Had first kid pitch game for my 8 year old last night. Did great, but mound was very tall.

I went back today to measure and it was 12". Seems excessive considering mlb is 10". Ruler is set at 10" in pics below.

I looked up LLWS and the mound is at 6 inches.

Should I bring this up as an issue?

where are the steps to get on top of that mound

It is what it is. Not good but not the end of the world. Our league At 10u rarely uses mounds at all So when we do it is interesting. Many of those synthetic mounds and garbage anyway.

Definitely address that. As someone with lots of ankle injuries, as if having to put on flats to pitch off artificial mounds wasn't bad enough because it's just garbage baseball, it definitely has a higher risk for injury if a pitcher needs to move off the back.

It seems like it was about 9 years ago when I was in 7th grade that cities started turning ALL their baseball fields into softball fields and making us throw off crap like that. I was with the same travel team for several years and we just quit going to tournaments on softball fields.

This is silly. Pitchers make adjustments. Very few mounds at lower levels are consistently the same height. Learn to make adjustments.

well when it's an artificial mound that is manufactured in a factory, it should be easy for everyone to get one of the same dimensions.

I agree, but it clearly doesn't happen that way.

Alpha Texan said:

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well when it's an artificial mound that is manufactured in a factory, it should be easy for everyone to get one of the same dimensions.

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As I mentioned on the other thread, the height is measured from home plate.

This mound could very well be the proper height, but it is irrelevant if it isn't. The only place you are going to find consistent mounds are at the professional level.

Don't be that guy.

How is the height of the mound measured from home plate? And how is that different from measuring the height from the flat ground next to the mound?

ptothemo said:

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How is the height of the mound measured from home plate? And how is that different from measuring the height from the flat ground next to the mound?

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Laser levels are the easiest but a string and a couple of nails will work too.

It is different because some fields, particularly no professional fields, aren't perfectly level.

Welp, I learned something today. Never knew that about using home plate. The point about the field being level definitely makes sense.

Regardless of the way it is measured, I still think that the point of a 12" mound being too tall stands (pun intended). I don't think that anyone is expecting every mound to be the exact same height. But the original point was the mound in question being too tall for the kids using it and not small differences field to field.

ptothemo said:

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Welp, I learned something today. Never knew that about using home plate. The point about the field being level definitely makes sense.

Regardless of the way it is measured, I still think that the point of a 12" mound being too tall stands (pun intended). I don't think that anyone is expecting every mound to be the exact same height. But the original point was the mound in question being too tall for the kids using it and not small differences field to field.

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It might be a bit high. Hard to tell since the picture isn't ground level. It doesn't matter. Point is....to the OP don't be THAT GUY that is out there measuring the damn mound.

My issue isn't so much with the height as it is the steeper slope off the back. Make it shorter or make it wider so the slope is flatter.

the problem with a mound like that isn't even the potential elevation difference to the plate for me, it's the slop stepping off the back or the side. With regard to height relative to the plate, yeah, players don't really have much right to complain until they're playing professional baseball, but if it adds potential for injury, I'm not a fan. I don't care about the height, but they could have made the slope off the back a little gentler.

Alpha Texan said:

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My issue isn't so much with the height as it is the steeper slope off the back. Make it shorter or make it wider so the slope is flatter.

the problem with a mound like that isn't even the potential elevation difference to the plate for me, it's the slop stepping off the back or the side. With regard to height relative to the plate, yeah, players don't really have much right to complain until they're playing professional baseball, but if it adds potential for injury, I'm not a fan. I don't care about the height, but they could have made the slope off the back a little gentler.

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Oh, I hate artificial mounds for a number of reason, including this one but the bottom line for most places is that nobody is willing/able to maintain dirt mounds properly. It takes a LOT of work.

Those artificial mounds are built to be able to move around so they keep them as light as possible. That certainly leads to some exaggerated slopes occasionally.

My advise is to teach kids to appreciate the dirt mounds, take care of them. When you see a kid out there digging a hole in front of the rubber, throw a baseball at him! (kidding).

In kids baseball these days you'll see all kind of mounds in all kinds of shape. Most are bad that I've seen. They generally have moveable type mounds as the kids in different age groups use the same field so the pitching difference changes. I just tell myself both teams have to use the same mound so that's as fair as it's going to be.

I've never understood why there is a mound at all. Put everyone on a level playing field (pun intended). But generally it should be:

10u - 4"
12u - 6"
14u - 8"
HS & above - 10"

Hell don't fall off the back of that thing.....you'll roll for days.

Hell yeah I would. That's a ridiculous mound.

Mound Height can be a big issue for shoulder issues. While some of you might think it is a little thing, changing the slope/angle of release can have negative effects on the muscles around the shoulder. Granted at young ages they are not throwing probably hard enough and there is probably not enough consistency between mounds and angels, but mount height and the slope stepping off of it can major effects on the shoulder.