Competitive Rec Ball

Our LL is structured T-Ball (combination tee and coach pitch), Farm for
7-8 year olds (combination kid pitch/coach pitch - no walks), Minors for
9-10 year olds (all kid pitch), Majors for 11-12 year olds, and then Pony.
Based on ability, kids can play up (1 year in age only).

T-Ball is instructional, Farm is supposed to be instructional but is actually
quite competitive. Minors is even more competitive.

The trouble I personally have with the recreational/competitive distinction
is that baseball is a sport, so by it's very nature is competitive. Fishing
is a recreation, boating is a recreation ... baseball is competitive. No matter
how hard you try to convince your kids that the score doesn't matter (as in
our Farm league where team standings are not kept), they still want to
know who is ahead and which team won. Kids are naturally competitive
when it comes to sports.

I think what it comes down to is the coaches and how they approach the
game. They need to set the example, I always try to make the game
fun for the entire team. We practice hard, play the games hard and fair,
learn from our mistakes and at all times have lots of fun. I try to
emphasize that while we are competing against another team, we are
trying to best our play from the prior game as a team and indivdually.
I try to set my game plan the night before a game and I very rarely vary
from it, I will not win a game at the expense of one of my players. There
were a couple of times this season that I know we could have won a game
but I would have had to drastically altered what I had set.

Some coaches are way to competitive for the age group they are coaching.
And then you get the coaches that do consider it recreational and the kids
aren't challanged enough and don't really learn much or advance in their
skills. Wish I had the magic bullet to offer, but I do not.