Playing up - not your typical question

Hey everyone... looking for some feedback and suggestions.

I coach an 8u "travel" team.. we had tryouts and have practiced throughout the winter. Most kids played with us last year. We will play in 4 summer tournaments. Our 8u rules are: kids pitch from 30' pitching distance. After 4 balls on the hotter, the coach comes in to pitch and finish the at bat. No stealing but can get a lead on the release. Can't advance on passed ball. No dropped third strike. 60' bases. Play is dead when the pitcher has control of the ball in the circle.

It was suggested that we supplement the tournaments by playing in a league. I'm not concerned with burning them out or anything... we did something similar last year and it works out to an extra 10 games or so spread out over 5-6 weeks.

Most of the girls were planning on playing for their separate home town red leagues in addition to our tournaments. So playing in a league on the same team would keep the girls playing together more between tourneys.

The problem is, we'd have move up to a 10u league. That's 35' pitching distance, runners can steal and advance on passed balls. (No dropped third strike)

Part of me wants to push them and keep helping them learn the game and getting them ready for next year when they have to move up to 10u. Ive been told that our girls have the talent to be competitive in this particular league. The other part of me is concerned with switching back and forth between the different rules and confusing the kids.



any suggestions or thoughts?

I would make the jump and not look back. I've had 2 that played 4 years of 10u and while the first two years were growing pains the last were phenomenal. As long as you have pitchers that can be reasonably close to the plate and the competition isn't high level its a no brainer. You can always pick up an older kid to catch or a skill position to help the transition. The kids are really adaptive and the different distances and rules I don't think would be a big deal as long as you remind them. My kids loved the challenge playing with the "big kids" because I had no expectations for success - just playing hard and getting a little better each time out.

How old are your players. Are we talking about a bunch of 6 year olds or a whole team that turns 9 this year?

Genius of our leaque moved an 8U team to the 10U end of year tournament. It made since until the started winning. Happy we did not play them.

I think they will be fine jumping back and forth. If any of your pitchers throw change ups maybe ditch it at 35', just fastballs.

Is there a way to use the 10u rules in your local 8u games?

Thanks for the feedback so far... the 8u games we play are all tournament games, so they won't change the rules to match the 10u league.

All but 1 of the girls are 8/turning 9... so all but 1 has to move up to 10u next year.

Biggest obstacle is pitching. If you have one or two pitchers who can throw strikes from 35' you are in business. You may not win many games, but you will be able to play.

JAD is correct. At young ages the differences in distances and ball size can be rough on pitchers.
For some the biggest difference is between 10U and 12U, because of the size of the ball plus the extra distance.