Truly Love Softball?

Focus: Teenage softball players

What weight should be given to how much a player "truly loves softball" in tryouts or in determining who plays and who doesn't (travelball or high school ball or rec-ball)?

Should a player's true love of the sport to be based on their willingness to completely walk away from a non-sport social life? Is it not possible to love softball and, at the same time, value a non-sport social life too?
Is it a can of worms to attempt to judge a player's love of the sport?
What would be a good balance between non-sport social life and commitment/dedication to softball? I'm speaking non-college ball here.

You see, I think we can focus too much on judging players' "love of the game," even to the point of veering further away from the team's overall performance.

Doug Romrell said:

What weight should be given to how much a player "truly loves softball" (travelball or high school ball or rec-ball)?

Click to expand...

Not sure I understand the question.

What weight should be given to a player's love of the game in deciding what? What would this assessment of 'love of the game' be used for? Whether they are leading a healthy lifestyle?

I think it is a can of worms and it is difficult to judge. I do know, especially at younger ages, that the players abilities has nothing to do with their love of the game. A lot of time the players busting their butts and missing social activities are the weaker players that love the game.

CoogansBluff said:

Not sure I understand the question.

What weight should be given to a player's love of the game in deciding what? What would this assessment of 'love of the game' be used for? Whether they are leading a healthy lifestyle?

Click to expand...

I modified the question.

Should a coach simply cut a player because he/she (the coach) doesn't think the player loves the sport enough? Isn't it a can of worms to put too much weight of whether or not a player "loves" the sport?

What comes to mind are those situations when you hear someone say, "Oh, she didn't love softball enough." What the #(*))@ does that mean?

Hypothetical:

"Who's here because they LOVE softball???"
"Who's willing to put aside their social life for softball???"

"Suzie, You didn't raise your hand fast enough. I don't think you love softball enough. Go on home now. Why did you come in the first place?"
"Now line up over there with your gloves. Let's see who can catch the ball."

Doug Romrell said:

Hypothetical:

"Who's here because they LOVE softball???"
"Who's willing to put aside their social life for softball???"

"

Click to expand...

There are a great many girls who love the game for the social aspect of it, even at the HS, college, and yes, PRO level. Softball is part of the player's social life, not an exception to it.



Try to explain to me how the love of the game can preclude a girl from having a social life, without sounding extreme.

Coaches, parents and players have to do a balancing act between softball, school and social life and the balance becomes more difficult as the player gets older. One of the reasons 16U teams carry more players than 10U, 12U and 14U is that high school, prom, ACT/SAT, Spring Break, and other things conflict with softball.

Everyone plays for different reasons. Some good, some not so good. IMO the worst reason is to pay for college. My DD enjoys the game but loves to compete. She happens to be very good at softball which provides her with the opportunity to compete.

To Doug's point it is all about priorities. If you are going to play at a high level you must be willing to put aside some social activities. Along with properly aligned priorities, time management is very important. I have a 18U showcase team and players know that I will not accept "homework" as an excuse more than once or twice for missing practice. If you cannot handle softball and academics in High School, there is no hope for you to succeed in both at the college level.

JAD makes a good point! Just because a 15-18-year-old wants to do a few more things than a 10-12-year-old might, it doesn't mean they don't love softball enough.

I think it's a huge can of worms to focus too much on assessing whether or not a girl loves softball enough.

Further, I think it is wrong to conclude that a girl doesn't love the game enough if she has chosen to not pursue college softball.


Look.... My point here is that it is a very simplistic, problematic view to base your assessment of a player solely on your subjective assessment of the player's "love of the game."

In order for a player to truly love softball, they must first truly love themselves.