I will just say this ( and i have a daughter who pitches and wears a mask!) Stop trying to make this game Safe! It is a sport... There will be injuries. There will be major injuries.. Baseball and softball have been played for over 100 years and millions of injuries have occurred and they will continue to occurr. You cannot stop them and if you think you can slow them down, you are mistaken.. They will happen no matter what you do if you play competitively!!! So Please teach your daughter to play hard, protect themselves by getting better and wearing appropriate gear, but stop trying to make this game Safe........ IT IS NOT SAFE!!.... Pitchers are hurling a hard yellow ball toward your daughter at 60+ MPH, that same ball is coming back at your daughter at 90+ MPH, kids slide into bases with metal on their feet.... daughters will lay out and land flat on the ground from several feet in the air to catch a ball.. This is our game and we Love it... but it is not SAFE
Please, if you want your daughter to play a safer game then create something called Saf-t-ball or something and have at it.. But I happen to love the this game of fastpitch and do not want to see 9 fielders in catchers gear, 90 foot bases and wooden bats in it.
So, I will say again, teach your daughters to play at the appropriate level and use correct techniques, plus good protective equipment that is available and forget the notion that your daughter is going to play this game without getting injured. ( praying that that statement does not come back to bite me in ***!)
I will end by saying this, I have been around the conversation of this with many college coaches, from all levels and I do not recall even one (Im sure there may be some out there) that said they need to make this game safer.. They just want to make their players better!!!