Blast Ball!

We decided to put Adilyn in "softball" this fall. It was called Blast Ball, and in my mind, I pictured it to be just a low key, non-competitive version of t-ball. Then, one night the director called me and told me that they had absolutely no coaches, and pretty much begged me to coach. I agreed, and then she told me that I only had 3 girls on my team. I was a little confused, and then she began to explain the beautiful game of Blast Ball. Here's the short version of the rules - there are 3-5 girls on a team, they hit from a tee, and they run to 1st base. There are no other bases. The girls do not play "positions", they are just hanging out in the field. When they field the ball, they hold it up and yell "Blast!" Oh, and the best part, the base honks when they step on it. There is no score, no outs, and in my opinion, no purpose to the game! I am all for having fun, and teaching them a game in a "no pressure" situation, but this is a bit pointless. There are 2 and 1/2, 3, and 4 year olds playing. The games are supposed to last for 45 minutes, but we usually call them at 35 minutes or so.

Coaching has been much more difficult than I had thought. My biggest issue is dealing with Kacy. She always wants to grab the ball off the tee or stand on the base while other girls are trying to step on it. My 2nd biggest issue is figuring out how to deal with Adilyn when she doesn't listen to me or doesn't want to participate. One of the girls on my team gets nervous or tired sometimes, and when she doesn't want to come out, she just hangs out with her mom on the bench, no biggie. With Adilyn, I don't really know how to handle it. I don't yell at her because that never works on her, so I try to be positive. She says that she doesn't like it, but she seems to have okay fun when she is playing. When I ask her if she had fun, she says no, but when other people ask her, she says she likes it. Anyway, it's just difficult to coach these little ones. It's more of coaching them to emotionally handle the game and focus than anything else. They cry when they don't get to bat first, they cry when they don't get the ball, and they cry when they fall down in the dirt. It's a bit of a mess, entertaining, but a mess! We still have 5 weeks to play, so I hope she starts to like it a little more :)

Here are some pictures of my little BlastBaller!