You make some really good points. As to tagging up, etc.: It is harder to teach this rule to girls, compared to you and I, because we grew up watching every possible game, listening when we couldn't watch (do any kids listen to baseball on AM radio any more like we did? I grew up in the Northeast, had my choice of Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Orioles, Expos (sometimes in English), and Phillies every night!), and reading about baseball every day. My girls, and every one that I have coached or who have been friends with my girls, don't watch baseball like we did. They don't pick up the subtleties of the game like we did, so those are things we have to teach at 12U or earlier when you get so lucky that you have the one kid who lives and dies with baseball (softball, as much as I hate it, is so rarely on that we can't expect girls to watch).Maybe "actively engaged" is a better term to use there? And that is the issue in a nutshell.
When I was a kid, all the boys in the neighborhood would get together just about every summer day and pop across the street to play baseball on the grass in front of the middle school. We played with a tennis ball, used trees and bushes for bases (and our gloves for 3B), the street was our outfield, and the house across the street was a homerun. When we didn't have enough for a game (and we'd play down to 3v3), we'd play pickle until we couldn't move. If there were only 2 of us, we'd just go play catch and talk about our favorite players/teams. The younger boys picked up the game from the older boys. This was in the 70's, so not exactly ancient history.
That kind of thing doesn't happen now, at least not where I live. Now we have to schedule "play dates" and try to fit it in between too many different sport schedules, music lessons, extracurriculars, and electronic devices. The only way for them to get the exposure they need to be better players is specialization, private instruction, and a little bit (or a lot) of tiger parenting. Someone else said kids don't have time to just play. I would say that they are not given that time by us parents.
So how do I get my rec girls actively engaged in a sport that they only play during that sport's season, where the majority of the play time is spent standing around waiting for something to happen, where they are coached by a parent who had to be coerced into the job because no one wanted to do it (and if they did want to, didn't take the time to learn how to do it adequately), and then come to me at 12U not knowing how to slide or when to tag up (or even what "tagging up" means)? And then I'm supposed to take 8practices and 12 games and get my girls to love the sport?
I get the ideas of challenging them, making them think, and rewarding them for effort and accomplishment. Been doing that for years. 2 of my best players whom I've coached for 5 years now, and who love to play, couldn't come play fall ball for me because their folks made them play soccer. It felt very much like the parents viewed softball as a "filler" season and not as a future athletic path for their girls.
Someone else talked about the 3 sport athletes as a good thing. I guess I agree, as I played baseball, football, and ran track. But I didn't start playing football until I was already an athlete, where baseball was my passion from the time I was a kid. I think that it is hard to develop a passion for a sport if you're only playing it for a few months at a time and then moving to the next thing. Heck, my DD is more actively engaged with the stupid iPad I let her buy than with anything else, and she's a stellar, gifted musician.
Apologies for rambling - the above was very stream-of-consciousness. Feel free to ignore and move on.
When I was a kid, all the boys in the neighborhood would get together just about every summer day and pop across the street to play baseball on the grass in front of the middle school. We played with a tennis ball, used trees and bushes for bases (and our gloves for 3B), the street was our outfield, and the house across the street was a homerun. When we didn't have enough for a game (and we'd play down to 3v3), we'd play pickle until we couldn't move. If there were only 2 of us, we'd just go play catch and talk about our favorite players/teams. The younger boys picked up the game from the older boys. This was in the 70's, so not exactly ancient history.
Wow! This brought back some memories. We typically played in a fenced lot with tennis balls and a taped broom stick. If we didn't have enough to play a game, we would do a modified version of a home run derby. We would each pick a pro team and do our best to duplicate each hitter's style. I would typically pick the Phillies and copy Pete Rose, Manny Trillo, Larry Bowa, Mike Schmidt, Bob Boone, Greg Luzinski, Garry Maddox, and Bake McBride. Honestly, my favorite one to copy was McBride. I tell DD stories about this and she looks at me like I'm crazy. Times are different...
Hey you may have grown up where I did!
I grew up in South Philly. Where are you from?
You make some really good points. As to tagging up, etc.: It is harder to teach this rule to girls, compared to you and I, because we grew up watching every possible game, listening when we couldn't watch (do any kids listen to baseball on AM radio any more like we did? I grew up in the Northeast, had my choice of Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Orioles, Expos (sometimes in English), and Phillies every night!), and reading about baseball every day. My girls, and every one that I have coached or who have been friends with my girls, don't watch baseball like we did. They don't pick up the subtleties of the game like we did, so those are things we have to teach at 12U or earlier when you get so lucky that you have the one kid who lives and dies with baseball (softball, as much as I hate it, is so rarely on that we can't expect girls to watch).
Watching a ballgame, tracking what's going on, and asking questions in real time is the fastest way to learn the subtleties, but not many kids today seem to have that level of attention.
It also doesn't mean much because they are playing 4 different sports competitively year round and can't keep every single one of the rules for all of the sports in their heads.