40 feet vs. 43 feet: R.I. high school fast-pitch coaches weigh in on pitching debate

Given the National Federation of State High School Associations' recent announcement that the pitching rubber will stay at 40 feet for next season, the Journal asked Rhode Island high school fast-pitch coaches to share their thoughts on the issue.

Here's what some of them had to say:

Coaches in favor of moving the pitching distance to 43 feet

"I think it only hurts kids more than helps them by staying at 40 feet," said Middletown coach Robin Ramey, whose four sophomore pitchers all practice from 43 feet in anticipation of one day throwing in college, as well as knowing that the rules may soon change in high school. "I understand that only a small percentage of kids go on to play in college, but I think you can still be teaching them all the right things about sportsmanship and character and about being good people without holding them back [in terms of their development as pitchers.] If you have more consistency across the board with summer leagues, high school and college play, then you will take away that mental aspect as to which distance they should be pitching at."
- Coach Robin Ramey, Middletown

I feel that the distance should be moved to 43 for a couple of reasons. First, it would make it uniform with the college distance. Softball is the only sport I am aware of that has different dimension from high school to college. High school basketball players don't shoot free throws from 14 ft. It makes the transition to those who are talented enough to pitch at the college level a bit more difficult. There is also a safety concern with the pitcher being that close to the batter. The reaction time for the hitter isn't much from 40 feet, but at least she is protected with a helmet and face guard, and she is in position to see and elude the ball if neccessary. The pitcher is sometimes in a prone position after releasing the pitch, and not protected from a line drive back at her. The 3 feet might not seem like much but the fraction of a second additional reaction time could make a big difference.
Secondly, the game is too often dominated by a good pitcher. Often times you have to manage the first inning like its the 7th. One run can be the difference, and often a 2 or 3 run deficit can leave a team feeling like it has no chance. These low scoring games led to the implementation of the single worst rule in sports, the extra inning tie breaker/ runner on second rule. The game needs more offense. The dominating pitchers will still dominate more often than not, but scoring should increase. That's one coaches opinion.
- Coach Bill Aquilante, Pilgrim

My immediate thought is the safety factor. Female athletes are getting bigger and stronger every year so that comes to my mind first. Most times as we all know by the time the pitcher releases the ball she is probably 33 or 34 feet away from the plate. Pretty close and we all know not much time to react at all. It's a tough position to defend and I think a lot of times that goes UNNOTICED. The other would be it would make it a more offensive game. As always if you have a somewhat dominant pitcher you can hide a lot of defensive weaknesses that a team might have. 10 strikeouts a game means at the most you have to make 11 defensive outs and if you're the home team maybe only 8. it would give the team with maybe a not so dominant pitcher but a few good hitters to stay more competitive against a top pitcher. Like anything else it has good points and some maybe not so good. Personally I like the challenge of facing a top notch pitcher and trying to along with regular hitting manufacture a run or 2 to try to get an edge. Its good for team concentration and focus.
- Coach Dave Petrocelli, Chariho

Personally, I would welcome the switch to 43 feet. I think we have a tremendous sport, but the one thing that is lacking is a little more offense. I'm not saying that we need to have 10-9 games, but one need only look at many of the playoff games, especially those at Rhode Island College, to see the domination of the pitchers. And that happens most years. It is the reason that softball has gone to the international rule during extra innings - they wish to avoid long, extra inning games. Baseball would never have such a rule, nor do they need one. I think a move of only three feet would be a step in the right direction. Dominant pitchers would still dominate, but the extra three feet would give the offense a bit more of a chance. I think it would be a very small change that could begin to address the problem of a lack of offense in the sport.
Additionally, I find it surprising that we currently pitch from a different distance than college pitchers do. Girls and shoot at a ten foot basket in basketball, boys pitch from the college and professional distance of 60'6", football fields are 100 yards long, etc. In fact, I'm not sure of any difference in high school from college in field dimensions of any sport. I do not think girls' softball should be the one difference that does indeed exist. Again comparing it to baseball, one would never consider moving the mound from 60'6" to 55' for high school. I think we need to be consistent.
Some may argue that the extra difference will actually make some pitchers more dominant, as it will give their pitches more time to drop, curve, or rise. Perhaps. I believe that for most, however, the move would benefit the hitters more than the pitchers. I think it's time that we make the move.
- Coach Paul Kennedy, Warwick Vets

It's only a matter of time before a pitcher gets seriously injured with
these new, ridiculously lively bats. Keeping it at 40 makes it even
more dangerous.
- Coach Dan Belisle, Woonsocket

I think that moving the pitching rubber back to 43 feet would make for a more action-packed, less pitcher dominated game. Also, it would better prepare players for college play.
- Coach Mario DeAngelis, West Warwick

[Keeping the pitching distance at 40 feet] is a complete diservice to these high school girls and the game. The game is pitching dominated and typically the team witht the best 1 pitcher wins (really not a team at all, just 1 player). Move the mound back 3 feet, and these pitchers will still be good, but the good hitters will have a little more time to do some damage at the plate. There are pitchers in baseball that make it to the pros, but don't go out and throw no hitter after no hitter because the game is fair. In fast pitch softball, the top pitchers will typically throw 3 to 5 no hitters and several 1 hitters. It is just not fair at all and really is a balck eye on the sport. I don't know how this can be evaluated and not seen as something that has to be changed. The other aspect is the preparation for college: these pitchers dominate from 40 feet and the are recruited to pitch at 43 feet, you don't see dimensions change like this in any other sport from high school to college. Again, we are doing a diservice to our athletes. Lastly, how about safety for the pitcher: I have seen several pitchers get hit with line drives since I have been coaching, which maybe they might have had time to get out of the way if they had 3 more feet.
I for 1 am praying they change the mound, in fact, I think you could go back to 45 feet and make the games much more competitive and not so pitcher dominated. As a coach I love the concept of a team, but this sport is really about 1 player in the middle of the field a short distance away. I would truly like to see the rest of the players become a very important part of the game. Don't get me wrong, there are great players at other positions, they just don't get to shine as much. Imagine how much a great short stop could shine if the ball was hit to her a little more or a 400 hitter could have a little more time to react at the plate, it would truly make for a better and more equal game, like baseball.
- Coach Chris Daigneault, Coventry

I have a feeling you're going to find that there is a lot of support for moving the mound back to 43 feet.
If high school female athletes can successfully manage (as their college counterparts do) to utilize 10-foot high basketball hoops, hockey goals that are 4 feet by 6 feet, and soccer nets that measure 8 feet by 24 feet, why the need to shorten the mound in softball from 43 to 40 feet? And the fact is, most pitchers who play travel ball throughout the summer are already pitching from 43 feet, and I haven't seen any indication that their games are suffering as a result.
While I think a decade ago when the depth of good pitchers was much shallower than it is now, perhaps it made sense to move to 40 feet. But today, with better, stronger athletes, pitchers have come to dominate the game in a way I don't think they should, and I'm not sure is good for the game. I think moving the mound back will help balance that.
I would like to see and hear -- statistically and anecdotally -- what kind of results Massachusetts and Florida experienced in adopting the 43-foot mound. I do know there are coaches who argue that a pitcher with good movement on her throws is likely to benefit from such a change, but I believe for the most part it would be the hitter who is likely to benefit more.
I'm interested in hearing what other coaches think.
- Coach Dennis Kennedy, Bay View

Coaches in favor of keeping the pitching distance at 40 feet

My opinion on the pitching distance in our state is that it should remain at 40 feet. I realize that colleges would like to see it at 43' to make the transition to college pitching easier. One thing to realize is that in the state of R.I. how many truly dominating pitchers are there? How many were there in the last 10 years? Of these pitchers, how much of the dominance was the pitcher and how much was poor hitting quality against good pitching? When you face a more dominant pitcher every twelve or so games it is hard to be consistant with hitting a more dominant pitcher, so that makes a pitcher seem more dominant. Sort of the same as trying to hit a knuckle ball pitcher when you don't face them a lot. For some schools and pitchers, especially the larger schools and those pitchers that have private pitching coaches and work on their skill a great part of the year, 43' may not be a hard transition. For the pitchers that don't, it would be tough. The move back would help hitters with the dominant pitchers, but the non dominant pitchers would get devistated. In the short term who will benefit? In the long term it may level out, but the question would be, is it going to discourage any pitchers to the point of not wanting to pitch? Also some high schools have young pitching (freshman), as apposed to juniors or seniors, and they are still at the developmental stage physically. That may be an issue with these younger pitchers at the farther distance. Older atheletes, such as college freshman, are just about finished growingand would have an easier transition to the further distance. I think that should be the next progression, such as the progression from 35' to 40' at the junior levels. That is my view on the pitching distance. I hope it helps you in finding the right answer.
- Coach Art Mello, Tiverton

My thoughts on this subject are R.I. pitching has advanced and is one of the reason that the quality of play has improved. Every team seems to have at least one strong pitching therefore hitting has actually gotten better because the pitching is more consistent. Changing the distant won't effect the real strong pitchers but the marginal pitchers will struggle. If this is a safety factor the batters will have more time to follow the ball and make better contact. I know ASA has adopted this rule for the gold division but many of those players are college players or ready to enter college. A High School Freshman pitching phenom is not a college player, any other grad. Let the colleges have their dimensions and let High School continue with theirs.
- Coach Norm Beauchemin, Moses Brown

For our level of high school softball, I don't see the merits of increasing the pitching distance. It is a 7.5% increase. From a pitching standpoint, it will be increased strain on the pitchers because of the added distance, and I would assume less accuracy (meaning more pitches). For pitchers of average speed (low 50s), there will be noticeable arc on the pitches. Keep in mind, we have 14 year olds entering high school with (for the most part) improper training. I don't know how many of our (RI) pitchers will pitch in college, but the adjustment can be made in the summer prior to entering college as well as during the fall season and winter workouts. From a hitting standpoint, the pitching will be quite a bit slower, so hitters who plan to play in college will need to adjust to speed once they get there. Getting back to the high school game, what does it mean for the 95%(?) of players who will never play in college? My guess is that we'll see more walks, and balls pulled at the third basemen. Since third basemen play in for bunts, they will be more at risk for injury because the pitcher's speed will no longer be able to protect them from balls pulled by average hitters.
Finally, getting back to the college preparation mentioned above, if this is driving the move to increase the pitching distance, I'm surprised at the NFHS because college preparation in athletics is not what they preach.
- Coach Tom Galib, Portsmouth

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