Rec season in hell

[2ddsplayingball]

I have never experienced this bad a rec season. My outfielders are my weaknees. No matter how much we practice catching the ball, fielding ground balls to them to get the angle, stopping the ball in front of them, hitting the cutoff, or even moving to the ball to stop it from going behind them. Come game time, they are off in their little own world, not watching for signals to move back, left or right. Not moving to back up the throws to bases. We can be winning the game in the beginning and then we fall apart. It has not failed for the last 6 games, to where the pitchers and infielders do great only to have the outfielders, fall asleep. Having played outfield, I know it can get boring and you get in a daze, but, I have to figure something out. I must also mention, that my outfielders, are also, my last 4 batters, and the weakest, so, we knows what happens. Pray for a walk.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

You have to get the parents involved and have them play catch with the girls and throw pop flies to them. I would bribe the girls with something, so that they take it upon themselves to get better.

Move everyone through the outfield, until you can find girls that will at least try. The girls probably want to be on the infield.

I would try changing them around in the line up, too. It sounds like you have 4 outs, in a row. I think the girls might have figured out that they are the weakest players and they are acting like it, right now. Good luck.

 

[quincy]

I miss the play most the time, I am watching all the players going to where they are supposed to be. We practice it and they know where they are supposed to be. Ball hit to SS and makes a good throw, I compliment the LF and CF for backing their Teammates. We make some mistakes and you might get a base but not 2. Everyone supports each other.

Only time DD has been yelled art was lack of effort in the OF, told her her quit if she did not want to play.

 

[David Carter]

For rec in my experience this is very standard. right now in14U I have one girl that just picked up a bat and ball first time 2 months ago two that are iffy (1yr of not good experience) and two more that are average, the other six make up the infield and top 6 in the line up.

They have to work at it even if Mom and Dad can't help 15 minutes a day of throwing the ball up in the air in the back yard and catching it is better than nothing. Even just a sock ball in the house for ten minutes making sure they use the right technique. As for what to do with the ball they all know STOP the ball throw into second usually cutoff since they can't even throw far enough to get to second. Only exception is runners on and shot to LF she can go to 3B.

Thing to do to help, I actually play one of these girls at second and my fastest really good girl (who would normally bean an infielder) in center, even on a 300 ft fence no inside the parkers, she also has a good gun for an arm. Next since I have 12 I bat the three worst 6,7,8 to start then once they bat sub in my average girls so my best 9 are out there at the end. I also have a coach who works fairly exclusively with outfielders and first 20 to 30 minutes is always dedicated to infield and outfield work (separately) regardless of what else we have planned.

Now for the best part, playing today in our season ice breaker tournament, one of my 1 yr players that is really shy gets a big pop fly hit to her she runs to it camps under and catches it. Next game against probably the best pitcher in our league the girl who never played hit the ball to second and advances the runner she could have been safe if she had run hard through first (we are still working on that) we have won our first three games and now we are in last winner bracket game against a select team, win or lose we probably get another select team so we will see if our good fortune continues.

 

[marriard]

What age group are we talking about here?

So it is rec ball and you have identified the worst 4 girls and made sure they have a bad time. They bat last all the time, they only play the outfield, you probably get really frustrated with them when they go into daydream mode and they probably haven't had any success at all this season playing. And you aren't winning either. This isn't a bunch of skilled travel girls here and they aren't going to get better unless you find a way for them to enjoy the experience and it is likely up to you to find a way for these to girls to have some success.

First - teach them to bunt. If they can catch even a little bit they can bunt. At least the ball is in play and they have a chance to get a base, force a play, move a runner, get the bat off their shoulder, feel like they might have a chance to hit, whatever. Better than taking 3 bad swings, watching strikes go by or refusing to take the bat off their shoulder.

Second - You can sprinkle them into the lineup - especially if it is a max-run per inning league. I hate most of the stuff on this site, but this particular lineup strategy has helped me in rec big time - The Winning 8U Batting Order Strategy for Fastpitch Softball For rec I change batting orders all the time until playoffs - one coach I know just has a lineup that is alphabetic and the batting order for the next game starts where the last game finished.

Third- find a way to move them around and into the infield at least for an inning each - if you have a FAST pitcher you can play them at deep SS, SLOW Pitcher you can play them at DEEP 2nd. (Fast pitching - more balls to 2nd than SS and opposite for a slow pitcher).

And if you don't agree with me on how rec should be, there are two other strategies you can use:

- If they can't catch and they can't field have them play back all the time. That way the ball is always in front of them and hopefully they will throw it in when it rolls up to them...
- Play the Bad News Bears outfield - i.e. put a really fast girl at CF and have her cover as much ground as possible. She can back up all the outfield positions and even when it gets past the other OF she'll be there to help clean up.

 

[Jr10234]

I agree with Marr-you mention rec, four weakest, OF, and last batters in the same sentence. They go to games and BAM! You suck, go standing the grass and wait a couple innings to hit. Rec is development, give them time in the IF, chage around the batting order, make them love the game and want to return another year. Travel ball is about winning

 

[humpty]

Just keep plucking away. Lots of throwing catching drills at practice. Stick to the basics with the OF. Ball first then backup responsibilities. Your not gonna make them into all state players in a season. Just strive for improvement. Promote aggressive play.

 

[coach james]

Relax, and don't expect rec kids to know the game like travel kids. Just keep teaching and expect them to try hard and give max effort but remember they're still learning so their performance will be lacking at first.
Outfielders at this level will miss fly ball opportunities pretty often, but IMO its more important that they know where the runners are and how to get the ball to the cut offs quick and accurately.

 

[iMlearning]

Maybe you need some sort of incentive? Some sort of a "best effort" award?

 

[cmspock]

Maybe you need some sort of incentive? Some sort of a "best effort" award?

My son's little league team last fall had a "Sweet play of the game". After each game, each coach would award a player with a Hershey bar for the sweet play that game. I'm going to steal that for our 12u rec team this year.

Also, the continuous batting order is something I'm going to try at least at the first 4-5 games of the season. Same order each game. The person up after the last out leads off the next game. Everyone gets the same number of at bats and maybe those weaker batters will suprise you.