Indoor baseball was invented in 1887, according to NBCOlympics.com, when a group of Chicago boat club members waiting for the results of the annual Harvard-Yale football game first played the game. George Hancock, who laid out the first playing field inside of the club, is credited with inventing the game, which would later be known as softball. The game has evolved from indoor to outdoor fields and from a recreational competition to an internationally played professional sport. Its pitching style has also changed over time.
Field Layout
One of the most revolutionary changes to the sport has been its most controversial. In 2009, the National Federation of State High School Associations -- the governing body for American high school sports -- announced that the pitchers mound would move back, from 40 to 43 feet away from home plate. "The Akron Beacon-Journal" reported that the change was to prevent pitching from dominating games. The extra 3 feet would give hitters more time to make contact and put the ball in play, keeping defenders more engaged. College and professional players already compete at this distance. The national high school standard goes into place with the 2010-11 school year.
Conditioning
Modern softball players put a great deal of emphasis on conditioning as well as skill development. Aerobic and strength training take equal footing for pitchers, as they seek both stamina and power in their pitching form. SoftballPerformance.com has programs for building strength and power. These workouts include weightlifting, jump training and resistance exercise to strengthen muscles and increase the amount of force the pitchers can use when delivering a pitch.
Variety of Pitches
Much like their baseball contemporaries, the first softball pitchers worked varied speeds and location when battling hitters. Pitching technique evolved with the game with the introduction of breaking pitches. Introducing spin to a pitch, changes the route of the pitch. According to PitchSoftball.com, breaking pitches can drop, rise, curve and corkscrew, depending on the speed of the spin and pitch.
Ball Diameter
One of the biggest changes to pitching came in 1933 with the development of the first rulebook by the Amateur Softball Association. SoftballPerformance.com credits this event with the standardization of the softball's size. The 12-inch softball has been the standard ever since. The original softball introduced by Hancock was 16 inches in diameter, which is the size used by modern-day recreational slow-pitch softball leagues.
References
- NBCOlympics.com: Softball: Inside This Sport
- "The Akron Beacon-Journal": Softball pitching distance changing
- National Federation of State High School Associations: Softball Pitching Distance to Increase to 43 Feet in 2010-11
- SoftballPerformance.com: Softball Conditioning - Strength or Power?
- SoftballPerformance.com: History of Softball
- PitchSoftball.com: Make Your Pitches Break Better
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