this Author
Steve Silverman is an award-winning writer, covering sports since 1980. Silverman authored The Minnesota Vikings: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Who’s Better, Who’s Best in Football — The Top 60 Players of All-Time, among others, and placed in the Pro Football Writers of America awards three times. Silverman holds a Master of Science in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism.
