February 2022 Plays and Clarifications
2022 National Umpire Schools:
Our National Umpire Schools are off and running. We have held three schools so far, USA Softball of Kentucky, USA Softball of Alabama and USA Softball of Sacremento. We have three left, February 19th – 20th USA Softball of Maryland April 2nd – 3rd USA Softball of New Hampshire and April 22nd – 24th USA Softball of South Dakota. Even though the Maryland school is right around the corner I am sure they have openings. If you want more information on any of the schools for 2022, please go to www.usasoftball.com under the umpire program. They are listed under the Umpire Tab / National Umpire School.
2022 Fast Pitch Camp:
Regretfully the National Fast Pitch Camp, scheduled for USA Softball of Georgia, had to be canceled for the 2022 season. The tournament that was going to be used for the camp was moved to a new location and a new date. The new dates presented conflicts that has caused us to cancel the camp for 2022. The 2023 USA Softball Fast Pitch Camp is scheduled for USA Softball of Texas. More information will be out soon so watch for information from your Regional Umpire-in-Chief.
2023 Biennial UIC Clinic:
The 2023 Biennial UIC Clinic will be in person and will be held February 2-4th with a few presentations held on the night of the 2nd with the kickoff being held on Friday AM the 3rd, followed by more meeting on Saturday the 4th and the banquet on the night of the 4th. Sunday as per normal will be a travel home day. The host hotel will be the Sheraton downtown with the meeting being held at the new Oklahoma City Convention Center. More information with costs, when you can make reservations, subjects etc. is forthcoming in a near future. Block the weekend end off now and be ready to make plans to attend IN PERSON once again.
New Pitching Rule:
As you may be aware the USA Softball Council voted in a pitching rule change for Women and Junor Olympic Classifications of Play effective 2022. The new rule allows pitchers in those classifications of play to have both feet in the air during the pitching motion. The remaining pitching rules for Women and Junior Olympic Girls Classification of Play remains unchanged. The intent of the rule was for those current pitchers that leave the ground slightly causing both feet to be in the air would no longer be called illegal.
This change has brought up a lot of questions about a replant and restart of the pitch. Because Women and JO Females pitch more with their hips and not as much with their arm, we don’t expect a lot of female pitchers to adopt the men’s style of pitching. However, if they do land in what appears to be a replant as long as the hands are separated, and the arm stays in motion, this would not be a replant and would be a legal pitch. As a rule of thumb under the new rule for the pitch to be illegal, a girl would need to have both feet in the air and land with their hands together thus starting the pitch from a new position, in order for this to be an illegal pitch.
Don’t make more out of the new rule. It is designed for those pitchers who get slightly airborne not to be called illegal.
2022 Rule Book:
Hopefully by now you are aware that only a limited number of rule books have been printed for the 2022 season. For the first time the USA Softball Official Rules of Softball have been posted on the USA Softball website. Just go on USA Softball.com and click on Official Rulebook. You can download it and/or print it for your files.
Register, Background Check, and Safe Sport:
As a reminder, as we move into the 2022 National Championship Season, any umpires going to a National Championship must be Registered, Background Checked and complete Safe Sport for 2022. In addition, if you are umpiring any Junior Olympic Play, Championships or not, you must be Safe Sport Certified. Now is the time to get online and take the 2022 requirements. Click here for directions on how to get to Safe Sport Certified and reach the new Safe Sport website. Please do two things:
- Follow the directions completely verbatim.
- Download a copy of your certificate so if for some reason it does not sink and post you as completing the correct cores you can send in your certificate, and we can post it in your profile.
Available for download: