bunting
- Thread starter GA42sDad
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
The small ball game is very effective. Especially with runners on base it creates all kinds of havoc.
On DD'S team there is a player who has a good bat but hates to lay down a punt when needed. A couple times she shook off the sign and other players started following. HC benched her for a couple games and then she started giving half a$$ attempts at bunting because she knew after 2 strikes she is getting the hit away sign. So after a couple games and conversations with HC, when she is up and he gives her the sign and she gets 2 strikes, he called time and told her if she wants to get on base she better lay down this bunt. Now she has no problems laying down bunts and 2 games ago she got her first ever Home run of errors from her bunt. She was super excited, lol.
On DD'S team there is a player who has a good bat but hates to lay down a punt when needed. A couple times she shook off the sign and other players started following. HC benched her for a couple games and then she started giving half a$$ attempts at bunting because she knew after 2 strikes she is getting the hit away sign. So after a couple games and conversations with HC, when she is up and he gives her the sign and she gets 2 strikes, he called time and told her if she wants to get on base she better lay down this bunt. Now she has no problems laying down bunts and 2 games ago she got her first ever Home run of errors from her bunt. She was super excited, lol.
Bunting, IMO, is a very necessary skill and an important part of the game. Small Ball may not be as exciting to spectators as the long ball but it can be used quite successfully in many game situations.
Our league allowed 2 bunts an inning or something like that and DD was one of the bunters, I was not a fan of that. If they allow it I would have all the players bunt a few times a year just spread it out over the games.
(DD finger was broke in 8U on a pitch. I let her bail out for a while but got tired of it and had her start bunting, hard to bail out of the box when you are bunting. So I think it is also a coaching tool you can use. I almost got into a fight about this whole thing with an opposing team’s parent.
Also coaching the bases I stopped the game a couple times to inform the defense coach to get their players back to their normal positions that the batter was not going to bunt anymore.
Sorry, last thing. I hate the fake bunt and swing at this age. I tried to get a local rule introduced but failed.)
(DD finger was broke in 8U on a pitch. I let her bail out for a while but got tired of it and had her start bunting, hard to bail out of the box when you are bunting. So I think it is also a coaching tool you can use. I almost got into a fight about this whole thing with an opposing team’s parent.
Also coaching the bases I stopped the game a couple times to inform the defense coach to get their players back to their normal positions that the batter was not going to bunt anymore.
Sorry, last thing. I hate the fake bunt and swing at this age. I tried to get a local rule introduced but failed.)
Last edited:
OTOH, you don't want the team to become a one trick pony so to speak. We have an organization in our area that touts itself as en "Elite" org. To give them credit, they are pretty successful and use small ball quite a bit. We played our normal positions in pool play and lost to all 3 of their teams. Not by much, but a loss is a loss. HC and I had a discussion at the end of the day and I told him we had to make them one dimensional. Bracket play, we played our F5 half way up the line and our F7 shallow. We run ruled 2 of the 3 teams and beat their best one by 4 runs because they couldn't hit our pitching and every bunt laid down was an out. The moral of the story is your team needs to be able to hit good pitching as well as bunt.
ETA: Given the situation that you posed though, I would also be bunting until they successfully stopped it.
Last edited:
I think bunting is a very important skill, but don't think you should be able to bunt with machine pitch. You will need to bunt at higher levels in certain situation, but if they know that's all you can do a decent to good team will just shut you down.
On the other hand if you are playing in tournament ball you better work on it and be able to stop it. We played a friendly against a bad team yesterday and they played their 3B behind the bag. If it was a real game I would have bunted every player until she moved.
On the other hand if you are playing in tournament ball you better work on it and be able to stop it. We played a friendly against a bad team yesterday and they played their 3B behind the bag. If it was a real game I would have bunted every player until she moved.
I agree u must be more than one dimensional. We not only bunt but we hit the ball also. I place my lineup where we smaal ball a few players than we have a big hitter up. We just averaged over 12 runs a game in a tournament this past wkend. Placed second. I also seen where our local high school team this past wkend was one dimensional and couldn't bunt and it cost them in close games.
- Sep 29, 2014
- 2,421
- 113
At 8U I would concentrate on swinging away, then bunt in situations that you would normally bunt in.
I don't think in 8u machine pitch there should be bunting. My league doesn't allow bunting until 10u, but only when the kids are pitching. Kids pitch until 4 balls, then coach comes in a pitches. I am (still) trying to get that removed.
8u, swing away. you will get plenty swinging bunts to practice charging the ball.
8u, swing away. you will get plenty swinging bunts to practice charging the ball.
