against moving 14 YOs to 43 feet

[Ken Krause]

Armwhip, not sure if I'm reading your post correctly, but it's an interesting thing to think about. Would it make it more or less dangerous for pitchers if, instead of moving the pitching rubber back to 43', they moved the rubber up to 35 or 38 feet instead? If moving back to 43' is intended to produce more offense, moving the rubber closer should result in fewer well-hit balls, don't you think?

 

[ifubuildit]

OK, I am going Vent a bit here about ASA, and this IMO Crap. So you decide to move the pitchers back to 43' because 1. Your getting pressure from College coaches to see pitchers at that distance. 2. We want more offense in the game. 3. Safety. Give the pitcher more time to react to a ball hit back at them. Its all good right?

IF that is the case why are you now entertaining allowing pitchers to LEAP LIKE MEN? The reasons you did this above are now NEGATED by you allowing them to leap should this rule be changed. If they are allowed to leap then some but not all are going to be a lot closer than 40' when they release the ball.

The friggin inmates are running the asylum in ASA.

So ask me how I feel about this one.

Dana.

 

[starsnuffer]

The leaping question for ASA is for women's softball, not JO.

The ASA have been followers in the softball rules world over the last few years, not trend setters. The 43' change is to keep up with high school rules, USSSA, and NSA changes. The last thing ASA did to stir the pot was the 2004 bat certification rules, nothing since.

I'm not an ASA fan in particular, but I think you're over reacting a bit.

-W

 

[rowdy]

ASA is losing the second year 14U division because of the HS ball being at a longer distance. They feel like moving the plate back to the HS distance will help to maintain the integrity of the age division and make the 14U Nationals a premier event again. The second aspect is that many of the players that are 16U are being displaced by the younger players thus reducing the number of participants overall.

 

[ifubuildit]

The leaping question for ASA is for women's softball, not JO.

The ASA have been followers in the softball rules world over the last few years, not trend setters. The 43' change is to keep up with high school rules, USSSA, and NSA changes. The last thing ASA did to stir the pot was the 2004 bat certification rules, nothing since.

I'm not an ASA fan in particular, but I think you're over reacting a bit.

-W

While I may be over reacting a bit. There comes a point where your messing with the integrity of the game. For what reason? Most older (second year) 14u players showing signs of skill at the game are jumping right over 16U and going to 18u ball now. Reason, college exposure tournaments or ASA nationals which is again all about exposure to college coaches.

The college coaches are now looking for those girls who are showing advanced skills at that age. Just leave it alone for 14U and quit letting the college coaches influence your decision making process. That is what is wrong with all teen select sports now. All you have to do is look at select basketball in this country. The college coaches have taken over there too. As well as the back door recruiters. Shady business. I fear the same for softball if its not taking place already.

As for the leaping issue it was not clear to me that this only applied to women's softball not JO. So I was mistaken if that is the case. That would make more sense given they are pushing all these kids back to 43' and the leaping would negate that decision.

 

[ArmWhip]

Ken,

It just doesn't make any sense to me, if 43 is more dangerous for the pitcher 50 is even more so and 60 is suicidal! I guess that you'd have to try and figure it out mathematically. Moving the rubber back 3 ft increases the pitcher's time to react by about 8.5 percent. Is that enough to offset the increase in the number of line drives hit at her? I really don't know. Moving the rubber up may result in fewer line drives but the ones that did come back would be deadlier. I pitched modified for 25+ years, I faced wood bats of course, even so I would have wanted the extra 3 ft.

 

[shockcoach]

I just read that 43' pitching distance for 14U is not on the list to be approved by the General Council tomorrow at the ASA conference. Anyone here what NSA did last week?

 

[WinThemAll]

NSA passed it.

 

[Nocents96]

ASA didn't.

 

[shockcoach]

That will be fun here, where we have USSSA, NSA and ASA for travel ball along with NFHS for school ball. Only ASA is still pitching at 40' at the 14U level, which in my personal opinion they should be pitching from.