10U practice expectations

[cvsoftball]

She won't get it, she won't get it, she won't get it and then, one day she will. The softball gods and godesses will look down upon you both and smile, every blue in the land will make all the right calls, and meaningful circle time will become available on a regular basis.

 

[earlg3]

I wonder about this though. Sometimes you gotta feel what's going wrong to understand what's supposed to be right. Maybe not while you're still developing muscle memory, but being able to adjust and "find it" is important too.

Oh, I agree with this too. Teaching kids to understand the "why" of what is going wrong is key.

But, sometimes they know why it's messing up and are just getting too worked up and have mentally had it; at 10U, I just think taking a break to let them (and their parents) reset helps versus expecting them to have the mental/emotional intelligence to work through their bodies not doing what they want no matter how much they tell it to. Maybe older kids can work through that better as with age comes maturity, though.

 

[UKCATSFAN76]

My daughter has finally showed some desire/ambition after yesterday's game, commenting that she feels as good as some of the backup pitchers (she's not) and lamenting she doesn't get any in-game opportunities. So she has finally agreed to start actually practicing on her own so that (in theory) it will be undeniable to the coach, but I have no idea what sort of baseline is appropriate; how many pitches a day is too few/many and how many days a week is too few/many? I've seen some other threads which give me some ideas on what to do with her (and she knows a bit herself from her time with a private coach) but not how much to do it to maximize the benefit without risking injury.

Around 150 throws (3) days per week. Not all throws will be full pitches. Many will be just arm circles or from the K/W position.

Lots of drills for stability with a 10U pitcher. Learning to throw with their core muscles engaged will really help with control.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[uncdrew]

I wonder about this though. Sometimes you gotta feel what's going wrong to understand what's supposed to be right. Maybe not while you're still developing muscle memory, but being able to adjust and "find it" is important too.

Yeah, we're 14U now and we work a bit more to fix it, find it, figure it out. I'm speaking at the young ages when body awareness isn't there yet, they 100% think they're doing it right but obviously aren't, etc.

Though even now there are days her curve just doesn't move much and after 5 pitches or so we'll just stop and work on a different pitch. It's weird. Doesn't happen often. But every now and then it's just not working. I'd rather move to a different pitch then have her frustrated or making a momentarily bad habit permanent. The next day it's almost always back to being right. And if it's not quite right or not getting right, well that's what lessons are for. Having lessons twice a month lets us always catch things quickly and get them corrected. Most lessons we show up with something we want to work on or something we recognize isn't quite right. We love our instructor and it's usually a quick fix and we're back on track.

I also agree with people above that recommend pitching almost daily. Not for long, but it's just a good practice and a great way to get better fast. Might only be one bucket some days, or just 10-15 minutes some days. Other days she'll have the stamina and desire to go longer. Be flexible with her. Try to recognize her getting frustrated and do what you can to steer away from that.

There were several times I got angry and/or forced her to go longer than she should have. I am ashamed to admit I've made her cry by being hard on her. Tough love? Maybe? Me taking out my frustrations on her? Probably. I'm glad I learned from it and haven't done that in years. And glad it didn't drive her away from the game she loves.

 

[Northball]

...There were several times I got angry...

Sometimes getting DD to go practice was like pulling teeth. You really walk a fine line with pushing vs. letting her fail. As she matured, she knew she had to do it, even if she didn't feel like it.
A few times during sessions, I could tell she was just being lazy, no snap, no movement, mechanics falling apart; just trying to burn time and reps to get through it. My eyebrows would furrow and the ball would start snapping back at her a little harder...she got the message.

 

[CoachCeetar]

Somewhere this year we crossed from softball being something somewhat interesting that I made her do, to something she wants to do and enjoys. Learning to pitch was part of that, but I feel like I'm still always walking that line between pushing her to practice more, get better, try harder, etc and her not being that into softball.

She's 9, and we'll still hopefully be playing second-division 10U next year but I'm also focused on that line between "letting her develop that drive and push to be better herself" vs "Not good enough to get the reps and positions she wants and losing interest in softball as a result"