7-8 Year Old Division

[T.J.]

Most of our 7-8 year olds play in our AA division...
Our divisions are designed as follows...
5-6 = A (coach pitch or Tee)
9-10 = AAA (player pitch)
11-12 = Majors (player pitch)

In AA..
1. The players pitch, counting walks, until the bases are loaded.
2. Once the bases are loaded if the pitcher reaches 4-balls on a batter, the hitting team coach comes in and pitches to the batter until she hits the ball in play of strikes out....but she must strike out swinging.
3. The hitting team finishes their at-bats once 3 out are recorded, or 5 runs come across the plate.

Most leagues have a web site with their by-laws posted. The by-laws will tell you the rules and structure of each division. You could start your search with some little leagues around your area to see what negihboring towns do.

 

[COACH SLIM]

We don't have walks. When count gets to 4 balls, coach of the hitting team comes in, takes the strikes, and finishes the at-bat. There must be a hit or an out.

This is exactly how we ran our league 2 years ago. We played ASA and it was considered to be competitive. My daughter is a pitcher and I really liked this format. By the end of the season there were some 8yo pitchers who hardly walked anybody(very few though).At the seasons end we selected an allstar team and travelled to Beumont,Ca for 7&8 allstar tournament(2 hours away). The level of pitching there was mind boggeling. 8 year olds with multiple pitches throwing heat. In 2 years we never won.We came close though.Last year we switched from ASA to Little League(broke my heart). The group of girls that I coach moved to 9 &10's .The 7 and 8 division changed to coach pitch and became non competitive with no allstar team selction.This year there are no 9yo pitchers with any competitve experience in sight. My 9 & 10 little league allstar team almost won district 49 last year powered by two 9yo pitchers who had seen the level that was possible in ASA at 7&8's the 2 years before.Our local rec league to 2 steps backwards by switching to 7&8 year old coach pitch.

 

[Sweet Lou]

My youngest DD will be starting 7-8 in just a few weeks. Our pitching rules are on ball 4 coach takes over and has as many pitches as batter has strikes left. Every coach pitch is a strike unless it is a foul ball on what would have been strike 3. There are no walks at this age division.

Count - # of coach pitches -
4-0 - 3
4-1 - 2
4-2 - 1

Ours sounds very similar to SoftSocDad's league.

 

[Quake Softball]

Thanks for all of the input. It all was very helpful. Keep the ideas coming if anyone else has any thoughts.

 

[quincy]

Off pitching but had a 2 successful bunts per inning rule. Bunting is such an important part of the game you want the players to know how to do it but at the same time you do want a Team bunting all the time.