by Rotatorcuff » Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:18 am
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.