Any tips to get outs when no one’s hitting? First year in 10u rec and the pitchers are working with pitching coaches but aren’t throwing many strikes so both teams are just having a lot of walks and steals. Our first game we got 2 outs tagged at home but after that, they quit trying to steal home. So the score ended up being 18-18 due to the 6 run rule in our league. I’m thinking work on throwing stealers out while we continue to work on pitching. Any other tips?
How to stop walk-athon in 10u?
- Thread starter Dhamm
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- Aug 26, 2021
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You can't defend against a walk. Your pitchers need to be able to throw enough strikes to get the other team swinging. Too many 8U rec coaches teach their team to not swing and wait for coach pitch. This carries over to 10U and if a team sees that they don't need to swing then they won't.
Regarding stealing, it's hard to answer without knowing the rules around stealing in your league.
Hold pitching practice separate from regular practices at least once a week. Teach your pitchers and catchers how to defend against a runner at 3rd and a passed ball/wild pitch.
Pitcher, Catcher, and 1st Base are all earned positions. As a rec coach I'm up front with players and parents about the expectations for these positions. If your daughter can't throw and catch she will not play catcher or 1st base in a game. Especially because dropped 3rd and passed balls are such a big part of rec games at this level.
Pitchers need to practice every day. Ask parents to play underhand catch with the girls that want to pitch. Learn how to play underhand catch with yourself and teach your pitchers how to do it.
- May 17, 2012
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You can only have as many teams as you have pitchers. It is extremely hard/impossible to make a serviceable pitcher from scratch during the season at 10u.
What you hope is that kids are attending lessons/camps/pitching clinics set up by your league during the offseason. They should be practicing at home or in lessons prior to the season starting.
10u rec should be an opportunity for those players to try and pitch. You can tolerate some walks while they are learning; they will have good and bad days. You can also let players try to pitch that have never pitched and they are interested. I mean if not 10u rec then where. I would however tell those particular players that they have a set number of batters they can walk/hit before someone else gets a chance. You want to encourage pitchers but you also can't turn this into a walk fest as you will lose other players in the long run.
So what to do if you have started the league and you don't have enough pitchers for every team? You need to integrate coach pitch somehow or recruit players from other teams or leagues (12u) to pitch.
P.S. If you absolutely positively had to make pitchers on your team I would do nothing but practice slingshot pitching style during all the practices and do nothing else. Teach them to throw underhand in as few movements as possible.
Hope that helps.
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- May 29, 2015
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A rec league that I called for in Mississippi allowed a certain number of walks for a pitcher in each inning. After that number, the coach would come in after the 4th ball. The coach had however many strikes were left.
Unfortunately there really isn't a "talent" answer (until the program gets to a point where there is enough pitching to actually make the games work).
Unfortunately there really isn't a "talent" answer (until the program gets to a point where there is enough pitching to actually make the games work).
I have come to the conclusion that you can't have a 10u rec league that is strictly kid pitch. There has to be some modification that is a combination of kid/coach. The best one that I was a part of allowed the pitcher to get to a 3 ball count, then the coach came in. The batter kept any strikes they had and the every pitch from the coach was a strike. So, if a pitcher struck a batter out prior to pitching to a 3 ball count, the coach never pitched. If the pitcher had a 3-2 count the coach threw the batter one pitch, etc.
Not helping at all with this response.
10u was the 1st time pitchers were on their own, including DD. My less favorite year of SB. She moved to 12u after 1 season of 10u.
One game ump was not even paying attention to the opposing teams P and just called a ball.
DD came over to complain to me she could not hit because ump was bored and kept talking to her when she was trying to hit.
Need to leave them loose sometime though. I'm not sure what the right age is.
Wish DD's league had some support for pitchers.
10u was the 1st time pitchers were on their own, including DD. My less favorite year of SB. She moved to 12u after 1 season of 10u.
One game ump was not even paying attention to the opposing teams P and just called a ball.
DD came over to complain to me she could not hit because ump was bored and kept talking to her when she was trying to hit.
Need to leave them loose sometime though. I'm not sure what the right age is.
Wish DD's league had some support for pitchers.
I think our association has a decently progressive approach to cultivating a more enjoyable game at this level. Primarily we do a combo of player and coach pitch. Pitchers throws until the count is 3 balls. After that the coach comes in to pitch the remainder of strikes only. For example if the count is 3 balls one strike the coach pitches the remaining two strikes. All balls pitched by a coach are considered strikes. This way walks do not occur. We also use an oversized plate and have our umpire in chief to instruct umpires to have a liberal strike zone at that age category. The final piece of this is to get coaches to buy into the fact that house league at this age should not be about winning. It should be about fun and skill development. In my opinion coaches who instruct players to look for walks to win house leagues games are taking a wrong approach. With these practices in play we have noticed a significant improvement in the overall hitting in our association and have more girls who are willing and excited to pitch. Those are wins that are important.
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