43ft for high school coming?

revisions made by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Softball Rules Committee at its annual meeting June 8-10 in Indianapolis. The rules changes subsequently were approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

Although the new pitching distance is mandatory beginning with the 2010-11 school year, NFHS-member state high school associations may adopt the 43-feet distance in 2009-10, if desired.

After at least 10 years of debate by committee members, the NFHS has extended the fast-pitch pitching distance to 43 feet. The change to Rule 1-1-2b was made after two member state associations experimented with 43 feet – Florida for four years and Oregon for one year. Coaches surveyed within these states were overwhelmingly supportive of the change.

Creating a better balance between the offense and the defense was the major rationale for the rule change. Experimentation results from both states indicated more batted balls were hit into play.

“Our main thrust is getting the defense more involved,” said Mary Struckhoff, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Softball Rules Committee. “When more balls are hit into play, the defense is more involved in the game, thus enhancing skill development.”

The second revision (Rule 1-5) concerned bat specifications. The majority of the text is simply reorganized from the current rules book.

“This is primarily an editorial change,“ Struckhoff said. “We just want to be more detailed in our specifications in order to give manufacturers, coaches, players and umpires guidance on what is and is not permissible.”

Another rule revision for next season affects hair devices. An exception was added to Rule 3-2-12, permitting “hard, unadorned devices, such as bobby pins, barrettes and hair clips, no longer than 2 inches, to be worn to control a player’s hair.” The rule was changed to allow players more options.

“The exception allows players a practical way of dealing with their hair,” Struckhoff said. “The committee didn’t see that hair devices would be a nuisance or would pose undue risk to players.” The change also maintains consistency with NFHS volleyball rules regarding the same issue.

The final rules change concerns how a winning pitcher is determined. The committee altered Rule 9-6-6, changing the required number of innings pitched for a starting pitcher to be credited with a win to “half of the total number of innings played in the game.” The new language gives the starting pitcher the ability to earn a win even if she leaves the pitching position for another defensive position and returns as pitcher later in the game. It also allows greater clarity in determining the winning pitcher when a game is terminated due to the run-rule.

“Softball and baseball are different games and the requirements for a pitcher to be credited with a win should reflect those differences,” Struckhoff said. “In softball, it’s possible for the pitcher to pitch an inning, leave the position and then come back to pitch later in the same game. The change was made to reflect the culture of the sport.”

Softball is the fourth-most popular sport among girls at the high school level with 371,293 participants during the 2007-08 season, according to the High School Athletics
Participation Survey conducted by the NFHS. It also ranks fourth in school sponsorship for girls across the nation with 14,846 participating schools

 

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Glad to see these changes. Now if NCHSAA will adopt the changes this (2009-2010) year would be fantastic!

 

I'm sure this has been discussed on a thread before but is there enough quality pitchers for 43'. It seems to me that only the exceptional pitchers can effectively pitch from that distance. Any comments?

 

Depends on your definition of "effectively"

Any competent pitcher will be able to throw strikes from 43'. There will be fewer strikeouts. This is a very good change that should have occurred years ago.

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the change will be made this season before it is mandatory next season.

The change will make the game a bit more exciting offensively. I think we'll see more stolen bases also.

 

Yay!

My DD just recently told me she LOVES pitching from 43 ft. Hope they'll do it.

 

HS ball was thrown from 43' feet this year here in Oregon. After watching the season, and having my kid throw 43' through the winter as a freshman and a few games and knowing most of the pitchers we saw and talking with some good pitching coaches, this is my 2 cents on the subject.

Most HS Varsity teams (here) have at least one pitcher that is a quality pitcher at 43, with maybe a second getting there. maybe a swing. The main pitchers are pitching sometimes in 18U summer games that are from 43 already.
the issue comes in that at the JV level, in many many cases, you barely have pitching that is good or even decent at 40'. so when hs goes to 43', then both levels throw from 43. In most cases, the younger and lets say a bit less skilled pitchers, are not ready physically to throw at 43 for very long. as it was, it wasnt great at 40.
the saving grace with this is, its usually just one game in a day, unlike a summer tourney.
Here, the hitting stats were up this season. but you cant take all that from one season, because from one season to the next there could be many variables that could generate numbers. On the other side of the fence, the extra 3' gave more time for balls to break. we saw this as we finished HS, and the freshman/sophmores playing 16u, now throwing 40' seemed to throw hard, but took time to adjust where the pitch broke.

So there are pro's and con's with everything, I would have like to have seen a split in that jv could be 40 while v be 43. there was talk of that, but seemed to be to many issues involved.

*note* some on this board might be sayin....what the heck is this guy from Oregon doing on this board..... long story, planned on moving last year to the Carolinas, I was here learning and making contacts. didnt happen, but I stayed in touch. for anyone that I chatted with, we did sell this month, kids and wifey fly out July 26. Looks like kiddo will be going to Nation Ford in Ft. Mill starting this year*****

 

My dd says moving from 40 to 43 is much easier than than the move back to 40.

 

congrats on the sell and welcome to the Carolinas

 

My DD loves pitching at 43'. Playing 43' summer thru fall and hated moving to 40' in HS. Pitchers who throw a lot of breaking pitches prefer 43'