So my daughters first softball game was last night..... First I will say I am extremely impressed by how well the girls played. They have come very far in the last few weeks of practice. All the girls did exceptionally well I thought, getting some outs, great hits, and really just played well overall. This is a 9-10 yr old coach pitch travel league. I was floored though, when midway through the first inning one of the coaches informed me that there would be no score keeping. I just don't get the whole mindset these days with this type of thing. It has always seemed to me that there are lessons to be learned in everything. Winning / losing and the things that go along with that are important lessons IMO. Sure eventually the girls will progress into leagues where score will be kept, there is just something about the whole "everyone wins / no one loses" mentality that drives me crazy. Seems to me by the time a child is in a traveling league (not just your local little league type play) score could be kept. IDK Am I alone here? Anyone else think this stuff is crazy. Same crap happened for her field day.... everyone got ribbons... REALLY??? I think children are losing out on certain learned experiences with this approach. Agree?? Disagree?? Tonight is my sons first little league T-ball game, he is 4, pretty excited. At that age and level I can understand not keeping score as they are barely just learning the game..... but at her age????
I coach my older two boys in T-ball and have emphasized the fundamentals of the game, catching, fielding, throwing, batting, and outs. Our rules are we play through the order once per inning and switch, but can do force outs. We've played teams that we looked at us like we had antlers growing out of our heads when we told their player that they were out. As much as I've wanted to, I haven't gone with keeping score and winning at this level. The next level, if I coach (I'm up in the air on how far up I want to coach), I will keep score and there will be a winner and a loser. I remember my toughest wins that I got as a young player, because we worked hard to get them.
Honestly, I find that insane!!!!! My daughter plays on a 10U travelling softball team. First off, I can't see why it would be coach pitch at 9 and 10 years old. These girls can learn to pitch by this age. We just faced an 11 year old pitcher that has been radar'd at 55mph, and I would venture to say my daughter pitches somewhere around 50-52mph and has 4 effective pitches. She has control and has command of her pitches for the most part. We've had to play some rec teams that don't have quality pitchers and it sucks. In our league, we have a rule that if the pitcher walks 3 batters in one inning, then a coach will come out and finish the strikes on any batter that is walked after after the 3rd walk has been issued. When we play tournament ball, there's no coach pitch. It's up to the pitcher to get the job done. Not keeping score at that age is pretty silly if you ask me. These girls are old enough to accept winning and losing. Winning and losing shouldn't be the main focus of the coaches, but they need a reason to get better. Getting better = Winning more. Some of the PC crap just blows my mind!!!
I remember some of the lop sided losses from baseball as well as I do the wins. I'm a pretty competitive person, and losing made me strive to improve. We kept score in t ball when we were 5 years old Also agree with not having coach pitch at that age. Part of the sport is learning to throw the ball. IMO, it would be like having a coach QB the youth football games.
I also agree with the coach pitch being crazy BUT I can understand that far more than the not keeping score. I know we always kept score in ALL my little leagues...
By the way, we had a 10 year old girl hit 2 out of the park homeruns last weekend. The fence was approx 160-170 feet. Both off quality pitchers. I guess what I'm saying is that the girls that are playing coach pitch and not keeping score at 10 are already so far behind that they will struggle to compete when the get to JR High and High School.
I think it is utterly insane! I played baseball from t-ball all the way through high school. Losing sucks. But it gives you something to work towards. If you don't have any goals to work for, why even be out there in the first place?
Never played much ball but this seems to be a phenomenon around all youth sports. I was told in hockey you aren't allowed to hit until you are a Midget (14yr-16yr). when I played you could hit as a PeeWee (12yr-14yr). Why would any child put forth effort into a sport if the outcome will always be the same? You learn when you are young to let losses go and just learn from mistake right? maybe our future athletes are getting physically smaller and more emotional then they use to be...
Everyone gets a trophy and goes for ice cream afterwords (the words of our athletic director). Youth sports just aren't the same anymore and it is taught by society that losing is okay. I believe that everyone should strive to be the best that they can. When society teaches kids that it is ok to lose then they are basically saying that it is okay not to live up to your potential. (I sort of took a comparison of sports to life without trying to stretch it.)
Yeah, not keeping score on anything over tball is just weak if you ask me. I like how our league is set up. We have two divisions. Basically a rec division and a competitive division. The competitive division has the 3 walk rule and the rec division has a 1 walk rule. So basically the girl in the rec league can walk one batter per inning, but she still pitches to every girl. The second girl she walks gets to stay up to bat and the coach finishes the strikes. So if the count ended up 4-1, then the coach can pitch the ball twice, all coach pitches are considered strikes(batter is not out on a foul ball, the get another pitch). After that batter is done, then the pitcher starts the next batter and the process repeats until there are either 3 outs or 7 runs have been scored. The competitive league is the same, but the pitcher is given 3 walks before the coach finishes the strikes. It helps facilitate the game, but still allows the pitcher and catcher to do their jobs.
This has spread to high school sports as well. I coached high school wrestling for 6 years and we gave awards out at the end of the year that were voted on by the team for things like MVP, most improved, and most dedicated. It never failed every year some mom would come up and ask if the awards were really a good idea because it could make the other kids feel bad and they would suggest that we do away with them and basically tell everybody they were all good. These are also the same people that would get mad when you yell at their kids in practice or punish them for acting up. I feel kids today are losing out by NOT losing. What happens when you’re in the real world and you have to compete for a job or a promotion? What happens to those kids when they find out that it’s not all sunshine and kittens and the real world is not fair and it is going to knock you down every once in awhile. They have never lost or known adversity so how will they know how to get back up?
I understand the coach pitch softball it can be brutal if a girls is walking 10 people in a row but 10 years old would be the last year of that if not sooner. As for the no score thing I'm completely lost, how does this help kids be competitive. That's one of the reasons to play sports, the as long as we had fun thing doesn't cut it with most of the kids they want to know the score. A country of wusssies is what we are turning into, might as well give all these kids participant trophies at the end of the season.
These girls are 9 and 10 years old. Do they look like the need a coach to pitch to them or that they can't tell the score? These girls work really hard, and have improved so much because we play them in USSSA Class B softball. You only get better by playing better competition.
Glad to see I'm not the only one.... when I started ranting about it last night most of the other parents and the coaches acted like I was from another planet. One guy said those girls don't care what the score is or who wins (he was a parent from the visiting team, also the losing team I might add I was keeping track .. I replied... I promise you my daughter can tell you the score, and she wants to win.
Exactly, that is part of my dissapointment. These girls have worked their tails off all spring, and REALLY made some improvements. Big Time! For what??? Because they wanna win... Seemed to me like they are getting slapped in the face, last night that hard work should have been rewarded for the first time with a very strong win. I told the girls in the dug out after the game that they played awesome and should be proud winning the first game of the year. Coach looked at me like I was insane LOL I see some coaching in my future I think
I really enjoy coaching the REC league my daughters on. They made me a head coach this year not really happy about that but it is what it is.
