Thread: Shortened Games

I had my first experience this weekend with 30 minute games, including the championship, because of rain. I have never heard of it, nor do I agree with it. We played 30 min elimination games all the way through the championship game. Some teams got so peeved, they left. It really soured the whole experience.

I have seen games shortened to as little as 45 min - but not 30 min. That is a little rediculus. If this happens to us again, I will follow my peers and leave the tournament as well. I would have rather just flipped a coin. You cannot critique a 30 min game - its negative training value (other than me learning that I will never do it again).

Has anyone else ever experienced 30 min games? Is this a common practice elsewhere?

I have played short games (come to plate with full count, in the winter, 2-30 minute games) in both fastpitch and slowpitch and loved it, but I can't see that being good for kids.

I would think that would detract from the learning process, mostly on pitch selection and quality at-bats. Coaching tends to go out the window since it's a super fast game. At least the defense gets a good workout.

What did your kids think, did they enjoy it?

Never time limited to 30 minutes. My daughter has played in some games that were shortened to 5 innings due to rain delays and being behind schedule, but never just a 30 minute time limit. Depending on age group, you may only get 1 full inning in in that time frame.

This was in FLA. I really couldn't tell if the kids liked it or not - although we lost so my guess is they didn't like it much. We also had so many delays that it really became "not fun" anymore because all we did was wait around all day. We started at 8:30am and finished at 5:00pm - and played a total of 1hr 15 min of ball in 2 games. It pretty much sucked.

We talked before the game and tried to iron out as much strategy as possible. Things you would expect - smart pitch selection because we need baserunners, score early, no mistakes, etc. I told them that the game would be won by the team that didn't make a mistake - one mistake, game over. We couldn't recover. 1-0 3 innings. It was really that simple.

Again, if faced with that dilema again, we will pack it in. If the TD feels the need to shorten the games to 30 min, I feel the tourny should be cancelled at that point.

This is just something that I have heard in the past few years of traveling around for softball and I am in FLA as well. When tournaments start the tournament director has toget a certain amount of playing time in for each team before they have to refund entry fees. So these organizers are just getting the time in so they don't have to return any money and they are not concerned about the girls or the coaches. This has been what I have been told throughout our experiences and believe me we have traveled a long ways to get ripped off of playing the games the we rightly deserve. Which made the girls very frustrated through the whole thing. Also our coach wanted to quit as well in a few instances but he felt it was the wrong thing to do because he feels that doesn't present a good example to the girls which I respect as a parent. But he did make sure that we never entered that tournament again and let other coaches know as well.

Were they 30 minutes drop dead, or did you finish the inning...I don't mind anything where you finish the inning, but drop dead really sux!

They were 30 min finish the inning - the best you could hope for was 3 innings.

Lori - you are exactly right. It is about the money. I've been here in Fla for just a little while and that has been my experience whether its NSA, USSSA, or any other sanction.

Originally Posted by madskilz

I had my first experience this weekend with 30 minute games, including the championship, because of rain. I have never heard of it, nor do I agree with it. We played 30 min elimination games all the way through the championship game. Some teams got so peeved, they left. It really soured the whole experience.

I have seen games shortened to as little as 45 min - but not 30 min. That is a little rediculus. If this happens to us again, I will follow my peers and leave the tournament as well. I would have rather just flipped a coin. You cannot critique a 30 min game - its negative training value (other than me learning that I will never do it again).

Has anyone else ever experienced 30 min games? Is this a common practice elsewhere?

What was the purpose of the tournament? Friendly or highly competitive? Showcase or playing for some championship? Age?