I hate tee ball

What was the massive riff? Metallica? Led Zeppelin? AC/DC?

 

You know what to do, Songbird:

* Find the best athlete and make her the pitcher, for every inning of every game.

* Take the six next best athletes and make them your catcher, infield and center fielder. Play them for every inning of every game.

* Rotate the remaining seven kids in left and right field. If they don't get an at-bat, well, maybe next game.

There you go. The youth softball coaching formula ...

 

Playing the big Baptist church on Thursday night, one of our 3-year-olds starts to melt down going up to bat. It was 8:30. He was tired. Kid walks over to me with tears rolling down his face wanting his daddy. The opposing coach yells "That counts as an out, right? They batted out of order."

After the fourth inning, we were down six. It's a five inning game, but there was time left on the clock so the umps said we could keep playing. I said "It's 9 pm and these kids are kindergarteners. It's time for bed." Opposing coach "What if we want to keep playing? Let's play one more inning." I turned and told our kids to line up for handshakes.

 

Wow, some dude seriously was trying to put off going home to his wife that night.

 

You have 3-year-olds in an organized sport?

I thought our league was insane with the All Stars for 5 and 6 year olds. Never heard of 3s actually being on a team.

 

Ours doesn't start until the summer before kindergarten. My youngest will start next year as a 4-year-old (almost 5). It's herding cats as it is that age.

 

Just finished first practice with the team. Went very well. Girls were smiling, and parents were happy.

 

It's crazy. Three-year-olds don't want structure and competition. They just want to play.

 

Nobody in my native Greater Starville area that I know of runs competitive sports for kids under 6-7.

Some leagues don't even keep official score until 4th-5th grade.

At that point you start getting a real division in the kids themselves between those who just want to go out, fool around and play patty-cake, and the kids who want to play a real game.

 

Mine is six. But a family wanted their 3 yo to play. Head coach didn't want to say no, since we are a church league team and they are long-standing members.

Church politics mixed with sports parents. Fun!

 

In our town, soccer starts at the pre-k level, but there aren't games until 1st grade. Scores aren't kept until 3rd grade. Same for baseball/t-ball. I can't possibly imagine an organized sport for a 3 year old.

My u-10 soccer team, which was 5th place in a 12 team league in the fall, is DFL this spring. We are 0-6-2 with 2 games left, losing both games this weekend on goals with under 3 minutes to go. We may have set a world record for breakaways which did not lead to a shot on target. Funny thing is that I'm living and dying with the results and the girls are fine about 30 seconds after the games.

 

My 6-year-old played T-Ball last year and is in the next level up this year (for 6-7 year olds).
In my town, that's coach-pitch. No score kept. No striking out. Each team gets to bat around once in an inning - meaning more than 3 outs in an inning. Mostly limited to singles, unless it's hit really far, then the kid gets to try for two. However if you're out at a base, you're out.
Watching the kids try to catch the ball and throw the ball is like watching the Bad News Bears. For about half the plays in the infield, the kid that gets the grounder would rather race the batter (or runner) to the bag for the force out (or tag out) than throw the ball to his teammate.
Need to add that one of the coaches on my son's team makes the kids run a lap around the field after the game if she catches even one of them playing in the infield dirt during an inning. Four coaches on the team - three men and one woman.