My son is also 9U for the fall. I would say the average kid swung a 27/17 this past spring. A few kids still had a 26 and a few of the bigger kids could handle the 28. I would guess the average bat at 9U is probably a 28/18 and it seems a vast majority swing a Cat 9. I think they're probably the best bat in terms of pop and durability. That said, composite bats are definitely hotter in the drop 10 USSSA space. The META is probably the top bat. Followed by the Demarini's, but these definitely have durability issues.

I've been looking at the Meta as well. Looks to be a great bat. I bought my son one of those cheap string king bats this spring in a 28/18 size. He swung the 28 without any problems at all. His Cat 9 is a 27 and it just seems way small for him now. Trying to decide on a 28 or 29 inch for his next bat.

aggielax48 said:

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My son is also 9U for the fall. I would say the average kid swung a 27/17 this past spring. A few kids still had a 26 and a few of the bigger kids could handle the 28. I would guess the average bat at 9U is probably a 28/18 and it seems a vast majority swing a Cat 9. I think they're probably the best bat in terms of pop and durability. That said, composite bats are definitely hotter in the drop 10 USSSA space. The META is probably the top bat. Followed by the Demarini's, but these definitely have durability issues.

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When we were 9u we averaged 27/17. 10u we averaged 28/18.

Our Select team has it pretty dialed in, but I see all kinds of crazy **** on the Rec team. We had one kid show up with a 31 inch bat.

Just got home from Omaha. Saw the Ags eliminate the Irish, Arky eliminate the Barners, and sadly the Ags get eliminated.

Also got to see my oldest in the 12U Omaha Slumpbuster. They went 5-3 winning 3, back-to-back-to-back yesterday to win the consolation bracket over the #7 12U team in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Stix. Had some ups & downs. We crushed a kid throwing 75 and got beat by a kid throwing 45mph sidearm with a curveball that started out behind the right-handed hitters. Hung with a team that has 3 kids who made the USA Baseball 12U National team until a 6'1" 190# kid hit a 300' grand slam after an error, a tailor-made double play ball hit the field ump in play, and a walk. My son got our only hit of the game and an RBI that denied the Braves Baseball Academy the #1 overall seed.

He hit .300 for the tournament with a 270' grand slam tank of his own, a couple XB hits, only 2 Ks, and 6 RBIs.

He also threw 3 no-hit innings with no ER and 1 BB vs. a team from Utah that had 4 kids over 6'. He didn't try to overpower them but was outstanding in locating his change and curve to keep them off balance. Only 2 Ks and they ran up his pitch count by fouling off a bunch but he did a tremendous job inducing weak ground balls. And he did get his Ks by changing their eye level with the off speed and blowing a high fastball past them.

Lots of fun this year and lots of improvement. Going to 13U in the fall will slow the game waaaaay down.

Also, one thing I noticed with a lot of these 12U major teams from other states- they're built to play gorilla ball. They try to get big, strong kids who have hit puberty to hit bombs and throw gas on 50/70 fields that are usually 220' at the corners and 250' in C.

But their collective baseball IQ and fundamentals in the field aren't that good. Lots of errors on what should be routine plays.

That lack of defensive fundamentals will bite them in their asses when they move up to bigger fields. Same for how they throw gas but don't have a secondary pitch. Going to a bigger field where power and throwing hard is mitigated and defense is at a premium.

I don't see that from most Houston or Texas teams. They tend to be more fundamentally sound.

I'm sitting in my car at the TTAB 10u open base district tournament because a thunderstorm has parked itself five miles to the south of the fields and is just sitting there. No rain here. We played 14 minutes and are supposed to play two tonight.

Want rain? Schedule a district tournament.

I wouldn't be complaining if it would actually rain. Apparently Salado and Academy are getting killed. Belton is dry

Did y'all end up playing last night? We are hosting 8u and 12u district tournaments and we were able to get all 6 of our games in last night. No rain but did see lightning way off on the distance as the last game finished up.

Nope. Finally called it at 7:30 for the night. We played 16 minutes.

Should be good to go tonight.

agsalaska said:

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Nope. Finally called it at 7:30 for the night. We played 16 minutes.

Should be good to go tonight.

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Did y'all end up playing?

We're effectively done with baseball until late-August or September but, crazy as it may sound there are tons of teams already doing tryouts for fall ball. Our oldest is also doing the A&M baseball camp later this month from the 21st-23rd. He has some old teammates who are headed into 6th grade at the camp right now.

Still playing. 10u summer ball baby!!

What a week. TTAB 10u District in Belton. We had the worst draw possible. 8 of the 11 teams here are loaded with Select players. We beat an undefeated 16-0 team from Temple in round one but burned two pitchers doing it. Got sent to the losers bracket in game two but are 3-0 there and play tonight for a chance to go to State.

Very, very, proud dad typing this. We actually came in 2nd in our division. My son lost the deciding game against a team in what was one of the better Rec league games I have ever watched. It was him vs their ace and their ace outdueled him. So when the All Star game came around their coaches coached it. Benched my son and wouldn't let him pitch, choosing instead to let his kids and summer pickup kids throw. My son was almost in tears, but that turned to rage and he told me in the car that he had one goal left this year and that was to knock the Pirates out of State.

We played them last night. He came in to pitch down 5-0. Threw 2 1/3 hot, sore, tired innings and shut them down. Had the game tying RBI and the go ahead run to win the game. He was smiling from ear to ear and still is this morning.

**last note** best thing we did for him was let him continue to play league. In the end he probably threw too many innings but the amount of fun he has had this week is immeasurable. The two best select Bell Co teams in 10u have 20 players between them and I think 18 also play in league. It does limit our weekend tournaments and sometimes kids can't pitch when we need them too and that's fine. But small town league ball is the best baseball in Texas IMHO.

Very nice. Congrats. We play tonight for 8u ttab championship district tournament. Two teams advance to state, so we are in regardless. Been a fun and stressful week for us. Monday and Tuesday we played great and couldn't be stopped. Got beat Wednesday on the last play of the game and had to win last night in the losers bracket to advance to the championship game tonight.

Pretty sure we were on the field next to you. That was us that mounted the comeback. I am the gray haired coach that had to silence a grandparent in the 1st inning.

Just finished up at the Myrtle Beach Nationals. Really nice fields and a great place for a destination tournament. Unfortunately we got our asses handed to us for the most part. I think it was an eye opener for a few of our boys and parents that they are not as good as they thought.

We lost in the Semi final last night of the TTAB 10u District. Two teams loaded with talented kids who battled til the last out. We hit the ball hard right at them and they hit the ball hard in the gaps. But, as the famous Ron Washington says, 'that's how baseball go.'

As far as the game went, I needed one more strike from my very talented, very tired, pitcher. We were up I think 5-4 and he had one on two out in the 4th inning and an 0-2 pitch. 7 pitches later he walked him. Then he hit the next batter and I pulled him. Next pitcher got their batter 1-2 and then grooved a belt high fastball that he hit over the fence for a grand slam.

Really proud of the team. Most rec kids in our league lay 12-13 games. Our boys played 25. They won a playoff game to qualify for district and made the semi finals of a select tournament. And the amount of growth and maturity they experienced is immeasurable.

My son has one more tournament. He was picked up by an 11u AAA team for a tournament next weekend in Dallas. Then it is, finally, over.

I'm from DeSoto and here to see family and celebrate the 4th…we live in Kansas City.

Went to see fields at Grimes Park where I grew up playing. These fields are significantly nicer than what we play on in Kansas.

Yes, we have sone turf fields and they are nice, but I've never seen grass on fields on 12U and below fields.

My boys had a blast hitting homers on smaller fields and then insisted on taking ground balls on grass infield.

That's cool.

There's a wide disparity in grass fields around Houston. It depends on who is responsible for maintaining them. If it's Harris county the fields are garbage. The fields at the Rothwood Park owned by Spring-Klein Youth Sports Association have always been in great shape. Lyndsay Lyons in Humble start out the season pretty good but by the end they're a mess too.

Awesome. Our home fields at Heritage Park in Belton are grass. Several years ago they went from the traditional dirt around the base paths to just sliding pits at the bases. Crossroads in Temple is grass with the traditional dirt like you have in those pictures. Both are great fields.

The best grass infields I have seen for youth baseball are the ones at the facility on Rock Prairie road in CS. We played a tournament there in 9u and those fields were perfect. I mean as good as any grass field I have ever been on. It was like they took Olsen Fields grass and shrunk it down to a youth sized field.

Next time my oldest steps foot on a field for his select team he'll be moved up to 13U where they go from 50/70 to 54/80 and most fields will be 300'.

It's a big change and I found this post from a couple experts on baseball training:
Performance Requirements in 12U vs. 13U baseball

The experts:

Quote:

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Gene Coleman is a S&C consultant for the Texas Rangers, Professor Emeritus in the Exercise and Health Sciences Program at the University of Houston Clear Lake and Website Education Manager baseballstrength.org. Jose Vazquez, PT, RSCC, is the Major League Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Texas Rangers.

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And a couple really interesting things to me:

Quote:

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Let's look at some of the things that an increase in distance can affect. According to Baseball USA, the average time from home to first base (70') for a 12-year old is 4.35 seconds or 16.1 fps. The average time for a 13-year old (80' bases) is 4.79 seconds or 16.7 fps. If you are an average 12-year old runner (16.1 fps) and don't get faster, you will reach 1B about 3 feet behind the average 13U runner. If you are a below average 12-year old runner, you will reach 1B 5-6 feet behind the average 13U runner.

Average fastball velocity for 12-year old pitchers is 55 mph. Average for 13-year olds is 60 mph (81 fps). It takes .62 seconds for a 55-mph fastball to travel the 50 feet between pitcher's mound and home plate. A 60-mph fastball (88 fps) travels 54 feet in about the same time (.62 seconds) so, there is not much of a difference for hitters or pitchers who can throw 60 mph. If, however, you continue to throw at 55 mph, it will take .68 seconds for your fastball to reach the plate. This .08 second difference does not seem like much, but a 60-mph fastball will reach home plate (54') approximately 5 feet sooner than a 55-mph fastball. Hitters are at an advantage when facing blow average pitchers because they have between 7 and 8% more time to determine if the slower pitch is a strike and start their swing.

The faster you throw, the less time that a hitter has to evaluate and react to your fastball. An above average 13-year old pitcher throws approximately 65 mph and the hitter has only 0.57 seconds to react. An outstanding pitcher throws 70 mph and the hitter has 0.53 seconds to react and an exceptional pitcher throws 75 mph and the hitter has to react in 0.46 seconds. Twelve-year old hitters have only 0.43 seconds to respond to faster maturing pitchers who throw 80 mph at 50 feet, and it doesn't get any better at 54 feet.

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I found it interesting that the average 12U pitcher only throws 55 because at 12U Major and AAA levels where we definitely see kids throwing in the 70's and even once a kid hit 80mph but that was definitely the exception. My son's team had one kid in the 70's and at least 4 in the 60's, including my son touching 67 at 11-years old. And we went like 24-20-1 this spring. We saw way more kids throwing mid-60's than we did mid-50's.

Quote:

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Data suggest that an average 12U player should be able to throw 175-feet. The average for a 13U player is 200-feet, 14% farther. Outfielders with below average arms and speed are going to find it harder to make throws and plays in the larger 13U outfields.

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I would like to see where those numbers come from. Most of my 9u kids throw low to mid 50's. I guess if you average all the 12 yr old league players then maybe it's the same?

We will be 10u next year, which we played mostly this season. They will make us play 11u at home(50x70) then will play 10u Major when we travel(46x65). I'm not as much worried about the field being bigger defensively, as I am the pitchers going back and forth between distances.

Any suggestions on how to practice this from those that have done it? Most of our tourneys will be 11u on bigger fields, except 3 or 4.

We did that this year…10U major team, played 11UAAA league and mostly 10U Major tourneys (we did have a couple 11U AA tourneys).

I would just practice everything at 11U. When you do play 10U, it seems easy and players will have success.

Biggest difference for 11U was timing fir the hitters…that extra 4 feet gives them more time than they are used to.

PhatMack19 said:

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I would like to see where those numbers come from. Most of my 9u kids throw low to mid 50's. I guess if you average all the 12 yr old league players then maybe it's the same?

We will be 10u next year, which we played mostly this season. They will make us play 11u at home(50x70) then will play 10u Major when we travel(46x65). I'm not as much worried about the field being bigger defensively, as I am the pitchers going back and forth between distances.

Any suggestions on how to practice this from those that have done it? Most of our tourneys will be 11u on bigger fields, except 3 or 4.

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I'd like to see that data too. But it probably does include all 12U kids, regardless of level of play.

I don't have a ton of suggestions for getting used to the bigger fields other than practicing at those distances. Also, if you're playing a lot on turf infields really drill the kids on how it's better to throw low and hard to get a hop to the target, say from 3rd to 1st or catcher to 2nd, than sail a throw. With the true hops on turf it's a lot faster play.

I went hunting to see if I could find data on pitching velocity by age and all the charts are really similar but there's no underlying data I can find.

https://www.topvelocity.net/baseball-pitching-velocity-chart/

How Fast The Average Pitcher Pitches By Age (this guy is a minor league pitcher in AAA at the moment)

http://www.youthpitching.com/velocity.html

https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2021/09/youth-baseball-player-development-velocity-aging-curves/

I also found this site talking about how hard kids were throwing in the LLWS and searching for some of the guys mentioned you see that a couple mentioned, Jarrett Tadlock from Pearland and Matt Wilkinson from Canada were guys throwing 74-76 in the LLWS when they were 12 (might have turned 13 by the time they played in the LLWS) but by the time they graduated HS and were looking to play in college they weren't the guys throwing mid-90s but mid/upper-80s. Which is good but unless you've got Greg Maddux-like command and off-speed/breaking stuff isn't getting you a roster spot at most collegiate programs as a pitcher.

http://switchpitching.blogspot.com/2012/12/fastball-velocity-how-fast-do-kids-throw.html

Jarrett Tadlock PG profile

Matt Wilkinson PG profile

This is probably the best resource for pitching speed:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4060312/

baseballaficionado said:

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This is probably the best resource for pitching speed:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4060312/

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I've seen that but I'm not sure a study from 26 years ago is all that valid anymore. 26 years ago the average MLB pitcher was 6'0" 175'ish and threw 89mph, today the average MLB pitcher is 6'3" 215'ish and throws over 93mph.

That doesn't happen without substantial increases at youth levels.

If that chart data were still valid today my son's team this past spring would have had at least 6 kids who were 3-4SD above the average for velocity and we were just a 24-20-1 12U AAA team.

We had an umpire fall out tonight from the heat and I pray that he is OK. I think he is. We were in Waxahachie off of 287.

The boys started playing Friday in a three day tournament with the same two umpires the entire time. The boys loved and most importantly respected them. So did the coaches. Parents were, well, parents. I have seen these guys around Waco before.

Second inning of the final today and the field umpire didn't come out of the 1b dugout. There was actually a pitch thrown before any of the grown men on the field realized it. As soon as they did the 'save the umpire from a major heat stroke' mission was on.

Scary, and for about ten minutes very, very serious. The other teams coaches, who shared the 1b dugout with blue, Immediately reacted and did what you do when you are ten feet from a heat stroke victim. Help from Waxahachie Fire and EMT responded in what seemed like an acceptable time and ultimately pulled him out of it with an IV. He did wave to the crowd to a standing ovation when he walked away from it about 45 minutes later. Prayers answered.

Interesting enough my son and his teammates and apparently none of the 10-12 year old boys on the field understood what was going on, even after moving all of them off the field and to the shade. That kind of surprised us when the game was over. I had to explain the entire thing to my boy on the way home.

Last-I know it was hot but we were right to play. Every boy in that tournament learned a lot about themselves this weekend, especially the ones that played thru Sunday afternoon. I am sure that umpire would agree with me even though he was the old man casualty that was bound to happen somewhere. I hope he is OK tomorrow and can spend some time in the AC.

We are in Early for the state 8u tournament and it is brutally hot out here. It was 108 at opening ceremonies yesterday evening. We played at 10am this morning and it was already miserable.

AgsAlaska


Hope the umpire is ok. Tough to go all day in this heat adding all that equipment to a body.

Messaged PT Sports this morning and they said he was recovering well which is great news.

We shared the dugout with them 4 of our 6 games and the boys loved them. They were the kind of umpires that engage the kids and make them laugh and, most importantly in my mind, command their respect because they are grown men, not because they are umpires. And they continuously said 'drink water, stay cool, cold rags boys, etc.'

Our 3b missed a tag on a stolen base and as parents go a couple of them were too loud in voicing their concerns. Inning ends on the next play and when everyone came into the dugout the umpire said 'Hey ____, are you gonna go tell your dad you missed the tag or just let him yell at me?' Every boy just broke out in laughter. He got on my son once too. He was the batter and the only one that thought their CF dropped the ball on a diving play. When the inning ended the the ump started asking his teammates one at a time as they took the field and they were all like, nope, nope, nope, he caught it. That next half inning there was another diving catch, this time by our team, and before making the call he looked at my son who was playing second and was like 'safe or out?' Again the boys laughed. This type of stuff went on for six games. Good stuff.

When I heard parents complaining about a few missed calls I couldn't help but laugh at how they were missing the bigger picture.

That's the best stuff I've read on this thread! Good bull

Just pulled into Crossroads in Temple for the 6u T-ball State Championship. It's 108. Let's go boys!!!

I do miss t ball. My son has a bunch of team mates who have little brothers playing tonight so here we are.