DD practice schedule

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Feb 9, 2011
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So I have a very hard working 12yo DD that loves to be on the go and workout. The other day I was thinking about how much she does and wonder if she overloads herself. She lives sports and wants to be a coach when she grows up.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday track training with her speed and agililty coach form 5-6pm. Her 40 yard dash time down from 6.8 to 5.7 in the past 6 months.

Tuesday- hitting and catching lessons thirty minutes each and 1 hour ride back and fourth.

Thursday-Pitching lessons for 1 hour with a hour ride each way. She is a good junk baller speed in the upper 40's but will never blow anyone away in TB. If it was up to me pitching would stop but she loves it and starts in league.

She attends church Wed and Sunday nights and most Sunday mornings. Enjoys youth group more that traditional church.

This is off season spring time adds 2 league games practice and tournments everyweek end from Febuary to July.

We tried to send her to a girls camp last year for a break and she says she only wants to go if it's a softball camp.

Her schedule isn't a daddy ego thing this is what she asks to do and I would love to hear if other parents think it's ok as long as she is happy and keeping grades up.
 
May 7, 2008
8,506
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Tucson
I think that it is OK. It appears that you are not tracking her down in the neighbor to tell her that she has to go to a lesson. Those two hour drives would take a toll on me and the car, though.
 
Feb 9, 2011
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Thanks for the imput!!

Yes church is always the number one priority for her, and she will let you know it right away.

I think the catching will back off to every other week once she learns to block and frame to a point she is comfortable.

As far as the track and the hitting, I will be hard pressed to get her to lay off cause she has heard at so many camps if you can hit and run teams will find a place for you.
 
Dec 7, 2011
2,368
38
My 15YO DD situation here has many similarities. Let me take you through the last 3 yrs:
- My DD is a pitcher and a dedicated "I wanna be a D1" type of pitcher. I say it this way because I believe that pitching is almost a seperate sport all by itself from my perspective from the point of additional dedication needed with that role.
- At 12yo my DD was doing school softball, basketball, travel basketball, volleyball, and then softball TB all summer long.
- Then at 13yo she started to take working out more seriously and then that in itself started to take more dedication.
- We came to the conclusion, after some tough decisions from the wife & I that she was doing too much and asked her to step down from basketball. She did without too much issue. So back to a very busy but tolerable level.
- Then at 14yo the DD got involved more with volleyball and wanted to try travel volleyball. That 14yo year was pretty crazy and we started to see some signs of "too much" again,...physically. (recurring tendinitis)
- Now at 15yo we ended HS volleyball and decided no travel volleyball this year. This was a bit tougher on the DD but the new upgraded softball TB team has her working throughout the year so she knew something had to give. It's also the sophmore year of varsity hs leading into the prime TB season where she needs to make an impression.

So all along she has kept a 3.9 gpa and good spirits even though she will disappear and sleep for 20 hrs, when given the chance, at least once a quarter :)

If your DD is like mine I can't see her in life not keeping up this kind of pace in whatever her focus is at any time in life. Every now and then she will sit back and sigh but she knows she loves to drive herself and to be challenged from great coaches/teachers/etc.

Now I am NOT going to claim any extra-special intuitive parenting skill here at all. I just force myself to step back and review her mental and physical well-being on a regular basis and have made some activity-limiting decisions to affect her. Have I made all the right decisions for & with her...? Only time will tell. But for now I am going to keep on supplying her what she is saying she wants in life to accel.

So the short story => I think you're probably doing just fine for your DD who might "need" to do more. Just step back and review her physical & mental status from time to time.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
cwest, IMHO, what she is doing makes no sense for you or her.

If you want her to be "good", she has to dedicate herself to learning a position. Right now, it sounds like she is going to be mediocre at catching, pitching and hitting.

As to pitching, I simply don't understand what you think she will accomplish. A good pitcher will dedicate 4 to 5 nights a week to pitching. She isn't. Here is what will happen: Some kid is going to come along who is throwing 5 nights a week, and your DD will never see the mound again. This happens all the time...it is ridiculous to be spending 4 hours one night a week to drive her somewhere to practice pitching when she isn't putting any more time into it.

If she seriously wants to be a good softball player, she has to decide what position she is going to play and what kind of a hitter she wants to be and then focus on developing herself. This trying to be all things to all people won't work.
 
Last edited:
Feb 9, 2011
100
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Yes I agree pitching doesn't accomplish much for TB but she pitches league and in our tiny community will end up pitching in HS. Really, it's that bad here LOL.

She hits alot at home, lessons are to work on left handed batting.

Her position has always been short stop but she had to catch a couple games in the fall and took to it in a big way.

Hopefully, what position she wants to focus on will work itself out this spring. I am more concerned on her burning herself out but she seems to handle it all well.
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
She is busy, but not the sort of busy that would make me worried. I worry about the kids who do nothing, except 1 thing. That repetition, in my opinion, is what burns kids out. It also works the same muscles over and over which can be dangerous. My DD is rght now on 5 days a week of basketball and 1 day a week softball hitting and pitching. In the fall it was 5 days a week volleyball and 1 day softball. Add in the rest of the teenager schedule of school, socializing. And her days are all full.

In a couple of months it will be 5-6 days a week softball and probably 1 day working on either basetball or volleyball skills. Once they hit the HS teams it is almost every day of the week on one sport, but at least its only for 3 months at a time.
 
May 25, 2010
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A weekly 1-hour pitching lesson sounds like a lot to me. I'd be trying to find a way to combine a 30-minute pitching lesson with that same trip you're already making for hitting and catching or if you really want to do 1-hour pitching sessions, maybe go every other week. I'm not sure if there's value in taking weekly pitching lessons if she's not pitching at least 2-3 times during the week. That does sound like a waste of time. Apart from that, I don't see a problem.

You did not say that she hopes to play for a strong college program, so at age 12, based on what you've said, I would disagree that now is the time for her to cut some things out and choose a specialty. Even though she's busy, it sounds like she's living the life she wants to and I applaud you for going the extra miles, literally, to keep her involving in the activities that mean most to her. So what if she's just an ok player? If that's what she wants for herself, she should be allowed to make that choice.
 
Feb 9, 2011
100
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Just as a clarification of a couple points, I wouldn't say she is the worlds best player, but she is far from "OK" and exceptionally talented when it comes to softball. She picked up catching in the fall and by the end was the starting catcher for a 14u open team. She currently plays for a coach that was the Razorbacks starting 3rd baseman and wants to put her team all into D1 schools. My DD isn't overly concerned about playing for D1 schools but would love to coach one eventually.

She is better than most at every skill position other than pitcher and says she wants to learn every spot on the field so she will understand how to coach them one day.

My concern is that she will hit a brick wall in two years and figured someone with a DD that had traveled this path or a experienced coach could tell me how others have faired.
 
Apr 1, 2010
1,675
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She lives sports and wants to be a coach when she grows up.

I think SoftSocDad had a good suggestion on seeing if you could combine some of the lessons onto a single night to free up some time.

I guess I'm going to be a little different with my response than most. If her ultimate goal is to coach, then I think her playing shortstop and taking pitching and catching lessons would be a plus. When she's a coach, those are skill positions that it will be vital for her to be able to coach and evaluate.
 

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