Pitching at 43 feet

[LVTHEGAME]

Does anyone know if Premier will be going to 43 feet for 14U next year. What are your thoughts of changing the distance. Would like to hear from some of you pitching coaches on this.

[lovsofbal]

Seems a little young, but 14U kids who aren't 15 until January of their freshman year in high school have to throw from 43' in their high school games.

[PDad]

Does anyone know if Premier will be going to 43 feet for 14U next year. What are your thoughts of changing the distance. Would like to hear from some of you pitching coaches on this.

This topic was covered quite well 2 years ago - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16431

[Midwest]

After getting back from PGF I have to say it was the best 14u pitching that I've seen in two years, even better then Colorado this year. Most of the pitchers I saw ( both the tall ones and smaller ones ) on may teams easily could have pitched at 43 feet. A lot of games seemed dominated by the pitchers at 40 ft. Yes you had some high scoring games, but found a lot of teams from out of state traveled with one pitcher and a pick up pitcher. I think for PGF moving it to 43 ft. would make the games a little move offensive. Again these are some of the best teams in the country. Other teams at 14u but not at this caliber should probably play 40 ft. I have to say I missed watching the top pitcher playing for 16u Corona Angels ( Garcia ). She dominated that level and I can't think of what she would have done if she stayed and played 14u for Lockman. Been to many Nationals for the last 7 years with my daughters and I have told many people that this was the best National that we have been at. Hope to be back next year at 16u.

[Rotatorcuff]

My experience at 14U and 40 vs 43 ft.

We played up most of the season (@43'). Didn't hurt our pitching at all, as we'd expected. Sure, our pitchers were giving up more hits at 43, but they were still effective and didn't seem to have trouble going back to 40'

The biggest impact was on our batters. The extra 3 feet helped them see the ball longer. When we went back to 40' our batters struggled to catch up. If I were to go through again, I would stick to 40' to prepare for qualifiers and nationals.

The pitchers seem to make the adjustment fairly quickly. The effect on batter's timing is a bigger problem IMHO.

[ontheblack]

My experience at 14U and 40 vs 43 ft.

We played up most of the season (@43'). Didn't hurt our pitching at all, as we'd expected. Sure, our pitchers were giving up more hits at 43, but they were still effective and didn't seem to have trouble going back to 40'

The biggest impact was on our batters. The extra 3 feet helped them see the ball longer. When we went back to 40' our batters struggled to catch up. If I were to go through again, I would stick to 40' to prepare for qualifiers and nationals.

The pitchers seem to make the adjustment fairly quickly. The effect on batter's timing is a bigger problem IMHO.

Many of the 14u pitchers have been pitching at 43' and dropped back to 40" for PGF. The exception to that would be the 98 teams who played 14s at 40' while the 97s were in HS.