Who do you have cover 3b in this situation?

[02Crush]

Kids this age (10U and 12U), I think you keep 1B at first and do not rotate or "wheel" your infielders. Consider who is typically your 2B at this age. She is typically your weakest infielder. You definitely want to get the out at first if you are making the play there, and the percentage goes down when you have your weakest infielder covering that base on a bunt. As the girls get older, your second baseman will be good enough to cover successfully, but with younger kids I just don't think it's worth taking the chance that you don't get the out.

If you have to consider who your 2nd baseman is and you are worried about their ability to get the out you have two choices in TB. 1) Work hard with that player aside from practice to make them better. 2) Find a new 2nd baseman.
Even at it's lowest level of TB play you should be picking players who at least possess the ability to play well if given time and effort from their coaches. So as a coach there is not longer a place to hide players on the field. We cover 1sr from second and it has worked every time. We do not miss assignments on a bunt as it was something we worked extensively on in practice. Why....B/C at 10U PA SB Dad's statement is somewhat true. Coaches are still trying to "Hide" weaker players. It is also common that defending a bunt is not given too much time in practice. If you can use bunting as a strategy of the game it can be very successful whether you actually bunt or merely show it for a few pitches.

 

[02Crush]

@ Steve Huff as coach of a 10U TB Team we work defensive situations in a K.I.S.S. way. (keep it simple stupid) so we can slowly ease them into more details of the game as they grow.

**I will place the disclaimer on it that I never underestimate the learning potential of age 8-11 as it is amazing.**

We like word associations for our defensive situations.
If I ask a player to tell me what to do with a player on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out, they look at me as if I was an alien. But I ask what to do when we call Trick Pony (situation for runners on 3rd and 2nd) they tell me every detail. I do not understand it but if it continues to work we will do it. We call a bunt a lame duck. So when a hitter shows a bunt the infield yells Lame Duck and everyone moves into position to defend it, no matter the runner set. We defend it the same b/c our set up (as state in an earlier post) covers every bag. As they get older we will phase out of the word association but for now it works and is fun. And I will take anything that keeps it fun as long as I possibly can.

 

[PA SB Dad]

If you have to consider who your 2nd baseman is and you are worried about their ability to get the out you have two choices in TB. 1) Work hard with that player aside from practice to make them better. 2) Find a new 2nd baseman.

Oh please. I'm not saying that your 2B does not belong in the infield if she is weak. You just have to recognize that in 10U and 12U, if your second baseman is a better fielder than any of your other infielders, your 2B should be playing SS, 3B, or 1B!! Your 2B is usually the weakest infielder, and plays where they are covering 1B are lower percentage plays until the players get older and their gloves are more reliable.

 

[BB875]

If you have to consider who your 2nd baseman is and you are worried about their ability to get the out you have two choices in TB. 1) Work hard with that player aside from practice to make them better. 2) Find a new 2nd baseman.
Even at it's lowest level of TB play you should be picking players who at least possess the ability to play well if given time and effort from their coaches. So as a coach there is not longer a place to hide players on the field. We cover 1sr from second and it has worked every time. We do not miss assignments on a bunt as it was something we worked extensively on in practice. Why....B/C at 10U PA SB Dad's statement is somewhat true. Coaches are still trying to "Hide" weaker players. It is also common that defending a bunt is not given too much time in practice. If you can use bunting as a strategy of the game it can be very successful whether you actually bunt or merely show it for a few pitches.

Crush, Sometimes you have to work with what you have. A few years ago coaching 10U TB & I did the same thing. I had 2B cover the right side on a bunt and left my bigger, better receiving 1B back. My 2B was a pip-squeek & we were tore up on errors from the bunt. It worked great. Sometimes, I feel you have to adjust your coaching style to your players strengths. We live in a town of 25k people, and options are limited.

 

[Steve Huff]

@ Steve Huff as coach of a 10U TB Team we work defensive situations in a K.I.S.S. way. (keep it simple stupid) so we can slowly ease them into more details of the game as they grow. **I will place the disclaimer on it that I never underestimate the learning potential of age 8-11 as it is amazing.** We like word associations for our defensive situations.
If I ask a player to tell me what to do with a player on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out, they look at me as if I was an alien. But I ask what to do when we call Trick Pony (situation for runners on 3rd and 2nd) they tell me every detail. I do not understand it but if it continues to work we will do it. We call a bunt a lame duck. So when a hitter shows a bunt the infield yells Lame Duck and everyone moves into position to defend it, no matter the runner set. We defend it the same b/c our set up (as state in an earlier post) covers every bag. As they get older we will phase out of the word association but for now it works and is fun. And I will take anything that keeps it fun as long as I possibly can.

I love this post! And your ideas are terrific!

 

[Momo'sDad]

Sometimes you have to work with what you have.

That's what we do.

On my 10u TB team, 3B takes all bunts, unless they're in the catcher's domain. Obviously, bunts which travel too far (short hits) to P or 1B are fielded by those positions. If there's a runner coming from 3B, however, P might be in the best position to make the flip to C at the plate.

On my 10u rec team, we rotate positions frequently, but don't see many bunts at all.

 

[02Crush]

Oh please. I'm not saying that your 2B does not belong in the infield if she is weak. You just have to recognize that in 10U and 12U, if your second baseman is a better fielder than any of your other infielders, your 2B should be playing SS, 3B, or 1B!! Your 2B is usually the weakest infielder, and plays where they are covering 1B are lower percentage plays until the players get older and their gloves are more reliable.

I was not mocking your statement apologies if it was taken that way. I just have a difference of perspective. I personally do not view players as weaker or stronger. Nor do I devise a plan of defense around those said weaker players. We coach what we feel should be done. As a coach when we do this we are then assuming we should trend towards making a play somewhere else with another player instead of making play for the highest percentage out. I feel if I go down this path it will become evident with the players and they begin to avoid the perceived weaker players and further perpetuate the cycle. At this age I am committed to teaching while balancing being competitive so I take this perspective b/c I am not afraid of a player making a mistake as it is part of life. I am looking for what that player does after the mistake when they know we have confidence in them despite the error. All is good though as I understand your statement. I also understand that you have to work with what you have as well just as BB875 stated.

So far I have found that when we win it is b/c of proper execution on little things. Running these situations in practice allows us to learn what to do so when it happens we make the play whether a weaker player or not. Practice makes many better. We play for outs we can get so bunts that always lead to an out even if we leave a runner on third, making sure the girls know the outs in the inning and where the runners are at all times matter to us. We play for outs b/c who knows??? Maybe our pitcher will strike out the last batter and we never have to worry about the runner on 3rd b/c we got the easy out on the bunt at 1st and drew down to home to keep the runner from scoring on the bunt. We teach the players to live to play another play and focus on getting outs in this play rather than chasing runners around with the ball. Some of the post hear seemed to assume that we should teach kids to make a play for a base based on who is gonna field the ball...I think at a young age we should cover all bases and take up as much field space as possible. So we anticipate coverage rather than hesitating to see how something is playing out. I am certain this will change as we age but for now it is what we do.

 

[mad hornet]

I was surprised to see this discussion still going.

In the end, I could not agree to let our LF cover third in this situation, just felt too exposed with no one to back her up.

Shortly after I started this thread, I was coaching a 10u game against a pretty good team. They tried to bunt a runner from first to third. Our pitcher fielded the bunt, 3b ran back to cover the base, and sure enough here came that runner. Our 2b made the throw and we got the out. Played that team again later in the same tourament and they never tried that play again.

We did teach our kids that if 3b fields the bunt, pitcher is to cover third base.

 

[Lozza]

A little late, but how I've seen it teach (and this works very well) whoever doesn't field it out of 1st and 3rd takes third base. So if first base takes the bunt, then third base takes their base. If third base takes it, first base is going to first. If pitcher or catcher take it, third base takes the base.

 

[96Coach]

Catcher should cover third, SS should cover 2nd because 2nd may have to field the ball at first if First crashed on the Bunt. We have our girls throw back door on the girl rounding 2nd and throw to third if she was going to 3.

We have our 3b cover home as to keep our pitcher out of harms way. If that runner gets from second to Third then gets to home then there is a bigger problem that we have to address.

I don't like having my outfielders cover bases in that situation, they don't get a lot of practice in that situation or any base covering situations for that matter.

It truely makes since to teach the right way from the begining of our young daughters softball carrers. If we teach them one way in the begining and then change them later then they would have lost valueable experience at learning the right way.

96Coach