Bush or not?

1. I don't do it, but I'm fine with it.
2. I think it's part of the game. To me the problem are the coaches that "take the bunt" away by playing F5 10 feet from the batter.
3. I never steal if up by the run rule.
4. I'll take the base. Only exception is Home. Usually won't do. Sometimes would in Rec if P couldn't throw any strikes and we needed to get the runs for the inning to end. Didn't see much point of having to wait for 3 walks

5. At 10U I don't think it's cool.
6. Again at 10U don't think so. However at 18U or HS I would do in a heartbeat.

1. Totally Bush and one of the few times it may be permissible to throw at a batter. The batter will most-likely get walked anyways, so it can be used as a good teaching moment from the pitcher to the batter.

Westwind asks the right question. Why teach them stuff they wouldn't do later on. When I coached an 8u All-Star team I was asked why I didn't do stuff other coaches did. My answer was I was teaching them the game, not shortcuts to win as a 7 or 8 year old, that isn't how they will play as a 12 or 13 year old.

1. 3-0 bunt wave take: Show bunt ok, wave the bat I've never liked.
2. Fake bunt - swing: Don't have a problem with this. Sometimes it helps girls struggling with timing.
3. Stealing after up x runs: After up x runs, back off stealing. Question is what is x? Can be 10 to 12 runs, but what the run rule is at that point is probably a good answer.
4. Taking base on past ball after up x runs: take the base, don't take home.
5. Alerting batter to pitch: teach girls to look for tells, don't alert the batter, or at least don't make it obvious.
6. Stealing signs: again, teach the girls to try to figure out signs.

Dabears17 said:

Westwind asks the right question. Why teach them stuff they wouldn't do later on. When I coached an 8u All-Star team I was asked why I didn't do stuff other coaches did. My answer was I was teaching them the game, not shortcuts to win as a 7 or 8 year old, that isn't how they will play as a 12 or 13 year old.

1. 3-0 bunt wave take: Show bunt ok, wave the bat I've never liked.
2. Fake bunt - swing: Don't have a problem with this. Sometimes it helps girls struggling with timing.
3. Stealing after up x runs: After up x runs, back off stealing. Question is what is x? Can be 10 to 12 runs, but what the run rule is at that point is probably a good answer.
4. Taking base on past ball after up x runs: take the base, don't take home.
5. Alerting batter to pitch: teach girls to look for tells, don't alert the batter, or at least don't make it obvious.
6. Stealing signs: again, teach the girls to try to figure out signs.

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I think we're in general agreement. Our show-bunt take on 3-0 doesn't actually include instructions to wave the bat (most don't). Almost every tournament and our local games all have had the rule of no fake-bunt swing, so no opportunity for us to do it. Agree with 3 and 4, and that's our practice as well. It's our HC who sometimes calls out the changeup (it's not an obvious call-out), and we do tell the girls what we're seeing so they know what to look for.

As for stealing signs, we don't have to / it wouldn't really help. If there's a runner on first, chances are, she's stealing. If there's a runner on 2nd, she's unlikely to be, and if she does, knowing so doesn't really help our catchers that much and strikes are too valuable to waste on a pitch out. And our girls know to look at where the batter is...90% of the teams we face seem to give the bunt away by having the girl way up in the box.

It's 10u!!! Bush rules not accepted for a few more years. The game is about the love.

From then time our kids are 12 they are taught that if a baserunner on 2nd is alerting the batter to the sign, or where the catcher is setting up, that a hard tag or series of hard tags is how you stop it. A ball, inside of a glove, swung at full speed to the rib cage or side of the helmet will squash that behavior rikkitik. The catcher, middles and pitcher work on it, they have their sign and know how to deal with sign thieves.

Westwind said:

I think a better question isn’t whether it’s “bush league” but why teach stuff at this age that won’t help a player later on?

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This gets to the heart of the matter. There are things you can do to win games in 10U that are bad fundamentally. We played many games against a nearby town where the coach had his girls take an extra base every time the throw went back to the pitcher. Total garbage, but they beat the heck out of us. My take (only two years removed from 10U):


1. 3-0 bunt wave take. I see this a lot. I guess the idea is to distract the pitcher and hope for a ball four? If it's 3-0, you probably don't need to work that hard to draw a walk.
2. Fake bunt - swing. Against the rules in many 10U games. But this is part of the game, you see it in college all the time, not bush.
3. Stealing after up x runs. No steals up eight. At 10U, you don't need more than an inning to figure out that a catcher is struggling, no need to pour it on. The world needs more catchers.
4. Taking base on passed ball after up x runs. The flip side of #3 - while a young catcher may not have the arm to stop a runner from taking 2nd, keeping the ball in front of you is a basic skill. Take the base.
5. Alerting batter to pitch. At 10U, the most you will see is an occasional changeup. I'm okay with telling a 10U batter to 'watch the change' in an obvious situation as it introduces the idea that there's more to hitting than see the ball-hit the ball.
6. Stealing signs. Signs are so obvious at 10U, it's sometimes hard as a coach not to tell your corners to take a few steps in when the 3rd base coach touches his or her belt. I like the suggestion that others have made to have the players in the dugout pay attention to signs. It gives the players on the bench a way to feel like they're still part of the game.

If it's not obvious, my coaching experience is 100% rec. I look at all the games as a learning opportunity at that level, so I'm not inclined to pound another team into the dirt. Of course you want to win, and the OP's question relates to a 10U-B travel team, but at that age they're still learning the game and deciding if softball is a sport they want to pursue. I think the stealing is probably the toughest call. Players need to learn to be aggressive at all times when they're between the lines, but obliterating someone 20-0 is more 'bush' than easing up on an overmatched team.

For whatever it’s worth.... probably not worth much....

The fake bunt/hit that you see in college games really isn’t a fake bunt, everyone knows they are hitting. In other words the difference is they aren’t trying to draw in the defense.

While this was all the rage a few years ago, I am seeing this less and less and I am glad.

I am aware of all the often repeated reasons to do this. See the ball better, timing, blah blah blah.

What I see actually happening with most teams is this technique apparently isn’t coached well and the hitter ends up being even more rushed and even more “not on time”. This usually happens when the hitter is already struggling and is facing the best pitching they have ever faced.

The teams that do this well probably practice it, coach it, and don’t spring it on the player when they are on their way to the box to face Barnhill.

To me every passed ball you should be taking the base, no matter how far up you are. It’s such a fine line. Stealing on a normal pitch is bad, but not going on a passed ball is also bad.

I had that situation yesterday and we ended up telling the girls to swing at balls and then one to leave early. Sadly it was VERY blatant but the other team took it in the spirit it was intended. (Player when I said ‘leave obviously early’ took that as a ‘leave when she did the first movement with the pitch’ I meant ‘leave when her arm is up top’)

2. Fake bunt/swing, in 10uB? Doubt there are very many girls who can pull that off at that level. Probably taking the bat out of the girl's hands and giving an advantage to the pitcher/defense. When my DD was younger I liked it teams tried to do it against her. She typically blew the ball right past them for an easy strike.