Rule question - no steal of Home

[Dabears17]

I remember when we played in a 10u fall ball league that had DTS and stealing home. Between our two 10u teams, we only had one 10u experienced catcher. First game our 2nd team played was a no hitter for both pitchers-- final score like 13-14 between all the DTS and stealing home on pass balls.

Dave Weaver had a good article about why the 10u rec level should have a closed home plate. I can't find it on the new The Catching Camp website.

First time I coached ASA 10u summer tournament ball back in 2005, there was no 10u DTS, stealing home, or advancing more than one base per pitch on a 'steal'.

 

[Eric F]

My DD played 10U rec ball in a league where DTS and stealing home are allowed. At 9yo, and pretty new to catching, she made a lot of mistakes - as did all of the catchers in the 10U division. Games were lost because of those mistakes. However, my DD learned from her mistakes, and got better. She focused on improving her receiving. She worked hard on her fielding and throwing skills. She began learning how to block properly. By the end of her first year in 10U, she started standing out as being a difference-maker on the field. She wasn't the only one. Two other younger 10U catchers were getting similar focused instruction (a NECC clinic being a big part of it), and they were also changing the 10U games in our league. The biggest change was that coaches started really paying attention to how much of a difference a good catcher makes, began to put better athletes behind the plate, and put some time into working on their catcher's skills. Slowly, the quality of the games improved.

Sure, I get that closing home and eliminating DTS makes the game move along quicker when the skill level is low. Maybe it's for the girls' benefit...or maybe it's for the parents'. Personally, I tend to prefer that the coaches teach good skills rather than dumbing down the game. That's when the players - and the game - benefit the most.

In her last 10U rec ball game (league championship), my DD chased down a WP and made a Superman dive back to the plate to tag out a runner trying to score. This was a skill she had recently been working on, and took it right out to the field.

 

[canyonjoe]

It a tough call as to when to start playing with real rules. On one hand you need to learn how to play but if you start too early you run into coaches that work on delay steals and other tricks that really don't make them any better in the long run. When we played 10U Rec it was no stealing home but did have D3K. Our league has moved to full stealing now as that's what All-Stars plays.

 

[nixxy311]

It's nice to play in games where the "real rules" apply. My father always used to get so annoyed by the limits they put on the girls (the run limit, steal limit). It is interesting going from a MS to rec game and how different the play is..

Of course now it's all about explaining the subbing rules and how different they are for SB than BB