Hitting Game I came up with

Hey everyone,

I came up with this game, curious to hear what everyone's thoughts are. In other words, I think it's brilliant and want confirmation, lol. I usually have 8-10 girls so I split them up into two teams of equal size. 5 batters and 5 infielders. I usually have a coach playing catcher.

Each girl gets 10 pitches. And they get a certain number of points depending on the outcome of each pitch.

-1 Point if you swing at a ball and miss or watch a strike and not swing.
0 Points if you swing at a strike and miss
1 Point for foul balls
2 Points for a weakly hit fair ball. Weak is if it's hit softly enough that the infielders field it cleanly.
3 Points for a ball hit hard enough that the infielder bobbles it.
4 Points for a ball that reaches the outfield

Add up the points for each team, declare a winning team and a best overall player who has the highest number of points.

Teaches good pitch selection, swinging hard when you do swing, and the girls in the field are committed to doing their best to stop the ball cleanly, so they're not bored when fielding batting practice.

Okay. Not bad from my point of view but what do the defensive players get point-wise for making the outs or stopping the ball? If you truly wanted to make it competitive, you would award points both ways and declare the best defensive player as well. Of course, this would entail a subjective call since the middle infielders statistically get the most balls in a game.

It's just a way to get them engaged in fielding the ball. The group of infielders have incentive to field balls cleanly and keep them in front of them and out of the outfield because that reduces the number of points the other team scores. I've never thought about awarding a best fielder award.

Just a thought. Of course, ice cream is a huge incentive for the younger age groups to produce in practice. Come to think of it, it's a huge incentive in the older age groups also

That sounds like a great idea for a hitting game. I also like ice cream, and the idea of points for the defense as well.

And i like ice cream.

spike said:

Hey everyone,

I came up with this game, curious to hear what everyone's thoughts are. In other words, I think it's brilliant and want confirmation, lol. I usually have 8-10 girls so I split them up into two teams of equal size. 5 batters and 5 infielders. I usually have a coach playing catcher.

Each girl gets 10 pitches. And they get a certain number of points depending on the outcome of each pitch.

-1 Point if you swing at a ball and miss or watch a strike and not swing.
0 Points if you swing at a strike and miss
1 Point for foul balls
2 Points for a weakly hit fair ball. Weak is if it's hit softly enough that the infielders field it cleanly.
3 Points for a ball hit hard enough that the infielder bobbles it.
4 Points for a ball that reaches the outfield

Add up the points for each team, declare a winning team and a best overall player who has the highest number of points.

Teaches good pitch selection, swinging hard when you do swing, and the girls in the field are committed to doing their best to stop the ball cleanly, so they're not bored when fielding batting practice.

Click to expand...

Good stuff.

Who is the pitcher? A coach, I assume?

Seems odd that a popup to the outfield is 4 points, but a line drive to the shortstop is only 2. I might put a parent or coach in the outfield to cut down on 'cheap' 4-pointers.

I wouldn't give a point for a foul ball. It's just a strike. But that's just me.

I don't necessarily think this game teaches good ''pitch selection'' because they need to swing at any strike. I might say that it teaches the strike zone. Maybe that's the same thing, but I guess my point is that good pitch selection often entails taking a strike in a real game. Maybe what you're doing is teaching good ''two-strike'' pitch selection.

When I coached 12U, we played a similar game. Instead of giving a girl 10 pitches, we gave each team three outs. An out was any ball that didn't get out of the infield or was caught in the air. They got three strikes, which teaches the full gamut of pitch selection since it became very important strategically to wait for a good pitch. I think it was 1 point for grounder to the outfield, 2 for ball that hit in the OF on the fly (we had outfielders) and 3 for balls that got to the fence.

Also, the next inning began as soon as a player from the defense could find her bat and get in the batter's box, whether the new defense was set or not. So once the clock struck ''out three,'' they were sprinting like mad during the changeover. It kept the game moving quickly and made it more fun.

Love the concept, but not so much with the point system. My suggestion:
Pitching is performed by a coach in a front toss, short setting. Mixing up speeds and location...
3 points for a line drive hit to the outfield.
2 points for a pop up to the outfield.
1 point for an infield play that's a hit.
0 points for an out.
-2 points for a swinging K.
-3 point for a looking K.
Rotate each batter with every at bat and have them run on contact as they would in a game (simulate the throw coming in from the outfield with verbal commands by having them sliding into 2nd or 3rd)

Definitely good points CoogansBluff! And I agree it's not "fair" to the batter to get fewer points for a line drive that's caught than a fly ball to the outfield, but is softball fair?

I should clarify that I'm coaching 10U rec, so at this point it's an accomplishment if I can get the girls' bats of their shoulders instead of just waiting to be walked. I'm really trying to teach the strike zone and aggressiveness at the plate at this point, true pitch selection as you describe it will come later when they're seeing consistent strikes from pitchers.

Also, fly balls to the outfield are usually triples or home runs at this level. I agree I'd probably need to mix it up a bit if I were coaching 12U or a travel/select team.

spike said:

Definitely good points CoogansBluff! And I agree it's not "fair" to the batter to get fewer points for a line drive that's caught than a fly ball to the outfield, but is softball fair?

I should clarify that I'm coaching 10U rec, so at this point it's an accomplishment if I can get the girls' bats of their shoulders instead of just waiting to be walked. I'm really trying to teach the strike zone and aggressiveness at the plate at this point, true pitch selection as you describe it will come later when they're seeing consistent strikes from pitchers.

Also, fly balls to the outfield are usually triples or home runs at this level. I agree I'd probably need to mix it up a bit if I were coaching 12U or a travel/select team.

Click to expand...

All good points. Age/skill is important. Pops to the OF are potent in 10/rec. In fact, not everyone can hit one out there yet.

Any game that gets them engaged is a good game. Consider your genius confirmed.