Little League to Middle School to High School

As a high school coach i think its very important to get out to our feeder middle schools and talk, help, listen to the coachs and kids, and if nothing else just be visible. one of the things that i see at the middle school level is that it just seems that field swallows these kids up. now obviously you've got some well developed eigth graders that hit bombs and throw gas, but for every one of those kids there are probably two dozen that are crow hopping the throw for ss to first.

am i ridiculous in thinking that maybe middle schools should go to 75 or 80 foot bases, maybe 53 or 55 foot mound? i was just thinking about a way to scale the field down to the average middle schooler.

basically a kid at 12 years old plays on a little field with 60 foot bases and a 45(??) mound. then at 13, its 90 feet and 60'6''. which is the same size field derek jeter and david wright play on. just seems to be too much too soon.

i know this goes against my purist roots. just wondering what those wiser and more experienced than i believe

 

Our middle school players play on 54/75. However those same kids play 60/90 in the summer for recreation and the diamond is still too large, but you can see the difference when they fall back to the 54/75 again as 8th graders, they almost look too large for the diamond, I am more in favor of 54/80 for
7-8th graders.

 

are you in the charlotte area who's on first

 

No, Closer to the Lumberton area.

 

LegionPost46,,,,,,, I think they have something similar to what "Who's on First" is describing in the Huntersville/Charlotte area with different size fields between little league 46/60 to high school 60/90. I agree thats a huge jump.

For me personally, when my boys were coming along, they got out of little league and started playing AAU at about age 11 which provided a little larger field than little league (I believe). And back then, when you got to 13, AAU ball provided the option of either playing 60/90 or 54/80. My boys played 60/90 as 13 yr.olds because (as you say) some kids can do it, and I felt strength-wise mine could. I honestly remember taking my oldest son out onto a high school infield for the very first time and sending him over to 3rd base while I stood at 1st, and he looked like he was on the other side of the world and needed a cut-off man to get it to me. (Actually I was quite happy that all I had to do is "roll one" to him) Anway, to my surprise, he had developed and matured enough that he was making the throws pretty good even that very first day. So with mine, I never doubted that putting them straight on a 60/90 field was ok.

I guess its an individual choice, and where playing on a 54/80 field is available,,, I think its ok,,,,,, playing on a 54/80 field one year definitely shouldn't hurt and will only help (as you said) a lot of kids in the transition from different size fields.

 

54-80

at 13 and maybe even 14 it needs to be 54-80.

 

let me get this straight. boys have more strength training,specialized training and play baseball almost year round these days but the field is too big for them at 13 in the year 2006 when 13 year olds having been playing on major league sized fields in babe ruth baseball forever?

 

I used to laugh a lot watching 13 yo run to 1st B on their groundballs. It would seem that they would almost stop at 60 feet wondering where the bag is. Or the 3rd baseman bobbling a grounder, then kicking it and still having time to throw the runner out. It is the biggest transition a BB player will ever make growing up.

 

No doubt,,,,,, the 13 year old season is the biggest jump "most" baseball players ever have to make.

And Braves,,,,, your right about watching them run to 1st base,,, or the infielders booting the ball twice and still throwing guys out,,,, but it was also a big adjustment for pitchers going from 46 ft. mounds to 60 ft. Can you say batting practice speed???

 

it's not about strength

it's about technique. how do you keep developing bat speed at 13/14 when it takes forever for a fastball to get to the plate? how do you insist on proper throwing mechanics when it takes all they've got to get the ball across the diamond? it's not about their strength it's about keeping the game "real" and frankly at 13-14 it's a step backwards.