a rec coach decided...player contracts

[peter.kottke]

If you want to increase attendance, you need a carrot or a stick (a contract without consequences is unlikely to change behavior). Punishing kids in a rec league for missing practice is probably not right and might be against league rules. So what’s the carrot for parents and players who aren’t motivated y better player and team performance (or don’t believe that attendance at practice changes those)? By 12u stickers and candy don’t motivate them much. Coach might have to play everyone, but batting order and time in desired position are under his control. Reward attendance with those. For example: players who made all practices on time since the last game choose where they bat and where they play (at least some innings) as they arrive to warmups. Direct and transparent link between game playing opportunities and practice attendance and being on time.


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[RADcatcher]

My response to this conundrum is
Thankfully we have options.
Rec or travel.
Unfortunately one is greatly more expensive than the other.

Considering how much travel ball has developed with teams doing Speed/agility and indoor hitting.
Has turned into a much larger commitment than even what travel ball used to be.
However,
The city League hasn't changed to grow from its own conception enough to be slightly comparable anymore. Players are not developing in city league
to be able to transition to travel at 14, 15 yrs old. So people are starting travel at much younger ages. Leaving less participants and the league dissipates.


My suggestion is that the city league needs to step up a little bit more in their standards to help close the gap between City League and travel.
____________________
I applaud the effort of a volunteer coach who is trying to do something to make it better.

 

[4Martini]

I dislike the term contract for this if it’s not going to be enforced. As a rule follower I really dislike when rules are created and not enforced.

I think calling it Rules for success or Path to success on the team and laying it out would be more appropriate.

Letting parents and kids know how to succeed is important and many don’t know how- creating a contract that isn’t enforced seems to be giving away more power than it creates.

My daughter played rec through 12u and they had regular practices and optional practices. Most of the kids on her team are freshman now and there is a very strong correlation between kids performing well in high school and kids who showed up for optional practices. But some kids just wanted it more and luckily her coaches gave an option for those kids. (One of the parent coaches was a D1 coach in a different sport- so we got really lucky)

 

[Sonerai]

My response to this conundrum is
Thankfully we have options.
Rec or travel.
Unfortunately one is greatly more expensive than the other.

Considering how much travel ball has developed with teams doing Speed/agility and indoor hitting.
Has turned into a much larger commitment than even what travel ball used to be.
But
The city League hasn't changed to grow from its own conception enough to be slightly comparable anymore. Players are not developing in city league
to be able to transition to travel at 14, 15 yrs old. So people are starting travel at much younger ages.

But what does that mean for the city League people/participants?
My suggestion is that the city league needs to step up a little bit more in their standards to help close the gap between City League and travel.
____________________
I applaud the effort of a volunteer coach who is trying to do something to make it better.

I think this where select or all stars comes into play. For those that want to develop more and play at a higher level. Rec/City leagues need this type of program. These programs can have clear rules around attendance and behavior. It's a nice middle ground between Rec and Travel. I know it helped my DD (and our family) prepare the the rigors and commitment of travel ball.

 

[RADcatcher]

I dislike the term contract for this if it’s not going to be enforced. As a rule follower I really dislike when rules are created and not enforced.

I think calling it Rules for success or Path to success on the team and laying it out would be more appropriate.

Letting parents and kids know how to succeed is important and many don’t know how- creating a contract that isn’t enforced seems to be giving away more power than it creates.

My daughter played rec through 12u and they had regular practices and optional practices. Most of the kids on her team are freshman now and there is a very strong correlation between kids performing well in high school and kids who showed up for optional practices. But some kids just wanted it more and luckily her coaches gave an option for those kids. (One of the parent coaches was a D1 coach in a different sport- so we got really lucky)

Understand your comments about applying rules. Still this is a situation that is working within the league rules.

Good points about verbiage!
Path to success

Strong correlation between kids performing well and showing up

 

[RADcatcher]

Brief Google search - contract for youth leagues - came up with this.

Youth Baseball Player Contract [Sample]

A player contract is important to put rules in writing and have evidence that a player has read and understands them. Here's a sample...

spiderselite.com

 

[stox]

I echo the suggestion of holding additional optional practices, even if it's just meeting up at the batting cages.

Dedicated players will attend, get extra attention, and develop, the ones that don't will quit softball sometime during 10u.

If you have to suffer from extra strikeouts due to players just "trying" the sport then so be it. Winning in rec doesn't matter.

Provide the coaching and attention to the girls that want it, set them up for success in the next level if they choose to pursue it.

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[CoachCeetar]

Intentions may be good, but I'm not a fan of the process chosen. Rec ball is called recreation for a reason. At some point in time, those that are more interested in competitive ball will switch over to travel ball. That is the primary reason my daughter switched. She enjoyed rec ball because she had the opportunity to play with her closest friends. She eventually realized that most of them did not share the same amount of desire in the sport, so she moved on, and developed new friendships in the process while still remaining friends (outside of softball) with the others.

the rules of what rec and travel ball are are not written in stone and some immutable truth though. There exists kids, and I'd argue many, that want a little more serious softball experience but don't want or can't manage what's required for the more serious competitive travel ball stuff. (Here, travel is really just rec it just means we keep playing into the summer)

Do kids not have the same desire for the sport, or do they simply desire other things more (or do their parents) and don't want to potentially give up other things in their life, at 11? Summer vacations, other sports or activities, etc. It seems to me sports goes from like 10%-110% real fast and too early.

there's no good/easy answer for this of course, but taking rec a little more seriously and trying to get as many kids to commit to at least a practice/game schedule and show up is a big first step.

 

[Vertigo]

the rules of what rec and travel ball are are not written in stone and some immutable truth though. There exists kids, and I'd argue many, that want a little more serious softball experience but don't want or can't manage what's required for the more serious competitive travel ball stuff. (Here, travel is really just rec it just means we keep playing into the summer)

Do kids not have the same desire for the sport, or do they simply desire other things more (or do their parents) and don't want to potentially give up other things in their life, at 11? Summer vacations, other sports or activities, etc. It seems to me sports goes from like 10%-110% real fast and too early.

there's no good/easy answer for this of course, but taking rec a little more seriously and trying to get as many kids to commit to at least a practice/game schedule and show up is a big first step.

This was one of the reasons we had a “travel lite” program loosely affiliated with our LL - and by loosely, I mean the players on this team had to all come from our LL. We had our own BOD, team fees (maybe $250?), and did about 5-6 local tournaments between the fall and spring seasons with a couple of friendlies sprinkled in. In this program we did have a list of “expectations” regarding practice, playing time, etc. that parents were made aware of this when kids were offered a spot.

It was specifically for the rec players who wanted more than what rec could offer (they still had to play rec, though) but weren’t ready for a true travel team. It worked out very well for us, we were able to field a 10U, an 11U, and a 12U team every year.

 

[daywalkerdad]

I think most of this for the parents.
The thing to emphasize is work outside of practice. You can teach the game in practice but skills need individual work.
If you have 2 kids that cannot catch it is my opinion they would need to practice 100 hrs together to get 5-10 hours of equivalent work with an adult or a player that can catch.
Unless you think you need to work on chasing down bad throws.