We lost a game this weekend because of two misplayed cut-homes. The throws were there, the communications and anticipation was not. One time we should have cut a throw home and taken an easy out at third, another we should have let an online throw go through for an easy out at home.
It's our fault as coaches for not getting them prepared, we realized, so we need to take this part of our game forward for our team (young 14U travel team, 13Us, started raw but getting much better, good athletes learning softball skills).
I'm going to throw out some questions any help or advice would really be appreciated. TKS.
- We use our pitcher for cuts. Like all baseball dads, I grew up using 1b/3b and pitcher backing up bases. But pitcher cuts are how we started and seems to make some sense, especially at early ages where field is "shrunk" and some throws come sooner than a first basemen, for instance, can position themselves. What player does your team use for cut-homes?
- Who should be responsible for calling the play? The catcher? Do fielders (ie, maybe a third base calling for a throw) get involved at all? Do coaches? Does the receiver (in our case the pitcher) have some responsibility to watch runners?
- What are your calls? Do call call "let it go" or only a cut? Do you call base numbers? Does your receiver automatically cut offline throws?
- How do you help the catcher learn to 1) be loud and authoritative and 2) make good decisions? To me this is the biggest thing, who is in control of this play?
Ultimately our girls will only be as good as what we teach them so we want to be able to put a good, workable system in place. We obviously haven't done it yet : >
TKS.
It's our fault as coaches for not getting them prepared, we realized, so we need to take this part of our game forward for our team (young 14U travel team, 13Us, started raw but getting much better, good athletes learning softball skills).
I'm going to throw out some questions any help or advice would really be appreciated. TKS.
- We use our pitcher for cuts. Like all baseball dads, I grew up using 1b/3b and pitcher backing up bases. But pitcher cuts are how we started and seems to make some sense, especially at early ages where field is "shrunk" and some throws come sooner than a first basemen, for instance, can position themselves. What player does your team use for cut-homes?
- Who should be responsible for calling the play? The catcher? Do fielders (ie, maybe a third base calling for a throw) get involved at all? Do coaches? Does the receiver (in our case the pitcher) have some responsibility to watch runners?
- What are your calls? Do call call "let it go" or only a cut? Do you call base numbers? Does your receiver automatically cut offline throws?
- How do you help the catcher learn to 1) be loud and authoritative and 2) make good decisions? To me this is the biggest thing, who is in control of this play?
Ultimately our girls will only be as good as what we teach them so we want to be able to put a good, workable system in place. We obviously haven't done it yet : >
TKS.