Catcher Dads as well.
New HC told her not to shift to receive the ball after giving the sign. He said it is only going to confuse the pitcher. Guess he hasn't seen Paige Halstead catch. I wonder if he has seen a college game.
HS ball can be frustrating, especially for Pitcher Daddies. You have to step and back and look at what is really happening on the field.
1) Don't make excuses for your DD. It is really easy to blame the coach, the weather, the umpire, the catcher, whoever. (True story: At a game last year, a batter hit a line drive off the RF wall. Pitcher Daddy blamed RF for not knowing a proper drop step.) Your DD has to adapt and learn how to win games. Saying, "Oh, honey, it is not your fault" is not helpful.
2) HS ball presents a different set of challenges than TB. Your DD hasn't adapted yet. HS ball isn't easy, especially in Texas.
3) The whole "pitch sequence" thing is a myth for TB and HS ball. Most TB and HS pitchers don't have any breaking pitches in the first place.
A kid with decent speed throwing over the black part of the plate and hitting her corners 10/10 times, will do great.
4) The use of "drop ball/rise ball/curve ball/screwball" is done to humor most pitchers.
I readily admit that I am not a fan of high school softball. DD's program was extremely weak, making the entire process painful for the entire family. By "weak" I mean that her team had exactly one travel ball player on the roster (DD) and was consistently playing against other schools that had travel ball players at every position. That said, we tried to cope with it as best as we could. DD enjoyed playing with her friends but did get frustrated with the lack of effort exhibited by some of them (skipping practices with no good reason and no consequences). My biggest issue with the coaching staff was about what I would consider basic fundamentals. As an example, I remember one play when the team had a runner on third with less than 2 outs. Deep fly ball was hit. Runner went halfway home and stood waiting to see if the ball would be caught. When it was, she retreated to 3rd base. Meanwhile, HC was standing at 3rd base the entire time providing no direction at all. After the game she asked me for some input (as she often did -- she knew i was an experienced coach). I tried to be positive, but mentioned that particular play. Her response was that the players should know better. I don't disagree, but these are players with virtually no experience. The 3rd base coach needs to take that into consideration, and help the players along. A few games later, the same thing happened. Again, no direction from the coach. Extremely frustrating, but I knew at that point that there was not going to be much improvement. Thankfully high school softball is behind us now. We had all hoped for a positive experience, but it just wasn't there.
I'm going to laugh if years from now your daughter tells people that the HS softball experience was her favorite .
I hear you though. HS ball is especially taxing on the parents.
How disappointing so far. My DD makes varsity and is the main pitcher as a freshman. Now after 3 games it has become obvious that the HC has no clue how to call pitches much less coach the girls on offense or defense. He has continued to call curveballs over and over though my daughter has told him twice that it is her weakest pitch. He avoids her best pitches, he doesn’t know how to set up batters then strike them out. In last nights game my DD’s last two inning, it looked like he had started to figure it out and was striking girls out in 3 or 4 pitches. I mentioned it to my daughter after the game and she said that’s when she started throwing what was needed and not what he was calling.
I keep telling her she needs to go talk to him about this and try to convince him to try calling her using the pitches that she knows will work in the correct sequences. Then if he still doesn’t listen to either start shaking him off or just throw what’s needed.
Someone tell me things will get better.
In two more weeks, I will become ignorant, won't know what I am doing and most probably ruin some star athlete's career. Looking forward to it.
4) The use of "drop ball/rise ball/curve ball/screwball" is done to humor most pitchers.