"Distance Not an Issue"

[RADcatcher]

Not really, those other sports rely on players moving/coordinating as a unit almost non-stop throughout the game.

Fact Baseball and softball move coordinating together. Example Reacting to where the ball is hit.
( as you also noted)
Regardless of how many plays there are back to back players work together on the field. Simply because in those other sports the ball is live more of the time does not take away that coordinating movement does happen in baseball and softball.
The interchangeability of players is the same once they know how to play the sport.

Have read you often post how baseball and softball are individual sports.
However individual positions still play together on the field.
Same same in those other sports.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Hey there strawman nobody said practice was a waste of time. Getting together as a large group when they get older (in Travel softball) as a team has diminishing returns.

We know this to be true as others have noted in large tournaments and qualifiers there are many "tournament" only teams that play and do quite well.

I am sure they are practicing hard. Just not all together at the same time.

You literally said, "Practice what? Relays? That implies practice, to you, is a waste of time.

My daughter's college team has set plays on defense in which the coach calls the situation. It could involve the catcher throwing behind a runner, who covers which base on a steal attempt, or what bunt coverage you might use. My daughter is an aggressive catcher. She loves to snap throw behind the runner, but the coach usually calls those plays. You simply cannot learn that without practicing those plays.

And if you think you can just throw a different double play partner in the mix, I'd point you to the success of Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker. They knew what the other was going to do because they played together for years.

 

[Rolling Hard]

How about this. If you took some of those pretty good or very good stacked tournament teams with players from 7 or 8 states and they all moved to Irvine, CA and practiced TOGETHER 3 or 4 times a month for 3 or 4 hours they would be a much better team. And would play as a TEAM. Caring for one another, picking each other up, bonding over bowling and pizza, etc. So much more fun, too.

 

[RADcatcher]

If if this conversation is about players that already have skills like movement sprinting catching throwing
then this applies
Once players know what the play is doesn't matter who is in the position. Everybody should React to what the play is.

Plenty of times there are guest players that have never played together that work out pick-off plays fine.

As far as the interchangeability of those other sports absolutely think a tight end from one pro football team could go play on a different pro football team and play their position fine. Same with a center or forward on a basketball team shuffleing to another team.

Whether or not there are better combinations of players on the field is a different discussion.

How about this. If you took some of those pretty good or very good stacked tournament teams with players from 7 or 8 states and they all moved to Irvine, CA and practiced TOGETHER 3 or 4 times a month for 3 or 4 hours they would be a much better team. And would play as a TEAM. Caring for one another, picking each other up, bonding over bowling and pizza, etc. So much more fun, too.

Perspective have gathered through reading this is not an argument that practice doesn't matter... rather that... There are some that are simply saying it is not relevant to have to practice together. But most people agree practicing together has a benefit.

 

[_MIA_]

If we are talking about the OT, if the choice is between Peter Attar, who can go to every practice, playing SS, or ARod, who cannot go to any, I am taking ARod every day and twice on Sunday…

Nobody is saying team practice doesn’t help. The question, in the context of the OT, is how much are you willing to give up in terms of talent to ensure that everybody goes to team practice if we are talking purely about fielding the most competitive team. Now you may want everybody to attend practice for other reasons, some of which have been mentioned.

 

[Rolling Hard]

I really don't like the concept of non practicing super teams. Our team has optional practice mid week and on Saturday 2 or maybe 3 times a month. These young ladies are dedicating a lot of there personal time to a discipline (playing high level fastpitch) which is a good thing and beats the hell out of hanging out/kicking back all the time. So they give up some socializing stuff to play their team sport. There is something special about being on a team with players you can go to lunch with, hang out together, cage work together, gym together on Tuesday afternoon. How will these super team players adjust in college when the coach is high on team bonding stuff. I just think the super team players are missing out on some important stuff.

 

[RADcatcher]

I really don't like the concept of non practicing super teams. Our team has optional practice mid week and on Saturday 2 or maybe 3 times a month. These young ladies are dedicating a lot of there personal time to a discipline (playing high level fastpitch) which is a good thing and beats the hell out of hanging out/kicking back all the time. So they give up some socializing stuff to play their team sport. There is something special about being on a team with players you can go to lunch with, hang out together, cage work together, gym together on Tuesday afternoon.

How will these super team players adjust in college when the coach is high on team bonding stuff. I just think the super team players are missing out on some important stuff.

Probably the players who are now going to a compilation team have already played some years practicing with their previous teams to get to the level where they're interchangeable now. Experiencing team bonding stuff. Compilation teams still develop that also.

Over 4 years at college players will see a lot of change of players coming and going. Strong possibility learning to come together with players you haven't been practicing with and get along quickly is a good skill set.

 

[Gambler Bob]

My daughters team has not had a team practice since February. They practiced 1 time in the fall. They practiced 1 time in the winter, and played about 4 scrimmages in the winter in a dome. Half of the girls live within 1 hour of each other in the Chicago area. The other half of the team lives 3-5 hours away in different directions. Practicing as a team is extremely overrated in comparison to having a group of girls from several different states that have more god given talent, and personal drive.

Just because we don't practice as a team does not mean that the girls are not practicing. In fact, most of these girls are practicing at least twice as much as most local teams. I can take my daughter to the local H.S. field and practice for an hour and a half and get 5 times the amount of reps done that she could do in any team practice in that same 1 and half hour time frame. I can take my daughter to the cages and get way more hitting done by ourselves than she could during a team batting practices, plus she won't have to waist time doing silly hitting drills in a team environment. Even if the coach is good at teaching hitting it is very difficult to teach 13 or more girls how to hit in a team batting practice.

Hard to argue with the results of the top tier National teams. Just look where they finish in the big tournaments and where the girls end up playing at in college.

 

[Gambler Bob]

I really don't like the concept of non practicing super teams. Our team has optional practice mid week and on Saturday 2 or maybe 3 times a month. These young ladies are dedicating a lot of there personal time to a discipline (playing high level fastpitch) which is a good thing and beats the hell out of hanging out/kicking back all the time. So they give up some socializing stuff to play their team sport. There is something special about being on a team with players you can go to lunch with, hang out together, cage work together, gym together on Tuesday afternoon. How will these super team players adjust in college when the coach is high on team bonding stuff. I just think the super team players are missing out on some important stuff.

The girls from the super teams will adjust no differently than any other girl. Most of these girls from super teams played high school softball where they had to go to all the team practices, that is not something new to them. It is not like they don't have any team gatherings, they just have less of them. You can argue that having less team gatherings could make a player appreciate the limited time they have together more.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Hard to argue with the results of the top tier National teams. Just look where they finish in the big tournaments and where the girls end up playing at in college.

Yet when they get to college, they practice every day together. And when they name the US National team for the Olympics, do they practice before they start playing, or do they just show up in Tokyo?

The Olympic example is probably the best you can use. These are women, not 14 year-old girls, and they are at the peak of their abilities, and they still practice for several weeks together. Then they embark on a barnstorming tour to get some actual games under their belts before heading off the play in the Olympics. I suspect their practices would blow most people away. I'm sure they do live pitching and hitting, which try as you might, can't be replicated doing front toss in the yard. They work on defensive drills to make sure they know what the other players do in certain circumstances. And they get to know one another personally. The same goes with college. Even at my daughter's D3 school, the softball players live together on campus. Do the faces change from year-to-year? Of course. But they spend way more time together than your average student does with their classmates.

Look, it's hard to argue with the success of these tournament only teams. Some have been great because they attract the best players. But, when you reach the pinnacle of your sport, everyone was the best player on their HS team. I would argue practicing together makes them even better.

For the record, my daughter loves her team practices. They practiced six weekends over the fall. Saturdays 2-6, and Sundays 8-12. Our practices were run by a former D1 coach who retired after a 25 year run at Hofstra. Just listening to him talk about the strategy of the game made it worthwhile. I realize not everyone has that as an option, but I wouldn't trade that for the world.