- Jan 22, 2011
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Southern California has used a 10 inch ball for 8u for a very long time. Northern California switched to the 10 inch ball for 8u 7 or 8 years ago.I've mostly convinced myself that having 8U and under throw anything bigger than a baseball is a major cause of crappy throwing mechanics. It's really becoming the elephant in the room. BB vs. SB swing mechanics are slowly starting to be accepted as being nearly (if not completely) identical. I think the push to use the same throwing mechanics is sadly still lagging several years behind.
I've known about 5 girls that spent significant time playing baseball before switching to softball. ALL of the them had superior throwing mechanics to the SB-only girls. I admit it's a very limited sample size. But I also come across enough DFP and other social media posts to believe there's merit to looking into this further.
What size ball do other areas use for 8u?
Using the 11 inch ball too early definitely contributes to learning poor throwing mechanics.