Confront a coach or not to confront?

[wichita]

I think I've finally figured out the basis for these "HS v TB" argument...

It is called 'self-selection bias'. (E.g., conducting a poll at the RNC and ask people if they think Reagan was a great president.)

The parents on this site generally understand the game and want to learn--otherwise they wouldn't be here. So, these parents find a good TB coach for their child. Often, they find great TB coaches. Their TB team almost always has a high winning percentage. When they go to a tournament, they see their coach...and then they are always playing late into the tournament against other good teams with good coaches. The bad coaches are usually long gone by Sunday.

But, when these parents get to HS, they have had no control in picking out the coach. So, then they are the mercy of the percentages--and they discover that their HS coach usually isn't as good as their TB. Why? Because the parents have a good TB coach, or else the parents wouldn't have paced their child on that TB team.

Thus, you have "self selection" bias--the parents on this site pick good TB coaches and find, not suprisingly, that the HS coach isn't as good as the TB coach.

If after you child gets out of TB , go watch a tourney. You will find scores of very bad coaches. The usual bad TB coach is the guy/gal who has no clue what is really going on, but pretends. (E.g., I saw one guy doing the "bare handed fielding drill", which is a good drill, but in his case he had the kids back at 60 feet and he was hitting liners to them.)

I have seen really good HS coaches. In HS, my kids played for probably a dozen different coaches. Of those dozen, there was one excellent coach, three good coaches, and the rest were mediocre to poor. (I'm not evaluating based on 'winning' and 'losing'--I'm evaluating what they did with the available talent.)

Good point slugggers your probably correct but that doesn't mean I have to sit back and watch my kid go backwards for 3 months and not get off the bench just to please this coach ....I would much rather work with her myself and with her hitting and pitching coaches and skip school ball all together.....

 

[wichita]

As a freshman in high school patience is the key. As well, most varsity coaches (at least in SoCal) don't like parental interference. High school is a four year proposition so I would encourage your daughter to chill and work hard. If she is as good as you say she is the cream will rise to the top. As an 18 Gold travel coach I always want to field the best team, so if your DD is one of the best she will ultimately play. Avoid the knee-jerk reaction that so and so is playing and I'm not scenario. My her sophomore or junior year she could end up being a starter batting 4th, so hang in there!

Well were not in So Cal but if were It would be a different story. I understand in So Cal every school has an entire roster of travel ball kids so if my kids a freshman then she waits her turn just like most other kids do. But where we live it takes around 5-6 cities in the area and I'm guessing 15 high schools to field a couple pretty good travel ball teams, and some high schools don't even have travel ball kids. we happen to have 5 on our team including my 2 DD's(on of which is injured and not playing)so the rest of the team is made up of either rec ball kids or kids that just show up for school ball.

 

[Cannonball]

As an FYI, I get called once in a while by a college to go watch a player play. When I was a HC, I was called once in a while about my players. Was it a lot? No, but once in a while.

Sluggers makes a great point about parents picking one coach (TB) and having to accept the second coach (HS).

Wichita, I want to commend you for taking your child off of the HS team if you don't like it. That is what should happen. Let her workout with you. At least you will be taking steps that others won't who want to complain about HS coaches.

 

[Country Boy]

Not sure what part of the country your from but it would be big news if a college coach called a high school coach around here.

Midwest. I don't talk to a lot, but neither is it uncommon. TB is a 'Dog & Pony' show. It is fairly easy to see talent level and potential. But HS ball can be a much better indicator of a player's character. I am with the HS girls 6 days a week for 3+ months. HS softball more closely resembles a college program than TB does. Not from a skill or competition standpoint. But from a daily grind that also requires juggling other balls such as homework, boys, peers, etc. I highly doubt that my input is a major factor in most college coaches minds, but if you were going to offer $100,000 to a girl to play ball, and your job depends on recruiting the right players, if you had any doubt at all, why wouldn't you spend 5 min asking her HS coach?

I bet it is more common than most think.

 

[riseball]

Midwest. I don't talk to a lot, but neither is it uncommon. TB is a 'Dog & Pony' show. It is fairly easy to see talent level and potential. But HS ball can be a much better indicator of a player's character. I am with the HS girls 6 days a week for 3+ months. HS softball more closely resembles a college program than TB does. Not from a skill or competition standpoint. But from a daily grind that also requires juggling other balls such as homework, boys, peers, etc. I highly doubt that my input is a major factor in most college coaches minds, but if you were going to offer $100,000 to a girl to play ball, and your job depends on recruiting the right players, if you had any doubt at all, why wouldn't you spend 5 min asking her HS coach?

I bet it is more common than most think.

You make a compelling argument, but my experience leads me to believe that most college coaches have a low level of recruiting acumen.

 

[SoCal_Dad]

Well were not in So Cal but if were It would be a different story. I understand in So Cal every school has an entire roster of travel ball kids so if my kids a freshman then she waits her turn just like most other kids do. ...

This is a popular misperception of SoCal that is perpetuated by mainly hearing from those TB players. Most people do not realize there is a very small percentage of travel players in Los Angeles itself - most of them are from the surrounding areas. The distribution within those areas is also uneven due to affordability and/or other sports being more popular (e.g. sokker, VBall, swimming, water polo).

Yes, there are a lot of HS's whose varsity team is all TB players and quite a few with JV teams too, but they are the minority overall.

 

[fastpitch]

Not sure what part of the country your from but it would be big news if a college coach called a high school coach around here.

My DD was recruited early (in 9th grade before her freshman season). They obviously spoke to her TB coach but the college coaches recruiting her also called her HS coach even before she played a game or officially practiced for her HS coach. But its not just my kid, our HS coach has also served as a reference for probably most of her players that will and have gone on to play in college as well.

However, just so its clear, the HS coach wasn't the one that made the player get the interest from the college coach. It was their performance in TB that started that interest.

 

[Kevin Meyer]

Your dd should approach the coach to see what she needs to do to get more playing time. A freshman on varsity needs to play. Otherwise, she would be better served to be on the JV where she does get to play.

Having said all of this, they only played 4 games. She got in to one of them. From a coaching viewpoint, that is way too early for a parent to want to talk to the coach.

Agree a million percent. Freshman sitting on Varsity is a travesty.