What is softball about
Softball is an American ball game related to the Danish “rundbold”, baseball and cricket. Softball is played with a bat (mostly aluminum or a composite material) and a hard leather ball with a core of cork and rubber. Softball has several variations including fastpitch and slowpitch. In Denmark, fastpitch softball is played almost exclusively. boldspil i familie med rundbold, baseball, cricket og rounders på engelsk. Softball spilles med et bat (oftest kompositmateriale og ikke træ som i baseball) og en hård læderbold med en kerne af kork og gummi. Softball har flere variationer bl.a. fastpitch og slowpitch fælles for dem er der bliver pitchet med underhåndskast som man kan se på billedet til højre. I Danmark spilles mest fastpitch softball men slowpitch er i fremgang; især for forældre og nye voksenspillere.
A game consists of two teams taking turns being offense, called “batting” and defense, called “fielding”. The offense send out a player to try to hit the ball thrown by the “pitcher” from the other team. If a player manages to hit the ball with the bat, they must run between four bases on the field. If they get safely to fourth base or “home”, they score, called a “run”. The fielding tries to get runners out before they can score.
The sport is widespread across the world, mainly in North and South America, but it is also the national sport in Japan.
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Softball's distinctive features
Softball is a significantly faster game than baseball. A match usually lasts about two hours, and although there are frequent breaks in the game, the pace explodes once the ball is sent into play. The entire game can be settled in a matter of a few frantic seconds. For the spectator, you're much closer to the game than in baseball because of the smaller field sizes. løbet af få hektiske sekunder. For tilskueren er man meget tættere på spillet end i baseball pga. de mindre banestørrelser.
Softball is very much a team sport where all players depend on each other. But the game's structure means there are many individual showdowns between the batter and the pitcher. Likewise, the vast majority of fielding plays are the result of the cooperation of two or perhaps more players. The confusion of the many individual situations and the fact that one is also dependent on your teammates is special to the sport.
It has been said that batting is one of the most difficult disciplines in any sport. If a batter can put the ball in play 30% of the time, they are considered a really good player. Thus, you fail more often than you are successful, and building confidence is therefore a very big part of the game.
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