League Types

Question
My daughter will be playing 11-12 year old softball this year.  My question is what type of league should she play on?  High School is governed by NFHS, and we have an ASA league and Little League in our area to choose from.  Which league is closest to NFHS rules?  She is a pitcher, so we want to use the league with the closest pitching rules to the high school level.

Answer
Hi Mark,

Thank you for your question.  I like the way you're looking after your daughter's softball future!

I can give you an answer which I'll be 99% happy with.  I'm sorry to say that I can't give you a 100% answer because I don't have a Little League rules book in front of me to compare with my NFHS and ASA rules books.  However, after I read your question, I did spend a solid half hour on the phone with one of Little League's Assistant Western Region Directors in San Bernardino, CA, grilling him about Little League fast pitch softball pitching.  He said, generally speaking, that Little League is trying to model itself after ASA.  The conclusion I drew at the end of our conversation was that, expectedly, there are numerous minor differences between ASA and LL.  One of these, for example, is that an ASA pitcher is required to start with both feet on the pitching plate.  A LL pitcher is required to start with one foot on the pitching plate.  So this minor difference chalks up LL as being more like NFHS than ASA is.  There are other minor differences between ASA and LL that chalk up ASA as being more like NFHS than LL is.

The only major difference between ASA and LL is that LL likes to rest its pitchers.  LL's philosophy is that resting pitchers prevents injuries to young arms AND allows other girls on the team to share the pitching responsibility.  For girls of your daughter's age, when the pitcher pitches even 1 inning she is required to have 1 day of rest.  She can only pitch 9 innings maximum per game.  She can only pitch 18 innings maximum per calendar week, Sunday to Saturday.  ASA has no pitching rest requirements or pitch counting or inning counting.

I also spoke at length with a friend of mine, a girls fast pitch softball pitching coach.  He, and he's just one voice, suggested that you place absolutely no importance on the similarity between LL and NFHS, or between ASA and NFHS, as the main or sole criterion for choosing one Organization over the other.  Whichever Organization you choose, when your daughter gets to high school, she'll have to make some changes to her pitching game.  Then when she gets to college, she'll have to make some changes to her pitching game.  It boils down to windmill vs. windmill.  The differences between the Organizations' windmills are all nuances, essentially.  Your daughter will adapt to the nuances.

My two cents worth is that the heart of the decision to choose either LL or ASA lies in whether your daughter wants to be rested or not.  I can see that maybe ASA ball would produce stronger pitchers, simply because ASA pitchers can log more innings.  I can see that maybe LL ball would produce more well-rounded pitchers, simply because LL pitchers are more likely to play other positions, too.

Good luck with your decision!

Scott Kelly