Case study for softball coaches and other sports.
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- Feb 3, 2011
- 1,880
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When a player is with my team, I demand focus and their best effort. That's all I can really ask of her. I cannot hold a person's unwillingness to dramatically improve her skills with off-season work against her. I cannot make her want what I might want for her. She gives our team all that she is able to while still maintaining what she feels is balance in her life.
As our #2 pitcher and #3 hitter, Suzy is important to the success of our team and I hope that she'll stay around for seasons to come despite a less-than-100% year-round commitment to softball.
As our #2 pitcher and #3 hitter, Suzy is important to the success of our team and I hope that she'll stay around for seasons to come despite a less-than-100% year-round commitment to softball.
- Jul 26, 2010
- 3,554
- 0
Sounds like Suzy has a pretty good grasp on what she enjoys.
There is a fair argument to be said about adults trying to "steer" kids to make choices. Let's say that you think your little softball team is more important then anything Suzy has going on, and you convince Suzy to commit to softball, she gives up other sports and, because she's a naturally talented athlete and because she has good practice ethic, she becomes a great softball player. She gets a scholarship and goes and plays in a D1 school. Mission accomplished, right?
Well, in doing so, because of the lovely NCAA reality, you also destroyed the idea that Suzy would ever be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, a college volleyball player, ect. Every decision is a choice between different variables, and every decision has consequences. This is why, as adults, as mentors, as coaches, it is our job to provide truthful and accurate information to our players so that THEY can make the important decisions. It's their life.
-W
There is a fair argument to be said about adults trying to "steer" kids to make choices. Let's say that you think your little softball team is more important then anything Suzy has going on, and you convince Suzy to commit to softball, she gives up other sports and, because she's a naturally talented athlete and because she has good practice ethic, she becomes a great softball player. She gets a scholarship and goes and plays in a D1 school. Mission accomplished, right?
Well, in doing so, because of the lovely NCAA reality, you also destroyed the idea that Suzy would ever be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, a college volleyball player, ect. Every decision is a choice between different variables, and every decision has consequences. This is why, as adults, as mentors, as coaches, it is our job to provide truthful and accurate information to our players so that THEY can make the important decisions. It's their life.
-W
- Jun 11, 2010
- 17
- 0
Encourage Suzy to play other sports and let her 'rest' from softball in the off season. Yes, I know there are coaches out there saying in order to keep up with the Jones' you need to concentrate all year on one sport, but that is a myopic view.
Consider a few points:
-Repetitive Stress Injuries. More common in 1 sport athletes.
-Alternate sports help develop balanced athletes with attributes that help all sports.
-Why have Suzy choose what her ONE sport is now? If Jim Brown, one of the greatest football players of all time, were pushed into concentrating on one sport, it would have been basketball when he was in high school. And then, we never would have seen ol '32 on the gridiron
-Coaches need to relax on the younger ones. Let them play everything, even if it cuts into "THEIR" sport. Players have time to develop. Sammy Sosa didn't throw a baseball until he was 14 years old. Michelle Smith didn't start pitching until she was a sophomore in high school.
-Coaches need to step back and get a perspective. It's not about them.
-Last point: Consider player burnout. When a player plays one sport year round, the earlier they start, the more prone they are to burnout. I've known many a player to quit the game in their high school years, or even sooner, because they were DRIVEN out by their hard nosed parents or coaches that are blinded by the potential GLORY and wishful scholarships, living vicariously through the 'special' player, and pushing them to and past the player's limit. Let them live and develop naturally. Let them enjoy and develop a love for the sport. What's that worth on the field? Plenty.
Consider a few points:
-Repetitive Stress Injuries. More common in 1 sport athletes.
-Alternate sports help develop balanced athletes with attributes that help all sports.
-Why have Suzy choose what her ONE sport is now? If Jim Brown, one of the greatest football players of all time, were pushed into concentrating on one sport, it would have been basketball when he was in high school. And then, we never would have seen ol '32 on the gridiron
-Coaches need to relax on the younger ones. Let them play everything, even if it cuts into "THEIR" sport. Players have time to develop. Sammy Sosa didn't throw a baseball until he was 14 years old. Michelle Smith didn't start pitching until she was a sophomore in high school.
-Coaches need to step back and get a perspective. It's not about them.
-Last point: Consider player burnout. When a player plays one sport year round, the earlier they start, the more prone they are to burnout. I've known many a player to quit the game in their high school years, or even sooner, because they were DRIVEN out by their hard nosed parents or coaches that are blinded by the potential GLORY and wishful scholarships, living vicariously through the 'special' player, and pushing them to and past the player's limit. Let them live and develop naturally. Let them enjoy and develop a love for the sport. What's that worth on the field? Plenty.
- Jan 15, 2009
- 584
- 0
Funny example. Here is how it worked out where I live. Our "Suzy" pretty much exactly as you portrayed considered herself a volleyball player that played softball. 4 year starter for Varsity softball, did play summer ball at what most would consider a Rec level, great athlete. Senior year had multiple home runs for her team at sections and at state tournament for High School. Picks out a college for academics, walks on DIII softball team and has chance to see the field this year as a freshman. Her HS team mates that graduated with her all four played for the same Club program which arguably at the time was #1 in the state and attended Gold ASA Nationals twice and Oklahoma Hall of Fame ASA tournament once, Independence Day tourney in CO three times, and multiple other college recruiting tournaments. Of those 4, one is not playing, one working to make roster as a walk on at a DII, one is on partial scholarship to DII but redshirted and other is about #3 on depth chart as a catcher at a DIII school. Moral of the story to me is "Don't expect training to overcome athleticism in the long run. Better athletes can put in same work (and sometimes in much less time) to better end results".
Oddly enough I overheard a conversation of several team parents (14u team) discussing encouraging - some even mandating - their dds "specialize" in softball to the exclusion of other sports. Several of our girls are very good basketball players and participate in track and field also. 1 or 2 MAY have opportunity to play college ball (DIII, NAIA). I couldn't believe what I was hearing. That evening I watched a segment on ESPN on this very topic. NFL great, Mark Schlereth (who's son is a major league pitcher) and several "sports psychologists" all seemed to agree that you should encourage your child athletes to participate in several sports through high school. Schlereth has authored a book which includes this topic. I passed this on to those parents who seemed less than interested. This reinforced my ideas for my dd (who is better than avg pitcher and bb player) - who loves both during their seasons. Just my 2 cents.
If you look at UCLA's current roster, for example, about half of the players played 2 or more sports in high school so I don't necessarily think that multi-sport athletes no longer exist in softball. It just shows that some of the elite players are very good athletes that love more than one sport and are very competitive by nature. The other half specialized a little earlier and focused more on one sport. Seemed to work out for both types of athletes.
rulesmeister - while you can always point to one or two elite athletes that specialized later on in their career, the vast majority of top athletes in all sports start out very early learning their craft. Certainly you have heard of the 10,000 hours rule and how long it takes to excel at something. If you watch Bill Hillhouse's training video he talks about how at age 8 he ALWAYS had a softball in his hands and would experiment with different grips and spins on the ball, daily, for years. He was/is passionate about pitching and every chance he got he would be practicing. He is the rule not the exception when it comes to elite athletes and the amount of time it takes to master something.
While I agree that some parents push their kids too much and create situations in which the kid burns out in the sport, you as a parent need to recognize the difference between encouragement and pushing too much and strike a balance. More often than not, its the athlete that wants to spend more time at it and the parents have to step in and tell them its time to do their home work!
rulesmeister - while you can always point to one or two elite athletes that specialized later on in their career, the vast majority of top athletes in all sports start out very early learning their craft. Certainly you have heard of the 10,000 hours rule and how long it takes to excel at something. If you watch Bill Hillhouse's training video he talks about how at age 8 he ALWAYS had a softball in his hands and would experiment with different grips and spins on the ball, daily, for years. He was/is passionate about pitching and every chance he got he would be practicing. He is the rule not the exception when it comes to elite athletes and the amount of time it takes to master something.
While I agree that some parents push their kids too much and create situations in which the kid burns out in the sport, you as a parent need to recognize the difference between encouragement and pushing too much and strike a balance. More often than not, its the athlete that wants to spend more time at it and the parents have to step in and tell them its time to do their home work!
This is about my DD#3 and HS softball.
She was an excellent all around athlete, and played tennis, basketball and softball. DD#3's pitching coach couldn't figure out what the problem was with her pitching motion. It turned out that the modern tennis forehand (you don't get open to hit a tennis forehand anymore...you stay closed, i.e., facing the net, and take a real wide path with the right arm) was interfering with her pitching motion. Her pitching coach told her that she either needed to give up pitching or tennis.
She was very good at tennis...she went to state twice in the "big school" division. The tennis coach was one of those rare great HS coaches...very knowledgeable, well organized, and fun to be around. It is so rare to find a coach like that, that I didn't want her to give up tennis, and she didn't want to give it up either. She liked basketball more than tennis or softball...but, she decided that she would quit doing TB pitching, concentrate on travel basketball and do some tennis tournaments during the summer.
DD#3, because she didn't work at softball in the off-season, was not a top TB softball player--which was OK with her. But, for HS ball, she was clearly one of the best players in the school. There may have been two girls better than her in the HS. And, although DD#3 wasn't a top TB pitcher, she could still pitch better than 75% most TB pitchers without doing anything except practicing in the spring. She threw about 58 MPH and had a good change-up--she didn't have a breaking pitch.
The HS coach, who had also coached my DD#1, told DD#3 that if she didn't play TB in the summer and work on pitching that she would not make the team her junior year. Whether the HS coach was serious or not, we'll never know, because my DD#3 didn't try out, and ran track instead...and came within an inch in the discus of going to state.
In a bizarre turn of events, the HS coach got mad at me and DD#1 because DD#3 stopped playing softball--as if I told DD#3 to give up softball. (My DD#1 had just been selected as an all-conference D1 player, we went to a HS softball game just to say "hi" to the coach and the team, and the coach refused to talk to us.)
Sometimes, I feel softball exists in some strange parallel universe...
She was an excellent all around athlete, and played tennis, basketball and softball. DD#3's pitching coach couldn't figure out what the problem was with her pitching motion. It turned out that the modern tennis forehand (you don't get open to hit a tennis forehand anymore...you stay closed, i.e., facing the net, and take a real wide path with the right arm) was interfering with her pitching motion. Her pitching coach told her that she either needed to give up pitching or tennis.
She was very good at tennis...she went to state twice in the "big school" division. The tennis coach was one of those rare great HS coaches...very knowledgeable, well organized, and fun to be around. It is so rare to find a coach like that, that I didn't want her to give up tennis, and she didn't want to give it up either. She liked basketball more than tennis or softball...but, she decided that she would quit doing TB pitching, concentrate on travel basketball and do some tennis tournaments during the summer.
DD#3, because she didn't work at softball in the off-season, was not a top TB softball player--which was OK with her. But, for HS ball, she was clearly one of the best players in the school. There may have been two girls better than her in the HS. And, although DD#3 wasn't a top TB pitcher, she could still pitch better than 75% most TB pitchers without doing anything except practicing in the spring. She threw about 58 MPH and had a good change-up--she didn't have a breaking pitch.
The HS coach, who had also coached my DD#1, told DD#3 that if she didn't play TB in the summer and work on pitching that she would not make the team her junior year. Whether the HS coach was serious or not, we'll never know, because my DD#3 didn't try out, and ran track instead...and came within an inch in the discus of going to state.
In a bizarre turn of events, the HS coach got mad at me and DD#1 because DD#3 stopped playing softball--as if I told DD#3 to give up softball. (My DD#1 had just been selected as an all-conference D1 player, we went to a HS softball game just to say "hi" to the coach and the team, and the coach refused to talk to us.)
Sometimes, I feel softball exists in some strange parallel universe...
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- Jul 26, 2010
- 3,554
- 0
So the coach is basically upset because he gave your daughter an ultimatum, she made a decision based on that ultimatum, and that decision was not the choice that the coach wanted her to make. Do I have that correct?
I think they teach life skills to cope with this sort of thing in kindergarten. Since the coach is involved in public school, maybe they can help him out with a remedial kindergarten life skills course.
I don't think that you or your daughter did anything wrong, and if you did, life is all about making decisions and facing the consequences of the decisions we make so that we can increase our knowledge and wisdom to face the next decision.
-W
I think they teach life skills to cope with this sort of thing in kindergarten. Since the coach is involved in public school, maybe they can help him out with a remedial kindergarten life skills course.
I don't think that you or your daughter did anything wrong, and if you did, life is all about making decisions and facing the consequences of the decisions we make so that we can increase our knowledge and wisdom to face the next decision.
-W
- Oct 19, 2009
- 1,822
- 0
My daughter who is 16 makes her own mind up which sport she plays and how much time she devotes to it. I always felt she was more of a natural in basketball and was a little better at basketball than softball.
Softball is her first choice and she devotes most of her time to softball, maybe I’m wrong, but I think basketball helps with her conditioning and quickness in softball.
Softball is her first choice and she devotes most of her time to softball, maybe I’m wrong, but I think basketball helps with her conditioning and quickness in softball.
