u/ir637113

Context: Little League Minors (10u), and our Little League is run more like a rec league (mix of talent from "I'm brand new to baseball" to "I'm going to end up on a travel/select team if my parents can afford it"). [EDIT: Please stop harping on this. I'm aware that's how it is supposed to be. I'm also aware not every league runs that way, so that sentence is just there for context] It is also my first year coaching (I was an assistant last year, no other coaching experience)

My team is A LOT of 8 and 9 year olds in their first year of kid pitch, with a couple of "brand new to baseball" kids. Skills taught to this point are.... eh? 😅 so I made a call early in the season that this was going to be development - teach them how to do basic things, teach them some baseball IQ, etc.

I am having a perfect storm of kids who WANT to hit (last year was a ton of walks, this year it's a ton of Ks), and weird strike zone at this legel against teams who don't want to hit (like, it's an inch off the plate, so its a ball. LOTS of walks), and the intersection of knowledge and skill levels being mismatched. I keep telling myself trust the process, but I'm not sure that I do 🤣

In general, they *kind of* take it seriously, but its obvious it's mostly just for fun for most of them.

What's honestly killing me is that in almost every scenario, each player makes the exact right decision. They read a fly ball perfectly, they throw to the right base, the right player goes for a cutoff, etc. And then they flub the easy thing - the ball bounces out of the glove, they sail the throw over someone's head, they miss the grounder, etc.

We're sitting at 1-4 and some of the kids are getting disheartened by constant strikeouts and getting run ruled. Hell, *I* am feeling disheartened by it 😅

Do I just trust the process and believe that with reps, the skills will follow the knowledge? Do I trash the plan, start over, and get hard about executing? Something else?

Kind of a bit of drama from our game last night. Minors baseball (8-11 year olds) Second vame of the season, everyone is still working out the kinks. The other team has a parent who is kind of a rule freak (I coached with him last year - SUUUPER knowledgeable, but takes 8 and 9 year olds playing baseball a little too seriously). His son was put in to pitch and he made a comment to me that he wasn't able to pitch that day due to rest days.

Their last game (Saturday), he had pitched 52. Manager called last batter at 47 or 48 pitches, which would've put him at 2 days rest. When manager filled out the paperwork, he put down 52 pitches, which put him on 3 days rest, and unable to pitch last night (Tuesday). He had already started pitching before time was called so we could sort it out.

What I was told *after* the game is that I was within my rights to push for a forfeit or play under protest (I wouldn't tbh, *MAYBE* if it was AS or tournament play, but not 2nd game of the season) because the paperwork was all that mattered.

I guess my question is - if a coach called last batter at <50 pitches but put >50 on the paperwork, which are we bound to? Follow up to that is - how would I even know? The only folks who see the paperwork are the managers from each game and the umpire (who submits it to the board). Basically I don't think I would know without someone telling me. They could've pitched him 75 on Saturday and I never would've known without someone telling me 🤷‍♂️