- Mar 8, 2016
- 316
- 63
I am writing this to potentially help the parents of some of the younger DD's out there. It is a lengthy post and you may want to stop reading here. You need to embrace the DD you have and not try to make her the DD you want. My DD got cut from her first travel team at age 8. She broke her femur 1 week after making a travel team at age 10. She played rec ball from 7 years old till 12 years old. She played on a travel team at age 11 and was an average player on a bad travel team. She worked hard and got better. After one tournament at 12 or 13 years old we were driving back from a tournament and I was unhappy with how she had been in the dugout. I thought she should have been up on the fence and cheering the whole time her team was batting. On the ride home during my attempt to teach her a life lesson she instead instead taught me one.
She told me that she was not the same player I was and I should not try and make her that kind of player. I was floored by her very adult comment and the rest of the ride home was very quiet as I thought about what she had said. As a player in my youth I was not blessed with a lot of athletic ability and had to play harder and smarter than the other players out there to compete. My DD is blessed with athleticism however when she steps off the field it is over.
Last week I watched her dancing in center field while she was warming up between innings. My old thoughts of she shouldn't be doing that and she better start taking this more serious started creeping in. I turned to the dad who helps me score HS games and made a comment about how bad it looked for her to do that. I was sure he would agree with me. He is one of the most competitive players I know. He once got in a teammates face during a rec league softball game because he felt he should have gone to third on one of his hits. Much to my surprise he did not agree with me.
For those of you with young DDs enjoy the time you spend with them. I know you are trying to help them with everything but be careful not to push to hard. I have been there and made those mistakes. The journey is a marathon and not a sprint. I feel sure that lack of enjoying the game has caused more girls to leave than lack of talent.
Proud Softball dad
She told me that she was not the same player I was and I should not try and make her that kind of player. I was floored by her very adult comment and the rest of the ride home was very quiet as I thought about what she had said. As a player in my youth I was not blessed with a lot of athletic ability and had to play harder and smarter than the other players out there to compete. My DD is blessed with athleticism however when she steps off the field it is over.
Last week I watched her dancing in center field while she was warming up between innings. My old thoughts of she shouldn't be doing that and she better start taking this more serious started creeping in. I turned to the dad who helps me score HS games and made a comment about how bad it looked for her to do that. I was sure he would agree with me. He is one of the most competitive players I know. He once got in a teammates face during a rec league softball game because he felt he should have gone to third on one of his hits. Much to my surprise he did not agree with me.
For those of you with young DDs enjoy the time you spend with them. I know you are trying to help them with everything but be careful not to push to hard. I have been there and made those mistakes. The journey is a marathon and not a sprint. I feel sure that lack of enjoying the game has caused more girls to leave than lack of talent.
Proud Softball dad