Becoming a better hitter for Varsity

[CrazyNani]

My granddaughter started playing in 2019, 2nd yr of 12u. Obviously it has been an uphill battle for her. This year, she played every inning of every game of her JV season as a Freshman. The school has only 2 teams, JV and Varsity. She had a great year, her best and most consistent ever. So, she just got called up to Varsity for the remainder of the season and post-season. Although she was successful at the plate, I can see where she needs to improve. Obviously some of her success was due to sub par pitching and defense and some luck. My question is, with this move up, what is the most important thing for her to work on in terms of her hitting? I have followed the Varsity team's season. The opposing pitching has been tough. Should she work on hitting faster pitching, being more aggressive as she will see more consistent strikes or will the different pitches she'll see be most problematical. I'm not sure how she'll get practice against live pitching because she doesn't plan on playing TB this summer. How best can she prepare for next Spring so she can compete for a starting position with decent offensive numbers?

 

[flash277]

I don't think she's gonna play much, probably not at all, for varsity this year. Those promotions from JV are kind of a reward for having a good year, to see how varsity is and be part of a playoff run. As for being a better hitter, go get lessons and set up a tee and net at home for hitting. Swing, swing, and swing some more. Although not playing TB. it may be hard to keep her motivated for something that's not gonna happen for 10 more months. After DD's junior season on varsity, she did not play summer TB, or this past fall TB, while she's on varsity this year, I can see all that time off affected her game, and not in a good way. She's not playing in college, so it's all good.

 

[CrazyNani]

Yeah, we’re not expecting that she’ll play this year although the coach has put her other freshman in, in blowouts which the team has had a few in their favor. Anyway, we’re just wanting to get her ready for next year so she can be a starter. She’s CF, speedy so, that works in her favor a bit too. Thanks.

 

[radness]

Do you happen to know how many others on Varsity play travel ball?

 

[DonnyS]

For hitting, IMHO there is no substitute for facing live pitching against good pitchers.

Best advice is to play travel ball. Short of that, see if she can at least practice with a TB team periodically? (Not sure I've ever heard of that happening on a regular basis). After that, reps on her own...tee work, front toss etc. plus working on ground balls/flyballs/throwing. Don't come into the season having taken 9+ months off of fundamental skills.

Reference point: my DD is also a freshman on varsity. There is a massive difference between kids that play TB and those that do not, and a somewhat smaller difference between those that play on good TB teams and those that play on average or poor TB teams. Not just her team, but league wide.

Someone on here I believe described HS softball as rec ball with more enthusiasm. I read that before this HS season, but that has been our exact experience during DD first HS season. We've had to adjust our expectations multiple times. Candidly, we can't wait for TB to start again. LOL!

 

[CrazyNani]

Do you happen to know how many others on Varsity play travel ball?

I'm guessing, practically all. Some sophomores were on her Fall team last year and are continuing on with it for Summer. She decided not to go out for the team at the end of Fall. She wanted a break and some of that, I think, was the coaching. She played basketball in Winter and her success with it made her want to play softball again. But, she's somewhat adamant about not playing TB. We're definitely worried that it could affect her skills. Oddly, the Varsity coach has an 18u Travel team in the same organization that my granddaughter was playing for in 16u. I was hoping she could entice her to play again. We'll see. My granddaughter responds when she thinks she's valued. It helps her self confidence and if she doesn't feel she can succeed, or someone else doesn't think she can, she won't do it. This season has been a blessing because it has helped her in that regard and made her excited for softball again.

 

[CrazyNani]

For hitting, IMHO there is no substitute for facing live pitching against good pitchers.

Best advice is to play travel ball. Short of that, see if she can at least practice with a TB team periodically? (Not sure I've ever heard of that happening on a regular basis). After that, reps on her own...tee work, front toss etc. plus working on ground balls/flyballs/throwing. Don't come into the season having taken 9+ months off of fundamental skills.

Reference point: my DD is also a freshman on varsity. There is a massive difference between kids that play TB and those that do not, and a somewhat smaller difference between those that play on good TB teams and those that play on average or poor TB teams. Not just her team, but league wide.

Someone on here I believe described HS softball as rec ball with more enthusiasm. I read that before this HS season, but that has been our exact experience during DD first HS season. We've had to adjust our expectations multiple times. Candidly, we can't wait for TB to start again. LOL!

I wish she would decide to play again. The reality is, it stopped being fun for her and for the family. It was grueling. Anyway, we have the equipment she needs to practice her hitting and hopefully can have her do a couple of college camps as well. She's got too much potential to fritter it away but at the end of the day, we can't force her. It's like walking on egg shells around her to even mention TB.

 

[radness]

@flash277 & @DonnyS pretty much sum it up.

This kind of seems more about what her realistic goals are and planning for them.

From your Expressions about her personality, certainly wouldn't want her to set herself up for failure.
From that,
This could be one of those conversations about coming up with a plan where she can work on hitting on her own.
Have to *Be consistent with it.
Which might be tough on her own without the social aspect of team.
it's going to have to be driven by her enthusiasm and diligence over a large chunk of months to stay prepared or even develop better skills.

Even with that without grounders. And a hitting machine/live pitching weekly. The other ball players will continue to grow and that will create a larger Gap.

Don't set up for failure,
Plan to succeed.

This is where 15 minute conversation about the real situation could at least help her mentally prepare for whatever might happen next year in high school. And she can make the decision now how she wants to address working on her softball skills.

As other poster commented,
I also think travel ball is the best plan if she wants to be serious about playing on varsity. It will provide skills-building with the support as a team doing the same things.

 

[CrazyNani]

Well, the thing that turned her off to travel ball was the coaches last Fall. The head coach was demanding in terms of the girls needing to plan for college. My GD was just starting her freshman year and hadn’t planned her college life yet. The coach was requiring them to write to coaches, 15 coaches to be exact, posting videos, setting up a recruitment page, etc. and that if playing college ball wasn’t your goal, you shouldn’t be playing travel. My GD felt overwhelmed by those demands and the homework it involved while just beginning high school. Because she wasn’t sure about playing in college yet, it was as if the coach held it against her and rarely let her start let alone in her best position. That made her feel that she wasn’t valued and I explained how she reacts to that. Then, not even knowing if she was talented enough to play in college made her feel like she didn’t belong on the team so, she called coach’s bluff and let her know she wasn’t going to play on the Summer team. Coach thanked her for making such a difficult decision and that was that. Now that she sees she’s very capable on the field it might inspire her again. We’ll just have to wait and see. But it is so irritating when a coach hurts a kids confidence and is so flippant about it. It really impacted her negatively.

 

[radness]

Well, the thing that turned her off to travel ball was the coaches last Fall. The head coach was demanding in terms of the girls needing to plan for college. My GD was just starting her freshman year and hadn’t planned her college life yet. The coach was requiring them to write to coaches, 15 coaches to be exact, posting videos, setting up a recruitment page, etc. and that if playing college ball wasn’t your goal, you shouldn’t be playing travel. My GD felt overwhelmed by those demands and the homework it involved while just beginning high school. Because she wasn’t sure about playing in college yet, it was as if the coach held it against her and rarely let her start let alone in her best position. That made her feel that she wasn’t valued and I explained how she reacts to that. Then, not even knowing if she was talented enough to play in college made her feel like she didn’t belong on the team so, she called coach’s bluff and let her know she wasn’t going to play on the Summer team. Coach thanked her for making such a difficult decision and that was that. Now that she sees she’s very capable on the field it might inspire her again. We’ll just have to wait and see. But it is so irritating when a coach hurts a kids confidence and is so flippant about it. It really impacted her negatively.

Recall your other post about that situation.


Travel coach talking about College from the old post
that coach had a plan and was trying to have the players plan also.
And here you go...
That's what your Gdaughter needs to do now
even though she decided not to be on that travel ball team she is faced with a decision now for high school...jv or prepare for varsity.

(imo that tb coach was doing the right thing by communicating to the players/her. Whether she was prepared for that college communication or not the coach was preparing the tb team. Wouldn't blame the coach for having a plan communicating)
Perhaps thinking ahead to college was too far for her, but now she has to decide/prepare if she wants to play Varsity High School.
Maybe the rest of this season will give her a sample of where she's at and what she might want to do.

Do not think there is any shame in playing junior varsity if she doesn't make varsity. But if she wants to play varsity and doesn't prepare, that will certainly be a shame!