Player postion question for 10u A team.

Finally have my roster set for this year. One of the better players was pulled up to fill a 12u team has left me in a pickle. I was planning rotating her with another girl of equal skill between 3rd and catcher.

The next girl skill wise is not a huge drop off at those positions. First is the type if ball hit to her, no big deal most likely an out. Other 60/40.

Same with catching. First girl has the killer mentality that a catcher needs. second is not a bad catcher. good arm. But drives you nuts when she wont drop to block, just uses her glove.

Question is how would you decide who to play where. Game situation, who's in circle?



Any advise is welcomed. First year as HC and still trying to learn.

Twintrouble said:

Game situation, who's in circle?

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I was following you up until this point... do you mean who is pitching (the player in the circle)? If so no idea seeing as you didn't mention any of your pitchers.

As far as your catcher/3rd situation - is this the same backup player for both positions? I'm sure you already are looking into all of your players as options. Its almost impossible to say based off of your info but 60/40 on a routine ground ball is pretty bad. Blocking is hard, especially at 10u, keep practicing with her.

On another note, this is 10u. Rotate them in and out of both and develop your players in 2-3 positions each.

Whatever you do, it'll be fine. Good luck!

I've worked with the one girl on blocking since last year fallball, plus taken lesson from a former D1 catcher/coach. it just does not click about getting in front of the ball.

These two would be mainly the ones playing third base, based on arm strength to get it to first.

As of in the circle I ment by who I had pitching. One girl solid so blocking not as a big problem. Other two can get a little wild at times.

Not sure about the "A" classification, if your still unsure about positions....

Catcher priorities:
1. Catch the ball
2. Block the ball
3. Throw the ball

Coaches love to see the catcher with the strong arm who can throw out runners. It's a big and flashy "hero" play. However, a catcher with good receiving skills will get more strikes, which equals less BBs, and fewer runners. A good blocker will keep the pitcher's mistakes under control, which equals runners staying where they are, and D3Ks being easy outs. Lazy blockers are a liability and cost runs - more runs than get saved by a good arm.

I would agree with Eric, except I would put it like this:
1-Catch the ball
2-Catch the ball
3-Catch the ball

Hopefully you get my point. "catch" is in the job title "CATCHer" lol

Proper blocking skills at 10U are really hard to come by. I don't know how hard your pitcher throws, but by summer last year (2nd year 10U), our pitcher was touching 50 and releasing the ball at about 31 ft. Not a lot of reaction time for our catchers to block.

One of my frustrations is when catchers are judged for passed balls when really, the pitcher missed her spot by 4 ft. Tough to recover from that at 10.

I also agree with Eric that arm strength is not the most important thing, though it gets everyone's attention. What you should really be looking at is how quickly they get rid of the ball. Arm strength at this age rarely makes up for a long slow release and bad footwork.

Just my two cents

Rmc1981 said:

I would agree with Eric, except I would put it like this:
1-Catch the ball
2-Catch the ball
3-Catch the ball

Hopefully you get my point. "catch" is in the job title "CATCHer" lol

Proper blocking skills at 10U are really hard to come by. I don't know how hard your pitcher throws, but by summer last year (2nd year 10U), our pitcher was touching 50 and releasing the ball at about 31 ft. Not a lot of reaction time for our catchers to block.

One of my frustrations is when catchers are judged for passed balls when really, the pitcher missed her spot by 4 ft. Tough to recover from that at 10.

I also agree with Eric that arm strength is not the most important thing, though it gets everyone's attention. What you should really be looking at is how quickly they get rid of the ball. Arm strength at this age rarely makes up for a long slow release and bad footwork.

Just my two cents

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Agreed 100%. Blocking is probably the hardest single skill a catcher has, and it takes a while to develop it into a reflex reaction at game speed. Once they have that skill, however, I expect pitches in the dirt down the middle to be blocked, especially if it's a change-up or drop. It's part of the job (see previous list ).

Seattlecoach said:

On another note, this is 10u. Rotate them in and out of both and develop your players in 2-3 positions each.

Whatever you do, it'll be fine. Good luck!

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Good point. We had to move a kid from SS/2B to catcher one year at 10U and she couldn't block but she got her glove down and was.far more effective at.blocking than the other girl who actually blocked. 10U is the most challenging for catchers since the pitchers tend to be a little wild. We always tried to go with three positions per girl at that age. Parents can be ugly and demand "wins" at that age.