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The Art Of Playing Softball
By James Monahan, Tue Jan 10th
In today's sports, softball is considered to be the most commonsport that is able to accumulate approximately 56 millionAmericans who will vie for anything just to be able to play thiswell-loved game in a year. Before, softball was considered as a game only for women, butlater on gained acceptance and was widely played by more playersregardless of their respective genders. Basically, the concept behind this very competitive game is fora player, known as the batter, to hit the ball thrown by anotherplayer, known as the pitcher.
The ring-shaped rod being used to hit the ball is identified asa bat. To be able to score in the game, the batter has to runand tap the four bases in the playing field after hitting theball. In reality, the mechanics of softball is not at all different tothat of baseball. Though, they also differ in some ways like theball's size, the way the ball is being thrown, the size of theplaying field, and the number of innings in a given game. Basically, there are two types of softball: fastpitch andslowpitch. Fastpitch is, generally, focused on the pitcher. In this game, the chance of winning the game is based on theability of the pitcher to release the ball at utmost velocity inan even curve, thus, making it very hard to hit. With this kindof ball delivery, the batter is usually blasted with numerousground balls and strikeout cases. The next type of softball is the slowpitch. Here, the battergains more confidence in winning the game. However, theslowpitch softball is still dependent on the pitcher, whether heor she is an offensive pitcher or a defensive one. The offensive pitcher is usually employed when playing informalsets of games. The bottom line here is that the game is more ofa social function
rather than being on its bloodthirsty fieldactions. The defensive pitcher, on the other hand, is normally used inmost slowpitch games. Here, it is required for a thrown ball todefine a curve with the highest point slightly over the batter'shead. Because of this condition, the pitcher is made to throw the ballin such a slower pace so as to define the said curve. That iswhy most batters achieve considerable scores in this kind ofsoftball. Consequently, softball is based on this concept of hitting theball and pitching that the score can be identified. A score canonly be achieved if a player makes one complete rotation in thefour bases. Accordingly, the batter is considered out or is no longerallowed to hit the ball when he or she had accumulated threestrikes, was hit by the ball or by the glove that contains theball, the fielder touched the base even before the batter getsclose to it, and when the ball hit by the batter was caught by afielder and had not yet touched the ground. The conditions of the ball being pitched and hit and theposition of the players in the field while playing softball areall being decided by umpires. They render their decisionsthrough the use of hand signals. Indeed, softball is a more modern way of playing baseball. Butthe reason why most players appreciate softball more than thebaseball game is that softball is a game that requires acombination of constant force and power at the same time use ofstrong mind power coupled with skills and determination. It iscertainly an art playing softball. About the author:James Monahan is the owner and Senior Editor of SoftballHub.com and writesexpert articles about softball.
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