Legal or Illegal pitching motion

Question
My daughter plays on a 10U team.  The umpire in our scrimmage says she has an illegal pitching motion.  I will try to explain what she does.  She starts with the ball in her right hand by her side (she is right-handed).  After looking in for the sign, she raises both hands out to the side and brings them together in front of her face.  She then takes them back over her head (with both hands in the glove).  She brings both hands forward to her face again.  Then she separates the ball and the glove.  The glove stays in front of her and the ball goes with her right arm through the pitching motion.  I think the umpire was trying to say she is deceiving the batter by bringing the ball and glove in front of her face twice.  I really don't know.  She has pitched for 3 years and has never been told this was illegal.  Maybe you can help me out with what she is doing wrong and possibly how to fix it.  Thanks.

Answer
Hi Greg,

Thank you for your question.  You provided me with a very clear and thorough description of your daughter's pitching motion.  As I always do with an ASA pitching question, I review Rule 6, PITCHING REGULATIONS.  Unless she is keeping her hands together for more than 10 seconds, I couldn't see anything wrong with, or illegal about, what she is doing.  There's certainly nothing in the pitching rule prohibiting bringing the joined hands in front of the face twice, which is the crux of the umpire's complaint.  No batter would be deceived by that, anyway.  The batter doesn't care what the pitcher does with her joined hands in that 1-10 second period.  They're just waiting for the separation of the hands, which signals the imminent delivery.

Scott Kelly