1st Year U10 Team

[humpty]

Play on 6 on 6 scrimmages at practice. They need more time in game situations.

 

[coach james]

I also have a 10u rec team for my youngest dd, a favorite thing I do at the end of every practice is to divide them up equally based on skill level, and scrimmage each other 6 on 6 with coaches as p and c and two middle outfielders.
Mix it up with a few dropped third strikes or passed balls to help the runners learn to be extra aggressive.

 

[chinamigarden]

I also have a 10u rec team for my youngest dd, ...

I've never seen it described so honestly. ��

 

[Chezaré Sievers]

Normal. Try to run a scrimmage at the end of practice or dedicate an entire practice to a scrimmage. Otherwise, repetition, repetition, repetition.

Repetition = Retention

 

[Chezaré Sievers]

I used to let the players play an "unorganized" game of kickball before practice officially started. It was amazing to see how aggressive they became at base running and how they translated it to softball. If it started to get outta hand, I stepped in and asked them questions about how it related to the game of softball and why you would or wouldn't to do it that way.

It is also helpful to have someone in the dugout during the game that will talk to the kids about what is going on on the field. It helps, especially when you are playing a good team and your team is on offense and that person can explain the game. Sometimes the "dugout coach" spends to much time just watching the game and not explaining the game to the players.

It is also a good idea to have the girls watch a game as a group. It can just be an older age groups game. They need to pick a player that plays the same position. Tell them up front to be able to tell you what that person did well, if there is something that they could do better. You have to sit with them and guide them through a couple of innings of the game. Otherwise they will make multiple trips to the bathroom or concession stand. ;-)

Sometimes the quickest way to learn is to make mistakes. . .

Great idea! This keeps the game fun and using similar rules. Another idea is have them play baseball video games. They can play against each other. If their eyes are going to be glued to a screen, they might as well make good use of that time. My nephew turned a triple play when he was 9 all because he knew the rules of the game by playing video games. Video games in moderation.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Use game errors as a learning exercise.

Every inning if something odd happens, good or bad, for or against us, I make a point of pointing it out to our girls. And ell them what they did right, what they did wrong and what they can do better next time. I also make a point of telling them it is on me if it is something that was brand new that we hadn't covered in practice.

Remind them, remind them again and then remind them some more. Somewhere around the 100th time they start to get it.

 

[CoachKevin]

I would try and schedule friendlies during the week, get with the other coach and make it a learning game. Heck I've gone so far as to put runners on base to work on defensive stuff, I'm sure you can find a team that needs the same types of things your team does. And yes it does get better, we played 10U for 3 years, 1st year I think we won 2-3 games. 2nd year we placed 3rd in a lot of tournaments, and 3rd year we were in the Championship Game a lot (although we placed 2nd in all of them

 

[Eric F]

Along with what everyone else has said, practicing game situations (offense and defense) is critical.. With my DD's 10U rec team we tend to dedicate at least half of a practice session to game situation work.

Another thing to keep in mind is your expectations. For our 10U team, there are three primary objectives for our players during the Spring season:
1. Have fun
2. Improve skills
3. Play as a team

 

[Sweet Lou]

Those are good ones Eric. For our 10U rec I told them at the beginning of year some of the goals I want for ALL the girls on the team -
Be able to make the throw from 3rd to 1st w/o bouncing it.
Learn how to bunt.
Be aggressive and go up looking to hit the ball and not go up looking to walk.
Be able to field ground balls including back hands and short hops.
Be able to slide in a game.

I think I had a few others but those were some of the basics I wanted them all to learn. I don't think we've hit out on 100% as I still have 1 girl who looks to walk and several who won't bunt or slide. But we've come close on most of them by season end and did hit out 100% on the throwing and fielding part.

 

[Eric F]

Those are good ones Eric. For our 10U rec I told them at the beginning of year some of the goals I want for ALL the girls on the team -
Be able to make the throw from 3rd to 1st w/o bouncing it.
Learn how to bunt.
Be aggressive and go up looking to hit the ball and not go up looking to walk.
Be able to field ground balls including back hands and short hops.
Be able to slide in a game.

I think I had a few others but those were some of the basics I wanted them all to learn. I don't think we've hit out on 100% as I still have 1 girl who looks to walk and several who won't bunt or slide. But we've come close on most of them by season end and did hit out 100% on the throwing and fielding part.

It sounds like you're ahead of our pace on some things. We have 4 girls who are confident sliders in a game situation (proudly, my DD leads the team in sliding skills), and a few more than that can make the 3rd-1st throw. Our fielding of grounders ranges from pretty awesome (for 10U) to pretty weak. Our girls like to swing the bat, however, and have improved tremendously in judging good/bad pitches. Even our very weakest hitter is willing to give her best effort to take a swing against the league's fastest pitchers.