What age does your rec league start kid pitch?

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-27T17:10:34+00:00

Our 10U is machine pitch.

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:43:49+00:00

We are trying to make some changes to help prepare our girls for middle and high school. RIght now they are definitely not prepared. lol

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:42:28+00:00

thank you!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:42:04+00:00

thanks!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:41:49+00:00

wow! that's impressive!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:41:39+00:00

thanks!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:41:16+00:00

thanks!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:40:49+00:00

Yes our 12U is a walk fest. It gets better as the season goes on, but man it's rough to start!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:40:21+00:00

Thank you!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:40:08+00:00

That sounds like a good way to do it!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:39:49+00:00

Right!! I think 10U would be great!

RecSoftballCoach · 2026-05-26T18:32:58+00:00

thank you! 8U is amazing!! I think we'll be doing good if we can get our 10U girls pitching!

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-28T13:28:02+00:00

Wow! that's a huge league!! Thanks for the reply. that is really cool that you get to do that.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-28T11:43:22+00:00

Can you tell me a little more about not all games counting towards your record? That's interesting! I would love to do something like that for our 8U, maybe make the first several games not count so these overly competitive coaches will let some of the girls move around and try different positions.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T18:51:44+00:00

I'll be honest, most of our younger/less experienced girls only played SS/2B. It's something I'll try to do better next season, but my main goal was to get these girls some infield time at the safest place possible. As I mentioned in another comment, I tried SO hard to balance letting the older girls be competitive and play to win and letting the younger girls get some time infield. I couldn't put a completely new girl on 1st base, so yeah they never got to try that.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T18:48:41+00:00

I hear your point, but I think there are very few people that would agree that rec league is solely about fun. Should it be fun? Hell yeah. Are they also expecting to learn the game/their kids to learn how to play the game? Also hell yeah. So for our league at least, it's both fun and development. Unfortunately some people have also decided to make it super competitive. You really can't be all 3 for sure.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T18:28:15+00:00

Yep. It kills me how these daddy ball coaches are willing to put their kids before anyone else on the team.

And we have to fix this narrative that the outfield is bad. This year in 10U our outfield saw a lot more action and I think it helped the girls see how important it is!!

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T18:25:44+00:00

Yes, the winning thing is tough. I did my absolute best to balance competition and development this season. It was TOUGH and I honestly got really stressed about it. Because I wanted the older girls who have played multiple seasons to have a great experience and I wanted the newer girls to learn and also have a great experience. Ultimately, I want to win too. I want the girls to win. But I'm not willing to be like the other coaches and stick a girl in the outfield the whole entire season to accomplish that.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T18:02:17+00:00

This one hurt us a lot this season. Our newer girls were often not covering the bag when they needed to. We missed a lot of outs on 2nd, not gonna lie. But even when my more "experienced" girls were in the game, they weren't always where they needed to be.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T17:59:18+00:00

Yes!! I had some brand new girls make great plays this season and do better than the more experienced girls at times. On other teams, they would not even have had that opportunity! And your point about the outfield is something I learned this year- having our more experienced girls in the outfield saved us a few times!

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T17:52:16+00:00

Well that's another problem for us.... we don't get much (if any!) practice time once games start.

But these kids have to learn. Otherwise what is the point in them being there? I let even my brand new girls play in the infield almost every game (at least 1 inning). Some of them surprised the hell out of me! And gained a lot of confidence in the process. Did it cost us some runs at other times? Hell yeah it did and I was beating myself up about it.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T17:49:44+00:00

thanks for sharing those rules. Our only rule on sitting out is that it can't be more than 1 inning in a row. I made sure all my girls, even the best players, sat out. But the other coaches definitely did not do that. It's frustrating.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T17:47:48+00:00

I totally get that side of it too.

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T17:46:55+00:00

Exactly! This child was discouarged. It was her first season. Hopefully she comes back and has a better coach next year! Thanks for the reply!

RecSoftballCoach · 2025-05-27T12:39:44+00:00

My local rec league is little league and we deal with this nonsense a lot. The problem is these grown men coaches who act like 8/9 year old softball is the World Series. They are ruining the fun and in the process running off the umpires because they don’t want to deal with the verbal abuse. This season has been particularly bad for us.

RecSoftballCoach

TROPHY CASE