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Soft ball is an old concept of indoor sport, very much similar to the baseball but played with a larger ball and on smaller field. Or in other words, you can say softball is a variation of baseball game, which played with a larger ball of about of 30cm in circumference and 8 cm large than the normal baseball and also played in a smaller field. Though the name suggests, this as a soft ball, but it is not a soft ball.
Soft ball game too played between two teams, each having 10 players, whose aim is to score more and more points against the opponents, and the team with more score wins the match. Women’s Softball fast pitch game was also a part of Olympic games in 1996 and also part in 2000 and 2004 Olympics. And United States is the winner of all the three times in Softball Olympic history.
History of this game begins in the year 1888 in Chicago, so Chicago is the mother place of Softball sports. But the name, soft ball given to it in 1926, earlier this game is known as Indoor Baseball. In year 1933, softball becomes a part of International sport, as there was a tournament organized in Chicago World Fair, for its promotion.
An organization was founded in the year, 1933 named as Amateur Softball Association Of America for promoting softball game all over the world, and organizing International tournaments, and they are having branches in more than 100 countries all over the world.
There are few types of softball equipments that a player need to play softball game, this mainly includes bat, ball, gloves, protective equipment, etc. Bat should be made of metal and about 34inch long and, 2.25inch in diameter, and approx of 01 Kg weight. Ball as we already told you that apart from name, there is no other softness in the ball, it’s a proper large ball. Players wear gloves in hand for proper grip to play attacking shots or be defensive; these are mostly made up of leathers. Apart from these there are few other protective equipment too, like helmets that protects the player from injuries.
If we are discussing about softball sports, then we have to discuss forms of softball like fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch.
Fast Pitch: As the name suggests it’s a fast pitch game, and ball is deliver with full speed, and the batsman always try to play defensively. Ball is delivering with more than 100 km per hour in this form. These are played in smaller fields as its difficult to shot big hits here.
Slow Pitch:This is just the opposite of Fast pitch game. Players enjoy hitting big shots in this game. This sport is completely an attacking one. And ball is delivering with normal speed, which gives the striker time to play big shots or even the defensive shots.
Modified Pitch:- A combination of slow and fast pitch, and speed pitch is normal here, and player play comfortably in these conditions.
So, above are the introduction, history, equipments, organizations and roles of Softball sports. And,we think you all are satisfied with my views over softball game. |
