Desire to play college ball

[riseball]

Argh!! another pet peeve in the same thread!

Who died and determined the best thing for a kid is to aimlessly wander? Yes this is a dramatic portayal but isn't that what it turns out to be?

What would the world be without people aimlessly wandering about with no purpose in life? Ok, never mind.

 

[joemcq51]

OILF- This is a 12U team. Not really playing in front of many college coaches just yet, are they? I agree that at the 18U level, the fall season has become much bigger and longer. At the younger level, the teams that are playing and working hard in the fall are getting better. I disagree about overuse injuries sky rocketing. 15 years ago teams would ride one pitcher for an entire tournament. You hardly ever see a team only using a single pitcher today. I also think todays athletes are far more aware of strength and conditioning, nutrition, hydration, etc. While I don't have an opinion on the one sport verses multiple sports, I can say that if the kid is happy playing just one sport than she should do just that. Why make them play a sport they don't really have a passion for, as opposed to playing one they do? I do like your idea of better practice and preparation. If you can get great coaching, you could substitute the practices for a few games.

 

[JAD]

My DD took the "slow and steady" approach to TB. She played C-level TB at 9 and 10, low-B at 11, mid-B at 12, high-B at 13, low-A at 14, and high-A at 15. I truly believe this "stepping stone" approach helped my DD become the player she is today. She has not "burned out" and every year she was challenged to "step up" her game.

My $0.02 - If you want to play high level D1 softball in college you need to develop a plan to be playing on a high level marquee team by 16U. If you want to play lower level D1, D2 or D3 you probably need to be on a low-A team and you have until 18U to get a coaches attention. I know a lot of parents who's kids went "hardcore" early (12U) and they spent a lot more $$$ chasing a college scholarship than most. And if your sole goal is to pay for college, you would be better off quitting softball, invest the money you would have spent on softball into a 529-savings plan, and have your DD get a job after school.

 

[cbullard]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I really appreciate it. My opinion is that I'd rather she get an academic scholarship than athletic. But, she really wants to play college softball. She asks to pitch or hit every day. Or practice fielding. She plays 3rd, SS, and CF when she isn't pitching. She loves all of them equally.

She likes basketball. It's not forced on her. She just never takes the extra time like softball. Yet, she plays up on the 8th grade team (6th grader) at pg. She's natural with that sport. Avg around 10 pts per game. But, she'd leave basketball in a second for softball. I love her passion for the sport.

I'm just don't want her to lose that passion by getting burned out or the fun stops.

 

[JNew0872]

As long as she is the one who wants to play and practice and is not being pushed to do so (not saying you are), she will regulate her own burn out. My DD absolutely loves softball. She fell in love with it at age 10. She is now 14. She always loves to play but sometimes she will go through a phase where she doesn't really feel like practicing. That is ok. She will slack for a a few weeks or so and then come back where she is intensely practicing. My DD does play other sports. During the fall, she plays rec soccer while playing travel softball. In the winter, she plays basketball. As for overuse injuries and muscle imbalance, they are real. For one of DD's injuries, she went to a physical therapist who said she has muscle imbalance due to the rotational forces used in softball (she's a pitcher). He told her that playing other sports would help her with this imbalance.

Anyways, I do not believe they have to specialize to play college softball. I know quite a few girls and boys who have gone on to play college sports who did not specialize although their main sport was their main focus. My DD spoke to a D1 college coach and he told her that coaches are looking for multi-sport athletes.

 

[riseball]

.... My DD spoke to a D1 college coach and he told her that coaches are looking for multi-sport athletes.

And all this time I thought they wanted competent softball players that were skilled hitters and could maintain a decent GPA. Who knew?

 

[marauderssoftball]

That's too many games. Not every tournament will have someone scouting it.....my advice is quality over quantity. If the coaches are a good fit you really can't put a price on that and it would be hard to pass it up. Maybe they are willing to give her time off if it starts to become overwhelming?

I understand you have to get experience but you also have to recover and do well on schoolwork (3.0 or higher to get any money mostly) and taking the right classes (AP teachers don't care about your other classes let alone your extra curricular activities).

I purposely have close to 20 athletes on my team to allow for the occasional family function, piled on homework/extra study time, and time just doing nothing so they don't burn out and it has worked out so far! Takes a lot of balancing but it can work!

 

[dbronstein]

I'm working on a master's project on youth sports injuries, and I've come across quite a bit of research on specialization. Studies show pretty consistently that specializing at a young age leads to more injuries, and more relevant to this topic, reduces your chance of playing in college. They younger a kids is when they start to specialize in a sport, the more likely they are to drop out of it. To throw some stats out, one study found that of women playing DI college sports, 83% played multiple sports, and the median age of specialization was 14 for team sports (essentially the start of high school). Other studies have found that when kids start to specialize at younger ages, they are less active when they are adults.

Obviously everyone should do what they feel is best for their family, but the research is pretty clear in favor of kids playing multiple sports.

 

[riseball]

I'm working on a master's project on youth sports injuries, and I've come across quite a bit of research on specialization. Studies show pretty consistently that specializing at a young age leads to more injuries, and more relevant to this topic, reduces your chance of playing in college. They younger a kids is when they start to specialize in a sport, the more likely they are to drop out of it. To throw some stats out, one study found that of women playing DI college sports, 83% played multiple sports, and the median age of specialization was 14 for team sports (essentially the start of high school). Other studies have found that when kids start to specialize at younger ages, they are less active when they are adults.

Obviously everyone should do what they feel is best for their family, but the research is pretty clear in favor of kids playing multiple sports.

Unfortunately the fact that they played D1 does not in any way equate to a high level of athletic quality. Many D1 programs are awful. The stat you provided is often misconstrued. Playing multiple sports is a common trait found within the pool of good athletes. Playing multiple sports does not make you a good athlete. Just as being tall does not make you a basketball player.

With respect to injuries and specialization: Are you asserting that specialization in and of itself makes kids more prone to injury over their multi-sport counterparts?

 

[cbullard]

Great feedback. I'll ask the coach about down time and stuff like that. I don't want softball to be her life. I want it to be apart of her life. Hopefully, it works out. She likes her current team. But, the coaches aren't the best. Very nice people but they have daughters on the team who didn't make other teams. So, I want her to learn more.

Her pitching coach played for Nebraska a few years ago and she teaches her a lot (fundamentals, strategy, etc)