43ft. in high school for 2010?

[greenandblue]

As for possible injuries as a result of the ball coming off the bat, I would be way more concerned about the latest and greatest Super Duper Kryptonite ABCXYZ bats that are being sold every season. This year's model is sooo much better than last years...and so on. At what point, after how many injuries, will high schools and travel ball organizations determine that the latest technolology in bats are too dangerous? Probably after a humongous lawsuit, unfortunately.


Which brings to mind, why is there not one monitoring organization for all fastpitch softball? All of the alphabet organizations have different policies and rules, and there sometimes seems to be no rhyme or reason for the difference in policies or rules such as the 40' or 43'. Also, if we had a monitoring organization, there might be a way to do more about the abusive coaches that we all have come across in our "travels". I'm not talking about the ones that are just tough, I'm talking more about the coaches that are consistenly thrown out of games for various reasons or the vicious (sp?) coach that constantly screams at and belittles his players. These coaches should not be anywhere near any youth, yet they are allowed to coach kids. A coach in our area with this type of reputation once told one of his players, from across the field (he was coaching 3rd, she was in the dugout), to get the "f*%#" out of his dugout when she struck out. Her mother hurriedly packed up her DD and her stuff, stormed off screaming at the coach how horrible abusive he was. As she walked away, she unfortunately remembered that she and her DD had ridden to the tournament with another teammates' family, so they couldn't even leave!

[SnocatzDad]

This is complete BS. The kids are already throwing as hard as they can. It might change thier release point, but it doesn't force a kid that throws 50 mph to throw 55 mph, if she could do that she would at 40' anyway. And 3' more reaction time for the pitcher on comebacks should help reduce injuries not increase them.

Agree

I do think that overuse injuries are a huge problem and wish that more HS rotated pitchers rather than riding some poor girl every inning of every game. IMO NFHS is where the pitch count or innings limits should start because that is where I see the most abuse

Disagree - The HS pitchers in my area pitch 2 games a week, one Tuesday and one Friday. They will pitch at least 2 or 3 times most every weekend in the summer and then again in the fall. The innings per start are less with TB, but the number of games and the wear and tear of pitching a game at 8 am cooling down and then warming back up at 3 pm on a given Friday and/ or Saturday and/ or Sunday for their TB team would seem to be more damaging than warming up pitching then cooling down. JMHO

Probably because our HS season is so short in MN that we differ here. In one week our Varsity pitcher had a game on Monday, double header Thursday, Game Friday, then pitched 2 of 3 in a HS tournament on Saturday. Funny she was out for a week with a sore shoulder the following week.

The other reason I think it should start with NFHS or NCAA is that travel ball is an alphabet soup and your not going to get ASA, Pony, LL, USSSA, AFA, NAFA, NSA, USFA to agree on anything unless it starts with NFHS or NCAA. ASA thinks that it's the horse drawing the cart and if anyone is, it would probably be them, but the whole migration of pitching distance from 43' at NCAA to 43' test for NFHS to 43' for Pony and ASA demonstrates that ASA isn't driving change

[Surehitter]

43ft for varsity - 40ft for JV, this is a prime example of why softball is so choppy. A bunch of people that want to talk about #@!$%^&!. Just move varsity to 43ft and watch most regions games get much much better. With my daughters high school team in SCa we have one of the super ace gold pitchers. Unless we are playing a team loaded with a bunch of for real gold players the coach's just have her throw fastballs and location.

Last comment - Later !!

[noclu13]

I do think that overuse injuries are a huge problem and wish that more HS rotated pitchers rather than riding some poor girl every inning of every game. IMO NFHS is where the pitch count or innings limits should start because that is where I see the most abuse

My DD pitched almost every high school game in her career which was pretty much 2 per week. She pitched more in travel ball even though she alternated at shortstop and pitcher (no I wasn't her coach) But in college her first 2 years she pitched in relief. She threw more pitches on the side that she ever did in games in high school or travel ball or maybe even in college during those 2 years. Every time a runner got on base the coach had her warm up. And this was a good D2 program. But the coach was always nervous and always wanted to look over and see that she was ready. Ready to her was throwing warm ups so that is what she did. I can remember days where she threw 200 to 300 pitches on the side and pitched a total of an inning or 2 in the 2 games. Overuse? You bet. So remember what you are doing to these kids when you send them to warm up. It is not just game time pitching.

[Jitterbug]

Noclu13 I am helping out a family friend whose dd is a junior who is being recruited by a D2 program in the midwest. They told me when their dd went on an unofficial visit with the team she stayed and watched a game before leaving. My friend dd is a pitcher and really likes the school and the team. But like your dd she noticed the backup constantly warming up during the game.

My question is in your case did it come from the head coach or the pitching coach (if your dd team had one) to warm up so much during a game. The reason I am asking is the team my friend's dd wants to attend does not have a pitching coach so she is thinking it may not be a good idea to go even though she really like it there.

[Cannonball]

43ft for varsity - 40ft for JV, this is a prime example of why softball is so choppy. A bunch of people that want to talk about #@!$%^&!. Just move varsity to 43ft and watch most regions games get much much better. With my daughters high school team in SCa we have one of the super ace gold pitchers. Unless we are playing a team loaded with a bunch of for real gold players the coach's just have her throw fastballs and location.

Last comment - Later !!

Uhm...OK. Whatever you say boss with the super ace gold pitcher

Only to be surpassed by the Super Platinum Pitcher.

Our school has the super Tin Pitcher. I love her to beat the band but 43 is a stretch. Of course we'll play those college showcases this summer and she will have to throw 43. We're checking out the "super tin pitcher rule" which I believe means that she can use a protective screen. I'm just saying...

[winginit]

I asked my DD 8th grader going to HS next year what she thought about 43' in HS. She said, "I could careless, if everyone else has to do it. Every thing is fair." She pitched a couple of 18A games in fall at 43' and had no problem adjusting, but all our hitters loved the extra time seeing the ball.

[TheCloser]

The high school mounds should be at 43' in High School. In Little League, kids start throwing from 60' like the pros at 13 or what they call the Junior Senior division and by high school where most boys are already 14 or 15 they throw at 60'.

If the mound is 43' at the elite level then it should be 43' once you get to high school. The 43' rule is garbage.

[GIMNEPIWO]

43ft for varsity - 40ft for JV, this is a prime example of why softball is so choppy. A bunch of people that want to talk about #@!$%^&!. Just move varsity to 43ft and watch most regions games get much much better. With my daughters high school team in SCa we have one of the super ace gold pitchers. Unless we are playing a team loaded with a bunch of for real gold players the coach's just have her throw fastballs and location.

Last comment - Later !!

Uhm...OK. Whatever you say boss with the super ace gold pitcher

Only to be surpassed by the Super Platinum Pitcher.

Our school has the super Tin Pitcher. I love her to beat the band but 43 is a stretch. Of course we'll play those college showcases this summer and she will have to throw 43. We're checking out the "super tin pitcher rule" which I believe means that she can use a protective screen. I'm just saying...

Okay ... since we in the East don't have all the tools to build the shed ... can someone please explain to me the difference between Super Ace Gold,Real Gold,Super Platinum, Tin, Elite, or whatever ... because on our team we have 4 classifications; whowegonnathrowinthe1stgame, whowegonnathrowinthe2ndgame, whowegonnathrowinthe3rdgame & whowegonnathrowwhentheygetintrouble ...

[Cannonball]

Sine my dd is the "super tin" pitcher, if she were "out east," she'd be categorized as the "ohsh**dowehavetothrow" pitcher. I looked it up in the (Insert Alphabet Soup) rule book and not only do "super tin" pitchers get to use the protective screen if they throw from 43 feet, you can only bunt on them in odd numbered innings.