NSA 275#/.52 Mushy and bouncy.
Opening the game up to more pitchers and hitters
- Thread starter Mad4Ball
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NSA 275#/.52 Mushy and bouncy.
You must own a forest and/or a lumber mill.
As RB said, it was NSA. We played a tournament last summer and only half a dozen balls hit deep to the outfield in 6 games. Everyone was moving their outfield to 10U depth. Very frustrating.
Unfortunately, you are looked at as a 90 minute babysitter to many of these parents. The popularity of travel ball has in essence diluted rec ball. The parent's (most of them) that cared about their child's development concerning softball have moved on. You seem to be the exception. You are one of the few that is in rec and cares. I'm guessing you're 12u. That's the age group where the most parents leave their kids with the coach. It sounds like you are one of the head's of your rec program. Best of luck to you.
The rec programs for softball (there were 2) where I lived were vibrant 10 to 12 years ago. They had 5 or 6 teams of each age group and would play an entire season without leaving the complex until the end of season tournament. Now, they're lucky to field one team in each age group and have to find games throughout the county to fill a schedule. Slowly but surely TB took the better kids, lowering the level of the rec teams to the point where it was not fun for the players, parents, and coaches, so they quit signing up. TB killed the rec program to the point where it is today.
The only idea I can think of is to contact the elementary schools of your area and show off your rec program as a feeder system for the high schools. Usually schools are receptive to passing out information that is program-based.
If you lengthen the base paths, move the pitching distance back and move the fences back, then you might as well pitch overhand with a smaller ball. Then we can call it baseball.
As smdad said, softball is not "miniature baseball"...it is a different game.
- Dec 27, 2014
- 311
- 18
As many have said, girls need to start pitching younger, when they first pick up a ball like boys do.
In my area most boys and girls start playing around age 5 or 6. Start throwing over hand around 5 or 6. At 8u we did part kid, part machine or coach pitch. This is a brutal time for the girls game. IME the girls that pitch at 8u literally just started pitching that season. ALL had NEVER tried to throw underhand. The boys have been working on THEIR pitching motion for 2-3 years+. The limited pitching experience at 8u does very little to get the girls ready for 10u, full time kid pitch. We pitched 9 girls at 8u. Only one out of the 9 worked on pitching between 8u and 10u season (DD). The other 8, or what was left of them, showed up for 10u practice just as bad as they were the previous spring, most had not touched a ball since the previous season ended. I had given away ball socks and implored the pitchers to work on their game at our 8u season ending party. Nothing.
You don't need to change the game, just make it standard that girls start working on the windmill motion from DAY 1 at practice.
In my area most boys and girls start playing around age 5 or 6. Start throwing over hand around 5 or 6. At 8u we did part kid, part machine or coach pitch. This is a brutal time for the girls game. IME the girls that pitch at 8u literally just started pitching that season. ALL had NEVER tried to throw underhand. The boys have been working on THEIR pitching motion for 2-3 years+. The limited pitching experience at 8u does very little to get the girls ready for 10u, full time kid pitch. We pitched 9 girls at 8u. Only one out of the 9 worked on pitching between 8u and 10u season (DD). The other 8, or what was left of them, showed up for 10u practice just as bad as they were the previous spring, most had not touched a ball since the previous season ended. I had given away ball socks and implored the pitchers to work on their game at our 8u season ending party. Nothing.
You don't need to change the game, just make it standard that girls start working on the windmill motion from DAY 1 at practice.
The base path length is the only thing that I may be interested in seeing changed but not by 10' like I've heard mentioned elsewhere. Not even 5' for that matter but I think 3' would not hurt the game and allow the girls on defense who make outstanding plays but still can't beat the runner a fair chance to make that same play. There are so many safe plays at first by a half step even though the defender made an incredible play or maybe the 3rd basemen takes a super hard shot and barely bobbles it and is just that half step late. I can't help but feel bad for the defense on plays like that. I'm not good with math/trig so 3' may get the diamond all out of shape but, if not, I could live with that rule change.
This is why most pitchers parents are a little psycho.....they have to be a little "crazy" to commit to all of the hard work outside of regular practices. It is much easier on the parents to just drop their DD off and come back 90 minutes later when practice is over. And don't get me started on the parents who come back 120 minutes later while I sat there "babysitting" their DD for 30 minutes because I could not leave until all the players were accounted for.....
We've implemented pitching in the younger age groups. We switched from coach pitch to using a combination of machine and player. Hitting and pitching have improved. Unfortunately we still lose players because parents don't want to keep the girls in rec. 10U is pretty good but we have fewer teams in 12U.
