Little League coaches- Q's regarding game strategies!

[Carrman]

As I posted a month or so ago, I'm the head coach for my son's 8-9 year old LL baseball team. I've coached him individually (successfully!) for the past 4-5 years in baseball, but never coached his team before.

Our practices are done, and our games are beginning. Wondering about a couple of different strategy calls:

Background - 8-9 year olds, 12 to a team. Kid pitch. Regular rules, except can't lead off (steal after pitch passes the plate) and can't steal home.

Kids try out, and are then selected in a draft. As you might expect, there is a wide range of players. Some, like my son, have played 5 years and are very seasoned. For others, this is their first year!

As the teams generally break down, the first 4 or so players are very strong. The next 2-3 are pretty good. The next 3 average. The bottom 2 or 3 are of very limited abilities. By "limited abilities" I mean they cannot accurately throw from the second base position to first base, cannot usually catch a routine infield pop fly, and at this point are very unlikely to hit a pitched ball.

Questions:

1. Batting. It is best to just put all the best players up front? The first 3 who are most likely to get on base, fourth batter the power hitter, then the rest in order of likelihood to hit the ball? WE HAVE TO BAT ALL 12 PLAYERS IN ORDER THE ENTIRE GAME.

My strategy has been as above. Basically, batting in order of skill, from best (most likely to get on base, either by hit or walk) to worst.

The obvious problem with this is when you get to the bottom of the order! Kinda brutal with the last 3 being almost certain outs.

My wife thinks it would be better to "spread out" the bad batters throughout the lineup. I think it's better to keep them together at the bottom. What do you think?

2. Fielding. Kind of the same issue with fielding, but a bit more difficult.

No kid can sit out more than one inning in a row, and has to play 2 innings of infield (one in the first half of the game, one in the second).

Pitching is taken care of, that has to be the best pitchers, this is a position earned in practice.

Same with first - for safety reasons, I have to have a skilled player at first so we don't have teeth on the field.

But what about the rest of the infield? When I have my skilled players in the infield, they can easily turn plays and catch any catchable popup. The lower players have almost no hope of fielding the ball and throwing someone out, or of even catching an easy pop up.

Should I put all the skilled players in the infield at the same time, and hope to get some shutout innings? And then run the lower skilled players as an infield group, and hope for the best?

My inclination is to mix them up, always have at least 2 skilled infielders.

[jim72911t]

Carrman,
I've been a volunteer little league coach (no kids of my own) off and on for a number of years now, and have instructed kids from T-ball (4-6 year olds) up to Senior Minors (13-15 year olds.)

To be honest, I think you're over thinking this a bit. At 8-9 years old, the kids are just learning the fundamentals, and some learn faster/slower than others. I would concentrate on making sure that everyone is having fun and learning, in that order. The emphasis should not be on winning, IMHO.

That being said, yes, you do need a strong first baseman, shortstop, and center fielder. Your best players should be your pitcher and catcher, and most likely one will pitch while the other is catching, and vise versa. I'd also let any kid with "very limited abilities" who expresses a desire to pitch, catch, etc, have a go at it. You'd be surprised at how many diamonds in the rough I've found that way.

Look at it this way: Your job is to get the kids excited about the sport, and make them want to come back and play next year. Winning is nice, but secondary.

One thing that I pride myself on is the fact that of all of the kids who made the all-star team a couple of years ago in our league, more than half were kids that I coached at one point. And no, I have never coached a championship team, or even one with a winning record. I did, however, teach them the fundamentals, and to love the game.

Good luck this season. I've got my first T-Ball practice Tuesday. Can't wait.

Jim

[Super_Dave_D]

One thing to remember is that all of the other teams have the same issues as you. My daughter is in her second season of T-ball and I help coach as well. One thing I really like is the coach NEVER yells at the kids and always provides positive feedback. I have never hear a coach or someone on the team say “man we lost”.

Batting: Don’t over think it – lead off with your best hitters but just don’t put the fastest guy batting behind the slowest guy.

Infield needs to be reserved for the kids that can actually catch (your right, for safety). You don’t want your Jeter wanna-be on short, throwing a rocket to a kid that can’t catch. Someone will get hurt. Our team uses short second to cycle in the ones that are learning to catch.

Good luck and just make it fun!

[hardflex]

If I remember correctly, I set up rotations that went 3rd Base/Left Field/Bench, Shortstop, Center Field/Bench, 2ndBase/Right Field/Bench. That way everyone knew it was fair to all which is important in keeping kids and parents happy. Best Athletes in the SS/CF slot, Good Throwers in the 3rdbase/LF slot. If one kid in the rotation doesn't make the game, the others get to play the whole game. It worked well for me. You will very rarely have all 12 kids come to the same game.

Hitting is another matter. The kids at the top of the order are going to get more at bats, so keep your good hitters nearer to the top. At that age, kids can get on base by walks or errors too, so it's not an automatic out.

Necessities include a basket of baseballs and a soft toss net. I used the basket of baseballs throughout my sons baseball career, and it was invaluable for keeping the practice's brisk and getting the most accomplished. Otherwise, you'll spend a lot of time chasing the balls around.

Get your kids there early before the game and give each kid 10-15 swings via soft toss into the net. It gets their hitting groove going for the day and gives you some time individually with each kid to help with their hitting.

Most important, you and the kids should HAVE FUN!!!!!!

[JavaBrewer]

Agreed that you will get lots of bases on walks. Keep the first 4 hitting spots filled with the better hitters. I agree with your wife that you should have 1-2 kids who can hit somewhere in middle of the lineup to bring home strays. Very important is to keep rotating the bottom lineup. Nothing sucks more for a kid than to see his name at/near the bottom of the order every single game. As the season goes on you will find that some of the new kids will start to develop enough skill to avoid leaving teeth on the infield. During practice try to break the kids into smaller groups, if you have some parent volunteers, for focused drills on catching and throwing. Less time waiting their turn the better. Speak honestly to the parents about the importance of their involvement. Parents should make time to throw with their kids every night for at least 15 minutes. Kids who get that kind of support at home will improve dramatically.

[Burnin' oil]

I have coached LL for five years - three times league champs and once runner-up. Everyone bats in every position, everybody plays the same number of innings and the kids get a chance to play the positions they want as much as possible. I've had kids pitch that couldn't even reach the plate. Everybody is happy. The key to winning is timely pitching, aggressive base running, a decent first baseman and at least one good infielder.

[Soterik]

I've coached and asst. at a couple of levels for the last 6 years.

A lot can depend on what the other coaches are doing, and what the league is "all about". I've coached in leagues that count runs, not count runs, and others that count "outs" (which is a LOT of fun).

All great information. It should be all about fun and fundamentals at these ages. Lot's of "diamonds" in the rough at these ages too, and they need the opportunity to play to learn the sport.

Do you have practices during the week as well as games? That's an opportunity to bring along some of the kids who might not get the opportunity to play an infield position at a game...but could learn it during the season in practice.

VERY key about getting the parents involved... that little extra time per day helps immensely.

Might also suggest you visit some practices of older players teams... there are skills and drills that you can learn from them to bring back down to your age groups to help prep them for the following year. One of the biggest that I found was with batting. I happened to asst. coach with a great guy for my older kids team and learned a lot about batting, and he had to re-train most of the kids how to hit. I brought those drills back down to my younger kids team and it really helped us with our hitting, and it helped get them on the right track.

Have fun!!

Eric

[Carrman]

This is the first age/skill division where the games are classified as "competitive." So scores are kept, etc. To me, it's primarily about FUN and player development. But to a lot of the parents, by age 9, it's also about winning. They do tend to judge the coaches on winning. Given the culture of the league, and the expectations, for example, I could not put in pitchers who can't reach the plate. People would go nuts.

ALL kids play in the infield, at least 2 innings per game, by rule. there are also a lot of other rules re playing time and position, which pretty much forces equalization.

There are a lot of practices. This takes a lot of time. Every week, we have 2 games, 1 long practice, and one session in the batting cages. That's 4 days of baseball per week. We also sometimes have an informal practice. That's 5 days.

The questions I asked above, I have to figure out, because I have to put together a batting order and position chart for each game. By rule, they are all going to each bat roughly the same number of times (for ex., in the last game, they each batted 3 times, except 1 kid who batted 4), and play roughly the same number of innings per game, and infield/outfield. So my questions aren't so much a matter of playing time (b/c again, that's equalized by rule), but more of combinations. (and solicitation of any other tips!)

[71T Targa]

This is not a tip that I'd play by, but one that I've been beaten by at that level. Teach your kids to take a pitch, and walk as often as possible. As a 9 year old there's not much of a chance that they can throw 3 strikes even if there isn't a batter standing in there.

Like I said, I wouldn't do it. I taught my kids to hit the ball if at all possible. But if your goal is to win...

[hardflex]

Throw strikes, let them hit the ball.... it's more Democratic!

[Burnin' oil]

Walking sucks and it chaps me when coaches encourage it. There's always a couple kids that are pretty good ballplayers and I tell them to be selective. Everyone else I strongly and emphatically encourage to swing at anything close.

[nostatic]

I think parents should be banned from watching games. That would fix a lot of what's wrong with the sport.

+1000 on walking. You walk up to the plate with a bat in your hands for a reason. Use it if it's close.

You're going to lose in life anyway. Might as well learn to do it gracefully in little league rather than later when it is really important.