Coaches for the Tarheels and Chiefs, two kindergarten ballclubs, assist their players by pitching, catching, and on-field directing during a game.
It seems every Little League baseball player only wants to do two things: hit and pitch.
But if coaches let every kid pitch who had the desire, games would probably never end. Particularly for the younger age groups.
So that is why I think the Coach Pitch leagues, for kindergarten through second grade, work great. That way, coaches don’t have to decide who to pitch, can be on the field to assist the young, inexperienced players, and, in a way, can participate in a game they love: baseball.
There probably are some kids in these three leagues that are capable of pitching from 45 ft away into the strike zone some of the time.
Maybe three or four?
That is the biggest reason why Coach Pitch works so well: all players have opportunities to hit decent pitching (or underhand tossing).
Another great rule is that there aren’t any strikeouts. Each kid gets the same opportunity to learn how to play a modified version of baseball before advancing to the true stages of Little League, without really getting disappointed.
And at the 3rd grade level and beyond, it ends up creating better levels of baseball for the town. The kids are taught how to play first, rather than being thrust into roles as regular ballplayers that they aren’t yet capable of handling.
So even though some of the participants of this modified game are sometimes sour that they don’t really get to imitate their favorite Major Leaguers, most couldn’t care less. They get to experience what it’s like to play baseball.
And for everyone at that age, the game of baseball is pretty darn fun.
