Why Do I Feel Like Calling It Quits After the First 5 Minutes??

DD is 9 almost 10, she has been working at pitching for over a year now, talks about pitching, walks around pitching imaginary balls, all good!! But the first 5-10 minutes of every practice makes me want to want to bang my head into the wall!! "But why do I have to do that drill", "I dont like that drill" "Thats stupid", once we get going everything is fine (most of the time). Is this normal for a girl her age?

BTW, every practice starts with "would you like to practice tonight?", not you need to practice

Thank you in advance for any advice and potential brain injury prevention.

You are not alone. This is a VERY common tale...even for non-pitchers. IMO, it's probably more rare that these battles DON'T happen in the parent-kid coaching dynamic.

I've been working with my DD since she was 8yo, and continue to face the same battles at 11yo. One thing that helped me/us was being willing to shut it down and walk away, or being willing to let her shut it down and walk away. As for getting her to do the work that will help her game, my DD and I have had NUMEROUS conversations about this being her journey. I'm willing to put in the time it takes to learn what I need to know to help guide her, but she is the one who has to do the work. I will do whatever I can to help her reach her goals, but they are HER goals, not mine. I try to make sure everything we do has a purpose. That said, sometimes the purpose is to just loosen up and have fun. After all, it's a game. Some drills are more fun than others, but I always do my best to help her understand the reason for the drill, and how it relates to the bigger picture. IMO, NEVER do drills for the sake of doing drills.

Relax. Be patient. Sometimes, not "working" is the best work.

I like what Eric said. Softball is her thing. If she wants to be a pitcher she has to practice. If she doesn't want to, well, that's her choice. Pitching is the most labor intensive position there is. They have to want it. JMO...

Thank you Eric, as I have always suspected, I think the issue is the parent/child dynamic, her PC could ask her to run barefoot through hot burning coals and she would do it with a smile. All kidding aside, if any drill is introduced by me outside of her normal warm up, I get immediate resistance, but knowing I am not alone makes me feel better.

ndame88, first thing I'll tell you is she's 9-10 years old. KEEP THAT IN MIND.

Second what you, and every parent forgets is, PRACTICE IS BORING!!!! Kids of all ages get bored. Especially this time of year when they've been cooped up inside for practice and want to play games, not drills, practice. My question is, what drill(s) is she doing that she hates?

Also, make sure she takes frequent breaks. The rule of thumb is "one minute of attention span per year of age". You have to honor that. IT"S BORING to practice. And if drink breaks aren't happening, then she will get bored and the Family Feud will start quickly. It doesn't have to be a 10 minute break.. Just a 60 second break to catch breath, talk about what is going on, get a drink,

Bill

Bill, you forgot to mention that the parent needs to get an adult drink

Hillhouse said:

It doesn't have to be a 10 minute break.. Just a 60 second break to catch breath, talk about what is going on, get a drink,

Bill

Click to expand...

Thank you Bill, I get it, to a 9 year old drills are boring, I try my best to explain the "why" behind them, like the two step drill I wanted to work on tonight, she lacks leg drive which I think prevents her from getting all the way open, but in her mind, it's all about just getting on the rubber and pitching, the details don't matter. I guess if being a bucket dad was easy, everyone would do it.

Hillhouse said:

ndame88, first thing I'll tell you is she's 9-10 years old. KEEP THAT IN MIND.

Second what you, and every parent forgets is, PRACTICE IS BORING!!!! Kids of all ages get bored. Especially this time of year when they've been cooped up inside for practice and want to play games, not drills, practice. My question is, what drill(s) is she doing that she hates?

Also, make sure she takes frequent breaks. The rule of thumb is "one minute of attention span per year of age". You have to honor that. IT"S BORING to practice. And if drink breaks aren't happening, then she will get bored and the Family Feud will start quickly. It doesn't have to be a 10 minute break.. Just a 60 second break to catch breath, talk about what is going on, get a drink,

Bill

Click to expand...

I've worked with a lot of young kids over the years. One of the things adults fail to realize is a young player's ability to understand things. The biggest hurdle is to explain things to them in a context they understand already. Trying to explain the big picture to them can be hard for them to understand. At that age their ability for abstract thinking is limited in most cases.

The analogy I use with them is learning how to write. They can understand the process because they've been through it already. They know they were taught how to hold the pencil. How to write letters, words, sentences, paragraphs and beyond depending on the age of player. They understand learning to write the letters was boring, but it lead them to words and so on allowing them to put their thoughts in writing. They've been through the process of learning something from scratch.

Another thing I do with them and the parents is to start with shorter times for practice, slowly increasing the length a couple of minutes at a time. By doing that they learn to concentrate for longer intervals. As Bill mentioned, don't be afraid to stop and hit the reset button if things seem to be going in the wrong direction.

As has been said on here numerous times. It's a marathon. Patience and consistency are the keys.

Here is the thing, drills don't have to be boring. For example, when BB was 9, we did a few things during the drills she hated to make her compete. She is very competitive. For example, we had a lawn chair that I "hated." I would have her do drills throwing balls at that chair trying to break it. You know, if it was broken, Mom would have to agree to get me a new one. We took a ball and put it on a tee for a couple of drills. Knock the ball off. I put a softball whiffle ball on a string and put it over the strike zone so she could try to hit it. Could she hit x spot x amount of times with x drill? I think you get the point. My dd is very competitive and so, this worked and I could make these gimmicks as hard as I wanted. I'd be careful with that and take into account how competitive your dd is when if you consider doing this.

I second everything that has been said. One thing that helped when DD was 9 and just starting was explaining how a house is built. I'd ask " would you build the roof first or the foundation? Would you paint he walls before building the walls? Then I'd explain how drills are foundation and walls ..... You get the picture.
As she's gotten older - I don't get the "drills are boring or I don't like that drill". We mix up the drills, we focus on different things, I've let her decide what we are working on, sometimes we have music going and sometimes..... This is a big one.....

I just put on my Bluetooth headset and just catch. Now that bugs her - lol. It's my time/way of being a brat. The usual response I get - you can't give me corrections if your listen to music. TOUCHÉ

Keep it fun, mix it up and breaks in between. One of the field we practice at has a park near by.. When's he was 9 her breaks would be to go play in the park for few minutes - if she earned it.
Last bit of advice - something you just have to ignore.