Bush League or Smart Coaching?

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Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
DD was 10 and 3rd base coach yelled to batter everytime she was in middle of her wind up. If I was coach would have said something to umpire, her coach decided to leave her alone and let her figure it out. What she wanted to do was throw to 3rd, maybe a little bit down the line towards the coaching box.

Great a 40 year old can get under the skin of a 10 year old pitcher, I was so proud how clever they were. Lot smarter then me.
 
Oct 19, 2009
1,277
38
beyond the fences
I have to go bush league. My question is: where was the PU? I saw a dad a a HS game get kicked out for telegraphing
pitches behind the backstop. Where is the 'integrity and respect for the game? Who hires a bozo to begin with? IN HS ball,
perhaps he is an outstanding history teacher that knows nothing about softball.
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
I have to go bush league. My question is: where was the PU? I saw a dad a a HS game get kicked out for telegraphing
pitches behind the backstop. Where is the 'integrity and respect for the game? Who hires a bozo to begin with? IN HS ball,
perhaps he is an outstanding history teacher that knows nothing about softball.

It was a women coach who was in her 20's, probably recently out of college. I wasn't at the game but DW and DD told me about it. It was a close game 2-2 going into the 10th and maybe she wanted to win this game badly by giving her batters a little help? I have not heard a base coach tell batters where the catcher is setting up since rec league so it surprised me to hear a HS coach doing this.....

BTW, DD's JV coaches are a) HC - a special ed teacher who hadn't coached for 4 years (and has 1 year experience); and b) AC - just a bucket dad who never coached before. If you watch how these games are coached, you would want to pull your hair out, but that's a completely separate topic :)
 
Last edited:
Mar 14, 2017
453
43
Michigan
BTW, DD's JV coaches are a) HC - has 1 year experience in Little League; and b) AC - just a bucket dad who never coached before. If you watch how these games are coached, you would want to pull your hair out, but that's a completely separate topic :)

Our daughters are on the same team? At least if my daughter's coach was a special ed teacher perhaps they could relate to students or could speak to parents in a professional manner.
 
Sep 17, 2009
1,637
83
If play is at a level where the catcher can't set up late then.....the pitcher probably isn't hitting her spots anyway and....the opposing hitters aren't likely to be able to use pitch location info to much advantage anyway. If you give a mouse a cookie.....

For levels of play where this COULD make a difference, I like Riseball's approach. Total ownership. Awesome.
 
Sep 14, 2011
768
18
Glendale, AZ
Last week, DD pitched in a HS JV game and the other team's 1st year head coach (coaching 3rd base) was telling her batters loudly where the catcher was setting up before every pitch.

Did the HC cross the line or is this acceptable to you?

This is nothing that any umpire should be concerned about.
 
Nov 3, 2012
480
16
It was a women coach who was in her 20's, probably recently out of college. I wasn't at the game but DW and DD told me about it. It was a close game 2-2 going into the 10th and maybe she wanted to win this game badly by giving her batters a little help? I have not heard a base coach tell batters where the catcher is setting up since rec league so it surprised me to hear a HS coach doing this.....

BTW, DD's JV coaches are a) HC - a special ed teacher who hadn't coached for 4 years (and has 1 year experience); and b) AC - just a bucket dad who never coached before. If you watch how these games are coached, you would want to pull your hair out, but that's a completely separate topic :)

That explains it. You have a JV coach who just recently played college softball. In the College game if you aren't trying to picking pitches, you aren't trying. Its pretty common there. So in the High School JV game, she's just a little over zealous taking advantage of inexperienced catcher and coaches. Minor bush league, but really part due to her inexperience coaching. Anyway, more of a minor advantage as another poster pointed out, the pitcher likely didn't have that much control anyway at this level.

I was recently at a D1 college game, and I saw a dugout coach doing the exact same thing. The starting catcher for the team they were playing got hurt, and an inexperienced catcher freshman catcher came in. The catcher was setting up a second early and wasn't hiding her signals as well as she could. When the catcher set up (too early) on the inside, the opposing coach would yell the hitters name, if she setup on the outside he would yell the hitters number. If he picked the pitch and was a change up, he would yell hit it. It was quite obvious. After a couple of opposite field home runs, the catcher got an earful from the head coach, and lets say she learned real fast to hide signals and set up late.
 
Last edited:
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
If play is at a level where the catcher can't set up late then.....the pitcher probably isn't hitting her spots anyway and....the opposing hitters aren't likely to be able to use pitch location info to much advantage anyway. If you give a mouse a cookie.....

For levels of play where this COULD make a difference, I like Riseball's approach. Total ownership. Awesome.

Wait a minute here, my DD was pitching that game and yes she can hit her spots :)

In all seriousness, there is a big disparity on JV this season with about half the team having an average of 7 years softball experience (2 or 3 years travel ball) and the other half with less than 2 years softball experience (rec) and/or fulfilling their high school PE requirement mandatory freshman/sophomore years.

Next year will be much better as the incoming freshman players are stacked with talent and/or my DD will move up to V. Either way, this will be the last year DD pitches to an inexperienced catcher and hopefully the last time we hear 3rd base coaches calling out where the catcher sets up.
 

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