Pitching better at 43ft: Is it mental?

[softball_mom#7]

My DD is moving up to 12U this fall. We have been working 12" balls and pitching from 40ft. She is still working on control and hitting her spots more and more. She was practicing last week and asked if she could try from 43ft. She threw more strikes and had more control at 43ft than 40ft and 35ft. Why??? Now she only wants to practice from 43ft.
Is this mental thing for her?

Her Dad told her last night that since she will be pitching from 40ft the next 2 years she needed to learn to control her pitches from that distance. She was less than thrilled. My favorite comment last night was "I need a lesson so Coach can fix this because I've tried everything he has taught me so far. Mom, can you make that happen please?" Sure, I'll just wave my magic wand. LOL

 

[coach james]

Something that helped my dd tremendously when she made the jump to 43' was, I moved our pitching rubber at home back at 46'. We practiced on it several times a week. Once on a diamond, it was a piece of cake to her. I think it was probably 90% mental! However, with the added distance there is more room for the ball to break. So of shes throwing a drop ball, it will seem to drop harder than when back to 40'.

 

[Ken B]

I like distance pitching of any kind. Moving back 3, 6, or 9 feet every once in a while will help break up the look and give her a challenge. Also, have her do stepbacks of some kind every so often. Start at 3/4 distance and throw X pitches. If she gets at least X out of X, she gets to take a step back. Keep going. Log her results to beat next time. Spins get to be a lot of fun and the extra distance can be very telling about how effective they are. Curve balls from 2B with head wind or cross breeze are a blast!