The State of Softball with Sue Enquist (Jan. 15, 2015)

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Mar 23, 2014
621
18
SoCal
Thank you for posting.....
I am not surprised in the decline. When eldest played, opening day ceremonies has field packed going into the outfield with young ladies. We had a 6U, 7U, 8U, 10U, 11U, 12U, 14U and 16U divisions. Now, we have 6U, 8U, 10U, 12U and 16U. The ladies barely fill the infield.

I complete agree with their findings on reasons for decline..... experience and lack of quality coaching. Especially, in a sport where people are making decisions about a players future abilities at 8. Let's not even add in the politics.
Ill also add that the entry cost is higher than other sports.
 
Jan 24, 2009
617
18
I also have found little difference in costs for sports.

It's the entry "gate fees" that are the suck! Younger siblings are being left at home because of the per-person bull$ hit at the gate. Those younger siblings are not coming thru the gates, seeing the action and getting drawn into the sport like they used to and this contributes to the attrition.

(Off topic and on topic at the same time. )
 
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Mar 23, 2014
621
18
SoCal
DD has played soccer, softball and volleyball. Softball cost are greater....
Registration cost alone are more.
Then factor equipment: both soccer and softball require cleats and a uniform so that's null.
Now add a glove, batting gloves, helmet and a bat - compared to shin guards.
I'm not talking about high level competitive; just run of the mill rec league/local at the 6-12 ages.

Maybe in your neck of the woods all sports cost the same but not in mine.
Oh, and dear I mention field accessibility to just play around. MLB noticed a significant drop in inner city participation of BB dur to cost and field accessibility.
 
Jun 29, 2013
589
18
Just an educated guess: would the same reports show that the number of kids in travel ball, tournament ball, AAU, or any other advanced level is also growing? There are significantly reduced numbers for the rec programs around me, but there are dozens of travel ball teams that I don't remember hearing about a few years ago. I think cost is a huge factor for some, and the fact that when so much talent isn't playing at the rec level it diminishes the experience for the ones who are there. It's the law of unintended consequences in a way; the more advanced the sport becomes, fewer people have any interest in trying to learn it as it seems impossible to keep up with the kids who are already playing.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
Just an educated guess: would the same reports show that the number of kids in travel ball, tournament ball, AAU, or any other advanced level is also growing? There are significantly reduced numbers for the rec programs around me, but there are dozens of travel ball teams that I don't remember hearing about a few years ago. I think cost is a huge factor for some, and the fact that when so much talent isn't playing at the rec level it diminishes the experience for the ones who are there. It's the law of unintended consequences in a way; the more advanced the sport becomes, fewer people have any interest in trying to learn it as it seems impossible to keep up with the kids who are already playing.

That's an interesting thought. Just curious how travel ball works at the lower levels in your area. In my area, the players typically start in rec. They play 2 or 3 years of rec on average and then either move to travel ball or away from softball to other sports. Do you have players that immediately start in travel ball bypassing rec altogether?

In general, the experience here is similar to 1bucketmom. While my DD was at the rec level, our school district had 3 teams at 10u and 3 teams at 12u. Now they have 2 at 10u and 1 at 12u. Travel ball has expanded some at the lower levels, but not enough to equal out the combined totals. 14u has the most travel ball teams locally, but that is because rec is virtually non-existent in that age category (hear at least) and most schools locally do not have a junior high program. So if the typical 7th or 8th grade girls wants to play softball, her only choice is travel ball. Many choose other sports for those two years and then never return to softball when high school starts.
 
May 7, 2008
8,506
48
Tucson
It would be difficult to find a rec league for a 14 yo around here. A few years ago, there were a handful. But, softball is difficult for a 5yo. They can play soccer very successfully and cheaply at 5. So, they may not play anything else. There are also the annoyances at ASA tournaments, where you can't bring in your own water. I don't know if i can bring my water to soccer, swimming and volleyball. But, I can to gymnastics.

The young girls are just not being coached, here. They are being supervised. I had an 11 yo catcher come to her first lesson, yesterday. She will be in LL majors. She can't throw. She may be among the worst. And at 11, when you have done something funky for 3 years, that is hard to change. Then, her glove was too small. So, she needs a glove and a mitt. Mom said "We just spent $100.00 on her catching gear." Yep. I know.

Then, the parent heads to Walmart for a bat for a ten year old and buys something that is 34 inches long and a drop 8. So, the little girl is already headed toward failure.

I saw a dad throwing to his 8 ish yo DD, the other night. Kudos to him for trying, but he was tossing the ball verrrry slowly and she was attempting a basket catch. I learned to catch, by playing every day. That is another thing that is missing. Two little kids can take an $8.00 soccer ball and go play in the yard. With softball, they might break a window. :)
 
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Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
I think what we are going to see is a gradual reduction in sports participation across the board. The reason is the successive generations seem to be less interested in getting their kids to participate in sports. They are more tech oriented. There seems to be a glut of unknowing parents who don't want to let their children compete so they avoid sports. Or they start their own team so their children do not have to compete.

There has also been the proliferation of other sports that are thinning out available players. Soccer is becoming bigger in my area. The introduction of Lacrosse is starting to come on. And I think park districts are seeing that Lacrosse and soccer are cheap for them to offer. No specific fields to build. Line an empty field and buy some goals. Very inexpensive from an administration point.

Sue touched on poor coaching as one of the reasons kids leave. There are a lot of experienced coaches who are driven from the game by crazy parents. That leaves untrained parents to fill the void.

This is the 1st year in 11 years that I'm not coaching a team. The funny part is, I've come to the realization... I'm not missing it yet!!!
 
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Jun 29, 2013
589
18
That's an interesting thought. Just curious how travel ball works at the lower levels in your area. In my area, the players typically start in rec. They play 2 or 3 years of rec on average and then either move to travel ball or away from softball to other sports. Do you have players that immediately start in travel ball bypassing rec altogether?

In general, the experience here is similar to 1bucketmom. While my DD was at the rec level, our school district had 3 teams at 10u and 3 teams at 12u. Now they have 2 at 10u and 1 at 12u. Travel ball has expanded some at the lower levels, but not enough to equal out the combined totals. 14u has the most travel ball teams locally, but that is because rec is virtually non-existent in that age category (hear at least) and most schools locally do not have a junior high program. So if the typical 7th or 8th grade girls wants to play softball, her only choice is travel ball. Many choose other sports for those two years and then never return to softball when high school starts.
I don't know of any players who bypassed rec ball altogether, but the difference I see is most girls would play rec through 12u, then if they were still interested move on to travel ball at 13. The rec leagues did well through 16U, relatively speaking (enough where 8 teams were in the league in a combined 14u/16u league just a few years ago.) Now, we're lucky if we can field 6 teams at the upper level, and 12U was down to only 8 teams last year. We used to have 2 All Star teams at the 12U level, but only had enough talent for one last year. While all this is going on, the number of travel teams for 12U have exploded, and there are quite a few 10U travel teams locally.
 

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