Thread: When do you know they are ready for select ball?

I have coached some girls for the last few years that I think should move on to select ball/travel ball. Their parents are pretty receptive to it, also. But how do you KNOW that a girl is ready?

I think you can approach it from another way. I tell parents to look at whether they truly feel their kid has acheived mastery at the level they are at or not. This applys to playing up an age in travel or moving up from Rec to travel.

If the girl is batting .400+ that would tell me that offensively they are ready to take on more challenging pitching.
If they are a pitcher and winning 80%+ of their games they are ready to face tougher batters
If they are a catcher and throwing runners out at a 80%+ clip they might be ready to try that against faster kids
In general if they are succeesful offensively and defensively signifigantly more than 50% of the time, this is an easy decision
In general if they are unsucceesful offensively and defensively signifigantly more than 50% of the time, this is an easy decision
If they are in the grey area then you can let other factors (friends, cost, fun, convenience) into the equation because it's probably not a bad decision either way to either wait one more year or try to push yourself to the next level.

What I see is often kids that were batting less than .250 at a lower level trying to move up and finding it hard to improve when your batting average drops to less than .100. Same goes for pitchers who weren't successful at the lower level finding a whole new level of failure.

At the 10U/12U age I think its mostly the willingness of the girls and the families to commit to practicing and playing. At these younger age groups if the girls want to play/practice softball all day everyday, do winter workouts, go to outside clinics, and they have support from their family they are ready. I'm not sure what travel options there are near you but depending where you live there can be another range of levels even within travel/ select ball. Some more competitive than others. They need to find the right fit for them where they will get to play and learn. The "best" travel teams are not always the best fit for some players.

I really liked the way my dd's rec ball team's coach approached it.The coach saw a majority of the girls appeared to be ready. And he entered the team into a few tournaments to see how it went. It was apparent right away who took to the increased level of competition, and who wasn't ready. This coach decided the next season to only play comp ball. If you're lucky enough to have a coach do that, I think that might be the best, hopefully keeping a group of the core players. However, your coach might not be up for that, and I would suggest trying to guest for some solid C teams. There should be a message board for your region, with lots of tryout posting, and what not. If not, just get your name out there to some coaches and ask to guest for their teams. There are always girls who are injured, or on vacation, or whatever, that can't attend a game, or weekend tourney. But most importantly... I think you REALLY need to take your parent glasses off, and be objective. If you guest or tryout, make sure you get good constructive feedback from the coaches.

well, ACTUALLY, I AM the coach...
We play rec ball, but I decided this past winter that the team needed to play some tournaments, so I am signing them up for a few. I really think the majority of the girls on the team are VERY good ball players, but the girls didn't want to split up just yet...I second-guessed myself last night when another coach scoffed at the idea, that's all...

Snocatz..what you said made sense to me. Of 11 players, 6 had batting averages over .650! It was just too easy for them. And my catcher was throwing girls out trying to steal like it was crazy!! I just think they need to be challenged and to see what level they need to be playing at...

Sorry Slugger, but I can't agree with you on your insight. I never played ball until I was 12, at which time I tried out for a little league baseball team because I thought the pitcher was cute. I was the only girl in the league, ended up playing third, went to playoffs, and I got the Brooks Robinson Golden Glove Award....but the boy got away....
my point is this...anyone can learn, but some can learn REALLY fast!!

Thanks for the insight!!

I just think you are shortchanging kids out there by putting a "you better have started playing by THIS age" asterisk on the game...

I agree with stephanie and completely disagree with sluggers.

My DD never touched a softball, baseball, glove or any type of bat until she was 11. She is now 14 and a starting pitcher on her 16U ASA team. The team she is on is considered in the top 10 16U teams in our part of the state.

It may be true that girls that start after 10 years old have a lot of learning to do in a short amount of time, it is NOT true that unless she starts playing softball before age 10 she has no chance of success.

Coach-n-Dad;

Unfortunately the "my DD was ready for travel ball straight from the womb, she would never lower herself to play rec ball" comments are pretty common on this and other sites. If Larry Nelson could come back from Vietnam as a 22 year old and become a millionaire professional golfer, then it shouldn't surprise anyone that a 10 or 11 year old with desire and basic coordination can become a successful travel ball, college, or professional player. It's all about the internal motivation of the player and the support system that doesn't keep telling her "you'll never be anything but a rec league player, you started too late."

Stephanie:

Good thing you didn't bring up the subject of pitching; otherwise you would have been told that if your 12U pitcher doesn't throw 60 MPH you shouuld find her another position. Best of luck to your girls - sounds like they are very lucky to have such a committed coach...