Been lurking for a while but I had something come up tonight that I wanted to get some feedback from you guys on. 15U game, FED rules.
F1 has a funky way of coming set -- he brings the hands together at about eye level and at the same time as the hands come together, he starts a slow bend of the knees. Both hands and knees stay in motion until the hands are just below the chin, and which time the hands stop, but the knees keep bending, bringing him lower and right into his delivery. In other words, the arms and hands stop relative to the upper body (there is of course the continued downward movement solely as a result of the continued knees bending), but an no time is there ever a complete stop of all motion. This only happens sometimes, though, usually he's stopping--and he's always at least close to stopping--at the bottom of the knee bend before coming to the plate.
At this age if I get a F1 that I can tell is going to be "close" to a pause all night, I will tell the catcher right away that I'm going to need a complete stop, and usually they'll take a trip to the mound and take care of it, or if it happens late in the inning I may quietly give the coach a "make sure your pitcher comes to a complete stop, coach" between innings. Said something to the coach about it tonight (F1 is his kid, of course), and he says "Sure, but only his hands have to stop." I said no, I need a complete and discernible stop, not just the movement of the hands. He acts like that's the most asinine thing he's ever heard but instructs F1 to come to a complete stop, and that's the end of it.
Please tell me I'm not missing something here. If he doesn't stop his knees as well as his hands at some point, how is this not a balk?
And incidentally, if coach is correct, hypothetically, and F1 has satisfied the "complete stop" simply by stopping the movement of his hands relative to his upper body, then the continued movement of the knees is the beginning of his delivery and he's committed to the plate at that point. And therefore, if he does stop the knee bend before coming to the plate, I have a start-stop balk. I feel like this is a stupid question. But this coach just seemed sufficiently sure of himself that it had me second guessing whether there's an interpretation I'm unaware of.
Thanks guys.
