What to do when the Catcher won't cooperate?

[obbay]

Well put RB!
Yes she was a guest playing up. And I was a guest coach, coaching up.
She sucked it up and threw what was called.
I sucked it up and said nothing during BP when the coach of this 18U Gold team was telling a struggling batter to "squish the bug" and "hit the top of the ball to put backspin on the ball that creates line drives".
Don't get me wrong, I love the coaches and this guy is an excellent manager/bench coach. We just have different ideas about how to approach hitting.

At the end of the day, I am not bitching that the mean catcher wouldn't recognize the pitching genius of my DD. I was just asking how would others handle the situation. Maybe she could've done better in her Gold pitching debut if she had ANY of the other catchers, but we will never know and I want to make sure we both learn the correct lesson from this.

 

[Osric]

Still disagree. Not only do we have info, but my DD is not going to throw 'all fastballs' or put up with a catcher who doesn't care. She knows better than that whether she is a sub, guest player or permanent player. If she is a sub or guest player she expects to be treated as player on the team - or that will be the last time she will guest for that team. That is how we treat girls who guest with us and one of the main reasons we can always get a guest player on the odd occasion we need one.

And asking to be able to throw her pitches is not 'disrupting the team' - that is what a pitcher does and what they are there for. That is what any coach should expect from an experienced pitcher. If the team has something specific in mind in how they want to call pitches, then they can explain it to her before she goes out and does it. She isn't a robot pitching machine that is manipulated by a catcher or coach by remote control (no matter how many coaches act like they are).

Edit Add: My DD isn't going out there to be lit up by anyone - meaningless inning or not. She is going to give what she has. If it is game time - she is going to compete.

I'm not sure if you are meaning to or not, but this sounds very close to "My DD is more important than team dynamics and it doesn't matter that she is in there for an inning or a day....She is the most important person on the team and everyone else should suck it up."

Speaking personally, that type of player has no place on my HS team, and no place on my summer team. I don't care how talented she is. I have a dozen girls to think about and one girl coming in with that attitude on a single tournament isn't going to disrupt the dynamic on my team. She will not be asked back to play and if any coach asks my opinion of her I will tell them of my experience. Is that really what you want for your kid?

 

[schwabach]

I have noticed that good pitchers are subject to a different set of rules and will ultimately be found by a coach who can use them to good effect. This doesn't give them license to be divas and to not be team players and they certainly can't have attitude, but you have to admit that good pitchers get away with some stuff.

The other reality is that a pitcher is literally on the firing line and her best defense is her pitching. Fast balls up the middle, for example, against good batters are a recipe for a hit pitcher.

 

[quincy]

Disagree with 1/2 posts,I am sure I am wrong.

DD is not going to be clobbered, her job to move the ball around.

I agree it is some work for her, not always pleased.

 

[obbay]

I'm not sure if you are meaning to or not, but this sounds very close to "My DD is more important than team dynamics and it doesn't matter that she is in there for an inning or a day....She is the most important person on the team and everyone else should suck it up."

I know I didn't mean it that way and I did not read anything near that in the post you quoted.

Like George Washington said, " you don't go into battle with the Army you want, you go into battle with the army you have". Many coaches do not adjust their coaching to what their team needs to excel but rather drive the ship as if they are coaching a boys sport, a professional sport, older players, etc.-players they want but don't have. (Our HS coach is a perfect example).

 

[schwabach]

I know I didn't mean it that way and I did not read anything near that in the post you quoted.

Like George Washington said, " you don't go into battle with the Army you want, you go into battle with the army you have". Many coaches do not adjust their coaching to what their team needs to excel but rather drive the ship as if they are coaching a boys sport, a professional sport, older players, etc.-players they want but don't have. (Our HS coach is a perfect example).

Actually, good leaders can assess the skills they have and use them effectively. Even at the professional level, not all, say, quarterbacks are created equal and a team better pick a QB who fits their offense or be able to tailor the offense to suit the skills of the QB.

 

[marriard]

I'm not sure if you are meaning to or not, but this sounds very close to "My DD is more important than team dynamics and it doesn't matter that she is in there for an inning or a day....She is the most important person on the team and everyone else should suck it up."
Speaking personally, that type of player has no place on my HS team, and no place on my summer team. I don't care how talented she is. I have a dozen girls to think about and one girl coming in with that attitude on a single tournament isn't going to disrupt the dynamic on my team. She will not be asked back to play and if any coach asks my opinion of her I will tell them of my experience. Is that really what you want for your kid?

If your team dynamic involves your catcher telling her pitcher that it "doesn't matter what kind of pitcher you are, I am only calling fast balls", then it is your team dynamic that is out of whack so my DD wont be back to play anyway. Not saying this is you or your teams - but that is clearly what the OP has said happened here.

If my DD has the attitude of asking 'Why?' and the answer is 'Just because, shut up and do it' then the problem is not with my DD.

I am not sure where you are getting the 'everyone else should suck it up?' portion? Is it not fair for a pitcher to ask what is the plan? or how are we going to get this batter out? Or do you believe they should just be remote-controlled human pitching machines who just go ahead and do what they are told with no understanding?

 

[YOCOACH]

Here's what it comes down to. The catcher and pitcher have to be on the same page so to speak in order to achieve success. The catcher could easily make a fool of the pitcher by calling nothing but the same pitch over and over letting the other team pretty much have batting practice once the speed is timed up. The same could be said of any pitcher. A pitcher can easily make a catcher look bad simply by throwing any pitch other than what was called and putting it in the dirt. It doesn't matter either way. You have to have both in order to succeed. Both need to know the game plan going into any situation and both need to give naximum effort in order to achieve these goals. If either one shuts down or doesn't give the team 110%, even if they're losing, then I, for one, will not ask them back the following year and they sill see limited playing time. Attitude and effort are things all college coaches want to see in every facet of the game from pitching to catching to fielding to hitting. I simply refuse to have a girl on the team that quits on them even if we're down by 15 runs.

 

[JAD]

Respect has to be earned. I've seen plenty of "experienced' catchers who I wouldn't trust with pitch calling.

Most college coaches call pitches from the dugout, so not sure why TB catchers, and their parents, think they should do it....although I have seen some crappy pitch calling by coaches too.

 

[YOCOACH]

Most college coaches call pitches from the dugout, so not sure why TB catchers, and their parents, think they should do it....although I have seen some crappy pitch calling by coaches too.

JAD, I respect you're opinion on this but you're trying to compare apples to oranges. College coaches' livelihoods, no matter the level of play, depend upon the success of the program. I too have seen bad college pitch calling from the dugout. Usually, these college coaches and their staff has at most, a couple of seasons since they invariably lose a majority of their games. Softball has now become, for the most part, a revenue generating sport for those colleges that have a successful program and have developed some success. Depending upon the conference, division and with internet access, many parents, who never had access to watching their DD play college ball out of town, or even in town, can now watch for a "small" subscriber fee to a website no matter the level of play. Dont get me wrong, I don't believe it will ever reach the revenue generation of football but it still beats the field hockey and lacrosse ratings.

By the same token, any catcher learning their craft, including calling pitches, is never a bad thing. Many times, they can call a better game than the coaches simply because they see things the coaches missed since they are "right there" behind the batter. Truly good catchers, if not great catchers can see swing flaws, stances, the true strike zone, and if they are a good/great catcher, they can expand it, etc. Etc.