Calling all College Softball Parents

DD missed a lot of parties and showed up in her SB uniform and dirty to many middle school parties but she never complained about it or having to practice. She wasn't the best and didn't work at becoming the best. She worked hard enough to have a number of colleges recruit her and I thought when the Mid Major D1 she was looking at offered we were set. She liked to play but it was on her terms.

I'd say if you are giving up your time and thousands of dollars for her to play high level travel then there has to be an expectation on the kid. Lay it out. If I'm devoting this much of my time and this much money then your contribution is this....then you have to decide if what she puts in is enough for you.

It is more about attaining long term goals.

When my DD#1 was around 12 YOA, a coach that *she* respected told my DD that she needed to throw 100,000 pitches to be "good". That works out to about 100 pitches a day everyday for 3 years.

So, we set up a plan of throwing 100 pitches (not inclusive of warmups) a day 3 or 4 days a week. We hit 100,000 pitches sometime around her 16th birthday. The coach was right.

With DD#3 (hoops player), we set a goal for 1 hour of shooting practice each day when she was 12. She would often go well over the 1 hour. If I was out there with her, my wife would often have to drag both of us in for supper.

The best way to handle the "practice" side of sports:

1) Get your DD to commit to long term goals. You need specifics.
2) She and you develop a plan for attaining the goals.
3) Execute the plan.

When she doesn't want to practice, remind her of the goal and the plan. Is it pushing? Perhaps. But, it puts more responsibility on her rather than you.