A Small Detail With Big Consequences: USSSA’s Pitching-Hand Rule
The new rulebook for the upcoming season will soon be out! Last year had a slight rule change on the pitching hand, what will come this year? Let’s review last year’s change. A pitcher’s hand may seem like a minor detail in a fastpitch game, but what touches the ball and when, can affect whether a pitch is legal. The 18th Edition of the USSSA Fastpitch Rulebook, printed in December 2025, spells out the requirements in Rule 6, Section 1.I.
COACHES ONLY
Coach K
10/21/20262 min read
A Small Detail With Big Consequences: USSSA’s Pitching-Hand Rule
The new rulebook for the upcoming season will soon be out! Last year had a slight rule change on the pitching hand, what will come this year? Let’s review last year’s change.
A pitcher’s hand may seem like a minor detail in a fastpitch game, but what touches the ball and when, can affect whether a pitch is legal. The 18th Edition of the USSSA Fastpitch Rulebook, printed in December 2025, spells out the requirements in Rule 6, Section 1.I.
The key distinction is between licking the fingers and using a permitted drying agent. A pitcher who licks her fingers must wipe them off before touching the ball. The rule also prohibits moisture or foreign substances on the ball, hand, or fingers. Under umpire supervision, however, the pitcher may use dirt, powdered resin, or an approved drying agent to dry the hand that contacts the ball and does not have to wipe the hand afterward. If she uses another substance, including chalk, she must wipe her hand before touching the ball. Tacky or sticky substances cannot be used in place of a powdered drying agent.
The practical message is straightforward: the rule doesn’t require a pitcher to wipe her hand after every use of an approved drying agent, but it does require her to wipe after licking her fingers or using another substance such as chalk. Umpire supervision matters, too. Players and coaches should not apply moisture or foreign substances to the ball, and pitchers should use only the items the rule permits.
It is worth being precise about what changed. The 18th Edition’s change list describes Rule 6, Section 1 as a clarification concerning wiping the pitching hand; it does not present the section as a wholly new restriction. The printed rule makes the circumstances clearer by distinguishing approved drying agents from other substances. That distinction can be easy to miss if people remember only the general instruction to “wipe the hand.”
That clarity may also help prevent avoidable disputes. A coach might see a pitcher use resin and assume she must wipe her hand, while an umpire applying the written rule may allow her to proceed without doing so. Conversely, a pitcher who uses chalk or licks her fingers and then touches the ball without wiping may be treated differently. Those are plausible points of confusion based on the rule’s wording, not verified reports of widespread problems this season.
As another season gets underway, pitchers, coaches, and umpires will keep adapting to the latest clarifications. That leaves to wonder, what rule changes will come this year?
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