A Tale of Two Teams

[Rick M]

DD has had a busy spring, and her performance has left me perplexed as to where she should be playing when the fall rolls around. In a nutshell: she is absolutely dominating in school ball and rec, and has been lost playing club.

Her 14B club team has been really uncompetitive, losing every game and she’s been a big part of the problem: a .540 OPS and a 10+ ERA. It’s been difficult to watch.

Meanwhile, she’s been playing both town travel on the rec side, along with middle school (the teams are the same, we got everyone to sign up for rec when the school season was in doubt over Covid). She’s been amazing on this team: 1.600 OPS, .850 ERA, one walk and 40 strikeouts in 31 innings.

So what do you do when your kid is dominating 14C but getting killed at 14B? Stay at the B level and hope she can raise her game, or let her pound the competition at C level? They both sound like recipes for losing interest in the game.


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[murphdog]

I’m a firm believe that you won’t get better without challenging yourself. If she’s getting the innings on the B team I’d probably keep her there.

 

[_MIA_]

DD has had a busy spring, and her performance has left me perplexed as to where she should be playing when the fall rolls around. In a nutshell: she is absolutely dominating in school ball and rec, and has been lost playing club.

Her 14B club team has been really uncompetitive, losing every game and she’s been a big part of the problem: a .540 OPS and a 10+ ERA. It’s been difficult to watch.

Meanwhile, she’s been playing both town travel on the rec side, along with middle school (the teams are the same, we got everyone to sign up for rec when the school season was in doubt over Covid). She’s been amazing on this team: 1.600 OPS, .850 ERA, one walk and 40 strikeouts in 31 innings.

So what do you do when your kid is dominating 14C but getting killed at 14B? Stay at the B level and hope she can raise her game, or let her pound the competition at C level? They both sound like recipes for losing interest in the game.


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Instead of hoping figure out what she needs to do to get the level she needs to be and get to it

 

[Wildfire]

Find a top level C team that plays some B tournaments.

 

[whiporee]

I think you have to try to identify why she's struggling at B. Is she walking too many or is she too slow for the hitters? If she struggles with power, teh solution to both is the same -- work on her location and her accuracy. If she wants to get better, have her thrown a hundred or so pitches a day until she can hit the low outside corner six or seven times out of ten. Then have her repeat it for the inside corner. In truth, for most 14 B teams, being able to throw those two pitches when you want to is is the difference in most pitching staffs. If she can throw it in the low to mid 40s, it's going to be enough to keep her in games.

What are her plans for high school and does she have a softball peer group? I know they can be very judgmental about C teams sometimes. and where is your team in 14? Are you first year or second year? What type of commitment is the rest of the team showing. Because unless she's walking a lot of batters, that ERA isn't totally on her, and to be honest, a 10 ERA over seven innings -- assuming it's coming off one of the software programs -- translates to five runs in most travel games. That's not a big request to ask of your team to be able to score five or six runs.

One thing I've learned with DD's journey is how important hitting is. Duh, I know. But if you can't hit consistently -- if your team doesn't have a culture of hitting -- then too much responsibility goes to the pitchers. A WHOLE lot of softball teams -- especially Bs -- live and die with their pitching staff. Everyone would have more fun if they spent more practice time hitting than running grounder drills again and again.

I know playing for a bad team -- and we do -- can make it a rough year. And I know it must be satisfying to step down and dominate -- heck, I see A players show up on Sundays all the time (amazing, isn't it, how many GC rosters have a 11 girls with names and then and then six or seven numbers? How many teams on a Sunday will bat girls without names on the jersey in the top of the lineup on Sundays. We had one this week who had guest hitters for three of their top five and five in their bat-9 lineup). And it's fun, but if her stats are that good, then what's the point? It's not a great accomplishment to dominate teams that can't compete with you. And even witht eh stats you're talking about, she's too good for C or Rec ball in your area.

 

[Rolling Hard]

In So Cal, its rec ball or TB. A,B,C,D,E, F and G. Nobody really cares. Its the HC or managers job to seek out and find like competition.

 

[So Cal Seth]

I think it depends on the OP's daughter's goals. Is softball for fun? Chasing scholarships? Does she want to play varsity in high school? I'd go with the team that helps best to achieve whatever goals those are.

 

[Rick M]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies, everyone. I guess I’m just really surprised by the discrepancy from B to C. I expect her to look better in school ball than against club teams in tournaments, but I’m shocked by how wide the gulf is.

DD’s priority is school ball. She’s not chasing any scholarships and plays club to sharpen her skills. Her goal is to play an important role on varsity when she moves up to high school.


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[whiporee]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies, everyone. I guess I’m just really surprised by the discrepancy from B to C. I expect her to look better in school ball than against club teams in tournaments, but I’m shocked by how wide the gulf is.

DD’s priority is school ball. She’s not chasing any scholarships and plays club to sharpen her skills. Her goal is to play an important role on varsity when she moves up to high school.


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Then she needs to stay on the B team. it will make a difference to her reputation when she gets to high school.

If I had it to do over again, I'd suggest DD spend most of her practice time on hitting, If you can hit, they'll find a spot for you.

The other thing I'd suggest is giving her specific goals for games. My DD's most recent goal is no lead off walks. No matter what, she doesn 't walk the first batter. And at her last tourney, that's what she did and it worked. Team still lost -- can't hit, no defense -- but she was able to feel good about a part of the game even in defeat.

Sports are team activities, of course, but softball pitching does lend itself to individual wins and losses. it might be worthwhile to focus on them, and while it would be great if the team won, as long as she's accomplishing her goals for the game, it's worthwhile.

 

[_MIA_]

Sports are team activities, of course, but softball pitching does lend itself to individual wins and losses. it might be worthwhile to focus on them, and while it would be great if the team won, as long as she's accomplishing her goals for the game, it's worthwhile.

Softball, and all teams sports, are very individual. Everybody has a job to do and if everybody does their individual job then things will usually go well (or at least as well as your talent allows)...

"Do your job" -Bill Belichick