This isn't T-Ball!

Westwind · May 23, 2017

My wife and I coached rec softball when our oldest was really young. No one else would do it and we weren't going to have a team otherwise. I am not a sports person and my wife dragged me into it kicking and screaming.

One of the best things that ever happened was playing teams coached by people who pushed hard. It made me really mad at the time but it also made me want to learn how to make that not happen any more.

They unintentionally did one of the biggest favors anyone has ever done for me and both my daughters.

Mocoso · May 23, 2017

The biggest problem I see here and the common thread is lack of proper guidance and rules by the league. Local rules for every division should be clearly outlined, board approved and given to all coaches... each year the coaches for each division should sit together BEFORE season starts and review rules and agree with commishioner for that division if there are any rule changes required. Half way through season a second meeting should be had to review further tweaks to the rules.

For example.. rules that may vary from season to season in 8U:
1. Number of walks before coach pitch.. if you have strong pitching in 8U division you can do 2+ walks before coach pitch while other years if all your pitchers are developmental you may want to change it to 1 or 0 walks before coach pitch. It will vary year to year depending on strength.
2. Number of steals.. should it be one per batter, one per pitch? how many bases? etc
3. Overthrow to first.. is it one base max or as many bases until ball crosses cylinder?
4. SHould there be a player in circle to end play
5. Cold Plate, Warm plate, hot plate

it would avoid the "so thats how you are playing.." comments and the bush league strategies to win games... Still amazes me how unorganized some rec leagues are... maybe thats why so many preach TB.. guess I would be running to the hills early to TB if our local rec league left the "rules" to new coaches to figure out before each game...

Any 8U rec coach that chooses "WIN" over "TEACH IT RIGHT" has no business coaching... my pet peeve is the "if you hit the ball keep running to second no matter what as the first baseman wont be able to throw to second if they do happen to catch it... this followed by daddy bragging their kid got a HR.. (when all she did was bunt for a single)" - yep that may work in rec 8U but this kid now has no idea how to properly run bases... come summer AllStars or 10U once fielders catch up to it they get thrown out miserably and question "but I was told to do so..."

MacLobo · May 23, 2017

Mocoso said:
The biggest problem I see here and the common thread is lack of proper guidance and rules by the league. Local rules for every division should be clearly outlined, board approved and given to all coaches... each year the coaches for each division should sit together BEFORE season starts and review rules and agree with commishioner for that division if there are any rule changes required. Half way through season a second meeting should be had to review further tweaks to the rules.

For example.. rules that may vary from season to season in 8U:
1. Number of walks before coach pitch.. if you have strong pitching in 8U division you can do 2+ walks before coach pitch while other years if all your pitchers are developmental you may want to change it to 1 or 0 walks before coach pitch. It will vary year to year depending on strength.
2. Number of steals.. should it be one per batter, one per pitch? how many bases? etc
3. Overthrow to first.. is it one base max or as many bases until ball crosses cylinder?
4. SHould there be a player in circle to end play
5. Cold Plate, Warm plate, hot plate

it would avoid the "so thats how you are playing.." comments and the bush league strategies to win games... Still amazes me how unorganized some rec leagues are... maybe thats why so many preach TB.. guess I would be running to the hills early to TB if our local rec league left the "rules" to new coaches to figure out before each game...

Any 8U rec coach that chooses "WIN" over "TEACH IT RIGHT" has no business coaching... my pet peeve is the "if you hit the ball keep running to second no matter what as the first baseman wont be able to throw to second if they do happen to catch it... this followed by daddy bragging their kid got a HR.. (when all she did was bunt for a single)" - yep that may work in rec 8U but this kid now has no idea how to properly run bases... come summer AllStars or 10U once fielders catch up to it they get thrown out miserably and question "but I was told to do so..."

I completely agree regarding the set-out rules, and have emailed our VP in hopes that something can be done. The problem is that we interleague due to the fact that each local league only fields 1-2 teams per year. I've requested that these changes be made at our district/state level in order to remove any speculation.

I'm not sure if you're comment "Any 8U rec coach that chooses "WIN" over "TEACH IT RIGHT" has no business coaching..." is meant for me, but I assure you, it couldn't be further from the truth. I just don't think that "1 base at a time" is the proper way to "teach it right." Again, not sure if that was meant for me or not, so ignore if I was reading wrong.

bmakj · May 23, 2017

Mocoso said:
The biggest problem I see here and the common thread is lack of proper guidance and rules by the league. Local rules for every division should be clearly outlined, board approved and given to all coaches... each year the coaches for each division should sit together BEFORE season starts and review rules and agree with commishioner for that division if there are any rule changes required. Half way through season a second meeting should be had to review further tweaks to the rules.

For example.. rules that may vary from season to season in 8U:
1. Number of walks before coach pitch.. if you have strong pitching in 8U division you can do 2+ walks before coach pitch while other years if all your pitchers are developmental you may want to change it to 1 or 0 walks before coach pitch. It will vary year to year depending on strength.
2. Number of steals.. should it be one per batter, one per pitch? how many bases? etc
3. Overthrow to first.. is it one base max or as many bases until ball crosses cylinder?
4. SHould there be a player in circle to end play
5. Cold Plate, Warm plate, hot plate - not certain what this means.

"

I agree the league should set the rules at the beginning of the season. a coaches meeting where these are discussed, AND WRITTEN DOWN, has real benefit, because then a lot of times the idea behind the rule is known.

what I think is a good starting point for 8u would be:
1 base per overthrow (but if team makes another throw anywhere but to the circle, play is live again, for 8u, I would count wild throws to P or missed throws by the P as having the ball in the circle)
no stealing 2nd or home. and a limit on steals per inning (like 3 or 4)
no walked in runs (coach pitch on bases loaded 4 ball count, strikes carry over, must pitch from the rubber)
no D3K
no continuation
no IFR (no such thing as routine fly ball at that level)
run limit (4 or 5) per inning

we have a lot of this in our rec 10u as well, except the one base and no stealing 2nd or home (we do limit to 3 steals an inning, one home, again, we want girls to swing, without this, most walks would score within one or two batters.

this makes the girls put ball in play to score runs, and puts focus on fundamentals (pitching, hitting, fielding, throwing, game awareness) rather than tactics to try and win game/season/divison/etc. base running should be aggressive, but base coaches, especially 3B, should be cognizant of score.

Mocoso · May 23, 2017

MacLobo said:
......

I'm not sure if you're comment "Any 8U rec coach that chooses "WIN" over "TEACH IT RIGHT" has no business coaching..." is meant for me, but I assure you, it couldn't be further from the truth. I just don't think that "1 base at a time" is the proper way to "teach it right." Again, not sure if that was meant for me or not, so ignore if I was reading wrong.

No was not meant for you at all.. sorry if it came across that way.. the guy that wants one base at a time is as bad as the one that wont stop the runner on a bunt and gambles on girls chasing the runner...

and with inter-league play all it takes is for one of the board members to have the desire and will to email the other leagues and agree on set of rules... it is more difficult (we ran into that with 14U where the compromise was the "local rules" of the league that hosted it would apply) but its doable.. good luck with it hope the rest of the season works out

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