New coach...needs help with 8u batting lineup

Rocketech1 said:

(BTW - I think its a shame that more leagues don't have kid pitch at 8U).

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Rocketech1 said:

Also, don't listen to advice to randomly place kids in the line-up and fielding positions. No need to dumb down the game and "punish" the kids who work hard at trying to improve and get better. Why set the kids up for failure. I have played against teams that were indifferent to playing competitively and its a train wreck.

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If my DD's first experience in 8U had been kid pitch, I don't think she would've returned for another season. Coach pitch was hard enough. She struck out half the time, about 10 times in a row at one point. If it had been kid pitch - which would have cut her at-bats in half because of the slowness of kid pitch - I don't know if she ever would have gotten a hit. It would have been miserable.

And as far as 'punishing' the kids who work hard, my DD did work hard. Because she was striking out, she practiced a bunch on her own. There were kids who never practiced who hit much better than her. Some kids at age 7 just can't hit. Some because their bodies or minds just aren't ready.

I think those that prefer kid pitch in 8U are those whose kids are more advanced and will get the most out of it. It might be good for those kids, but I'm not convinced it's good for the growth of the game in general. Sometimes it's good to dumb down the game at the entry levels in order to get kids hooked on the game. Once they're hooked, then speed it up.

dbronstein said:

This probably goes back to regional differences, but that sounds completely absurd to me. We don't have enough pitchers for 10U rec (we do modified coach pitch), it would be a total joke to try to have kid pitch at 8U.

As for the original topic, I agree with those who said to work on hitting and not worry about the lineup. The goal should be to get each player the same amount of at-bats over the season.

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Hear! Hear!

Rocketech1 said:

No reason you can't develop 2 kids per team at 8u to start them learning how to pitch. We do it all the time. By the time they are second year 8u, they are fairly proficient. Challenge kids and you will be surprised what they can do. By enabling kids with coach pitch into 10u really dumbs down the game.

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Again, maybe it's regional differences, I don't now. But our second year 10U pitchers have enough problems, so I'm having a hard time seeing how 8U kid pitch would be anything other than a walkfest (or the coaches coming in on every batter if it's modified).

And I disagree that "enabling" kids with modified coach pitch dumbs down the game. IMO, it allows them to learn the game rather than getting bored out of their skulls with walkfests. My experience with both softball and baseball is coaches/parents are too eager to have kids playing at levels they aren't ready for. I think it's ridiculous to have stealing in 10U rec. In four seasons of my DD at 10U, I saw exactly zero runners thrown out stealing second and maybe 2 at third, and one of those was because the runner overran the base by 10 feet. Baseball was even worse with how quickly they went to full stealing, balks, etc.

But this is way off the OP. Again, my feeling is the OP should stop worrying about the lineup and work on the girls' hitting.

Rocketech1 said:

Also, don't listen to advice to randomly place kids in the line-up and fielding positions. ... Why set the kids up for failure.

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Rocketech1 said:

Challenge kids and you will be surprised what they can do.

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Isn't this a contradiction?

Asking kids to pitch at 8U is challenging them, but letting weaker players get more turns in the infield is setting them up for failure.

dbronstein said:

I think it's ridiculous to have stealing in 10U rec. In four seasons of my DD at 10U, I saw exactly zero runners thrown out stealing second and maybe 2 at third, and one of those was because the runner overran the base by 10 feet. Baseball was even worse with how quickly they went to full stealing, balks, etc.

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Must be a regional thing because our 10U division is 100% kid pitch, dropped third strikes, steal any base, infield fly rule, etc.

CoogansBluff said:

Isn't this a contradiction?

Asking kids to pitch at 8U is challenging them, but letting weaker players get more turns in the infield is setting them up for failure.

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No contradiction. The team is set-up for failure if you randomly assign players to the batting order and defensive positions while your opponent fields the best team they can. It's not fun losing every game of the season because the coach is too stubborn to field the best team he/she can. I have seen it happen several times and it does not work. Every rec team I have been associated with has 1 or 2 players that have never played the game before. If you put them at 1st base and they cannot catch the ball thrown to them by Susy all-star who has a rifle arm at SS, you are setting the kid up for failure. Of course you work with all the kids to teach them softball fundamentals but you can't just randomly assign players to the infield. You need to evaluate the skill set of each player and determine what defensive positioning is best for the team.

We are talking about 8U, right? 6 and 7 year olds? First exposure to softball? Everyone hits, the batting order shouldn't matter. Your goal as a coach is to teach them fundamentals, demonstrate great examples of sportsmanship (having some of the older girls help at practice and in the dugout with cheers really helps) and make sure they want to come back and play the game another season. We don't get to full rules until 10U, some leagues wait until 12U. Either way, you need to stay in the league long enough to get there. Our girls pitch here in 8U, and anyone who wants to try gets a chance and can attend weekly league-sponsored pitching workshops with a real pitching coach. Sometimes there are "ringers" who can throw 3 strikes, but usually you see 4 balls and then the coach comes in to throw something down the middle for the girls to hit. Someone who likes to pitch at 8U might not yet be great, but can certainly blossom in her first or second year of 10U.

Rocketech1 said:

Must be a regional thing because our 10U division is 100% kid pitch, dropped third strikes, steal any base, infield fly rule, etc.

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Our area is kid pitch, can't run on dropped third strikes, can steal, no infield fly rule.

I feel like you have to get them ready for stealing in 12U... might as well start here. Most teams we play don't steal unless the catcher misses the ball.

Our catcher has a good arm... IF she catches the ball. Now her throwing it down to 2nd and somebody catching that throw is another story.

The one thing I haven't liked in the past at the State Tourneys was that higher developed teams would do the old 'run off third base trick' on every pitch. You need an experienced pitcher, catcher and third basemen to combat this tactic. The other team scored like 5 runs on us before I could get my girls understanding and move some girls around. Still would work about half the time.

Just bat them by the number on their shirts and start the next game where you left off.

FP26 said:

After a couple of weeks I switched to a structure similar to that shown on the link marriard posted. Unfortunately, it didn't work for us. By having the "weaker" batters scattered throughout the lineup, it always seemed as though we would have the bases loaded with 2 outs when one of those hitters came up - inning over... Our "left on base" numbers were huge.

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I know this is an old thread, but I stumbled across it because I, too, have been trying the same strategy in 8U and am running into the same LOB issue. We probably lead the league in ending the inning with bases loaded.

I'm going to try just hitting best to worst, with a few power/speed tweaks at the top.