would you accept....

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May 6, 2015
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(FYI, posted in coaching forum as well) hold a practice in an indoor facility where the parents are "not invited" into the facility (10u team)? indoor facility is warehouse in a light industrial center. Team does hitting work at this facility, there is a cage, and several other stations (trunk rotation, bottom hand tee work, tee work, bunting station with soft toss, etc.). Team has had several practices already here, parents milled about or brought chairs in. last practice there, also had a couple of guest players who were going to join us for tournament that weekend (practice was thursday, tournament got rained out), and a lot of siblings, other kids. I think this is why the change (ie parents no longer invited in), several of the kids were pretty rowdy, flinging balls across pool table there, messing with one training tool (almost like a heavy bag on a directional swivel, for developing power I guess).

other things I am not happy about:

have one girl at plate, rest of team lined up along 3rd base line, girl at plate is trying to lay down bunt, rest of team is squaring up to pitch as well (half hour of this total)?

have ALL girls line up at home, and one by one have them run to first, each time through line varying slightly (run through, turn, turn and back, turn and go, again, about 30 minutes)?

for the entire rest of practice (other than 10 minutes of throwing as warmups) have 6-7 girls in field, coach pitches to a batter, after about 15-20 pitches batter runs, then they play situational as the runners move. once runner comes home second time, they go out in field, another fielder comes in.

given all the above, then, when girls get inattentive/restless/talkative, they talk about "we can just run instead". what do they expect when girls are standing around most of the time, or squaring up to bunt 50+ times in a row?
 

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
Doesn't sound like a program that I would recommend.
Have you already paid? If you have, then I don't expect a refund is in the cards. You could still look around to see what else is available and jump ship if you find a better fit. What part of the country are you in?

It sounds like they had good reason to restrict attendance, but they handled it poorly. after my experience with travel BB, I do not see any reason to keep parents from attending practice. If there are a lot of kids on the team/at the practice, the team should solicit help from the parents (teach them what to do/how to run a station).
DDs former program had some decent indoor practices and the rest were ridiculous. Program Director would advertise mandatory practice but had no plan and would let his favorites come and go as they pleased.
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
we probably are going to look for something different, our first experience with travel softball, and indoor winter workouts were pretty good. each week, one was at warehouse for hitting, one was indoor at local school gym, where they got broken down into groups, and worked on skills. it seems coaches fell in love with having full fields for outdoor, and think they must use all kids all together in one drill. just so late now for this spring.

plus, we have not played a game yet, were originally scheduled to do 4 tournaments, DD could only do three date wise (the fourth she can do sunday, not saturday, and we informed coaches of this as soon as we knew, family function). first one rained out, and they pulled out of another, looks like they may add one more, but date if iffy if DD can do it (if we had known in advance, it would be different). and the scrimmages/friendlies they talked about have not materialized. so now it looks like she will play one tournament and one sunday game of another tournament. and have not seen any progression in girls defensive skills since they moved outdoors.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
(FYI, posted in coaching forum as well) hold a practice in an indoor facility where the parents are "not invited" into the facility (10u team)?

Assuming I had checked out the coach, it wouldn't bother me. A simpler approach is for the coach to say, "Control your kids or get out." But, not big dea.l.

have one girl at plate, rest of team lined up along 3rd base line, girl at plate is trying to lay down bunt, rest of team is squaring up to pitch as well (half hour of this total)?

Waste of time.

have ALL girls line up at home, and one by one have them run to first, each time through line varying slightly (run through, turn, turn and back, turn and go, again, about 30 minutes)?

I would have to see it. Might be OK. Running to first is important. If it were done every practice, then it is not OK. If it was done once, I don't see a problem.

for the entire rest of practice (other than 10 minutes of throwing as warmups) have 6-7 girls in field, coach pitches to a batter, after about 15-20 pitches batter runs, then they play situational as the runners move.

Depends upon the skill level of the girls.

Situational practice is valuable *after* the girls have demonstrated good, sound defensive basics.

It is hard to believe a 10U team is that good, but I guess anything is possible.

when girls get inattentive/restless/talkative, they talk about "we can just run instead".

The coach doesn't know what he is doing. Kids at any age get bored...as soon as the coach notice that the team is losing focus, then it is time to change drills.

To keep 10U (or 12U or 14U or 16U or 18U) interesting, a coaching staff has to work their rear ends off.
 
Apr 6, 2017
328
28
I'd understand not wanting a bunch of family running around practice but as a parent I wouldn't be ok with
Closed practice at such a young age. Sounds like a boring practice but he's the coach. Hard to be so serious at 10u.
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
exactly, given the limited space, I could see saying no other kids, but parents, we all basically stood to one end or one side and talked amongst ourselves, or watched. trouble is some do not wnat to control their other kids.

the situational work ends up being chasing (and we do not have full outfield for backup) errant throws and missed catches. the base running has been several practices, I have no problem with base running drills, just with 9 girls standing watching one do the drill. could have 3 of those girls doing pop fly work (desperately needed in outfield), 3 doing ground ball practice. then rotate. too much standing and watching.
 
Feb 7, 2013
3,188
48
First off, softball and baseball isn't meant to be played or practiced indoors. I would limit these type of facilities to just occasionally to work on individual hitting or pitching practice (unless weather forces you indoors). There is too much standing around, the field conditions are not real (artificial turf and no real grass or dirt), limited space, it's loud and it's crowded (limited space), etc.

To the OP question, while most of those drills are useless or a bad use of time, I can see where a coach would not like a bunch of families with little kids running all around the facility and parents coaching there kids during the practice. My Bro-in-law lives in NY and he has his youth baseball team (10 & 11yos) go to an indoor facility and the parents drop the kids off or they wait in the waiting area/lobby closed off from the practice areas. I don't see this being an issue for the families.

The bigger question is do you believe in the coaching staff and is your DD gettng the development and skillset she needs to continue to grow in the sport. If not, move on...
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
bmakj...good coaches at any level set up several stations, and have the kids rotate between stations.

For throwing and fielding, the key is volume...lots and lots of ground balls, catching popups, and throwing. At the young ages, the goal is to cram as many touches as possible into each practice.

Base running and situational work are red herrings at the younger ages.

Good coaches look at practice time like gold...there is only so much of it, and it is valuable. You have to put time into what creates the most value--outs on defense and runs on offense.

Situational work and base running is about *one base*. At advanced levels of softball/baseball, one base is very important. At 10U...not so much.

Based upon your description, the coach is lost.
 
Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
exactly, given the limited space, I could see saying no other kids, but parents, we all basically stood to one end or one side and talked amongst ourselves, or watched. trouble is some do not wnat to control their other kids.

Therein is your problem. It's not the coaches fault that some of the parents may feel this is a playground and want to let their kids run with minimal supervision.

I think Sluggers covered the coaching aspect of the practice pretty well.

Unfortunately, at 10U you usually get a parent coach who is learning how to coach along with the players learning. It can be frustrating. I remember my first foray into coaching at the rec level. It was not good. I didn't realize how much I didn't know at the time. After my DD played for a travel team with no parent coaching I saw how to run some real practices. Took a lot of mental notes.
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
yes, it is a parent, not certain if they have coached fastpitch before, they played in college. and I too was once a first time rec coach (coached rec coach pitch for 2, rec 10u for 2 years), so I understand mistakes, but winter indoor practices seemed to focus on skills and reps, had no idea it was all going to fall apart when they moved outside, ie it is regressing, not progressing. if I had known this was how it was going to be once they moved outside, would have looked for alternate situations.

and as far as not the coaches fault that some parents do not control their kids, true, but neither is it the other parents fault either (it is either just me or just DW and me at practices, other kids are busy with their own activities). I think a no other kids other than players is a lot more sensible than a no parents inside warehouse policy. I have issues with someone telling me I cannot observe their interactions with my child.
 

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