Pitching and Pitchers Discussion 43' pitching distance at 14U

You will still have dominate pitchers. It is not all about how hard you throw it gets to be more about the movement of the ball. Thus making pitchers work more on control and spin rather than just throwing hard. Any good high school player should be able to hit a fastball on the plate. Does not matter if you are at 40 or 43. Just my thoughts.

We played a 14U ISA tourney in KY this past season and threw at 43 feet. ISA was proactive in moving the pitching distance back, at least in KY, because the HS moved to 43 feet for the 2010 season, while OHSAA held off and will implement it in the 2011 season. It would only make sense for all sanctions to move 14U to 43 feet for the 2011 season, because the NFHS has moved to 43 feet starting the 2011 season, all state HS sanctions need to implement the change for the 2011 season, and 14U includes many 8th graders who are done with their MS season as well as 9th graders who have to throw at 43 feet for HS. I do believe MS stays at 40 feet.

Len

Buckman said:

You will still have dominate pitchers. It is not all about how hard you throw it gets to be more about the movement of the ball. Thus making pitchers work more on control and spin rather than just throwing hard. Any good high school player should be able to hit a fastball on the plate. Does not matter if you are at 40 or 43. Just my thoughts.

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We have a couple of the top SoCal pitchers in our league. I asked a couple of the varsity dads who was harder to hit and they all agreed that it depended on whether it was 40' or 43'. One pitcher is better at 40' because she is overpowering with her speed. The other pitcher is better at 43' because it helps her movement and the hitters can catch up with the power pitcher.

All the older 14u teams should just play up...

This is going to be an interesting spring for my dd. She'll be pitching at 40 feet for her middle school team in the spring, then apparently move to 43 feet for the first time when her 14U team begins play in late May or June. It would be nice if middle school ball went to 43 feet as well.

philbob said:

This is going to be an interesting spring for my dd. She'll be pitching at 40 feet for her middle school team in the spring, then apparently move to 43 feet for the first time when her 14U team begins play in late May or June. It would be nice if middle school ball went to 43 feet as well.

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Yeah, my dd will be in the same situation. It would make more sense to have middle school ball at 43'. The younger middle school pitchers who play 12U travel ball would probably have an easier time adjusting back to 40' for their travel teams.

I am not one to have a problem admitting when I am wrong. I have been a STRONG opponent of moving the rubber back and still do not think it is raelly a necessary change as I believe the game is fine the way it is.

During the summer I coach both rec and travel at the 14U level and the league that the rec team plays in went to 43'. I will say I was really surprised at the ability of these pitchers to adapt. The pitching really did not show the problems you would expect. most importantly control issues. Without specific statistacal information to compare my observations indicate about the same in walks and a decrease in strikeouts. I also believe it does make it slightly easier to steal bases.

The only draw back that I see is that the split second of extra time for the hitters is huge and created many more hard hit balls putting the defense at higher risk. I saw more balls that were hit to hard to handle even at the SS and 2nd base positions not to mention the corners and pitchers than I have seen over the 25 - 30 years I have been coaching. No one was hit all year but had a few VERY close calls.

I still feel that at the lower levels there is a wide discrepancy in size and strength and taking some of the pitchers ability to control that advantage creates a dilema.

All in all I have come to the conclusion that 43' will be fine at the high school level and 16U and up. I am still not sold on the 14U and down moving back.

Punch, if you are still around, I have seen the light for the most part

The tough part for our team this year was each tournament we went to, the distance was different and the girls had to ask every time. It didn't bother the pitchers as much as it bothered the hitters. It throws the timing off just enough when the distance changes to 43' and they are used to hitting at 40'. It will be much better when all fields are the same.

I talked to Kirt at QDS about the 14U pitching distance for the Labor Day 14U tournament. He has since decided to keep the 14s at 40' this year. I would rather be at 43' but oh well. I want to move to 43' as soon as possible just to get it over and done with. If we are going that way next year, lets just get it done now and move on.

The change to 43’ was made to increase the offense in the game. This rule change came from the NFHS after they used the past 5 years to assign 2 states 43’ and monitored the changes in the game. After a 5-year study, the numbers indicated an increase in offense and the scores reflected an increase of just under 1 run per game. The strike out numbers went down slightly, indicating the defenses were putting more players out during the course of a game. This decision by sanctioning bodies was made in an effort to improve the game, across the board, at all levels of skill. It statistically did not favor any particular region, meaning that areas with strong pitching or higher level of skill did not gain anymore of an advantage over teams representing areas that are not particularly as strong. Yes, college coaches DID lobby for the change but that was not the reason for everyone changing. Maybe they had an influence but it was not publicly stated that any lobbyist force made a difference.

In laymen’s terms, the decision was made to promote the game and make it more exciting for fans to watch. The length of games wasn’t affected and the number of walks per game remained the same overall. This isn’t much different than MLB when they changed the baseball with the intent to increase more offense to make their game more appealing to the fans. I applaud the efforts of the sanctioning bodies to be thinking of ways to increase the number of fans and promote our sport to a higher level. This sport was due for a change. The players are more capable now and I see no reason why we shouldn’t grow with the sport to allow our fan base to increase in size.

The problem now is in the transition. They need to decide at what age group to make the distance changes but this issue is no different than what baseball has already dealt with. I had an informal meeting with national officers with the USSSA last winter and suggested they make this change as easy to remember as possible by attaching it to an already existing rule. I suggested they say if you play with a 12” ball you throw from 43’. If you play with an 11” ball, you stay the same or in this case 35”. I believe the game overall would do fine adapting this formula and like most rules after 5 years you’ll scarcely notice the difference.

With respect to high school softball (NFHS), this is from their official press release last year that announced the pitching distance change:

Recommended? Does that mean it's mandatory or optional? If it's optional, who gets to decide? The coaches? What if one wants it and the other doesn't?​

As confusing as that statement might be, personally I don't have to worry about it for at least six more months. By that time, I will have attended the mandatory state rules interpretation meeting and a half dozen umpire association meetings- plenty of opportunity to get this better defined and figure out exactly how this rule should be administered before stepping foot on a field next season.​

In the meantime, such a vague directive is sure to leave some people scratching their heads.​

daboss said:

I suggested they say if you play with a 12? ball you throw from 43?. If you play with an 11? ball, you stay the same or in this case 35?. I believe the game overall would do fine adapting this formula and like most rules after 5 years you?ll scarcely notice the difference.

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The biggest problem I see with this suggestion is you take a 10U player when they move to a 12" ball and they have to start throwing 8 foot further from one year to the next. Going from 35 to 43 feet is just way to much to ask in my opinion.

My vote would be for:

10U = 35'

12U = 40'

14U/MS and up = 43'

This way it makes the transition gradual.

Bulldogcoach said:

My vote would be for:

10U = 35'

12U = 40'

14U/MS and up = 43'

This way it makes the transition gradual.

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I'd agree and I'd actually like to see the smaller 10U ball kept through 12U to accomodate the other 80% of kids who are trying to learn to pitch with a ball they can't grip properly. Wouldn't break my heart to see the 10U ball reduced in size another inch for the same reason.

OK, here's a another wrench in the works: How do you feel about moving the bases to 65 feet? My dd's team had to play a game at 65 feet one time this summer due to a field scheduling mixup in a "friendly" time game. The results were intriguing. At a regular distance, one bobble means the batter is safe, in my dd's game, the infielders discovered they had time to still get the batter if they knocked the ball down. It was something I'd be interested seeing more of.

Well, if we're going to expect bigger hits because of slower pitches (due to the increase to 43') maybe that should "researched". Its all about reaction time with hard hits.

If girls are going to get big hits to the deep OF then maybe we should level the playing field for the defense. Runners could be clear around the bases by the time the fielder gets to the fence to get the ball.

Just a thought.