One statement I continually hear is “Oh, fast pitch softball pitching is not that hard.” A lot of people I know do not seem to understand all the hard work that goes into pitching. If they did, they would understand that fast pitch pitching is not as easy as it seems. I have been pitching for six years, so pitching is my life. It really is thrilling for someone who has nerves of steel and knows that the game rests in their hands, literally. I plan on explaining the mechanics, the mentality, and the pitches a pitcher must have in order to excel in the world of fast pitch pitching. The mechanics to fast pitch softball can be difficult to learn and can take years of practice. To first pitch a softball, one must stand on the pitching rubber. …show more content…
A fastball is an easy, basic pitch to learn and perform. One must grip the ball with four fingers on the top of the C seam. Also, this pitch is released by the hip. The next pitch that is vital to a pitcher is the changeup. A changeup, also known as an off-speed pitch, is a pitch that is ten to fifteen miles per hour slower than a fastball. There are many ways that someone could throw a changeup. The different ways include: knuckle, u-shape, and flip. I throw the knuckle ball, which is the hardest one to learn. A knuckle changeup has no spin on it and it “falls off a table” and dies into the ground if somebody hits it. The third pitch most people learn is the screwball. A screwball drives into the handle of a right handed batter. This in turn makes the batter hit a soft grounder to the short stop or third base. In order to throw a screwball, one must put their index finger on the top of the seam of the C and when the hand gets next to the hip the pitcher has to “twist the doorknob.” The next pitch, and my favorite, is the curveball. It took me a little while to master the pitch and learn to execute this pitch correctly. To throw this pitch, one must grip the softball like a fastball but with the C seam flipped so it is a backwards C. Also the pitcher has to move their hand in a counterclockwise direction. A curve ball breaks away from a right-handed batter and it is used many