Repetition

As softball is concerned, normally, I pitch. Here's how I ply my trade:

The Backspin Pitch – Unlike most pitchers, I choose to pitch with my hand on top of the ball, imparting backspin instead of topspin. My reasoning is it makes the pitch look different to the batter, in spin and flight, and thus makes the batter a little uncomfortable. As I have good control of this pitch, I use it about 85% of the time.

The Severe Backspin Pitch (aka, The Nasty) – This pitch is identical in grip to the Backspin, but instead of simply letting the ball come out of my hand, I snap my wrist towards home plate, imparting vicious backspin to the ball. This creates a different visual effect, and it encourages the ball to fall straight down at the end of its flight. If I'm not pitching a standard backspin, I'm most likely throwing the Nasty.

The Knuckleball – Here, I put my hand in a traditional, under-the-ball position, but unlike most such pitches, I hold the ball with the tips of my fingers, pushing the ball off the tips at the end of the pitching motion. The value of this pitch is it has little or no spin, thus it looks quite different from the backspin variety. A knuckleball preceded by two to three backspin pitches will look quite bizarre, and again, hopefully make the batter uncomfortable.

The Curveball – Here, you make a circle with your thumb and index finger, placing the circle on the outside of the ball, with your remaining fingers underneath. Pitch with a normal, underhanded toss, but at the end of your arm swing, roll your hand such that the ring moves towards the top of the ball. This produces, a cool visual effect, with the ball screwing through the air, and moving right to left. Used rarely, and then only in Men's leagues against lefties.

The Standard – This pitch, you guessed, is the standard underhanded toss. Used rarely, and then usually in men's leagues. If you want more fly balls, pitch this. If you want more ground balls, use backspin.

All these pitches, and for what? The value of a pitcher in softball is indeed questioned by many. While it is true that most athletic people will have some aptitude for tossing a ball, there are many cases where a batter will willingly walk if given the opportunity. Particularly in Co-Ed, where men get two bases for a walk, pitching strikes is key. But is there any value to using different pitches, or is my job simply to be an "accuracy monkey"?

While this is a question for the ages, and somewhat rhetorical, it is clear that I wasn't even an accuracy monkey on Monday when our new Co-Ed league kicked off. I walked the first batter (both men) of the first and second inning, and was rarely comfortable pitching in that first game. In the last inning, I realized I wasn't holding the ball correct, made an adjustment, and Yahtzee!, I could pitch again. This being my first league in four months, the lack of repetition had made me quite pedestrian.

Does the same hold for running? I think not, in many respects. I think long runs, particularly for experienced runners, are mental exercises, not physical. While you need your brain to get a fresh reminder of the challenge of distance running, your body has long since wired itself to be up to the task. Although tou need to work your aerobic and lactic acid thresholds, these can be maintained with shorter runs or other activities.

This is good because I haven't ran since last Wednesday! I've real biked, fake biked, worked out, and played softball, but no running. I would have ran speed work yesterday, but the imminent threat of rain (which never materialized) scared me off. Today was more threat of rain (thanks Humberto!); more biking and lifting was all I could do.

My fascia are at least getting a rest, and I've been eating good for the last few days with some surprisingly quick and positive results; maybe I won't be as tubby as I thought when it comes time to run Chicago. The dress shoe inserts, though causing some initial awkwardness and back pain, do help the fascia as well; hopefully they will be fully healed when it next comes time to run.