10U C specific - what are your league rules on stealing?
Our league has a decent size 10U C level cohort. Our town alone has 3 teams that are C teams. Because there's no real "rec" league, it's still considered travel but it's very much rec-level skill and competition. There are A and B teams that are more classic travel style teams. I coach one of the C teams. Some players have experience and can play well, others are just starting softball, and the way our league rules allow stealing is turning the entire 10U C cohort into a real bush league version of the game. I have a kid that hopes to keep playing as she gets older and I've started to feel like this version of 10U is a waste of time for the kids that will keep playing. Every game is won or lost on steals on passed balls at the plate or steals on an overthrow. That's still happening frequently at this age as they are working on their skills, and we're capped at 5 runs per half inning. For example, we saw a 10U C game the other day where the scoreboard was 15 - 5, and the winning team had literally one hit the entire game and their pitcher was pretty good, so fewer steals on passed balls from the other team. There's almost no hitting and no fielding happening, just baserunning. Obviously baserunning is a hugely important skill, but as these girls get older and there are fewer overthrows and the pitchers and catchers are better, they're going to have to hit the ball and field it. Coaches know they can just win by walks and steals, so they sometimes don't even have their hitters swing, just take the walk and steal second immediately, and then wait for a passed ball to keep stealing. I'm just curious if any other leagues have adopted some kind of limit on stealing, especially stealing home on a passed ball. Our baseball league only allows one steal per pitch and they can't steal home at this age. I'm not sure why we couldn't adopt similar parameters for this age so that we can focus more on the skills that will last as they get older. Coaches at the 12U level are saying the same thing, because when they get the 10U players that age up, they are seeing the skill gaps. What are other leagues doing?