how would you handle this?

[Ken Krause]

I feel that you are not a real coach if you are only coaching 9 of your players. They are all family. Sit some one else and get everyone as close to the same amount of innings as you can.

If someone is not cutting it, is likely to get hurt, or is goofing off, the family needs told so a resolution can be made. If not, all the coach is doing is making a bad name for him/herself. Girls join a team because they want to play. Too much time and $$$ is spent to sit the bench 99% of the time.

Right on, Amy. My sentiments exactly.

 

[JAD]

We are in a similar situation. Our second year 12u AA/B level team (all 99's) has an HC and 3 AC's. With four coaches, there is your infield set. Those positions have not changed even though persistent errors are occurring. My DD is a pitcher. She can out field any of the infield we have but has not been given the chance. My DD is one of the smallest girl on the team, not a power hitter, and I think they just dont respect her for her size. She is our most consistent pitcher. She has not made any errors while fielding/throwing from the pitchers mound. Our other two will overthrow first base into the outfield at least once per game. Parents cannot understand the pitching choices.

So last tournament, coach decides to play and bat 9. We have 10 on the team. My DD and the other "percieved" weakest player split the outfield all weekend. My DD gets 1 and a half inning pitching, called in with bases loaded 1 out. Walked one in then got two quick outs.

My DD is not one of the weakest on the team, but that's how they play her. We are moving to 14u this fall, coach is dropping hints about bringing in 98's and even 97's to help us out. Well that just pushes my DD back even further.

We are not winning a lot of games. I have teams asking for my daughter to play on. I asked HC if he is losing confidence in her and he says no she's very good and works hard. Yes, she works hard. We practice on our off days, pitching lessons, and we hit the gym also.

Our strategy is going to be trying out for other 14u teams that will be posting this fall.

These posts always make me laugh because there are either a lot of moronic head coaches, or a lot of parents wearing 'rose colored' glasses when it comes to their daughter and her abilities in softball......LOL

 

[Ken Krause]

There could be plenty of both, too.

So, what is the difference between a manager and a head coach? How can someone be named "head" coach if he/she isn't in charge?

 

[1fingeredknuckler]

We just had a change as our coach has resigned. Now hopefully good changes will come

HOW LUCKY one could be, if only the "bay sitters" would see the light and get out, maybe we all would be happier.

Hope things go better.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Yes, he is the head coach and the others, my DH included, are basically assistants. But, the guy with no kid on the team does have a little more say or power than my DH. There are a few girls who told the head coach that they would not be on the team unless this guy was a coach and they do worship this guy. He's actually a pretty good coach and is really good with the girls...the head coach is, over-the-top, all over them and is a confidence buster. He is all about winning, but so is the nicer coach and the parents who worship him (his followers).

If you're the Head Coach of a team you MUST be the most dynamic personality on the field at all times. However, it's a fine line between motivating and crushing young girls. So people NEVER understand it. From your description it sounds like the wrong person is leading the team. I wish you luck. It sounds like you went into the situation with your eyes wide open and the guy managed to buffalo you anyways. That's more than a lot of parents do. It sucks that your DD's have to suffer for it. Start exploring your options now and map out your plans for the tryout season coming up.

 

[Sparky Guy]

However, my DD is s-l-o-w. Balls that would be caught for outs are singles because DD has to play them on the hop and if she gets the angle wrong or they take a bad bounce, they're past her for extra bases. She's a liability in the OF. IMO she IS one of those players who should be limited to infield because of shortcomings.

Have the same situation with the team I'm helping out with this year. Have a girl who is S-L-O-W. She is almost always last in any running the team does. She can't get to routine balls in the outfield. The coach tried to put her in the infield. But, because she's so slow she can't get to routine balls and coverages that an infielder needs to get to. She's a real nice girl. However. she is not physically able to play the game at the speed it needs to be played at. She is a HUGE liability on the field no matter where she's at. Because she is not able to be in the correct positions for routine plays she makes a disproportional amount of errors. Right now her fielding percentage is .286. She's making an error on 7 out of 10 plays. At some point as a coach you have to put the team first despite "hurt" feelings.

The hard part about the situation is the mom doesn't understand the girl is in over her head ability-wise. She thinks it should be "fair" for all the girls. Mom can't lose the in-house mentality.

 

[MsDinosaur]

Have the same situation with the team I'm helping out with this year. Have a girl who is S-L-O-W. She is almost always last in any running the team does. She can't get to routine balls in the outfield. The coach tried to put her in the infield. But, because she's so slow she can't get to routine balls and coverages that an infielder needs to get to.

(DD usually comes in third to last in sprints, but up toward front or in middle of the pack if they run them far enough. ;-) )

Good point, Sparky Guy. I hadn't thought about that with my DD. She looks good at second in practice, but perhaps he's worried that she wouldn't be able to get where she needs to be in a real game. After all, in practice you know ahead of time that they're hitting a dp ball to short and you have to sprint to second. --Not the same thing as doing it when it happens randomly.

She won her camp team's fielding competition at Mizzou, but I haven't asked her how wide a range they were asked to cover. Quincy was suggesting that she try to learn to play third while she's not catching. I think he had a good idea.

 

[Sparky Guy]

(DD usually comes in third to last in sprints, but up toward front or in middle of the pack if they run them far enough. ;-) )

Unfortunately, softball is game of short sprints.

Quincy was suggesting that she try to learn to play third while she's not catching. I think he had a good idea

The biggest thing with playing 3rd is the ability charge hard, field bunts and throw in the run. If I'm coaching 3rd and I don't think a girl can move fast enough to make the play I'm bunting until they put someone there who can. To play 3rd a player has to have a very quick initial 2-3 steps to keep a team off of her.

 

[MsDinosaur]

Unfortunately, softball is game of short sprints.

The biggest thing with playing 3rd is the ability charge hard, field bunts and throw in the run. If I'm coaching 3rd and I don't think a girl can move fast enough to make the play I'm bunting until they put someone there who can. To play 3rd a player has to have a very quick initial 2-3 steps to keep a team off of her.

Yes, it is, the basepaths will never be long enough for endurance to come into it, LOL!

DD does have quick reactions; I think she'd be able to charge hard for 2-3 quick steps, but I don't think she's capable of much more than that. Honestly, I think I'll have to get someone who knows more than I do to see if she can charge a bunt fast enough. I'm pretty sure she could make the throw to first. It's never going to be longer than the throwdown from home to second and she's done well in some classes she took where they threw on the run.

As usual, I think I'm getting good advice here. I would like to find the best secondary position for her, especially now while her ankles are still recovering, so that she could have fun playing some innings somewhere. But ultimately, it sounds to me as though DD needs to take her catcher's speed and get back behind the plate!

 

[doublesteal]

As a coach, i guarentee our girls 2 games a weekend. (I have 1 one player who's attitute & lack of attendance deserve less). I am not able to sit all my starters every weekend but I sit 3-4 each Saturday during pool play. Sunday is a different story, I have to look at consistency and the win.

I see a lot of people mad their DD is batting last or in the OF

As for batting at the bottom of the line up, its not always a punsishment. I have 2 players who could both hit in the #4 spot, lots of power. The one is really fast, so we made the decision to bat her in the 9 spot .. teams don't expect that much power from your 9hole hitter, and its nice to have the speed and a runner on when the lineup turns over.
I was always told a bad infield could hurt you but a bad outfield will kill you. We ran into this in the begining of the season with my girls, our outfield was consistently letting balls by them turning a single into a double or triple, the missed catchable flyballs, etc..
We did tons of workwith all of our players on outfielding and I would say that 2 of my best players are outfielders.