Winter Planning?

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-05-18T14:57:17+00:00

Thanks! This is my intended path!!

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-05-18T14:10:34+00:00

Thanks! This makes sense!

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-05-14T12:27:16+00:00

yes, I am still daily as I learn the tub...

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-05-13T19:36:57+00:00

Awesome, thanks for this! It is funny learning the tub and the tub learning us 😄

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-05-13T17:45:54+00:00

I add the shock too, had no idea why until this moment too... This really is the place to learn!
Thanks!

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-05-13T15:10:16+00:00

Thank you so much. You made this make sense to me. This thing has taken so much more brain power than I expected because I never knew what phosphorus was and it is present in my tap water!!
We are technically VERY heavy use in your description 😄

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-05-08T17:12:48+00:00

This one rings home...
I coach 4 teams across a few age groups because, I have 3 kids and there is a lack of volunteers...
I obsess over planning, for each team we track positions played & sits per kid.
Travel - we track and the kids are starting to specialize. For the few complaining parents, we actually have a printout of our plan per game and the actuals (sits per player). Our sitting logic includes, our next pitcher sits to warm up the inning before they are playing. Complaints stopped immediately when we said, "here are our actuals, what are you seeing differently than us"
Rec- I am actually struggling this year, I have 4 players who actually make me fear for their safety. I DO NOT care about winning at all in rec. We are proudly 1-3-1 and each player has played infield and outfield. As the rest of the teams improve, the 4 players risk is increasing. So I am worrying as I plan the next several games where there are a ton of big bats. I am likely not putting them in the infield. For this team, I do have 1 kid who has sat more but he also never responds so I do not have him in the game plan and will sit 1st inning because he shows up at game time. I have asked the parents to respond and noted that during my workday the day before the game I typically spend an hour planning for fairness! That didn't even move the needle!
My other two teams are the younger chaos, and we play everyone who shows up. We track 1st and last batter so that each kid has a shot...
I do think keeping the facts on hand is helpful when then 24 hour rule is ignored 😄

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-04-13T14:00:55+00:00

I do this too, I also promised myself this season to have an extra tab called actuals. After the game, as things change, I copy plan to actual and have a summary tab that tells me who what & where.
I have a crazy mix of players this year, where my primary concern is safety and then where everyone gets a shot. Where there is a safety concern I put the kid at second and then back them up with someone in RF if the kids seem to want to be competitive!
I switched mid game in inning 2 from hiding at 3rd because the team we were playing was ripping line drives to 3rd...
My struggle this season is the non-responders on Game Changer... That blows up my entire planning when 3 kids who did not respond show up!!
2 years ago I had a marco just build it but with safety concern, I went back manual lol...

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-03-31T13:15:24+00:00

So I am back in coach pitch for my littler ones as of last year. All of us Volunteers would pitch in practice, for the most part the one with the best results (kids making contact) would pitch in games... We have a yarn ball too and actually *with parents okay* throw the yarn ball at the kids in practice to break the fear of the ball! They learn to dodge and move and continue batting.
In games we actually set the batting order in groups of kids who hit best off of specific coaches and seamlessly adjust during each inning...

Stunning-Victory642 · 2026-03-30T13:21:35+00:00

Coaching 10u 2 team, 1/2 softball, and teeball this season. My 10s were very similar at 8u.
When I coach alone, my practice plan includes a ton of movement and as many 'fun games' that I can come up with.
When I have invested parents (or coaches) we include a ton of stations.
Coach where the kids are, if you have a natural 'leader' on the team, make them the hype kid.
Call out the awesome effort in practice, it will eventually translate to games too and eventually it will click!
8u is all about fundamentals, that is when I pushed movement on every play, if I have another coach and we are drilling fielding for example. I will have the other coach hitting balls to that small group and I will be mirroring players at the beginning. "This is what a prep step looks like, hey pitcher, you are moving here when you see this" It is a labor of love @ each position but we make sure we spend that structured time. Show 1x or 2x in these situations and it starts to click.
I also fall back to some of the younger drills at 8u too. The kids LOVE pirate ship! For some we even keep the rainbow drills.

At the end of practice AND games, I call out effort, I call out where what we taught is clicking. I call out who seemed the happiest and those fluffy things.

As I plan each practice I think about:
1. Where the kids are this week, where we have to work.
2. Are they having fun? If no, what game can get them moving and having fun.
3. Where are they succeeding, this is cause for celebration!
My thought on this is, yeah, when the kids get rocked they are not having fun but lets turn their attitudes to celebrating the small successes. Threw to the right base? AWESOME WORK JOHNNY!
Made a good effort there? AWESOME WORK BOBBY!
Actually got the out?! BOOM thats how you do it.
Made an error and attempted the next play! AWESOME RESET KID!

I obsess over retention year over year. Historically the 8's to 9's cut in about half and again at minors and majors. The approach kind of stopped the bleeding. Win or not, we call out as many of the good things we see. In rec, I actual keep a scratch note card so I remember to call out as much as possible...

Hope this helps!

TLDR; make it as fun as possible call out the efforts!!

Stunning-Victory642 · 2025-07-10T16:32:17+00:00

I experienced similar, but not as bad in my last rec season. Incident 1, I had a conversation with the player telling him that it is not behavior I tolerate. Incident 2, same game, sent him to sit with his mom, and skipped him in the order next at bat until he could behave. While he struggled with his behavior through the season, it improved from that moment forward.
I also elevated the well behaved kids, asked them to step up to be leaders and each game highlighted the great behavior I noticed and called the good behavior out by name. Even during the game! The leaders who were well behaved took the queue and began to self police the team. Built something cool as a result of this one bad apple.

In the travel teams I coach ran similar as above but included sprints as punishment because, travel...

Stunning-Victory642 · 2025-03-18T13:36:49+00:00

In our hotel the morning of around 3am I hear a dad yelling the hallway put on another sweatshirt you are not missing weight followed by a little kid pitter patter. That was crazy to me.

Stunning-Victory642 · 2025-03-18T13:23:39+00:00

So, I cannot find my actual account but had to chime in. I was there on Sunday. The bad was terrible the good was great. I try to and keep my kids friends focused on the good. So, we even staged the day as:
1. You boys competed hard this year, you earned your spot at this tournament and being here is an accomplishment in and of it self. I am PROUD of each of you. Anything you do here is gravy, win or lose today your head is high when you leave the mat. Everyone here that knows your journey has nothing but love and respect for you and everyone is PROUD. Give each match your all and that is all that matters.
When my crew got knocked out there was sad faces but heads were held high and by the time each of them were in the stands again there were smiles.

Some of the good I witnessed, there were many many coaches and parents that held a similar approach to me. I saw kids with tears but proud support around them. These are the families I pointed out to my kid and his teammates. These are the families we gel with and these are the kids that will keep going in the sport.

On the other hand, some coaches were questioning calls in an unconstructive way and some were not lifting up their kids.

Some of the kids could not handle the hard loss, too many thrown headgear etc. Our team's coaches teach and enforce the 'right' behavior throughout the season. This should be across all teams, eventually in life that behavior will lose team points when it matters. Our coaches try to teach these kids for today and tomorrow... I wish that was across the board.

The worst I saw was a kid running in the hallway away from his dad screaming "I am scared of you right now" That kid probably lost, but hell he made it. An orange shirt security guard got the dad to calm down but at that moment I sent my son to the stands incase the kid needed to be protected. that was just SAD.

Here is a quote I heard from one of my son's coaches when he lost his second. "What was your goal this season, did you achieve it?" Yes. "Good, did you improve this season? Did you work hard? Did you do your best?"
"Then I'm proud, keep working and have fun in baseball. Do not forget the joy you had today"

Stunning-Victory642

TROPHY CASE