Basketball / softball

Originally Posted by ambern11 View Post
It frustrates me as a 12 year old she is already having to pick a single sport. I realize that may be an unpopular opinion here. I just feel like doing one thing year rounds leads to burnout for many kids, and also overuse of the same muscles/ligaments/tendons constantly. I'm not a professional, but I am a parent and I would probably tell any team at 12u no thanks if my kid couldn't ever do other things she wanted to do

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bmakj said:

hear hear . . . wont add anything else, summed it up, 12 is too soon to ask a kid to do just one (if they absolutely want that, that is a different story).

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Agreed. Our DD swims competitively....that's a 5-6 day a week commitment for practices. We told her coach...we'll be there 3x a week during fall ball, 4x during winter (we have a Softball team practice 1x a week over the winter for those girls who'd like to attend) and she'll be there on non softball nights during spring/summer. Swimming takes priority on weekends during the winter (no outdoor tournaments here in the PNW during winter).

For our team, 14U, ....we ask our players to put Softball as the priority for the spring and summer. Fall and winter your "other sports" if you have one take the priority. We want a well rounded athlete...build the athlete first and the softball player second. That said our pitchers still are working on their own during the week...and most of our girls are hitting 1x if not more during the winter, outside of our 1x a week practice.

Chris8 said:

Agreed. Our DD swims competitively....that's a 5-6 day a week commitment for practices. We told her coach...we'll be there 3x a week during fall ball, 4x during winter (we have a Softball team practice 1x a week over the winter for those girls who'd like to attend) and she'll be there on non softball nights during spring/summer. Swimming takes priority on weekends during the winter (no outdoor tournaments here in the PNW during winter).

For our team, 14U, ....we ask our players to put Softball as the priority for the spring and summer. Fall and winter your "other sports" if you have one take the priority. We want a well rounded athlete...build the athlete first and the softball player second. That said our pitchers still are working on their own during the week...and most of our girls are hitting 1x if not more during the winter, outside of our 1x a week practice.

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Yes..this is what our team does and we are a high level pgf softball program. Spring and summer belong to softball. Fall and winter are for other sports and whatever lessons you get in. We do not even have team functions in November and December....

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Twin DD's both playing high level travel ball (pitcher/CF and Catcher/3rd) which as we all know, is just about all year round. We did stop playing club BB a couple years back but both play HS Hoops and HS Softball (Fall sport here), they are in their Junior year and are also very active in other school activities and maintaining 4 something GPA's. Also played Lacrosse and Volleyball all through middle school. It's not uncommon to finish one practice and head over for an open gym or strength & conditioning session with the other team. Obviously we are big proponents of the multi sport athlete approach and I believe it helps balance out both the physical and mental aspects of playing just one sport. It's a choice and you need to help them with it. As you are finding out coaches will usually put their sport as the top priority for your kid (not always but...). This is where that parental guidance comes in!

At some point it will become more clear what your DD's preferences and priorities are. My girls have chosen Softball as their #1 passion but they still work regularly on their hoops skills... Expectations from all of their coaches are for them to be there 100% when needed (games, special events, etc.) during each sports season. It's pretty straightforward really. There has been a lot of discussion on these boards in the past about whether college coaches like the multi-sport athlete or the singular, one-trick pony...do a search and read up on it for yourself if playing in college is a goal for your DD.

DD played AAU basketball in 5th and 6th grade and then decided in 7th that she needed to give it up. To her, it was clear that she would probably get a lot further in softball than in basketball. I thought she had potential at basketball, but that was her thought process. I'm not sure how some girls I see do travel softball and track in the spring in high school, but some do. I don't know how that works.

We are also huge proponents of playing multiple sports. Older DD is 14 and Younger DD is 11. It’s fall, which means softball for ODD and softball, cross country, and soccer for YDD. Yes, we manage them all. Our school season ended last week, so older DD is moving into school basketball and fall travel softball. Younger DD will continue with XC until the season ends and will start basketball and continue soccer.

It’s crazy, but I firmly believe the skills they are learning are invaluable.


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In 7th grade my dd ran track, ayso soccer and travel softball all at the same time. Basketball and volleyball were earlier in the year. I stood up at a softball org meeting and basically dared them to tell me she couldn’t play more then one sport. Some parents on the 10u team were pushing for the rule that the girls couldn’t play anything else. It got heated and I asked them to provide 1 example of when playing multiple sports hurt any of the teams in the organization. Just 1 example of a game impacted. Of course no one could. It’s ridiculous to insist on kids at 12 only playing 1 sport. I am proud to say my dd followed in Jenny Finches footsteps by playing softball for her HS and travel while also playing volleyball and basketball at the HS. Only my dd did her one better by also playing in the band.

My issue is wether your playing one sport or many about everyone has chosen
a “main” sport. My daughter has not chosen a main sport. Softball and basketball
are very much in her interest. Wish they had more all star type of events for
softball and basketball. It seems like there’s no in between your either travel or
low level. Our basketball team in my opinion is getting more behind every
year at the schools.

My DD#3 lettered in 4 sports in HS, including softball and basketball.

Your DD can be good enough to start at basketball and softball without playing travel ball. She won't be outstanding at either sport without playing travel ball.

A couple of points:

THE 100,000 RULE

The key is the "100,000" rule--you want to be really good at something, you need to do it 100,000 times. Whether it is swing the bat, shooting a ball, or pitching, she has got to do it 100,000 times.

Take shooting a basketball... that is 100 shots for 1000 days. Including changing clothes and washing up afterwards, it takes about 90 minutes to do 100 shots. So, basically your are looking at 3 years.

OTHER KIDS MIGHT CATCH UP

Kids develop physically at different rates. So, it is entirely possible that your DD will not be "good" at basketball or softball even with extra training.

At 12YOA, there was another kid who was a much better basketball player than my DD#3. Fast forward 3 years--the other kid couldn't make the sophomore basketball team. My DD#3 was starting on the varsity team

Why? At 15YOA, my DD was 6'1". The other kid was 5'3"--the same height she was at 12YOA.

This happens with softball as well. Girls sometimes don't transition well into their adult body.

INTERNAL TEAM COMPETITION

The prime motivation for a kid is playing time (PT).

Your DD needs to learn how to compete against players on her own team for PT. The competition for PT is what makes your DD a better player.

She needs to be on teams which have players as good as she is. She has to learn what it takes to impress a coach during practice and during a game.

I think at some point you have to just say "no".
If it's not best for your DD to commit to one sport, "no we will play both" and I wouldn't really care if the coach didn't like that or not. If they want to part ways with us then ok. But you do what's best for your family at all times and not worry about the rest.