How does your TB team feel about players playing pickup for other teams?

Sometimes TB coaches need to be put in their place. For instance when my DD was in 6th grade and she told her travel coach that she was going to play on the middle school team (not all girls on the team had middle school ball). He made a comment to her about if I let you play..... That was the wrong comment to make and got pulled back down to earth real quick. It is amazing to me that some coaches believe it is their right to dictate everything an athlete can do because they play on a team that they coach.

DRDRODD said:

Sometimes TB coaches need to be put in their place. For instance when my DD was in 6th grade and she told her travel coach that she was going to play on the middle school team (not all girls on the team had middle school ball). He made a comment to her about if I let you play..... That was the wrong comment to make and got pulled back down to earth real quick. It is amazing to me that some coaches believe it is their right to dictate everything an athlete can do because they play on a team that they coach.

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Those that have the Gold make the rules. In many cases, it's the players that have the gold so to speak. That's why, whenever we ran into a HC that didn't want my DD playing for someone else on the off weekends, which only happened once , we told him too bad and if he didn't like it, there were plenty of other teams that would take her in a heartbeat. That shut him up quick enough and when there were repercussions, we pulled up stakes. By that time, everyone knew my DD's SB reputation and that the HC was a D-bag(to use coresoftball20's favorite description). That team turned out to be a big hot mess two tournaments into the season and only went downhill from there. We're glad we ran when we did.

CoachChristine, when I read your post it screams to me that the direction your daughter wants to take softball and the direction that the team is headed are diverging. And I seriously question a coach that doesn’t want a kid to play when she hasn’t played all winter and his team isn’t starting for two weeks. If his priority is his players (not him) he would jump at the chance to get her on the field and he would want to know how it went when she got back.

Also: if she wants to play more softball and wants to play at a higher level of competition there is no shame ever in making a move. Don’t ever let anyone play that loyalty bs or the “but her friends” bs. It’s about the best competition you can reasonably find. Some won’t like that, it isn’t the easy way but I think it’s true.

Thank you all for the input. Part of me wishes I had let her play without mentioning it to the coaches—that whole, it’s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission. However, I’m supposed to be raising her better than that, lol.

I’m reluctant to buck the system. She’s only been with this team since this past fall season. I still haven’t gotten a good read on the HC, so I’m trying not to give him any reason to not play her.

As a side note, I forgot until yesterday that one of the AC’s dd is playing Little League, as well as our TB schedule. Otherwise, I would have brought that up.


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CoachChristine, I don't know what age group you're playing for now....sorry. However, no matter the age group with the exception of 10U, I would venture to say that most SB players have a better chance of getting injured playing other sports such as Basketball, Volleyball and even SB for their school teams than they do playing SB for another TB team.
The reason I say this is because I've been there done that. I've had players ruin shoulders playing MS Volleyball. I've had players in the past have broken ankles and hands due to school Basketball. I've had players shoulders and elbows ruined due to HS SB. Most of those coaches don't know or care enough about injuries to understand the ramifications of them and few schools have proper athletic trainers. OTOH, most TB, not all mind you, have an inherent necessity to keep their players healthy due to the small roster size versus the larger ones that many MS's and HS's carry. Plus, many TB coaches, such as myself, are trained in the concussion training, First -aid and CPR training just to name a few. So to use "getting injured" as an excuse IMO, is in itself, inexcusable. Add into that the fact that many coaches, such as myself, will only have a sub play intermittently, although as much as our other "bench players" play, the risk of injury is diminished even more.

The girls need field and live game time in order to progress IMO. Even if it's only a few innings oer game which is what I give most of my subs, it sure as heck beats sitting at home! The more game experience they get, the better off they are I their development.

I'm not saying the risk of injury isn't there. It's always there in any sport played. However, I can name you many more circumstances where injuries occur due to playing other sports for their school and their own TB team than I can name subbing for another team. In 15 years of coaching everything from Rec ball to TB through an 18U showcase team, I have yet to have a sub be injured playing for me.

The team DD played on last year would not allow the girls to guest play unless it was on another team in the same organization. That was impossible since the only other team in our organization had a huge roster and never needed a player. DD's team had 13 on the roster as well and girls were always hungry for more play time. It was not a good situation. DD was always in the top 9 nine and never sat - even when the coach said he was going to rotate players and have every girl sit 1 full game a weekend DD never sat. But still it made me crazy. The HC was very insecure, always afraid of losing players to another team, yet he was also very interested in taking shortcuts and picking up the "better player" instead of developing the girls he had.

DD now plays for a new coach who will actually offer his players up as guests on our off weekends. He believes the more game time a girl gets, the better she will be. I love it! And so does DD!

As for injuries - DD has been hurt playing softball, but she has also been injured playing basketball, soccer, volleyball and heck even riding a scooter down the street. Things happen.

Have been Coaching for 15+ years and we've never had a no guesting policy... If your team isn't playing much by all means get some reps. Here is the question to me, how much playing time is enough? We're in FL and take a month off middle of December till Middle of January. Also a month middle of July till middle of August. Play every other weekend the rest of the year, I would think that would be enough reps/playing time (possible exception of #3/4 Pitcher, #12 player on a roster)? I only let my daughter guest once/twice a year, because I feel that is adequate playing Time for her development (we are first year 12u team). Curious of thoughts from everyone, cause we have half our team guesting almost every off weekend. Sometimes I believe it's a little much

CoachChristine said:

Thank you all for the input. Part of me wishes I had let her play without mentioning it to the coaches—that whole, it’s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.

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That is the one thing I wouldn't do. Although I don't believe it's reasonable for a team to prohibit guest play, it's good manners to notify the coach before guest-playing for another team. As a matter of personal policy, my DD will only guest-play on a not-to-interfere basis with a team event, including practice.

I never have a problem with it unless it's a for a coach who constantly is trying to poach players.

Our organization has a strict "no pick-up" policy except within the organization. You can guest for a sister team, but that is it. We do play a ton of tournaments which started at the end of February so that is not an issue. Everyone is getting plenty of time and reps. We were off this past weekend but we had Rick Jeffries come out and work with the teams (joint practice with another big organization team in the area) and then we scrimmaged. So I guess no one really has any reason to pick-up with another team. Also, USSSA rules have changed here so that picking up is nearly impossible. Pick-up players are tied to your roster for 30 days after playing with you. Meaning you really can't pick up any players that play USA Elite Select or USSSA tourney ball.