Need Help Setting Goals for Fall and Winter....

Well put CJ and this is what I have planned for the first lesson. Getting into the ready position and catch.

I only plan to do 30 minutes at a time as more than that one on one for her is just too much. 1 hour if she has a softball buddy over. They say you only have about 1 minute of attention span for each year of life. I can see this has really worked for her. We changed from 1 hour pitching lessons that were almost 2 hours by the time we finished the warm ups, arguing for a good finish and such. Our new PC only instructs for 30 minutes period. We warm up for 15 minutes prior and she seems to have come farther in 3 weeks with him than 2 months the other way and isn't in meltdown mode(both of us actually) at the end.

I have found some fun drills on Amazon that I might try and stretch it out a bit if I can. But when they are done, it is pointless to keep going--at least for us.
GG

When you say "the first lesson", do you mean the first day, or are you calling a lesson the objective you are seeking and not going onto the next until the first is mastered? Progressing beyond simple pitch and catch when it's not done correctly will do no benefit to her.

I just mean the first day of it. We will only do it once a week since our plate is full with pitching and hitting OH AND Volleyball! Honestly, If we can do something, anything 30 minutes a week from now until the spring season for fielding I will be thrilled. We won't carry on until we have established. Luckily, she does take direction very very well, she just hasn't been given much and it has taken me a couple of seasons to realize it ain't gonna get done on the ball field. You need to learn a lot of skills on your own, team practice is more for learning to work on a team and with a team.

GG

One of the added benefits of your DD being a pitcher is she will get in a lot of overhand throws and catching reps in when she warms up before her drills and will catch the ball 100 plus times every time she pitches, whether its practice or in the game. You can kill two birds with one stone by having her receive the ball correctly (i.e. two hands catching, quick transfer of the ball to the throwing hand, etc.).

I think its great that you have long term goals laid out but make sure its not too structured and scheduled a routine that the fun of the game is "instructed" out of her. I know things have changed somewhat since I was a kid, but my buddies and I would informally play baseball, basketball, and soccer without adult supervision and we enjoyed the competition among friends that wasn't so structured. Our game improved a lot and then when we did have, for example, our weekly soccer practice, our skills had improved. In most communities this "kid play" is almost completely gone now and is replaced with very organized and structured sport environment run by parents.

Totally agree! I am trying to recruit a few of her softball buddies to come over and play/practice. I have found kids learn better in small groups because it can be fun. No one seems to want to play for fun anymore. Too much pressure all the way around I guess.

I got this advice many years ago and have tried to stay true to it. Go to lessons, let the coaches coach. Both of you work on the things learned at lessons at home together. You speak of attention span and goals. Work on no more that two things at a time. For example when begining pitching focus on not leaning and foot drag during a work out. I am not saying let everything else suffer,just that have a purpose to a workout. There are many things that can go wrong mechanically and trying to correct them all at once is impossible. For goals we would keep count of mechanically correct pitches vs wrong ones. I would not give credit for a good pitch thrown wrong for example and go from there. The next goals could be locations and keep track and try to improve each workout.

Exactly right and this is why I love our new PC. He addresses only 1 or 2 things at each practice and then does drills and assigns homework based on that.