It was not that many years ago that all ages with the exception of 10u pitched at the 40' distance. No one at that time was complaining about their 11 year old was pitching from the same distance as a 21 or 22 year old college senior. The way some talk about this issue you would think that they are increasing the distance by some great amount, it's just three feet. Yes this small increase will weed out some just as the move 35' to 40' did. I think for the most part it's the parents driving this debate one way or the other. I would be willing to bet that the girls don't care, I know my DD doesn't. When you get down to it the bad pitchers at 40 will be bad at 43 and the same goes for the average and great pitcher.