Question for LL coaches re: runners leaving on release

[MsDinosaur]

you are correct with regard to catchers, pitching is not a problem.

As I think I mentioned earlier, I'll not argue the change and look to focus more on catching.

The problem is that on a team of 14 girls last year we couldn't find one player that wanted to play catcher. This is not an unusual problem. This change brings that position into even more prominence than before. We had one girl that we worked with and got her up for the role and she did ok (didn't throw anyone out at 2b) but by the end of the season had had enough of it. we had other girls rotating thru that spot to try it but none of them took to it.

My DD was a second baseman/defensive pitcher at 8U and the coach talked her into playing catcher at 10U. Our team's catching problem wasn't so much the stealing per se, but all the passed balls, and he figured she could probably stop some of them. She loves catching now, but it was rocky at first. What really hurt her was that once she agreed to try catching, he gave her 2nd base spot to someone else and never let her play the position again. So I guess my advice is to check with your catchers and unless they LOVE the position, make sure they get plenty of playing time at positions they DO love to make up for it.