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Q & A, Is Windmill Pitching Required?

by Dave
Wednesday, March 15, 2006

1. The ball must be delivered in an underhanded motion with the ball below the hip and the wrist no further from the body than the elbow.
   
2. The ball must be in the gloved hand or pitching hand, the two hands are apart and in front of the pitcher for a full second.   Then the hands must be brought together, then separated (only once) as the motion begins.
   
3. The pivot foot must remain in contact with the pitching plate at all times prior to ball release.   The pivot foot is permitted to be dragged off the plate along the ground.   What is not permitted anywhere is a "crow hop" in which the pivot foot leaves the plate, does not drag on the ground, and then replants at a new point of impetus before the ball is released.   Obtaining a second point of impetus is always prohibited.
   
4. The forward step of the pitcher must result in the forward foot landing within the column created by the 24 inches of the pitcher's plate between the plate and the batter.   The forward step must also be within the eight foot radius of the pitching circle.
   
5. A "rocking" motion in which the pivot foot is lifted off the plate then replanted before the forward step is generally considered an illegal pitch.
   
6. Two full revolutions of the pitching arm is prohibited.   A pitcher cannot deliver the ball with a windmill motion after which she continues to rotate her arm in another full circle.   Nor can she deliver the pitch after having made two full circles.   In other words, wherever the pitcher's arm begins the forward motion, whether that is for windmill, slingshot, or another type of delivery, it cannot pass that point twice.
   
   
   (The reason I mention this is because there is a "trick pitch" sometimes used by windmillers in which the arm swings back as if to start the windmill motion but as it swings forwards, the ball is released immediately before the arm begins the upward motion which will bring it around in a complete circle.   This is a legal pitch since two full revolutions are never made.   Similarly, a slingshot pitcher could release the ball and then continue through a windmilling of her arm and have the pitch considered legal because she does not complete two full rotations.   In "modified fastpitch pitch" leagues - usually adult - there is a motion allowed in which the ball can never rise above the head of the pitcher - windmilling is prohibited.   Usually this is associated with the classical slingshot style.   The arm swings back, ultimately the hand rising to about head level and is then slingshotted forward to the ball release point.   But you never see this sort of limitation in high school that I am aware.)

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