Rules for U10

[Megobee]

Our local LLSoftball director asked me about assisting with assembling some rules for the Minors/U10 division. Is there someplace online that I could find a good example?
One of the things we want to include (if possible) is player decorum. stay positive, respect the umpires, don't shoot your mouth off just because daddy is the coach, etc. and along those lines, rules for coaches - we aren't all here to marvel at the wonder that is your DD, etc.
tia

 

[The Man In Blue]

Those aren’t rules for 10U ... those should be expectations of everybody in the organization.

I ran a summer rec league for too many years ... one of the lessons I learned too late was this: We needed to quit making rules and work more on coach training.

We were constantly revising and rewriting the GAME rules to address the behavior of coaches, not to help the kids play the game. What this did was turn the game into a tangled mess that was barely recognizable as softball. Then we tried to fix that ... and made a bigger mess.

What we should have been doing was providing coaches with training and clear expectations of them in their role as a representative of our organization.

GAME rules should rule the GAME. COACH DEVELOPMENT happens off the field.

 

[Mocoso]

Go visit any large Southern California girls softball league and their rules will usually be found on the website(I’m sure this is the case with many leagues around the country)

U10 sounds odd btw that’s usually soccer - normally it’s 10U. It little league may in fact be different

And I agree with others that the rules you mention have nothing to do with age division

Normally the age rules deal more with how many bases you can steal, cold plate, run limits, pitching out limits, sitting time, infield/outfield play, number of players in outfield, infield fly rules, etc



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[Megobee]

Thank you- i was originally thinking ground rules to make everything clear,
Im glad you both mentioned coach training because I was also thinking about how to make that happen!
maybe have coaches do the online ACE training

 

[Gags]

Also take a look at Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA). Lots of videos online, and the training session I attended a few years ago for rec basketball was excellent (and run by a former DC Diva's player (womens football league)).

 

[bmakj]

for game rules for 10U little league

-run limit (with last 2 innings unlimited or doubled)
-no runs walked in, 4 ball count with bases loaded, offensive coach pitches, 3 max, count continues.
-everyone must play at least 50% of innings (this is kinda of coaching thing though)

 

[The Man In Blue]

Thank you- i was originally thinking ground rules to make everything clear,
Im glad you both mentioned coach training because I was also thinking about how to make that happen!
maybe have coaches do the online ACE training

@Megobee — I don‘t think I still have my stuff from back then (about ten years ago), but I will look. If you want somebody to take a look at what you have and offer some feedback, I would be happy to do that for you.

 

[canyonjoe]

This is the league we used to play in

www.sierragirlssoftball.com

If you go to documents it has 10U rules. I don't have any rights to this info or anything but it's worth looking at for a format.

 

[Lemond]

Also take a look at Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA). Lots of videos online, and the training session I attended a few years ago for rec basketball was excellent (and run by a former DC Diva's player (womens football league)).

Yes! PCA for non-skill related stuff (respect the game, be a student of the game, don't be a jerk, etc.). https://www.positivecoach.org/ They have some very good materials already prepared (e.g., player and parent contracts) so you won't need to spend a bunch of time on that.

For game rules, what bmakj said. Plus, we add pitching limits (6 for 8U, 9 outs/ game at 10U, 12 for 12U) so that aces do not dominate the games and forces the teams to develop more pitchers. (This helps once they get to 14U where most of the pitchers have fallen out.). Keep it pretty simple, but don't leave loopholes.

And from TMIB "What we should have been doing was providing coaches with training and clear expectations of them in their role as a representative of our organization." Our board just had a discussion about this, as we are noticing that more and more parents are needing time outs. We need to train our coaches to train the girls and to know how/when to keep the parents in check. Seems like there has been a lack in both of these areas, but the latter is probably more important in my book.