If she is swinging a 31" bat OK, it might be a better step to get her into a -10 in the interim. Find a CF8 31/21 at a good price and let her tear it up.
I want a smart outfielder with good skills and excellent communication in CF. She will run the show for four other fielders (SS, 2B, RF, LF) so I want a good decision-maker out there. She also needs to understand her role well and make those around her better. She needs to be loud and unafraid...
HUGE transition from 10U to 12U, particularly for smaller girls or girls with smaller hands.
She'll grow. Just keep on putting in the work and it'll come. The best advice I can give is don't worry about adding more pitches to her repertoire ... worry more about location and being able to throw...
This is difficult to answer without context.
if a girl has a high number of called strikes, I need to know a few things about her. Does she always take the first pitch? What kind of pitches is she taking (type, location, etc.)? Is she taking good, hittable pitches? All these can mean different...
Over the decades, most of the best teams I've played against have had parent coaches. I am talking not just a majority, but like 90%+.
I get a kick out of people who are always talking about a "non-parent-coached" team as being somehow superior to the alternative. I have just never seen that to...
I think this is a very valid way of handling the situation in a school ball setting. ^^^^
However, if you want to mix in a little bit of travel ball wisdom, I'll try to impart some of mine:
Having only two games left is the perfect time to cut her. You have lost control of the situation...
Something about this bothers me a bit and I presume it bothered the ump, too.
First, she isn't taking a very good angle to get way behind home plate, which is where she'd want to be to direct the runner coming from 3B. She takes an angle almost directly at home plate, instead.
Second, she...
FP26 beat me to it. They're a bunch of converted SS.
It is a shame, really. I know colleges like to recruit SS and turned them into everything else but there are some really good outfielders playing in the higher travel ball ranks. Really, really good.
Oh, and one more thing to the OP ..... on the matter of morals and ethics:
Tell your org that we as softball coaches and organizations are not here to take a dump on girls' dreams. We are here to help them make their dreams come true.
BTW, OP ..... please give that girl my love and tell her I respect the hell out of what she's doing. You tell her there is an old softball coach out there rooting for her.
Really late to this thread ... busy weekend ... so sorry that I am adding my $0.02 sort of after the fact.
However, although I have nothing to add in terms of advice for our OP that already hasn't been said, I just wanted to let everyone here know that it warms my heart that so many of you came...
The softball teams up there adhere to the rule. I guess the fact that the TB teams are year-round could be why. Either way, it looks like the high school coaches could only coach the girls for about a month or two the way I am reading it. They play a lot in the Fall because that is the only time...
Your state's high school sports governing body should be able to help. Again, I only know of one state but I only travel the West Coast. I have heard there are more but could not tell you if this is true or which states those might be.
There isn't a restriction on a high school coach coaching a summer team. Just a restriction on high school coaches coaching their high school girls on a summer team.
The main reason for the rule is so high school teams don't practice together outside the high school season.
Secondary reasons are the undue influence that players might feel they are under to play for a certain travel team so they have a better chance at making their high school team, the...
I only travel the West Coast but one of the five states I recruit (Washington) does not allow a high school coach to have any coaching contact with a girl who attends or will attend his/her high school once that player has reached the age of 13.
Essentially, you can coach, but only 12U and...