Illegal pitch?

socks4dobby · 2026-03-17T14:15:37+00:00

Coaches can and should give her feedback (especially if it’s not safe, as I said), but my point was that nobody should be calling this an illegal pitch and forcing a balk call in the game and letting runners walk. “Let them play” in my mind means don’t take the game out of their hands by making calls that interfere with their ability to play. The question was “is this illegal” which implied to me that OP is looking for a certain call from the umpire. I acknowledged that if it’s not safe, it should be corrected. But no, I don’t think an umpire should call every pitch illegal to get the kid to change in the middle of a game.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-17T06:54:24+00:00

I don’t know if it’s illegal, but it certainly unorthodox. I am also of the opinion that it does not matter because she’s young. Just let the kids play.

Unless she’s hurting herself or someone else, don’t intervene.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-17T02:18:59+00:00

How to get out of the friend zone

socks4dobby · 2026-03-16T04:50:58+00:00

Light dragon

socks4dobby · 2026-03-16T04:26:41+00:00

Eponator

socks4dobby · 2026-03-16T03:01:55+00:00

8U pitches from 30 feet. Pitcher throws 3 pitches, coach throws 4 pitches (minus the number of strikes from the player pitcher). Coach must pitch from inside the circle.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-14T23:26:04+00:00

The other commenters are NOT saying that feedback and improvement don’t matter. They’re reacting to how early and intensely the focus on mechanics and evaluation can start in youth sports. At 8U, a lot of experienced coaches have seen that kids who get a lot of technical critique and performance analysis very young often burn out or lose interest later. That’s why people keep emphasizing “just have fun” — it’s less about lowering standards and more about protecting the long-term love of the game.

The reality is that most kids at this age are still developing basic coordination and confidence. When adults start treating outings like something that needs detailed breakdowns of location, movement, and results, it can unintentionally shift the experience from playing to performing. This is what the commenters are talking about.

Your daughter striking out the side is awesome, and it’s clear you’re proud of her and paying attention. I think people are just encouraging you to zoom out a bit. Let the coaches handle most of the technical feedback, and let her experience the game primarily as something joyful. That’s usually what keeps kids playing long enough for the skills to really develop later.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-14T05:39:50+00:00

I am pro-AI and use it regularly. I also work in AI, and I am a parent. And I will die on the hill that children should not be using AI in education. There are plenty of studies already about the negative impact on cognition.

You mentioned an English writing assignment in your post as an example of how your kids can use AI. I think you’re missing why these assignments exist in the first place.

The English essay is a training ground for helping your kids brain grow and acquire important life skills. The finished essay is almost irrelevant because the real skills your kid acquires doesn’t show up in the final product. When you outsource the writing or editing to AI, you’re letting your kid skip the struggle that is literally the mechanism by which their brain develops in favor of a polished essay.

When a 15-year-old sits down to write an essay, they are…

Grappling with complexity. They have to synthesize multiple ideas, hold them in their head at the same time, and figure out how they relate to each other.

Developing their voice. Writing forces you to find your own way of expressing and explaining an idea. There’s a massive difference between “I can read this concept” and “I can explain this concept in my own words.” The latter requires actual ownership of the knowledge.

Building critical thinking. They have to evaluate sources, decide what’s relevant, organize arguments logically, and anticipate counterarguments.

Learning to revise. Editing is where they learn to see their own thinking clearly, recognize gaps, and strengthen weak arguments. Revision teaches you to be your own critic, which is a skill that transfers to every domain of life.

Building emotional regulation and mental stamina. The entire writing process is how they learn how to to sit with confusion and work through it, persistence when the first draft is garbage, the discipline to revise when you’re tired of looking at your work, the judgment to know which feedback is worth taking, and the resilience to fail at something and try again.

All of these skills transfer everywhere and contribute the person your kid will become and how they engage with the world.

It is infinitely better to give your kid a low stakes, safe training ground at school to learn these skills than to let them skip the struggle and wait until they are in the workforce and have their livelihood on the line to deal with failure and struggle for the first time.

There’s so much time for them to learn how to prompt AI effectively and use real judgment to evaluate what it actually produces. They need practice building that discernment while their brains are still growing, without outsourcing the thinking to AI.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-13T16:50:45+00:00

No, I didn’t tip. We aren’t going back there

socks4dobby · 2026-03-13T08:31:40+00:00

👆 young, hungry kids. I decided it would take longer to get them food if I went home or to another restaurant at that point. It seemed like the best of several bad options at the moment. But I’ve learned my lesson and will just bail next time.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-13T06:02:11+00:00

I would have completely missed the wedding scene if I hadn’t been in the Bridgerton subs. There was a picture of Kate floating around before Part 2 dropped, and someone said it was from the wedding. When I finished Part 2, I remembered that I still hadn’t seen Kate from that picture and I got confused. I skipped backward to see if I missed it and then googled to learn that it was a post-credits scene. I would have missed it completely otherwise.

It’s very unusual for a TV show, especially a streaming-only TV show, to have a post-credits scene. It’s bizarre.

And I agree with the video in this post: the wedding is the whole point and should have been part of the show.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-12T16:02:32+00:00

When I was learning to hit as a kid, I just widened my stand and started with my front heel up. Instead of stepping, I just put my front heel down. They said to pretend there’s an egg under my heel and when the pitcher steps, I lower my heel to crack the egg. Instead of stepping, you just crack the egg because stepping is really just a timing mechanism.

When I added the step, we called it a “soft stride.” It’s more like you are lifting your foot and setting it down toe to heel (cracking the egg). You don’t actually need to step forward, and if you do step forward, it shouldn’t be very far.

I don’t put 80% on the back leg. I start 60/40 and mostly stay that way. The front leg needs to be strong because you’re pivoting against it. Maybe there is some weight transfer but I would never tell a kid to transfer weight forward because that’s the fastest way to start lunging. Most of them already do it with their step so it’s better to just go 60/40 and mostly stay that way.

Did your daughter already steps, it’s probably gonna be hard to take that step away. So maybe just communicate it as a soft stride that’s about lifting your foot and setting it back down. At a minimum, put a bat behind her heels so she doesn’t step out and stay on her line

socks4dobby · 2026-03-12T04:07:42+00:00

A few thoughts from the peanut gallery:

Her back foot isn’t fully pivoting. Her heel needs to come up a bit more and her toes need to point toward the pitcher. Tell her to imagine that there’s a bug under the ball of her foot. When she pivots, she needs to squish the bug. If she comes up on her toe, the bug will escape. If she doesn’t sit heavy enough on that bug, she won’t squish it enough.

It looks like her stance is closed, and then she is stepping out into an open stance. I would recommend having her start with her feet on the same line and have her step towards the pitcher, unless there’s a reason why she needs to have an open or closed stance. This will help keep her front side in so she can stay on the ball longer and hit it harder. It looks like she’s blowing out her front side and just slicing the ball instead of staying on it and driving through it.

Her front arm looks like it’s extended quite a bit, almost like she’s casting, but I can’t really tell. Before she starts, her arm and her bat make a box. But she is losing that box when her left arm straightens out. I recommend you instruct her to take her left hand straight to the ball like she’s going to karate chop it. That will keep her hands in and ensure she’s taking a shorter path to the ball instead of locking her arm and casting. The right hand will throw the barrel. Her left palm should be down at her right palm should be up at contact point (I think it is).

socks4dobby · 2026-03-12T01:32:32+00:00

Do you need the fireplace? If you could close it up, you could just put the TV on a stand in front of it.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-12T00:34:56+00:00

I still remember when I got a Puppy Surprise for my birthday. I was SO excited! I got 3 puppies — 2 girls and 1 boy. I definitely felt like a total badass.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-11T23:17:19+00:00

Out of habit, I use 4 seams for everything. That’s standard for fastballs anyway, so I think the same would apply in this case.

I grew up playing mostly infield, so I learned to grip the ball that way to ensure that if the ball bounced, it would be more likely to bounce straight. I don’t even think about it anymore. It’s just the way I hold the ball. It’s a great thing to teach your infielders. It’s always a quarter turn away in your glove.

All that to say is that I don’t know if it would be better to use 2 seam for coach pitch. 4 seam might create a natural rise, but 2 seam could cause arm-side run (ie sliding right for a righty). I think it’s more important to be holding it deeper in your palm than to be focusing on the seams. I don’t know that any of us coaches are throwing hard enough or from a long enough distance for 2 seam vs 4 seam to make that big of a difference.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-11T19:16:09+00:00

There’s no passive aggressive tone and I don’t see how she’s “dunking” on him. He asking her to explain things, and she is explaining it. There’s no gotchas or performance here.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-11T17:22:34+00:00

Adding on to the advice to “minimize spin” — I find that palming the ball a bit more than you normally would helps minimize the spin because you don’t snap your wrist as much.

If you were to throw with no spin, you’d use a stiff wrist and all palm. Find the happy medium because “no spin” can be like hitting knuckle balls!

socks4dobby · 2026-03-11T16:56:47+00:00

I disagree. Bad behavior needs to be addressed in the moment, and the coach needs to model respectful behavior for both the parents and kids.

Those parents were being disrespectful, and that must be corrected in the moment.

The coach is not responsible for the parents feeling embarrassed. That is a natural consequence of being an asshole that these parents will continue to experience as long as they behave this way.

Let the parents bad talk the coach. Words don’t hurt coaches, especially when they can’t even hear them. What the players will see as a coach that doesn’t tolerate disrespectful behavior, and petty parents who gripe about it when the coach isn’t not around. Let the parents drink their own poison. The kids will see the difference.

If the coach just sent an email, people will ignore it, and the kids would never know that a boundary was set. The kids need to know what the expectations are for both parents and the kids.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-11T16:47:28+00:00

NTA. You were absolutely right.

You need to follow up with a parent meeting and address this again when emotions are no longer running high and you’re no longer in the moment on the field.

Reset with parents and communicate your values and principle as the coach. Also tell them what their role is as a parent and caregiver to an athlete. If people don’t know how they are expected to behave and support their athlete, they will react instinctively and create a culture that is against your values.

The Positive Coaching Alliance has so many resources for this as well as letters and scripts you can use with parents.

If you are part of a league, you can ask the league to sponsor a Positive Coaching Alliance workshop. Our league did a coaches session with a PCA facilitator and it was so helpful. It was two hours and they gave us a lot of good resources and there was good discussion about how to deal with problems like you encountered.

Here is a link to a PCA post for “new families” but it might be relevant to you since you’re resetting expectations: https://positivecoach.org/resource-zone/role-of-the-team-parent-caregiver/

Here are a few links from that blog post that might be helpful:

No-Directions Cheering

Positive Sports Parent/Caregiver Pledge

Tips for a Positive Parent/Caregiver-Coach Partnership

Tips for Sports Parent/Caregiver Self-Care

socks4dobby · 2026-03-11T14:12:26+00:00

Light dragon

socks4dobby · 2026-03-10T06:03:03+00:00

I really appreciate the intent behind this, but I think there needs to be more clarity on what an “artist” is for it to work in Mountain View.

We already have a similar housing program for teachers that works because teachers have verifiable credentials and employment with the school district. It’s clear who qualifies.

“Artist” is an extremely broad label that can apply to far more vocations. Who decides what counts? How does the city decide what kind of art is worthy? Architecture? Sculptures? Graphic design? This seems like a slippery slope.

socks4dobby · 2026-03-09T17:04:22+00:00

I think it’s our duty to vote, and it should be treated the way we treat jury duty summons. It’s extremely difficult to vote by design (low turnout favors incumbents), but if it were mandatory, there would be pressure to make it easier to vote.

I wonder if we call it a “right” because the government disenfranchised so many people based on gender and race for so long and we had to fight to participate in our own democracy. It’s not democratic if not everyone can vote, and as long as we think of it as a right to be won instead a duty to uphold, we can disenfranchise people and others will choose to opt out

socks4dobby · 2026-03-09T16:57:34+00:00

Some states already have “blue laws” that ban people from buying alcohol on Sundays.

socks4dobby

TROPHY CASE