There is a balance...
Practice is for coaches and parents (and necessary - don't get me wrong) - however playing is for the player. Playing is the reward for all the work you put in, and while you might get better through the practices it is no fun not playing. You can get better being the best player on a medium level team getting lots of game reps if that team is challenging themselves to be better as a whole and you are getting good coaching and have motivation. Minimally as good as watching a better team from the bench but practicing with them.
This isn't everywhere else in the world where you can play a sport until you are 40+ years old. In the USA you play most sports - fastpitch included - until you hit the highest level you are capable of, then you stop. There is really not a lot of dropping level of play, especially in the older groups and with rec ball struggling in a lot of areas. Once you are done - you are for the most part done. Even if you go beyond college NPF is 6 teams - and already you are starting to see older players from parts of the world (Japan and Australia) starting to take roster spots because they have a stock of older 26-30 years old players who have continued to play beyond 22 years old and fully mature which is not typical in the USA
So lets say your DD starts to play around 8 years old... the absolute best case scenario is they play until they are 22 which if you hang around this forum you will know is way less likely than you would think even if they are capable.
Much more likely, most will be done by 14 when they enter high school or 17 or 18 when they leave high school.
So best case scenario - 14 years of playing. Possibly 10.. more likely for most girls, somewhere around 6 years.
And some people think spending one of those years just practicing is a good idea? That it is not more to accelerate the decision not to play even if they get better?
Sure - there may be exceptions and I have seen a couple. But I have seen way more parents who are delusional who say that their daughter is the exception when she absolutely wasn't.
Practice is for coaches and parents (and necessary - don't get me wrong) - however playing is for the player. Playing is the reward for all the work you put in, and while you might get better through the practices it is no fun not playing. You can get better being the best player on a medium level team getting lots of game reps if that team is challenging themselves to be better as a whole and you are getting good coaching and have motivation. Minimally as good as watching a better team from the bench but practicing with them.
This isn't everywhere else in the world where you can play a sport until you are 40+ years old. In the USA you play most sports - fastpitch included - until you hit the highest level you are capable of, then you stop. There is really not a lot of dropping level of play, especially in the older groups and with rec ball struggling in a lot of areas. Once you are done - you are for the most part done. Even if you go beyond college NPF is 6 teams - and already you are starting to see older players from parts of the world (Japan and Australia) starting to take roster spots because they have a stock of older 26-30 years old players who have continued to play beyond 22 years old and fully mature which is not typical in the USA
So lets say your DD starts to play around 8 years old... the absolute best case scenario is they play until they are 22 which if you hang around this forum you will know is way less likely than you would think even if they are capable.
Much more likely, most will be done by 14 when they enter high school or 17 or 18 when they leave high school.
So best case scenario - 14 years of playing. Possibly 10.. more likely for most girls, somewhere around 6 years.
And some people think spending one of those years just practicing is a good idea? That it is not more to accelerate the decision not to play even if they get better?
Sure - there may be exceptions and I have seen a couple. But I have seen way more parents who are delusional who say that their daughter is the exception when she absolutely wasn't.