Coach Pitch vs. Pitcher Pitch

[HunterMO]

Our 10u's rules: Coach pitches on Ball 4. Number of coach pitches is 3 minus however many strikes were thrown. Every coach pitch is a strike (normal foul ball rules with two strikes applies).

Keeps games moving, forces players to hit, and it means that I'm almost certainly the all-time 10u strike out leader. Sure, it's my own players I'm striking out, but a K is a K, ya know?

DD started softball in 10u with modified pitch. Which I really liked. Same thing; after Ball-4, coach comes in and has 3 total pitches minus however many strikes are in the count. DD's AC was the one who came in, and he never lobbed them in....it was pretty funny. Once the players knew coach wasn't giving them a meatball they realized quickly they started to not wait for the coach to come in.


I like modified for 10u for a few reasons....

1. Still allows pitchers to develop, but helps mitigate walk-a-thons
2. Puts more balls in play for the rest of the defense (keeps them more involved) = more fun!
3. Allows hitters to also develop/get hits = more fun!

 

[lostcreek1]

Where at in the country do they do this in 10u? All I have ever seen around here (Southeast) in 10u is kid pitch with no run limit per inning.

 

[Dabears17]

Where at in the country do they do this in 10u? All I have ever seen around here (Southeast) in 10u is kid pitch with no run limit per inning.

I was talking 10u rec in my area. 10u travel is 100pct player pitch. As I’ve said in other threads, I don’t understand coach pitch tournament ball. Stay home and development pitchers.

 

[lostcreek1]

I was talking 10u rec in my area. 10u travel is 100pct player pitch. As I’ve said in other threads, I don’t understand coach pitch tournament ball. Stay home and development pitchers.

I’ve never seen it in 10u Rec where I live.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

10U LL in our area is 100% kid pitch. They limit the teams to three runs per inning, except in the 6th inning. It's a minor miracle when a team doesn't score their three runs in every inning, unless you have a team with a pitcher.

My daughter started lessons after her first year of softball minors (4th grade, and by the time the next season came around, she was striking out 10 per game. That is when the complaints started from the opposing teams about how the kids couldn't learn to hit when they faced her because she threw so hard (43 MPH from 35 feet). I would then inform the parents that our team didn't learn to hit because their pitchers walked the ballpark.

By the time they got to softball majors (6th & 7th grades), every team had at least one pitcher who could throw well enough that it wasn't a walk fest.


Lastly, A Ball was machine pitch. That was for 2nd & 3rd grade girls.

 

[bjenkins24]

I'm in so cal and we do player pitch in 8u with coach pitch for walks. Coach assumes the strike count. It's quite a walk fest in 8u, but honestly doesn't sound like as much as a walk fest as 10u other places. Plenty of times with the better pitchers they don't hit the 5 run limit in 8u. Can definitely be a walk fest, but not 100% guaranteed.

10u is definitely not a walk fest. We had 9 teams this last spring and one team didn't have a pitcher. All the others throw ~60% strikes. I think it's going to generally be a walk fest the first time players are pitching whether that's 8s/10s/12s. So why not get it out of the way in 8s?

 

[CoachCeetar]

I'm in so cal and we do player pitch in 8u with coach pitch for walks. Coach assumes the strike count. It's quite a walk fest in 8u, but honestly doesn't sound like as much as a walk fest as 10u other places. Plenty of times with the better pitchers they don't hit the 5 run limit in 8u. Can definitely be a walk fest, but not 100% guaranteed.

10u is definitely not a walk fest. We had 9 teams this last spring and one team didn't have a pitcher. All the others throw ~60% strikes. I think it's going to generally be a walk fest the first time players are pitching whether that's 8s/10s/12s. So why not get it out of the way in 8s?

here in NJ, it's a lot of small towns, so a lot of times you can struggle even to field a good team, which means it's not always easy/possible to field a team, and a lot of the pitchers get pulled up if there's a gap. This is probably exacerbated by Covid too, with kids not doing as many activities in general. For instance, our 5th graders are severely lacking in numbers, which means a lot of the 4th graders who can pitch/hit play up, leaving a lot of the first timers to take more of the innings than might be optimal.

And while sure a kid at the next level down might be able to learn the motions, if we're just talking a 2-3 month span of rec with other responsibilities and priorities and mix in rain/cold cancelations? Barely time to teach these kids where left field is and what a force is, now you want to add in pitching?

I'm probably coaching a first/second rec team (we usually manage three and we just play each other) next spring, maybe we'll try to work in a few basic pitching lessons, just to sorta ease them into the level jump, but it's hard at that age.

 

[bjenkins24]

here in NJ, it's a lot of small towns, so a lot of times you can struggle even to field a good team, which means it's not always easy/possible to field a team, and a lot of the pitchers get pulled up if there's a gap. This is probably exacerbated by Covid too, with kids not doing as many activities in general. For instance, our 5th graders are severely lacking in numbers, which means a lot of the 4th graders who can pitch/hit play up, leaving a lot of the first timers to take more of the innings than might be optimal.

And while sure a kid at the next level down might be able to learn the motions, if we're just talking a 2-3 month span of rec with other responsibilities and priorities and mix in rain/cold cancelations? Barely time to teach these kids where left field is and what a force is, now you want to add in pitching?

I'm probably coaching a first/second rec team (we usually manage three and we just play each other) next spring, maybe we'll try to work in a few basic pitching lessons, just to sorta ease them into the level jump, but it's hard at that age.

I think once players know 8u is player pitched there are kids who start practicing on their own or really parents who have their kids practice pitching. I don’t think 2-3 months is enough to get a pitcher anywhere, but knowing that pitching is coming parents get their kids in pitching lessons and start practicing.

In our league there’s a 6 year old playing up to pitch. She’s probably top 3 8u pitchers. No rec team taught her to pitch it was her parents.

 

[CoachCeetar]

sure, but then you're talking like the top leagues/top track. And by having 9 year olds with three years of pitching experience in 10u or whatever, puts a huge gate up for everyone (which is most people!) that hasn't dedicated all that extra free time to softball. Most people aren't doing that. A parent choosing "you're gonna be a softball star!" at 6, is not a reason to exclude all the other kids who are also playing basketball, gymnastics, cheer, soccer, lacrosse, hockey, scouts, etc.

There are club/pay/whatever teams for those outliers. The vast majority of this stuff shouldn't be taken so seriously so young, and the added workload of pitching is serious. Anecdotal obviously, but my 3rd grader barely wanted to play softball, going to all the games and practices was already pushing the limit of her commitment, up until about 2 months ago. "Never never never" would she ever want to pitch. If I'd pushed extra practice or lessons or whatnot last year, she probably wouldn't have wanted to sign up this one.

 

[canyonjoe]

I heard of a league that would do Coach during the week and kit pitch on the weekend. It allowed quicker games during the week and they allowed extra time for weekend games. I do know that when our team started playing 10U we had zero pitchers with any training. We found a few that could throw some strikes but didn't have time to really work on mechanics so they just learned to throw strikes. I don't know the answer but I do know that playing 3 inning games because no one throws strikes is the reason that so many find the game boring at that age. Hitting the ball and making plays is a lot of fun. The tough thing about kid pitch at you ages is that if you find one that is really good you have the exact opposite problem as a walk fest in that everyone strikes out.