Weather to play competitive vs rec

[Shiloh]

But, what I did learn very quickly that many coaches in coach pitch don't realize, was you gotta throw FLAT and at a decent speed/pace. If you try to "lob" the ball in with a big loop thinking that will help, that is the last thing you want to do. Keep the pitch flat as possible from 30ft and with a little speed to it and they would hit it much easier.

Yes!

And this times ten for baseball.

For overhand pitch SIT ON A BUCKET behind a screen and throw! The pitches will be more consistent and will come in at an angle that better simulates kid pitch.

A 6' tall man throwing overhand to a 4'5" 8 year old - ugh!

 

[Towny9]

Yeah I would have hard time not yelling out “if you think you can do better than by all means get your butt out here”

I got into it with a few parents.

This reminds me of my daughters coach pitch team. Whenever one particular coach would come in to pitch, our parents (in particular his wife and parents) would heckle “oh here come coach Jim who is going to pitch a no hitter again!” Even the kids would ask for our their other coach to pitch instead tough crowd.

true story - I coached with a guy in coach pitch who used to wear cleats to pitch in. He was awful - bouncing balls, hitting girls, striking them out like Nolan Ryan. One day I asked him to pitch an inning and of course the girls hit much better. After the game he was upset that he got the hook and told me “sure it’s easy to pitch one inning, but I would like to see you pitch a whole game”.

I told him “I know I’ve let myself go physically a little, but I still think I have enough conditioning to underhand it four innings”.

 

[HunterMO]

My DD played modified pitch for 10u. After 4-balls a coach had to come in and throw. Someone explained it a few posts back. Our AC would pitch and he would throw it harder than most pitchers the girls faced. His motto was "Don't sit and wait for me to come out." It was not uncommon for him to strike our girls out.

As far as Competitive vs Rec.....DD played a Spring and Summer season of Rec and then moved to Competitive the following year. There was zero chance she was going to get better staying in Rec. Our area has Rec leagues and what I call a competitive leagues. The competitive leagues (which DD plays in now) are made up of some local and local/TB teams. Within the leagues there are usually 2-3 different skill levels to register for. Spring, Summer, and Fall are usually 5-6 weeks each. You can find a tournament going on almost every weekend in Summer and Fall. Both near (<1hr) and far (>3hr). There are only a couple "true" TB teams within our area. As in, we never see them locally despite being based out of here.

Since we're in a spot where there are multiple "towns" connected to the city (it's a small city) a few schools have feeder teams where the program is driven down from the HS level. And there could be 1-3 teams per area. The better teams will typically be their TB teams and the lesser play in the lower levels of the competitive leagues. Overall the competition is good. The girls stay challenged with the rare blow out game.

Although last Fall there was rec team that registered to play in the upper level of the league. It was so bad that the umpire tried to talk the coach out of having the girls play inside the bases. The girls could not react fast enough for how hard our girls could hit. They could hardly throw or catch a ball. Sure, everyone has to start somewhere....but playing in that league was not the place for those girls.

 

[Bernmoll]

My DD played player modified pitch for 10u. After 4-balls a coach had to come in and throw. Someone explained it a few posts back. Our AC would pitch and he would throw it harder than most pitchers the girls faced. His motto was "Don't sit and wait for me to come out." It was not uncommon for him to strike our girls out.

We are trying to do this in our rec league for intro kid pitch. It’s so hard to sit an watch walk after walk and wait till 5 runs to end the inning. Batting and fielding doesn’t improve at all. Coach pitch is a different story though.. at this early age, the girls barely know how to swing.

 

[HunterMO]

We are trying to do this in our rec league for intro kid pitch. It’s so hard to sit an watch walk after walk and wait till 5 runs to end the inning. Batting and fielding doesn’t improve at all. Coach pitch is a different story though.. at this early age, the girls barely know how to swing.

Modified is great for younger(ish) kids learning to pitch and play the game. Even at 10u I'm okay with it. If a girl is playing 10u and crushing it....she's likely not playing in a Rec league or lower level competitive league anyways. But, it allows girls who started later to catch up and not get discouraged.

And 100% on coach pitch at the early ages. My middle DD started there and it would be a mess if it was like aged girls trying to pitch.

 

[Orange Socks]

My DD played modified pitch for 10u. After 4-balls a coach had to come in and throw. Someone explained it a few posts back. Our AC would pitch and he would throw it harder than most pitchers the girls faced. His motto was "Don't sit and wait for me to come out." It was not uncommon for him to strike our girls out.

We did our 10U rec league somewhat the same. We would allow the pitcher 2 natural walks per inning. On the 3rd one, the coach would come out to assume the count. This allowed the game to flow better instead of having the coach come out after every walk. By the end of the season the coach pitch would disappear as the pitchers got better. 8U coach pitch the pitcher can dial it in. If you only get to throw one or two pitches a game, it's difficult. Talk about pressure.

 

[HunterMO]

We did our 10U rec league somewhat the same. We would allow the pitcher 2 natural walks per inning. On the 3rd one, the coach would come out to assume the count. This allowed the game to flow better instead of having the coach come out after every walk. By the end of the season the coach pitch would disappear as the pitchers got better. 8U coach pitch the pitcher can dial it in. If you only get to throw one or two pitches a game, it's difficult. Talk about pressure.

We saw similar. As the girls got better at pitching the AC pitched less.

I’m glad I got involved AFTER any coach pitching.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cnardone]

We are trying to do this in our rec league for intro kid pitch. It’s so hard to sit an watch walk after walk and wait till 5 runs to end the inning.

Don't forget that every pitch (even strikes), go to the backstop. I still shiver thinking about those games.

 

[Orange Socks]

Don't forget that every pitch (even strikes), go to the backstop. I still shiver thinking about those games.

10U is the worst age division for softball. I used to tell parents that the real softball starts at 12U. Just hang on! I promise it will get better.

 

[Bernmoll]

Don't forget that every pitch (even strikes), go to the backstop. I still shiver thinking about those games.

Yes... It got to the point that DD would never even attempt to swing the bat. She thought.. why because if she struck out she wouldn’t walk to first base. We would bribe her and say we would get burgers if she attempted at least 1-2 swings at bat!! When we started older 10u and now early 12u and seeing ‘real’ pitching we had to change her mentality to assume that every pitch is good and to hold back if it isn’t. She was swinging way too late because she would wait until she thought the pitch was good enough to start her swing.