Check out the video below where former D1 head softball coach Holly Bruder shares how midfielders can avoid making common highlight video mistakes. While contact from coach to athlete is much more restricted by these new rules, athletes still can—and should—proactively contact college coaches at any time. Reach out early to make sure you’re on the coach’s list of recruits by September 1.
What’s more, thanks to liberal rules, softball pitchers release the ball from even closer than that, slightly less than 40 feet—about 20 feet closer than a baseball pitcher. Top softball pitchers like Jennie Finch can throw roughly 70 miles per hour, the equivalent of a low-90s fastball thrown from 60 feet away. There are, of course, many hundreds of human beings who can hit a low-90s fastball. But most of them play professional baseball, and nearly all of them are men. And anyway, fast-pitch pitchers don’t just throw fastballs. They keep the batters guessing with rise balls, drop balls, curves, and in-shoots.
Olympic level softball was on the Summer Olympic program from 1996 to 2008. The sport of softball was later removed from the programme for 2012 and 2016, but was slated to be re-added for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Along with softball, the International Olympic Committee had added baseball, skateboarding, karate, sports climbing, and surfing to the Summer Olympic games. The IOC expressed consideration of the youth focus and increasing interest in the newly added sports.
However, even back then, I’m not sure my speed was what really made me effective. The OP linked a story about the perfect game pitched by the UNT pitcher in a D-1 NCAA women’s softball game. Thus, I assume that your response about “good softball pitchers” was in reference to women softball pitchers. Most women’s college softball pitchers will throw in the 60-65mph range, with the good pitchers averaging 65 mph. Only a handfull of elite college softball pitchers reach 70 mph.
Yes, a few jumped into the low 60’s but they were consistently cruising high 50’s pitch after pitch. Both are freshman I believe but it was one of those games where I was maybe my DD is on track? Who knows, the radar could have been off and I know both can throw much faster but they were not cruising there during the game.
The Farragut Club soon set rules for the game, which spread quickly to outsiders. Envisioned as a way for baseball players to maintain their skills during the winter, the sport was called “Indoor Baseball”. Now, that said you are going to hear a bunch of people tell you outrageous numbers the classic “My girl is 8.5 and throws 54 mph!” Don’t let that detour you or her in her goals. Whether that is accuracy, speed, a new pitch, a better change up…. If I remember correctly last year at 10u PGF Nationals there was a girl throwing high 50’s and may have been hitting 60 mph. Not saying it is common but there are some very hard throwing girls at 10u here and there.
Fly balls come off the bat at a launch angle of 25-50° and these are good for power hitters. There is never really an apparent reason to hit a fly ball, the best case scenario would be to foul it off out of play in a battle atec pitching machine balls at the plate. It is always better to hit a line drive than a ground ball, especially as the defensive game gets more competitive. It is always best to find a gap rather than hit it right at the defensive players.
While it may seem like your average softball pitch speed is all that matters to recruiters, it isn’t. You can be a dangerous force throwing under 63 miles per hour, as long as you have great spin and late break. To help pitchers understand what benchmarks they should reach and when, Rapsodo created aSoftball Pitching Averages by Age Guide.