need advice on infield playing time

Little league U10 coach here, previously coached U8 coach pitch for two years. my girl is 8 (league age 7) only allowed to play U10 because they needed a coach. Have a pretty good group of girls (talking attitude, not necessarily ability). Two play travel, another at their level, then 3 or 4 more one step below that, a couple more below that, then two that are really struggling. We use continuous batting order, so my dilemma is only about defensive positions. I only have 11 on roster, we play 10, so no one sits more than one inning a game. My dilemma is the last two, really torn up that through 9 games, they have only played outfield. However, neither can really catch a thrown ball. If I am working with them and throwing directly into their gloves, they can make catch, but one consistenly moves out of way of the ball (in air on on ground), the other is really tiny and tries, but not much success catching the ball. I have spent some individual time with them both, and spend more time than I should during warmups for games working individually with them (when I am busy trying to prep field, talk to other coach and blue, thinking of assignments, etc.)

Also, other defensive dilemma I have is one of my top players is lefty (throwing and catching), so she plays 1st pretty much any time she is not pitching. I have some other girls interested, but I do not think they will understand that it is hard for a lefty to be effective in infield anywhere other than P, C, or 1B.

My biggest concern is always balancing winning vs playing time/positioning. I generally have my top three travel level players rotate among P, 1B, C and 3rd (only one catches, the other two have no desire, and my girl does a pretty decent job behind the plate), and everyone else but the aforementioned two rotate among remaining infield positions and outfield.

am I being a jerk not playing both or either of these girls (one can throw fairly well, but just does not move feet to get to balls, and is very slow to throw once she has it) in the infield at least for an inning or so a game?

sorry for being so long winded, but this is bothering me

I try to rotate all of my players into the infield for a few innings at least every other game. I have a few that are similar to what you describe and have found that second base is usually a pretty safe spot to hide them on the infield without much risk to them. Really, your only concern should be their safety and not many hot shots are going to be hit to 2nd at this age group. Just have them play deep at 2nd and put someone at SS that can cover the bag for throws.

When my DD played rec ball the coach had a pretty good system. My DD was a pitcher who struck out about 90% of the batters she faced. This coach would put the fielding challenged girls in the infield when she pitched. When the other girls pitched he would appropriately fill out the infield positions with the girls who could field.

RetiredCoach said:

When my DD played rec ball the coach had a pretty good system. My DD was a pitcher who struck out about 90% of the batters she faced. This coach would put the fielding challenged girls in the infield when she pitched. When the other girls pitched he would appropriately fill out the infield positions with the girls who could field.

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I don't see that as a good coaching move as it doesn't help the players get better.

bmakj said:

Little league U10...
My biggest concern is always balancing winning vs playing time/positioning.

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Why are you worried about winning at this age?

am I being a jerk not playing both or either of these girls (one can throw fairly well, but just does not move feet to get to balls, and is very slow to throw once she has it) in the infield at least for an inning or so a game?

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I don't want to be too hard on you, because you are becoming a sentient (self-aware).

In rec ball, there is really no trick to winning games with your best players on the infield and batting them 1-2-3-4. So what? To be honest, a 14YOA kid can do that.

Winning with your worst kids on the infield is difficult--and only the really good coaches can do that. You have to balance the infield, and you have to teach backing up, throwing, and catching. IMHO, beating a team by 15 runs when you have the worst kid on the team playing 2B was much more rewarding.

So, how do you do it?

The key is to always have someone good at 1B, SS and C. You put the weaker players at 2B and 3B.

Put your best kids out there in the first inning to gauge the ability level of the other team. You put the second string defensive team on the field in the 2nd inning. You leave them out there until the other team catches up. Then,you put your first team back on the infield. Never let the game get out of hand.

You want to teach force outs at 2B and 3B, and teach the weaker kids how to toss the ball *gently* to 2B. With your better kids in the OF, overthrows won't hurt much *IF* you teach backing up correctly.

Give the lefty some time in the infield. They likely won't play for UCLA there, but if they are good they can play just fine. Just this weekend we played a pretty good A team at 14U with a lefty 2B. She makes some very nice plays.

Lobster Birch said:

Why are you worried about winning at this age?

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probably not correct choice of words (winning), more like trying to stay competitive/keep games close is more what I meant. we have a 4 run limit, no walked in runs (coach pitches after 4th ball with bases loaded), so no matter how good my team is offensively, or bad the opposing pitching, we can only score 4 an inning, and actually we are averaging just over 1 run per inning for the year. Girls get a little down when they are down by 10 halfway through the game, knowing it is virtually impossible to catch up (we can score 8 in last inning, but so can other team). The one girl literally backs/turns away from every ball (including grounders hit right to her), no matter how much I and her family has worked with her. The other cannot reach 1B from 2B position with a throw (even on the roll), mostly because she is tiny (gave her homework assignment jokingly after one practice to eat an entire jar of peanut butter that week by herself).

regarding my lefty, she plays 1st mostly unless she is pitching, good ball player, but I have a first year player begging me every inning to play first and I know she is just not ready, am afraid she will take one directly in the face. she also wants to catch, but makes good throw back to pitch less than 50% of time. Most of the rest of the girls do not want to play 1st honestly, except mine and another coaches daughter both 8, both with decent gloves, and they are so short I am simply afraid everyone else will overthrow them.

main issue is really our schedule, we had 6 practices, then games started, and they front loaded my schedule to have 2-3 (4 this week) games per week early, so little to no practice since season started (I will have had two by the time our 12th game rolls around). Then late in season I have a three week gap between out last two games!

Don't worry about rotating a few of the better players in the OF especially CF so they can run and back up others. 2B is OK for the players that struggle a little usually plenty of time to react and throw are shorter but I might be leery about 3B and if they do make sure they have a mask, even if only one or two girls on the other team can really hit 3B can be scary and if they compensate by playing deep it does not sound like they cold make the throw to first to get the out anyway.

Other thing that is worrisome is nine games in you have 10U girls that can't catch a thrown ball...I know its hard but the parent have to understand they must help by playing catch for 15 minutes or so everyday

it is her 1st year playing, family is working with her, but I am afraid they are not stressing the right things (she reaches for the ball, but glove side foot always ends up moving behind throwing side foot) she has a mask, just cannot get over fear of the ball (even grounders, ball coming right at her, she pulls glove side foot behind throwing foot and reaches for ball. tried playing catch with her on her knees, but as soon as she stands up, right back to moving away. gonna try in warmups tonight having mom or dad stand behind her holding her in place while I throw to her (so they are confident I will not hit them in face).