Slow-pitch softball FAQ

• Motions: slow-pitch covers the batting swing. Fast-pitch adds the slap hit.
• Thresholds: most of the shared swing checks are relaxed for slow-pitch, where the high arc gives you time, and most are tightened for fast-pitch, where the reaction window is short.
• Sport-only reads, on the batting swing: slow-pitch checks whether you drift forward instead of staying back on the arc; fast-pitch checks for a long swing that takes too long from the top of the load to contact.
• Filming: fast-pitch clips are expected at 60 fps, while a slow-pitch clip at 30 fps is not flagged as under-sampled.

Both are directional reads from single-camera pose. Slap hitting is covered on the fast-pitch page. Neither analyzes throwing or pitching.

The batting swing has a bat to trace, and the checks described in what the analysis reads, the drift check among them, run on it.

Start recording before you load, not as the ball arrives. The slow-pitch drift check compares where your body is at the load with where it is at contact, so both moments have to be in the clip.

Frame the hitter, not the pitcher or tosser — another person in view can be tracked instead of you. A 30 fps clip is accepted for slow-pitch, though 60 fps still sharpens contact; see frame rate for slow-pitch.

The drift check looks at how far your body slides forward between the load and contact. Against a slow, high-arc pitch a big slide usually means lunging at the ball rather than letting it travel, and the fix points you to staying loaded on the back side longer and turning around a steady center.

The swing is also run through the mechanics every bat sport shares — casting, head drift, early shoulder pull, separation, hip turn and posture — with thresholds set for slow-pitch timing.

Not claimed from video: pitch arc measurement, measured bat speed and ball flight.

A large forward slide between load and contact usually means you went to get the ball instead of letting it come to you, which is the timing mistake the high arc invites. That is the one slow-pitch timing signal the read reports, alongside the order your hips, torso and hands fire.

For a retest that compares fairly, face similar pitching as well as filming from the same spot: a flatter or loopier arc changes your timing on its own. The glossary covers timing the arc as a skill.

60 fps is still worth using if your phone offers it: the slow-pitch filming tips suggest it, and a clip well under that may get a "use 60fps if available" line among its recovery tips. Read that as a nice-to-have for a crisper contact frame, not a reason to re-film.

Light, steadiness and keeping the whole bat in view usually matter more for slow-pitch than extra frames. General settings help is in what frame rate to use.

Slow-pitch also gets a check baseball does not have: drifting forward instead of staying back on the arc. And some of the shared fixes carry a slow-pitch note — the arc gives you time, so win it with a controlled, hip-led turn rather than rushing the hands.

Head drift and early shoulder pull are held to the same standard as baseball. Confidence is capped the same way for both, so a clean clip of either still reads as directional guidance.