Incorporating pitching into 10u rec practice?

[Caredeocr]

I picked my best 3 candidates for pitching and worked with each of them before/at beginning of practice while the other coaches put the rest of the team through hitting or fielding drills. Luckily one of the pitchers was DD so we also worked at home.

Yup, I think this is along the lines of what we will do. As the season moves along, maybe pull 1 or 2 in periodically to give them a try and pitching (in practice) and see if any look like they could/want to do it.

You just don't have enough time before the season starts to have a meaningful impact. Get them game ready first and then circle back to hitting. You get the least amount of return on your time focusing on hitting to start the season.

I'm not discounting this at all, and sincerely not being snarky (I'm here to learn), but I don't understand that perspective. Why would making hitting a primary part of our practice routine not pay off? If we can work on basic technique and get the girls confident at the plate, why wouldn't that have a meaningful impact. I coached 6-7 of the players at the 8u level and saw them improve quite a bit (for that level of play, coach pitch) hitting the ball.

 

[uncdrew]

Rec is hard. You barely get to coach. You'll never get to everything, and even the things you get to you won't spend enough time on.

At the first practice, you might want to ask if any girls want to pitch. And then have a pitching coach you can refer them to. Basically outsource the pitching. If no takers, then just let them do their best and let games progress to coach pitch. You'll never have time in 4-5 practices to develop any pitchers.

 

[Rick M]

With just four practices I would have everyone take 10 minutes (probably at the end) to play underhand catch with a partner. If you’re feeling ambitious, ask them to use Java’s ‘Lock it In’ drill to throw back and forth:

https://youtu.be/5T4Jd7GKg5Q

The thing is, nobody is going to become a pitcher just from the work they do at practice. But if you encourage everyone to work on the drill at home, you might get lucky and find that 2-3 girls actually do take the time to practice the drill on their own.

It will be almost immediately apparent who those girls are. Voilà! You’ve found your pitchers.


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[GunnerShotgun]

I'm not discounting this at all, and sincerely not being snarky (I'm here to learn), but I don't understand that perspective. Why would making hitting a primary part of our practice routine not pay off? If we can work on basic technique and get the girls confident at the plate, why wouldn't that have a meaningful impact. I coached 6-7 of the players at the 8u level and saw them improve quite a bit (for that level of play, coach pitch) hitting the ball.

I just think there are other things that you can focus on (first) to better develop the players and make the softball experience better for the players at that age. The same way if I was coaching 4th grade rec basketball I wouldn't mention or practice shooting in the handful of practices we had before the first game. Just too many other things to get sorted.

I find that after the first game there are many things that need to be practiced, but never is it team hitting. If you dedicated 100% of your practice time to hitting before that first game how much better are they really? I realize you aren't' spending 100%, but even if it's 25% and it's focused on drills/mechanics which is only a piece of the hitting puzzle, that's just too small of a ROI in my opinion.

Now that they can steal and bunt (to whatever extent your league allows) you are much better off focusing on baserunning (offense and defense) and team related concepts (relays, defending the steal, getting the out at 1B, bunting, bunt defense) when you get them together.

I am not saying I wouldn't discuss/practice hitting ever, I am just saying it's way way down the list.

 

[Caredeocr]

I just think there are other things that you can focus on (first) to better develop the players and make the softball experience better for the players at that age. The same way if I was coaching 4th grade rec basketball I wouldn't mention or practice shooting in the handful of practices we had before the first game. Just too many other things to get sorted.

I find that after the first game there are many things that need to be practiced, but never is it team hitting. If you dedicated 100% of your practice time to hitting before that first game how much better are they really? I realize you aren't' spending 100%, but even if it's 25% and it's focused on drills/mechanics which is only a piece of the hitting puzzle, that's just too small of a ROI in my opinion.

Now that they can steal and bunt (to whatever extent your league allows) you are much better off focusing on baserunning (offense and defense) and team related concepts (relays, defending the steal, getting the out at 1B, bunting, bunt defense) when you get them together.

I am not saying I wouldn't discuss/practice hitting ever, I am just saying it's way way down the list.

Fair points, thanks. Don't talk to me about 4th grade rec basketball....its just not good...

 

[Eric F]

You just don't have enough time before the season starts to have a meaningful impact. Get them game ready first and then circle back to hitting. You get the least amount of return on your time focusing on hitting to start the season.

I don't understand how you can "get them game ready" while ignoring half the game.

We're talking about girls just stating to play. Every single rep is valuable in getting their body starting to learn how to get the bat on the ball. IMO, it's VERY worthwhile to spend practice time working on hitting. If you can, as many stations as possible, with as small groups as possible rotating between stations. Keep them swinging.

 

[sluggers]

If you can, as many stations as possible, with as small groups as possible rotating between stations. Keep them swinging.

Yep. Try to get each of them 100 swings each practice.

 

[Chilixa]

I don't understand how you can "get them game ready" while ignoring half the game.

We're talking about girls just stating to play. Every single rep is valuable in getting their body starting to learn how to get the bat on the ball. IMO, it's VERY worthwhile to spend practice time working on hitting. If you can, as many stations as possible, with as small groups as possible rotating between stations. Keep them swinging.

I have found it difficult to try and get fielding and hitting done in the same practice. Neither one gets the needed attention. I often break up practices into hitting practice and fielding practices.

Lots of station work and net work during hitting practices. While a few are hitting live balls. Just have to have enough help to keep them busy.

Now to the original question. I generally have pitching and catching work before my practices for those interested. Because most can’t afford to miss the other work. But you really need to find some girls that want to work on pitching on their own. But 10u kids pitch can be brutal.


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[GunnerShotgun]

Yep. Try to get each of them 100 swings each practice.

In 10u rec most of the time you are just reinforcing bad habits.

 

[RichK]

In 10u rec most of the time you are just reinforcing bad habits.

This is pretty dark (though not inaccurate unfortunately). For rec, give them lots of reps, have a lot of fun and see who wants to commit to playing at the next level otherwise give them a memorable summer with friends.

Way back when we had a super-competitive 8-10u rec program, minors/majors it was called. Six teams just in my relatively small suburb, coaches who all knew each other and had a fun, competitive draft and season. More years ago then I care to admit. My oldest was the first to go from that to end-of-summer 'travel' and eventually 'real' travel. With my youngest, we started the town's first true 10U travel team (which by 18U played PGF Platinum Nationals). Today, there's one rec team in town and they play other towns to get enough teams for a league. I have great memories of that 'bad habit' softball and watched/helped many of them move on to travel, high school and a few to college ball.