Ut oh, practice game cancelled at last minute. What to do?

[baseballdad]

I had arranged for a practice game between our team and another minor league team (ages 7-10) on Sunday before the start of our fall ball season next week. I told my players and parents about it at the last practice.

Last night I called the other coach to confirm details and he informed me that he couldn't get enough of his players out due to schedule conflicts. So now I have a choice of cancelling the game or coming up with an alternative. I was really impressed that we had 100% committment (even with our Saturday practice) from my players for the game so I know they are excited to play a game and I hate to cancel. It is also my first chance to have all the parents together at once.

I have a last minute email out to the other coaches to see if I can get a substitute team but at this short notice not sure if one will offer to play us.

I want to come up with something that gives the kids a practice game but also has something for the parents. I am thinking of doing some kind of a parent/kid game. I was thinking that the kids could be one team and pitch to the parents. The parents would be the other team but I would have the kids from our team pitch and catch to both teams so the kids hit kid pitch. Maybe have parents switch hit or something like that. I was also considering starting off with a batting clinic since we haven't done that yet and kids love hitting.

Any ideas on alternatives for the parents and kids or making a parents/kid game work? I know there was a thread on parent/kid games not too long ago but I couldn't find it in the search mode.

[LAball]

Kid parent game sounds great, just dont let the parents blast the ball.

[Maxx]

How many kids are on the team? Do you have enough to do a an intra-squad scrimmage? Even if you only have 15-16, you can still do it by putting the kids who made the last outs into the field for the other team. If you've got enough for 2 teams, have them wear different colors and make it competitive. When you intra-squad, you can also set up certain situations like starting off an inning with runners on certain bases.

[baseballdad]

We only have 12 players on the team. I decided to keep them all together as a team rather than split them up witha dults in the outfield- an option I considered. I was going to have the coaches coach the kids not play.

Yes I will have be careful adults don't hit the ball too hard.

[mudvnine]

How many kids are on the team? Do you have enough to do a an intra-squad scrimmage? Even if you only have 15-16, you can still do it by putting the kids who made the last outs into the field for the other team. If you've got enough for 2 teams, have them wear different colors and make it competitive. When you intra-squad, you can also set up certain situations like starting off an inning with runners on certain bases.

If you have 12 -16 (not enough for 2 teams), you can divide them up into three teams, with two teams in the field and one at bat and keep score that way.

Obviously, depending on the number, you may have to be creative by making a particular outfield "foul" if the numbers are small (6 or 7 on defense, with a coach pitching), or if you have an odd number, assign a catcher for a few innings and then change him out with someone else later, so he can hit to balance out the numbers . . . if you have 11 or more kids show up, there are many things you can do to get a scrimmage in, even with that limited amount of players.

Good luck,
Mud

[Maxx]

If you have 12 -16 (not enough for 2 teams), you can divide them up into three teams, with two teams in the field and one at bat and keep score that way.



Yeah, this is another good idea that I've used with success. I like this idea much better than using parents. Even with a team of 12, you have 3 teams of 4 and you could use a parent or older brother to fill in in the OF. Kids get lots of at-bats this way. Thanks Mud.

[shake-n-bake]

Three teams works, like has been said. The parents / kids game is tolerable at the end of the year in conjunction with a team party. Other than that, the lack of competitiveness isn't good practice - not for two hours. The parents would probably have a lot of fun, but not all the kids would go into it thinking it was going to be much fun. Because of the lack of serious work on skills (as opposed to practice) and the lack of competition, my son would skip it and ask if we could go fishing, play some golf, or hang out and eat nachos and watch football - maybe even want to hit another field and practice on our own instead. He certainly wouldn't want parents switch hitting.

[callyjr]

we do the kids/parents games on Sundays when the sun comes out in late winter. its fun to get the kids out and they love it. last couple years we would give them 6 outs per inning. Not sure how this year will be though as they are getting older.

[baseballdad]

We use the 8/4 split in practice to simulate game conditions. I had one week to get the kids ready for the opener this week and we managed to fit in 3 practices. I wanted today our last get together before our first game) to be something different. Here are a few things well be doing. I'm going to have a coach on 2nd to receive throws from the catcher so the kids can steal. Our pitchers and catchers will play for both teams so that batters get a kid pitch to practice with.

[Ursa Major]

I'm surprised that for this age group and the nature of the league (fall ball) that the other coach didn't suggest just having whichever kids on his team who could make it come anyway and then mix them into your team. Why shouldn't they have a chance to practice before the season started? And, I think it's good to have a bit of camaraderie developed between teams anyway -- they're probably friends anyway.

The 8 vs. 4 three-way games are good ways to keep the team sharp and instill more competitiveness on defense than you'd get in batting practice alone. But I wouldn't do it for more than an hour at that age. They probably should do some drills for the other part of practice.

[baseballdad]

I'm surprised that for this age group and the nature of the league (fall ball) that the other coach didn't suggest just having whichever kids on his team who could make it come anyway and then mix them into your team. Why shouldn't they have a chance to practice before the season started? And, I think it's good to have a bit of camaraderie developed between teams anyway -- they're probably friends anyway.

The 8 vs. 4 three-way games are good ways to keep the team sharp and instill more competitiveness on defense than you'd get in batting practice alone. But I wouldn't do it for more than an hour at that age. They probably should do some drills for the other part of practice.

I guess we didn't explore that option of mixing the teams. I'm not sure that would have addressed my goals but it would have been fun. We usually do a situational game practice like the 8/4 split towards the end of practice for about 30 minutes.