Mount St. Charles’ Kelly Ryan graduated last spring, but all returning pitchers in Rhode Island continue to pitch from 40 feet next season.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

If you are a high school softball pitcher wondering whether you should be sharpening your skills from 40 feet or 43 feet in preparation for next season, for another year at least, keep the pitching rubber right where it is.

The Rhode Island Interscholastic League is opting to keep the distance at 40 feet, following a vote by the National Federation of State High School Associations’ Softball Rules Committee not to move it back to 43 at its annual meeting, last month in Indianapolis.

The proposal to change the pitching distance has come up several times over the last few years, said Mary Struckhoff, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Softball Rules Committee.

“It’s been quite an emotional discussion,” she said recently by phone.

Advocates for the change point to the fact that the NCAA moved the pitching rubber back for collegiate play and that a number of amateur softball organizations, such as the Amateur Softball Association of America and the National Softball Association, have increased the distance for some of their age groups.

“Anytime the NCAA makes a move, folks look at us to see what we’re going to do,” Struckhoff said. “But it’s not our job to prepare kids for college. We are more about participation and just getting the kids out there to have fun and making them into good citizens. The percentage of kids who go on to the next level — in any sport — is very small. So we can’t make the rules that affect a very small percentage. Our rules always have to be based on what is good for all high school softball players.”

Still, the NFHS’ 11-member Softball Rules Committee has been willing to listen and entertain proposals. It approved the state of Florida High School Athletic Association’s request to experiment with the 43-foot distance for the last three seasons. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association decided on its own to deviate from the rules and moved the pitching rubber back last season. The rules committee has been gathering anecdotal information, as well as actual statistics, from the leagues to help make its decision, Struckhoff said.

Those in favor of moving the distance to 43 feet usually provide two main pieces of rationale: that the pitcher’s safety will be increased by being farther away from the plate and that more offense will be generated as a result of hitters having more time to see the ball.

Struckhoff said that the information the NFHS has received thus far does not seem to indicate that an extra three feet necessarily translates into a significant improvement in the pitcher’s reaction time.

The federation does, however, see the concept of more balls being put into play and consequently more players getting involved in the game as certainly being “a good thing.”

One of the committee’s main questions is how the increased distance will affect the quality of pitches. The change in distance has more of an effect on a pitcher who primarily throws fastballs. That is, the ball is going to slow down as a result of traveling a few extra feet.

On the other hand, a pitcher who has a lot of movement on her pitches will tend to benefit more because the three additional feet will give the ball more time to rise or drop.

The committee also feels that while elite pitchers by and large do not have much difficulty making the adjustment, less-skilled pitchers may struggle. And that is troubling, Struckhoff says.

“The elite pitchers are going to be able to make the transition, but our concern is with everybody else,” she said. “The 80 percent of kids who are fair or mediocre at 40 feet and what 43 feet will do to them. What it boiled down to is that we just don’t know enough about what it’s doing to pitchers at the lower levels and whether it’s good for 14-year-olds or bad for 14-year-olds.”

The rules committee will continue to examine the issue and seek feedback from the various state associations and their coaches, says Struckhoff, adding that she does envision the rule being changed at some point in the near future.

Betty Marquis, the RIIL’s director of fast-pitch, approached the Principals’ Committee on Athletics in the spring about the possibility of Rhode Island becoming one of the states to experiment with 43 feet, but Marquis said the group ultimately decided to stay at 40.

“I think the league is correct in leaving it as it is until there is time to see what happens in Massachusetts and other states that are trying it out,” she said. “I’d rather stay on the side of caution rather than chance.”

cthorn@projo.com