I am an 8U coach for the first time this fall who just moved up from 6U and this is my second season coaching fast pitch softball. Our league is a huge rec league with few fields so we don't have a lot of practice before games start and no practices when games start. Any suggestions how to be most efficient with this age group to get them ready? Any suggestions in general for a coach moving up to 8U? Thanks
How to be most efficient with little practice at 8U level?
- Thread starter dspielman
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are you limited to the leagues fields? Can you go to local schools, parks and such? at that level, what is most needed is fundamentals (field a ball, throw a ball, catch a ball), and full blown field is not necessary to work on that. look for other practice areas, I know our local LL has agreement with the township, they can use their school fields, pretty rough, but better than nothing. the bad part about that agreement is they get put into the mix when assigning practice times, but at least you know someone else wont already be there.
next, is your 8u kid or coach pitch? regardless, get girls working on pitching outside of team practices now. best thing you can do for development of fastpitch in your area, get girls pitching early and often.
next, is your 8u kid or coach pitch? regardless, get girls working on pitching outside of team practices now. best thing you can do for development of fastpitch in your area, get girls pitching early and often.
The only fields in town are these. There are a lot of teams around the area with travel teams and all that getting other fields is hard. One coach built his own practice field. I don't have that kind of space. It is coach pitch until 10U so pitching isn't the big focus this fall for most of them as they are just moving up from 6U and the 8U girls just moved up to 10U so only about 1/3 are left over. Just trying to find some good effective drills.
On the field, only do defense and baserunning. Only do hitting in cages, or off field. Only.
Baserunning:
- mark a line 10 feet past the base, and have them run to the line every single tim. Make them do this in games also.
- when they run through home, make sure they run through and touch the fence.
- you will win the first few games from this.
Defense, sort out who can play in/out field, then practice that way
Baserunning:
- mark a line 10 feet past the base, and have them run to the line every single tim. Make them do this in games also.
- when they run through home, make sure they run through and touch the fence.
- you will win the first few games from this.
Defense, sort out who can play in/out field, then practice that way
It is 8u, they should all play IF and OF, just make certain 1B is at least a girl who will pay attention.
- Jul 14, 2018
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As others have alluded to, at first-year 8U with coach pitching you don't need a field at all to get some quality practice in. A decent patch of grass at any park or school will be just fine. Or even your front yard.
First and foremost: get them out playing catch. Just line up with a partner and throw the ball back and forth. As a coach, there will be more than you can cover just getting a bunch of seven- and eight-year-olds to make a proper overhand throw and catch the ball with their fingers pointed up. If everyone on your team can do this well, you will 'win' a lot of games.
Next, set up a net or two and have the girls hit off of tees. This can be done anywhere, just like playing catch. You will once again find that you will have your hands full just getting girls at this age to take a proper swing.
The biggest issue with baserunning is getting kids to understand the rules. You can set up four bases anywhere, at any distance. Put a runner or two on and either toss a ball in the air or roll it on the ground. Explain what each runner is supposed to do. Play a knockout game where the last player standing is the one who didn't make any baserunning mistakes.
Finally, get a few of them in a line and roll them grounders. Concentrate on footwork and coming up in a proper throwing position. Once the girls are familiar with these few drills, you can start to break them up and rotate them around, which will make practice much more fun. At 8U, fun = learning.
First and foremost: get them out playing catch. Just line up with a partner and throw the ball back and forth. As a coach, there will be more than you can cover just getting a bunch of seven- and eight-year-olds to make a proper overhand throw and catch the ball with their fingers pointed up. If everyone on your team can do this well, you will 'win' a lot of games.
Next, set up a net or two and have the girls hit off of tees. This can be done anywhere, just like playing catch. You will once again find that you will have your hands full just getting girls at this age to take a proper swing.
The biggest issue with baserunning is getting kids to understand the rules. You can set up four bases anywhere, at any distance. Put a runner or two on and either toss a ball in the air or roll it on the ground. Explain what each runner is supposed to do. Play a knockout game where the last player standing is the one who didn't make any baserunning mistakes.
Finally, get a few of them in a line and roll them grounders. Concentrate on footwork and coming up in a proper throwing position. Once the girls are familiar with these few drills, you can start to break them up and rotate them around, which will make practice much more fun. At 8U, fun = learning.
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One thing that can help is to put multiple girls in a drill. Instead of having them just feild grounders have them feild and throw to a first baseman, first baseman throws to you, and then rotate, basically you double the girls involved in the drill so they spend more time working on a skill and less time waiting in line, and more importantly makes the throw to the first baseman a throw like you would make in a game rather than a soft toss like you are playing catch.
