Coaches, tell me how you handle pool play.

[WOODY123]

Lobster Birch I didn't realize you have a 12U daughter, my youngest is playing 12U in the Seattle area, chances are we have been to the same parks.

I find that this depends on the philosophy and goals of the coaching staff. It is important to have them spell this out to you prior to signing up for a team preferably in writing. I coach a first year 12U B team. We have 12 players would love to only have 11 as I hate having girls on the bench fortunately we have a lot of multisport kids and we generally only have 11 at most regular season tournaments anyways. This team size doesn't work that well as the girls get older but works great at this age.

Our philosophy:

Line up: You earn your spot in the line up and it can change from tournament to tournament and even between Saturday and Sunday play. I will on occasion adjust it if we are playing weaker competition and want to move some girls up in the line up to give them a chance at an extra at bat during pool play in the regular season. We only drop down to 9 when the tournament requires it. I am finding more teams in 12U B this year batting 9 during the regular season on Sunday then I did when my middle daughter went thru 12U.

Defense: Everyone has a primary infield and an outfield position they are working on this is generally determined at the beginning of the season and doesn't change a whole lot. Everyone plays outfield equally and sits equally including all the coaches daughters. The goal is to have 2 primary players for each infield position they will split roughly 85% of the playing time in that position with one more seeing about 15% as a back up. I can't tell you how many times this has saved us in a pinch. For catchers we have 3, each one gets a game on Saturday, and then the top two split Sunday play. We have a 4th back up catcher and just this weekend she had to catch a whole game on Sunday do to one injury, one player out, and the other just caught a whole game and was over heating. We evaluate the competition for Saturday play and will assign positions based on the teams we play with the goal to get equal playing time in while being as competitive as we can in each game. This is not always easy to do and I don't always get it right.

I am very clear with the parents before the season that your goal is to develop players and this means giving opportunities to play a position wether or not they are the best player on the team for that position. When we get to states then we play the best at each position and things don't change much.

I find that no matter what your playing philosophy is your going to have parents that will complain about it. The key is to be very upfront with them at the beginning of the season and stick to the plan.

 

[darken]

Here's a batting order tactic I use for pool play. Call it the "wheel" lineup. It's designed to get everyone the same number of plate appearances.

1. Pick the "best" batting order for the first game in pool play with everyone in the lineup. High average leads off, good bunter second, power hitters third and fourth, etc....
2. After the first game, determine the next game's batting order by who batted last in the first game. The batter who would have been next, leads off the next game and the player who would have batted after her bats next, and so on through the original lineup. The leadoff hitter in the previous game bats after the last batter in the previous game. So, in effect, the last batter of the previous game, bats last in the next game.
3. Repeat for the next pool play game(s).

After pool play every player should have almost the same number of PAs give or take one. It gives me a great opportunity to see who is hitting well and rewarding them with a higher position in the order for the elimination round. In practicality, it mostly helps at the end of the order where a player who has struggled and normally bats 10-12, gets a chance to compete for the starting 9. A humorous side effect is when the other team backs up their OF for the weaker hitters who happens to be batting 3 to 5 in pool play.

I've used this from 10u up to 16u.