Coach Pitch vs. Pitcher Pitch

[JaC]

What are the thoughts if doing coach outcomes in a 10u league? Pros and cons, please.

Thank you!

 

[Dabears17]

1OU rec leagues in my county have player pitch, but after the second walk in an inning the coach comes in to pitch for every after that for the rest of that half inning.

There should be some amount of player pitch in 8u.

 

[_MIA_]

What are the thoughts if doing coach outcomes in a 10u league? Pros and cons, please.

Thank you!

What country?

 

[Northball]

My DD at 10U was all pitchers. Walk in five runs, switch to bottom half of inning. Other team walk in five runs, repeat, repeat, repeat. If you could hold a team to four runs in one of the innings, there was a good chance you'd win.
A couple years later they introduced coaches coming in to pitch. I hear it was like a church service with all the people muttering "Thank God!"

 

[JaC]

What country?

US

 

[JaC]

A couple years later they introduced coaches coming in to pitch. I hear it was like a church service with all the people muttering "Thank God!"

I totally get it from the outsider stance. It moves the game along. My major concern is that there are other 10u teams who have pitchers that pitch the whole time and does this do a disservice to my team if we are "rescuing" the pitchers every time?

To be honest, I go back and forth on the topic.

 

[CoachCeetar]

here in 3rd/4th (10u equiv) rec we do coach pitch for third walk on in an inning. I dunno, it's hard to argue it benefits anyone to have a walkathon. I mean, it's the same amount of walks usually, because the coach only pitches to the one batter and then it's back to the player until the next walk. But it (usually) means there will actually be balls in play, chances for fielders, chances to swing, etc. And the pitcher doesn't get any less reps really, minus the plays that get made on the ball in play (sometimes by the pitcher!)

first travel game without the rule, 44 walks in 4 innings between the two teams (and 6 HBP)

Next game we scored 9 runs on zero hits.

Personally i think we should do coach pitch for travel too. These kids are 8-10, many of them have thrown like..3 innings ever. No reason to pretend we need to take this super seriously. This is especially true in smaller places where the best few are often forced to play up for numbers reasons. We're in a 3rd/4th league, with only 3rd graders (and a second grader!). We're lucky we've got one pitcher that's reasonably effective

 

[GunnerShotgun]

You can only have as many teams as you have pitchers. Pitchers can throw strikes at some reasonable rate (50% for example). Now those pitchers will have good days and bad days, and that's fine. But what you don't want someone learning how to pitch during a game. Meaning that they didn't practice, can't throw strikes at a reasonable rate, but want to pitch.

You are doing your batters a disservice if you make 10u walkathons. You will retard their progress and it's boring as all hell and you will lose players to that.

Figure out how many actual "pitchers" you have. You may need to do a skills assessment preseason if you don't know them all. Based on the number of pitchers set your rules based on that. (more coach pitch, less coach pitch, all coach pitch, etc.).

Also, don't limit pitchers. Let Suzy Flamethrower throw as many innings as she wants. Let your batters see real pitching as much as possible.

 

[lostcreek1]

Let Suzy Flamethrower throw as many innings as she wants.

This is really your answer. Let Suzy pitch every inning of every game.

 

[canyonjoe]

This is the question that every league has to figure out. Until P's can throw strikes it's hard to have a real game. I think some sort of hybrid works best for 10U but it does hurt P development. It's really not that much different in baseballs except there because it's overhand it's much easier to find at leas some kids who can throw strikes.