What challenges did your son have going to the BIG field?

If your kid is 12, why would he have to start using -3?  He should be using a -8 to -5 right now.  Once he is 14, he can start going from -5 to -3 and be ready for HS. 

As for the "big field" I would add that it is important for the players to keep their throws DOWN.  As they try to throw it farther, they tend to throw it higher and over the target.  No Rainbows.   

My 13u team (I organized it and coached) was a group of players who were the best all stars in our eighteen league LL district. I didn't look for the biggest kids. I looked for kids most likely to develop into high school players. Our coaching goal was to get them there.

There weren't any throwing issues. Every kid had a gun relative to their age. I was prepared to tell catchers one hop it on a line to second versus heaving a rainbow. But it wasn't an issue. About half the team had not played with leads. It only took a weekend of games to get comfortable with leads. We spent an entire practice on getting way off the base and learning where "too far" was. From a fielding standpoint the only issue was learning how far to run and it's still your ball.

On the 60/90 slow kids get exposed. The kids who hit the moonshot homers got exposed. Slow runners were thrown out with the long run to first. Or they were held to singles on what should have been doubles. Moonshots on smaller fields were now catchable fly balls. I do remember 13u as being slow motion baseball. It gave the kids reaction time. The game sped up significantly with 14u.

My son was 5'2" in 13u. He threw 68 in LL. I wasn't worried about throwing for distance. His line drive homers in LL became doubles and triples on the 60/90.

i do remember his first 13u game in the fall after LL. in his first at bat he ripped a line drive shot on one hop to the second baseman for an easy 4-6-3 double play. He returned to the bench bitching he can't hit the ball any harder. It probably would have been a gapper to the fence on a small field. The next time up he crushed one to right for a sliding triple where he just beat the throw. He looked up at our 3rd base coach and asked, "Was that out of LL?" The coach replied, "Son, you're done with LL."

Re: out of LL ... We had a very loose bunch in Legion ball. We were always riding each other. If we were winning and one of our hitters flied out routinely he was sure to hear, "Nice try. That was definitely out of LL."

The short story is he will be jumping from 12u to 14u to play with his grade rather than his age.  He will be 12 as he enters 8th grade.

Our middle school followed NFHS rules. 7th graders had to use -3. So we got them started on -3 in the fall after LL. I didn't see where any of our players had an issue with the heavier bats. Most had been swing -3s in BP for a couple of years.

I hope he is ok. That's scary. As soon as we hit 13u I had my son and several others go to BBCOR. Many were ready. Some not. They would be hitting it the next season and middle school (IESA) requires the -3.  I was still astonished how many teams were hitting the -10+. Even at 14U many "bigger" teams were with the -5. We were In a 13u tourney in  JTown and there were no bat restrictions in the rules.  Many were still using the illegal 2 3/4 barrel bats. I was very concerned, asked the tournament director about it and she responded "well the travel league were affiliated with didn't enforce the USSSA rule yet"   So we got out of there and I never went back. 

Did u play in Loves Park? I ask because my cousins son was playing there. They are out of Madison. 

Madison Monarchs 12u. Also plays with 13u Hitters

And in a sane world my son would have experienced that....sadly, not such a sane baseball world right now in Georgia.  He will be in 8th grade in 3 months and mowed down several poor kids this weekend with his drop 10.  He has a drop 3 but no where to use it *sigh*.

Sorry. Guess it's Hatters

I have a 12 year old 6 grader that's playing on the big field this year. His biggest issue has been getting his timing right for hitting. The ball takes forever to get to home plate. Your son might not have as much of an issue with this going to the 14's though as they through harder. Throwing has not been a issue with anyone on the team.

Some of this has been alluded to above but:

1) Speed is now a bigger asset. On the bases and running down OF balls

2) Power arms are a bigger asset. Both pitchers and fielders

3) Quick release throws are a bigger asset.

4) In our ballpark, due to increased distance behind HP, passed balls normally resulted in runners moving up at least one base.

5) Good catchers are a bigger asset. Being able to receive, block, and throw.

6) Hard for weak hitters to get the ball out of the infield

Ryno had trouble with his speed on the big field.  Tall kid, who can really hit, but he is really slow.  He would hit lasers to right field and get gunned down because it took him too long to run to first. 

He also wasn't a strike out pitcher at 13.  It took him awhile to get the velocity necessary to dominate on the big field.

There are definitely challenges. IMO, mostly related to 13-14 year-old boys playing a man’s game on a man-sized field. They run slower, they throw slower, they swing the bat slower, they react slower. You will probably see huge developmental differences amongst kids in this age group. Party due to age, and partly due to levels of maturity. I think the transition is less about experience and more about getting physically bigger and stronger. Be warned, it may be painful to watch for a while, especially if they’re required to swing -3 bats. Don't be surprised to see Infield In for the whole game. But it’s all part of the process, and it's still baseball. They’ll figure it out.

A word of caution about pitching. My son was bigger and stronger than most of his teammates at 13U. That made him a favorite with his coaches for pitching. To compound the problem of pitching too much, he also started developing better control which allowed him to throw with more effort (he couldn't throw max effort at 12U and still throw strikes). I didn’t know enough at the time to protect him and he ended up with elbow problems.

On other thought on catching/blocking. It's even more difficult at this age. In high school, the catcher pretty much knows where the ball is going, so he's actually working with his pitcher when it comes to blocking. At 13U, the pitcher is throwing the ball all over the place. The catcher might have to block a FB off the plate and in the dirt that he was expecting down the middle. Much tougher on catchers at this age.

Move to big field ... A couple memories ... the 9-3, right-fielder to 1st, put out.  Until the hitters are strong enough for the outfielders to play deeper (JV HS time), grounders and bloopers into right field are force outs at first.  ...  Hitters begin travelling at the plate.  They start lunging towards the ball.  The boys with the best hand-eye coordination can struggle with this the most.  They ID pitch and location and go hit the ball instead waiting for it to travel to them.  Right handed hitters doing this will ground out to Short a lot.  

2019Son went through this over the last 12 months. My observations are in line with most of the other posters, but I think there have been some positives not mentioned yet.

First, BBCOR is a huge, gigantic difference (from 2002 - 2011 there was a -3 requirement, but it was with the BESR standard, which was more similar to the 1.15 you see today with -5, -10 bats, etc.). With a 1.15 bat the ball will go ~15% farther than with BBCOR. That 300 ft. home run in 13U can be a 260 ft. fly out in 14U. 2019Son's team's home field is 330' down the lines, 380' to center (HS Varsity field) . . . I have seen 8th graders hit the warning track, but haven't seen any over-the-fence home runs when playing on that size field.

OTOH, 2019Son's coaches changed his swing this year. In 12U and 13U he had been a leadoff hitter -- get on base and steal his way around -- and his coaches this year (different coaches) had him ditch the "hit the ball on the ground" approach. I think the quote from his coach was "you should be trying to hit triples" (note: size of field makes home runs infeasible). The swing changes took some time, but net, net he has hit for more power this year than he did last year. So my takeaway is, with good coaching kids can adapt quickly.

Second, yes, as other have noted, slow kids are exposed (on both offense and defense), kids who can't throw are exposed.

Third, on the positive side, pitchers who have good movement on the ball (e.g., two-seamer with good armside run) are benefited being at 60 ft. vs. 50 ft. (or even 54). Same thing with sharp breaking balls. Plus the hitters are all using BBCOR (which is an awesome rule when your son is pitching!) For 2019Son, he has been more effective pitching (e.g., higher K rate) on the big field.

Overall, for most kids it will take some getting used to, but in a few months time it will seem completely normal. CaCO3Girl, your son will go back and see a small field 6 or 12 months from now and think "How did we play on such a tiny field?!?"

As a pitcher my guy threw harder and better from 60ft. than the 54 or whatever 8th grade was.

If that is the case, I would consider picking up a -5 on clearance just too have.  The pitching will be much improved at 14u than what he is used to.  -10 to -3 is a big jump.  He may want a -5 just in case. 

Funny you mention that...my son confirmed for me this weekend (on the 50' mound) that he was in fact holding back.  Makes me wonder what else he holds back on.