1. The Basics
Softball is baseball's friendlier cousin. Same shape, bigger ball, gentler pitching. Here's the bare minimum you need to step on a field without looking lost.
The field (not pitch!)
It's a field, not a pitch — and where you stand is grass and dirt, not a wicket strip. The diamond of four bases sits in one corner; everyone else fans out from there.
Our league plays 10 in the field, not the usual 9 — the standard infield plus a fourth outfielder. Left-centre and right-centre split the back between them, so there are fewer gaps to drop a ball into.
| Pos | Name | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| P | Pitcher | Lobs the ball gently to the batter (underarm, on an arc). |
| C | Catcher | Receives pitches behind home plate. |
| 1B | First base | Stands by 1st. Catches throws to put the batter-runner out. |
| 2B | Second base | Covers the right side of the infield, near 2nd. |
| SS | Shortstop | Roves between 2nd and 3rd. Busiest infielder. |
| 3B | Third base | Stands by 3rd. Strong arm needed — it's the long throw to 1st. |
| LF | Left field | Deep, to the batter's left as they look out. |
| LCF | Left-centre | One of our four outfielders — covers left-centre. |
| RCF | Right-centre | The fourth outfielder — fills the right-centre gap. |
| RF | Right field | Deep, to the batter's right as they look out. |
The shape of a game
- Two teams. One bats, the other fields. Then they swap. That's half an inning.
- You bat until you get 3 outs. Then you swap.
- A full game is typically 7 innings (corporate leagues often play time-limited — usually ~50 minutes).
- Whoever has more runs at the end wins. A run = a player goes all the way around the bases back to home.
At-bat basics
- You get 3 strikes (you're out) or 4 balls (you walk to 1st).
- A strike = you swung and missed, OR the pitch was in the strike zone and you didn't swing, OR you hit it foul.
- A ball = the pitch was outside the strike zone and you didn't swing.
- If you hit it fair, run! You're now a runner.
Our games start the count at 1 & 1
While you bat, someone keeps a running tally of your balls and strikes. That tally is called the count, and it's always read balls first, then strikes — so "1 and 1" means one ball and one strike.
In a normal game, every batter starts that tally from scratch at 0 and 0. To speed our games up, we start every batter already at 1 and 1 — exactly as if the umpire had called your first ball and your first strike before you'd even seen a pitch.
Where you begin every at-bat in our league:
So from your very first pitch you have less room than usual:
- Two more strikes and you're out (your starting 1 + 2 = 3).
- Three more balls and you walk to 1st (your starting 1 + 3 = 4).
The five ways you can get out
- Strikeout — 3 strikes at the plate.
- Flyout (caught) — fielder catches your hit before it lands.
- Force out — fielder touches a base you're forced to before you arrive. → Section 4
- Tag out — fielder with the ball touches you while you're off a base. → Section 4
- Tagging up violation / appeal — runner leaves early on a caught fly ball. → Section 5
2. Pitching & the Strike Zone
Slow-pitch is a totally different beast from baseball pitching. The pitcher's job is to give you a hittable ball — not strike you out.
See it from the side: the legal arc
Side view from pitcher to home plate. The ball must arc over head height at its peak and land on the mat. Slide to change the peak.
See it from above: line up the mat
Same pitch, looking straight down. The side view was the arc; this is the aim. The ball has to find the mat side to side as well as land at the right depth. The batter shown is right-handed (third-base side).
The arc rule
The pitch must be lobbed underhand with an arc — typically between 6 and 12 feet at its highest point. Flat pitches don't count. Sky-high pitches don't count.
If the arc is wrong, the umpire calls "illegal" and it's an automatic ball (unless you swing — then it counts as a normal pitch).
The mat (your league uses one)
Behind home plate sits a rectangular mat. The strike zone is simple:
- Pitch lands on the mat (or any part of home plate) with legal arc → STRIKE, whether you swing or not.
- Pitch lands off the mat → BALL, unless you swing.
This makes life simple — no judgement call on the umpire's part about an imaginary zone over your knees.
What you can do at the plate
- Swing and miss → strike.
- Foul off → strike — and in our league it still counts on two strikes, so a foul with 2 strikes is strike three and you're out. (Most leagues let you foul indefinitely; ours doesn't, to keep games quick.)
- Hit fair → you're a runner, go!
- Take a pitch on the mat → strike (this is the one that surprises cricketers).
- Take a pitch off the mat → ball.
3. Fair vs Foul
If you hit it in fair territory, it's in play and you run. If it's foul, it doesn't count as a hit — but it does count as a strike against you. Click anywhere on the field below to see whether that hit is fair or foul.
The rule, in one line
Fair territory is the wedge of the field inside the two foul lines, which run from home plate through 1st base and through 3rd base out to the fence.
Click anywhere on the field
Edge cases worth knowing
- A ball that lands fair in the infield then rolls into foul territory before reaching 1st or 3rd is FOUL.
- A ball that lands fair past 1st or 3rd is fair, even if it rolls foul afterwards.
- A ball that hits the foul line is FAIR — the line is part of fair territory.
- A fielder who reaches into foul territory and catches a fly is still a catch — you're out.
4. Force Outs vs Tags — the one we keep losing on
This is the rule that costs us games. Get this right and you'll save 2-3 runs every match. Toggle the runners on the diamond below to see how forces work.
The two-sentence summary
Tagging the runner always works. If a runner is off a base, touch them with the ball (or a glove holding the ball) and they're out — every time, in every situation. This is the one you can never get wrong.
A force out is a bonus, not a different rule. When a runner must advance (the runner behind them is taking their base), you get an extra option: just touch the base they're heading to while holding the ball — no tag needed. It saves you chasing the runner, but you could still tag them instead. The force adds an option; it never takes the tag away.
Why a runner is "forced"
The batter, after hitting the ball, becomes the batter-runner and must run to 1st. That displaces anyone already on 1st — they have to go to 2nd. Which displaces anyone on 2nd. And so on.
A runner is forced if and only if every base behind them is occupied (counting the batter-runner as occupying home).
- Batter-runner → always forced to 1st (it's the whole reason forces exist).
- Runner on 1st → forced to 2nd (batter is behind them).
- Runner on 2nd → forced to 3rd only if there's also a runner on 1st.
- Runner on 3rd → forced home only if 1st and 2nd are also occupied (i.e. bases loaded).
↓ Try it: click bases to add/remove runners ↓
Play at each base
Turning two — the double play
Two outs on one batted ball. They get turned on us now and then; here's how we start turning them ourselves. The good news: a double play is nothing new — it's just two force outs on one ground ball, and forces are quick because you only touch the bag.
When it's on the table
Only when there's a runner on 1st. The batter forces that runner to 2nd, and the batter is forced to 1st — two forced runners means two bags to touch, no tags needed.
Hit Toggle 1st on the diamond above: FORCE appears at both 1st and 2nd. That's a double play sitting there waiting.
The move
- Lead out first. Throw to 2nd — the runner from 1st is forced, so whoever covers the bag just steps on it. Out one.
- Relay to 1st. The batter-runner is forced too. Step on 1st. Out two.
- No tags, anywhere. Touch 2nd, touch 1st. That's the whole reason it's fast enough to get both.
In our league nobody can leave their base until the ball is hit, so the runner on 1st starts flat-footed on the bag — plenty of time to beat them to 2nd if we're sharp.
5. Tagging Up
When the batter hits a ball in the air and it's caught, runners can't just take off — they have to "tag up" first.
The rule
If a fly ball is caught:
- The batter is out (flyout).
- All other runners must be touching their base at the moment the ball is caught.
- Once the ball is caught, they may try to advance — at their own risk.
If a runner leaves their base early, the defence can appeal: throw to the base the runner left from, touch it, and the umpire calls them out.
When to tag up and run
Tagging up is most common from 3rd base: a deep fly ball to the outfield gives you time to tag, then sprint home after the catch. This is called a sacrifice fly — the batter is out, but you score a run.
From 2nd or 1st, you usually only tag up on very deep flies, because you don't gain much.
↓ Try it: you're on 3rd. Time the catch ↓
The play
What we get wrong
The "halfway" technique
On a fly ball where you're not sure if it'll be caught, advanced runners go halfway between bases:
- If caught: sprint back to your base (you weren't forced).
- If dropped: sprint to the next base.
Don't do this if you're forced — on a force, you have to run whether it's caught or not... but if it's caught, you're heading back anyway to avoid the appeal.
6. Base Running
Once you're on base, you have one job: don't get tagged out. The rules of when you can run and how far you can go matter.
No leadoffs, no stealing
In slow-pitch, you must stay on your base until the pitch crosses home plate. You can't take a lead like in baseball. You can't steal.
The 1st-base exception
You can overrun 1st base without being tagged out, as long as:
- You ran through it (you didn't slow down to stop on it).
- When you return, you go straight back to 1st, not toward 2nd.
If you turn toward 2nd (even a feint), you're now a "live" runner and can be tagged out before reaching 1st again.
All other bases
2nd, 3rd, and home: you must either be touching the bag or be running toward the next one. Stepping off to chat is a great way to get tagged out.
If a fielder has the ball nearby and you're off the bag, dive back. Or commit and run.
Reading a pop fly as a runner
When a fly ball goes up and you genuinely can't tell if it'll be caught, don't guess — take a halfway lead toward the next base and let the ball decide for you.
Say you're on 2nd, there's a runner on 1st, and a pop fly drops between 1st and 2nd:
- If it's caught — you're not forced (a catch makes the batter out). Scramble back to 2nd before they throw behind you.
- If it drops — you are forced (the batter becomes a runner heading to 1st, which pushes everyone up a base). Sprint to 3rd.
Halfway is the only spot that lets you do either. Commit too early and one of the two outcomes burns you.
↓ Try it: you're on 2nd. Read the bloop ↓
The play
What we get wrong
Sliding
Not required. Useful at 2nd, 3rd, and home if a throw is coming. Some leagues require a slide (or "avoidance manoeuvre") at home plate to prevent collisions — check your specific rules.
The "must advance / must not pass" rules
- You cannot pass the runner ahead of you. If you do, you're out.
- Two runners cannot occupy the same base. If they do, the trailing runner is out if tagged.
7. Co-ed League Rules
London corporate co-ed leagues have a few extra rules to keep the game balanced. Worth knowing so we don't accidentally bat out of order.
Alternating batting order
We field a 6-and-4 split — six of one gender, four of the other — so a perfectly alternating order isn't possible. The rule: alternate as far as you can, with the majority gender allowed back-to-back exactly once in the lineup (the slack the 6-to-4 imbalance buys you). So 6 men / 4 women lets two men pair up once; 6 women / 4 men lets two women pair up once. The minority gender never bats back-to-back. You set the order before the game.
If you bat out of order and the defence notices, the proper batter is called out — and the team keeps the previous outcome stripped. Don't do it.
Try it: build a legal batting order
In a 6-and-4 split you can't fully alternate, so the order gets one spot where the majority gender bats back-to-back (shown amber). A second such pair — or any pair of the minority gender — is illegal (shown red). Add your team, reorder with the arrows, and watch the readout.
Outfielder positioning rule
This is a rule in our league. When a female batter is up, outfielders must stay behind a line (often 175 ft from home) until the ball is hit. If they break the line early, the batter gets a free base.
Frankly, we find it pretty sexist, and we don't play that way — we field everyone the same regardless of who's batting.
10 fielders, 4 outfielders
Co-ed slow-pitch teams usually field 10 players instead of the standard 9 — with a 4th outfielder (LF, LCF, RCF, RF). More gloves, less running.
The outfield must be co-ed too: you can't put four women out there. At least one male has to be among the outfielders.
8. Quick Quiz
10 scenarios. If you get 8+, you're ready. If not, revisit the sections you missed.