Position rotation in a game/season

5 pots - I coached all 3 of my kids long enough to get them established in the game. I did let them move on at a certain point.

At age 9 my DD played one season of baseball, it helped her tremendously.

Teach your DDs to hit. Any team will want them. Do you have a tee and a tarp? Just start there. If you don't know how to start, ask the baseball coach.

Good luck. Make it fun. I wish you were in Tucson, I have a dozen students your girl's ages.

rotation

We have been to some fantastic batting clinics here...we are lucky to have a couple of semi retired Travel coaches in our town that are always working with our girls...pitching & batting clinics.

She has gone to two of these clinics since September (8 weeks each, 2+ hours at each). We also work on stuff at home and the league coaches are enforcing this at all our practices as well.

My non hitter daughter hits super from a tee, Soft-toss, and the machine at 45-47 MPH. (including when being moved 10 feet closer)

She actually stole her first non passball base this last Saturday on an experienced catcher (she just turned 12). She is trying. It is a personality thing that we need to improve.

Good form, but lacks the agression needed to go after a ball.

Kind of weird as she is so emotionally strong on the mound and Saturday picked up a bunt 2 feet in front of home from 3rd to throw the runner out (she got an inning at 3rd as we played a weaker team and the coaches daughter played catcher for one).

So my kid will charge right up to a bunting batter ... my kid doesn't wilt on the mound in spite of the entire game falling apart around her, she can catch a fly ball with the best of them...
timid runner, why won't she swing hard in a game?

She isn't flashy or particularlly athletic looking....but she quietly and very consistently does her job with the exception of hitting
Any fixes for that?

Of course the League coaches tend towards the flashy player, but the problem with some of these girls (most of which I really like) are far more inconsistent in the field and throwing (and some don't listen)....

The listening thing is tough..but 6th 7th grade kids are in that stage anyway.....

There are definitely a few sleepers in our league.....how does a coach bring them out into the forefront as some of them have MORE potential than some of our Stars of today.

I have ordered a DVD on the mental aspects of the game. ASU is using it this year and thay are thriving. I will let you know the name of it when it arrives.

I suggest taking every young player off of the pitching machine. Success there, doesn't transfer to the field. Throw tennis balls to her from the front and use the tee.

She doesn't need flash. Just make sure she is in good physical condition. Encourage her to bike and run. It will make her core muscles strong, too. She will need that. Tell her to smile.

And remember that she is awful young.

Game hitting

Yes, I agree that she is young (just turned 12)....my 9 year old is very young to have moved up...but she would have been bored out of her mind in our minors (8-11).

Kind of a new mentality of sports is to be the best at very young ages or not play at all.
The problem is.....if she can't complete with those kids now..she will end up without a place to play at all .... I think 12 and 13 is way too young to get locked out as kids develop at such different rates.

I see kids get on teams based on who their parents are and it has very little to do with talent. So the kids who don't make it end up quitting and they were actually solid little players.....
She plays one more year in this League.......not likely to make the Middle school team next year (really good group of girls who have prety much mercied every team they have played)..
..........if they only have one LL Juniors team (13-15) she is also at risk ....
Kind of unfair ANY kid to get locked out with no place to play their sport at such a young age.
Even worse in soccer here.
Can't get better if you aren't playing......

Anyway....yes......let me know about the DVD. We've been discussing mental, dreams, goals...if you really want it you have to fight for it......

Now that my dd is about 13, she has settled into positions. When she began the game my husband encouraged her to learn each position for the purpose of trying out for teams later in life. She can now play any position (except catcher) well. This served her when she made the middle school team that had 16 girls who only knew shortstop. My dd was one of two starting seventh graders because they had no one else who had a strong, accurate arm to first. When my husband coaches, he drills them in all positions, but assesses their strengths for two positions and during game time switches his field up accordingly

Position rotation

One example of rotation in our league:

Last night:

12 year old: two innings pitcher, one inning 3rd, one inning RF, one inning sit out, one inning right center. she got one grounder at 3rd, one fly ball at pitcher.

9 year old: LF, LF, 1st base, RC, 2nd, LF ... she never touched the ball once during the game. Not even when she played 1st.

To be honest...this is similar to what happens every game.

We have three catchers...sometimes they each get two innings...last night one got two innings, one got 4 innings...the 3rd one pitched 4 innings.
Coaches daughter played 3rd three innings and short two innings...outfield once.

Most of the other girls are bounced around from position to position and my concern is than a differnt position every inning isn't resulting knowledge to play ANY position.

All the other teams move kids around like this as well. Exposure is nice....but none of them is really getting a good feel for the responsibilities and what to do...

Do you know how many times a player has tagged the base (not the runner) on a steal or not a force play? Picking up the ball two feet from 2nd base and throwing to first instead of touching the base before runner from 1st gets there?
These are kids who have been playing for years.....

Position rotation

Oh...

This isn't the players fault.....

I typically try to set up their next move before the bater hits
"Ok, plays to 2nd"..etc.
If they don't make the correct play I prefer to talk to them when they come in off the field and not correct then....on to the next play and not worry about it....

There are only two female assistants in the league..the rest are all men and they will yell at the girls if they goof up....not always...but more than I would like.

Amy is very knowledgeable as I have followed her advise given on another forum ( I have the same name there as well)....we play 12U LL ball here as well....our team started with 3 pitchers (definate #1, strong #2 and #3 )...#3 hasn't worked out and we are now down to #1 & #2 who split innings...we just started the Winter clinics this season as our organization kept getting stalled in the same place every year in the LL tournament.....we have 4 girls work all winter in a group situation with a 5th taking private lessons.....big improvemnt this season in our pitching...we can pitch 18 innings per week maximum in the league...our team also has a real #1 catcher and a #2 who is learning for next year ....#1 catcher gets most of the innings, #2 one or two every game to stay sharp...

We also rotate players in positions to get everyone a chance, but its an infield and outfield position that they constantly practice at.....most want to play 2nd base or 1st and get an inning there and innings in the OF....our centerfielders are the pitchers and we interchange them.....

There are big plusses to this system as the girls all get IF/OF play each game and the parents get to see all the girls playing both IF/OF so there is little griping....the team is above .500, the girls are having fun, they all come to practice to learn and the parents are pretty happy...we're close to doing something correctly , I hope.

LL

In our LL, our Girls Majors, which is 11 & 12's. (There are two exceptional 10 year olds playing up, but thats it). The play is very competative. We have 3 teams, 2 to 3 pitchers per team. The pitching rules are followed, but you rarely see a pitcher pulled unless they're having an off day. The other players play 1 or 2 positions through the season, but not usually more than that. The 9 & 10's is less competative, they give more pitchers a chance to develop. In that level there is much more moving around, but not every inning like you describe. The better players are actually move a little more then the others. The better players can adapt quicker, where the others need success at their postion. In girls majors they try for equal playing time, however, missed practices and such will get a player benched for a couple of innings, unless it because of school of course. We consider our Girls Majors and Juniors to be training for our HS team which is very competative. There is no ASA locally so we try to give all the players the best competition and learning experience possible.

rotation and who decides 2 positions

We also have a Minors and a Majors.
There is definitely an overlap of ages as the skill level of these girls varies by a huge margin.
(politics also plays here as well)

We have several 5th graders in our Minors simply because they would get hurt due to a lack of skill.

My daughter is 9 and she would seriously hurt someone if she threw them a for ball in the Minors.... throws very hard.....she competes quite well in the Majors. We kept her older sister in the Minors at 9 because she wasn't ready for Majors then.

Our minors is LL age 8-10. Our Majors is LL 9-12. Age as of 12/31/07.

This year it was decided that the goal was 4 teams (48 kids) ...they needed
to bring up 10 kids....I think 7 of them were 9. Completely decimated the Minors pitching staff and only one of them was really ready.
Only one of the parents could resist "their daughter made the Majors" syndrome.

Although our rules state that kids can sit out no more than 3 innings, every sits out pretty much the same. 12 kids, six inning, every sits out one.

Wondering one thing:
How was it decided that the kids learned two positions...and who decided what they were?
Is it based on what the skill set was at the time?
Do you find that the talent pool is cyclicle?