- Jun 19, 2013
- 753
- 28
Sorry for the novel but I think this may be helpful to someone as you are choosing teams - although it is probably mostly applicable to a pitcher's family.
So after much advice along the lines of "put your dd on the best team she can make" last year we did the opposite. It was an intentional decision. After being the #3 pitcher on a "best team she could make" the year before and having very little circle time behind the AC's DD. We decided to do the opposite and go somewhere where she could make up for that and play a lot. And we did that. She played and played and played. Hit in the top 3 all year. Pitched every other game, or more. Played SS and OF when not pitching. But the results of our choice were mixed - and mostly negative.
I want to offer this warning to those of you pitcher parents who are in this boat. Yes she pitched a lot and I think her strength increased and her speed this season due to the increased load (3 mph to be exact) but other then that there were a not of negatives to consider. And we don't know how much she would have gained this season with less play time/pressure on her.
* she was facing less then the best hitters which sometimes translated into over confidence in less then stellar pitching - like a lucky strike out on a pitch too close to the middle that would have been hammered by anyone on a better team
* in our case the weak coaching was very detrimental as she had no one other than me teaching/correcting poor form in fielding, game play and hitting. I would say she was weaker as a fielder by the end of the season for sure.
* bad catchers who couldn't stop a good rise, a low CU or a drop that came in right where she'd been taught discouraged her from throwing her pitches correctly. My view is that she would regularly throw slower due to lack of confidence in their skills and told me more then once "she missed two drops in a row so I was nervous to throw it any more" - leaving a lot more meatballs.
* pitch calling by inexperienced catchers that were allowed to call their own games, couldn't make a throw down, couldn't catch a foul pop up, and got in a tizzy if you shook them off, led to more stress then you would actually think possible (I could actually write an entire thesis on how frustrating this was to a young pitcher). Oh yeah and daddy was the HC of the princess catcher.
* pitching with very weak defense behind her had mixed results. On the one hand dealing with that challenge I think probably encouraged her to work harder to get outs on her own from the circle, but also there is nothing more frustrating on a 90 degree day to be pitching your heart out and have two outs and get an easy pop up from your rise ball to then be dropped out of the glove, or a perfect ground ball to second and have it go right through 2B legs to then bring up the top of the line up. I know I'll get hammered on this comment too - but we aren't talking about every once in a while we are talking about consistently needing to get 5 outs to get out of an inning.
* we dealt with more bad attitude from not wanting to play, lack of respect for coaches, lack of respect for players on team, etc. then in previous seasons combined. I don't think it's a matter of being 13. I believe it was 90% this team situation and 10% hormones. I am sure I'll get hammered from sharing this too - that I'm raising a diva pitcher princess and my parenting is lacking etc. I'm just trying to be honest. When you are giving 110% and you have team mates who should really be playing rec and think it's funny that two girls collided because no one called the ball - it's hard to maintain respect week in and week out. When you have a coach who just keeps saying "good try" to an outfielder who continually runs forward and lets a pop fly drop right behind her throughout the entire season instead of teaching her proper form it's hard to appreciate your situation. Oh and when the third base coach seriously sends the heaviest slowest girl to steal 2nd every time she gets a single, without a pass ball, just on the first pitch, no less then 12 times during the season and has her thrown out every single time it's hard to maintain a cheery disposition. I'm an adult and I was miserable. I spent most of ride on the way to and from tournaments trying to find the good points and trying to encourage her to be a leader, teach her teammates, keep a smile on her face and put a nice spin on anything possible week in and week out - it was exhausting
Just be careful if you are in our situation. Before you go back to rec, etc. for more play time think about what you are really getting in to. Maybe pick up for a weekend first and really observe what things might be like. I'm sure there are much better lower level teams we could have found, that could have used her skills. Just take your time and imagine how some these things wear on a young girl as you make your decisions. I'm not sure if we would have done it again. I know I would have tried much much harder to find a higher quality team that she could have contributed to. She was very close to completely giving up softball at the end of the season due to the frustration and stress.
So after much advice along the lines of "put your dd on the best team she can make" last year we did the opposite. It was an intentional decision. After being the #3 pitcher on a "best team she could make" the year before and having very little circle time behind the AC's DD. We decided to do the opposite and go somewhere where she could make up for that and play a lot. And we did that. She played and played and played. Hit in the top 3 all year. Pitched every other game, or more. Played SS and OF when not pitching. But the results of our choice were mixed - and mostly negative.
I want to offer this warning to those of you pitcher parents who are in this boat. Yes she pitched a lot and I think her strength increased and her speed this season due to the increased load (3 mph to be exact) but other then that there were a not of negatives to consider. And we don't know how much she would have gained this season with less play time/pressure on her.
* she was facing less then the best hitters which sometimes translated into over confidence in less then stellar pitching - like a lucky strike out on a pitch too close to the middle that would have been hammered by anyone on a better team
* in our case the weak coaching was very detrimental as she had no one other than me teaching/correcting poor form in fielding, game play and hitting. I would say she was weaker as a fielder by the end of the season for sure.
* bad catchers who couldn't stop a good rise, a low CU or a drop that came in right where she'd been taught discouraged her from throwing her pitches correctly. My view is that she would regularly throw slower due to lack of confidence in their skills and told me more then once "she missed two drops in a row so I was nervous to throw it any more" - leaving a lot more meatballs.
* pitch calling by inexperienced catchers that were allowed to call their own games, couldn't make a throw down, couldn't catch a foul pop up, and got in a tizzy if you shook them off, led to more stress then you would actually think possible (I could actually write an entire thesis on how frustrating this was to a young pitcher). Oh yeah and daddy was the HC of the princess catcher.
* pitching with very weak defense behind her had mixed results. On the one hand dealing with that challenge I think probably encouraged her to work harder to get outs on her own from the circle, but also there is nothing more frustrating on a 90 degree day to be pitching your heart out and have two outs and get an easy pop up from your rise ball to then be dropped out of the glove, or a perfect ground ball to second and have it go right through 2B legs to then bring up the top of the line up. I know I'll get hammered on this comment too - but we aren't talking about every once in a while we are talking about consistently needing to get 5 outs to get out of an inning.
* we dealt with more bad attitude from not wanting to play, lack of respect for coaches, lack of respect for players on team, etc. then in previous seasons combined. I don't think it's a matter of being 13. I believe it was 90% this team situation and 10% hormones. I am sure I'll get hammered from sharing this too - that I'm raising a diva pitcher princess and my parenting is lacking etc. I'm just trying to be honest. When you are giving 110% and you have team mates who should really be playing rec and think it's funny that two girls collided because no one called the ball - it's hard to maintain respect week in and week out. When you have a coach who just keeps saying "good try" to an outfielder who continually runs forward and lets a pop fly drop right behind her throughout the entire season instead of teaching her proper form it's hard to appreciate your situation. Oh and when the third base coach seriously sends the heaviest slowest girl to steal 2nd every time she gets a single, without a pass ball, just on the first pitch, no less then 12 times during the season and has her thrown out every single time it's hard to maintain a cheery disposition. I'm an adult and I was miserable. I spent most of ride on the way to and from tournaments trying to find the good points and trying to encourage her to be a leader, teach her teammates, keep a smile on her face and put a nice spin on anything possible week in and week out - it was exhausting
Just be careful if you are in our situation. Before you go back to rec, etc. for more play time think about what you are really getting in to. Maybe pick up for a weekend first and really observe what things might be like. I'm sure there are much better lower level teams we could have found, that could have used her skills. Just take your time and imagine how some these things wear on a young girl as you make your decisions. I'm not sure if we would have done it again. I know I would have tried much much harder to find a higher quality team that she could have contributed to. She was very close to completely giving up softball at the end of the season due to the frustration and stress.
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