In DayZ, before you are able to strike with a melee weapon, your character must first raise it in the air before landing a blow. Nearly all the melee weapons in the game use arching attacks in order to hit the enemy.
The only exception to this is the Pitchfork. Your character, for some reason, would first raise the Pitchfork in a seemingly effort to land it with force, while then proceeding to bring it at around chest level and prodding the enemy.
This is confusing, as the 'raised' animation for the pitchfork sells the idea that your character is about to land a blow from above, and then doing something completely different. Secondly, it is hard to tell whether your character is merely bringing the Pitchfork to waist level, or striking at the enemy. Personally, this has resulted in much confusion as to trying to figure out why nearly all my attacks were missing with the pitchfork.