Development

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Jul 14, 2018
982
93
Now that it’s tryout season, one of the main pieces of advice you see over and over is to look for a team that emphasizes ‘development.’ But what are we talking about when we say ‘development’?

At the 8U-12U level I think it mostly means working on fundamentals and getting plenty of reps and playing time. But at the older levels, where fundies are pretty well set, what is the next level of development?

Is it more team-emphasis, working together on making plays? Is it simply finding the best competition? Playing in the right events to reach your goals? Competing for playing time?

I ask because I’m an AC on DD’s 16U team. We took on a kid at the beginning of the year who was athletic but lacked softball skills. We thought we could train her up, but there’s only so much you can do during team practice. We gave her things to work on outside of team activities, but she just never came along and finally quit last week.

I feel like we let her down, and dropped the ball on development. But at 16U, does development mean fine tuning a swing or correcting a bad throwing pattern or should we be focusing on other things?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
It is not unreasonable to expect players to practice on their own if they want to get better.

Sounds like she wanted to try it, didn't love it, and moved on. It happens. That's not a failure on your part.

Development, at any age, is whatever they need to get better. You see raw professional ballplayers who spend a winter working on basic fielding mechanics.

The tricky part is when 95% of the team is at one level and one player is significantly behind, which is what your situation sounds like. You simply can't dedicate a ton of time to teaching her how to catch and throw if everyone else already can do those things well.
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
Not too much, but I’m more interested in general opinions about what constitutes development at the 16-18U level.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sounds like this player was a project/experiment. It's better she recognizes-the team isn't for her or she quit altogether. Maybe she justs wants to play for HS.

Your job as a coach for players: Getting lots of reps at practice focusing on whatever you are working on. Coach pausing to correct during a drill. Practices for the most part is doing team focused activities rather than fine tuning individual needs. Coach is doing infield/outfield drills, catcher is not lining up correctly. Coach pauses and addresses how they would like the catcher to set up. Then continue to the next thing. Outie keeps missing her cut offs. Stop the play. Tell the player what is expected and how to do it.

There is only so much you can do during a team practice. Before or After practice coaches can do one on one stuff with players.

DD's 18U summer practices were 4-7pm T, W, Th. And Sat/Sun when not playing. Lots of rep and conditioning. DD still has PTSD but it made college practices a breeze.

Games show off what you learned in practice. Games show the players what they need to work on. Feedback and then Correct.

Pitchers-fine tune on their own
Hitters-fine tune on their own
Catchers-fine tune on their own
Fielders-fine tune on their own
 
Mar 4, 2015
526
93
New England
Not too much, but I’m more interested in general opinions about what constitutes development at the 16-18U level.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Players need playing time to develop and to motivate them to work. I'm not saying you should've given her more playing time. My point would just be that there's a tradeoff. Coaches say they emphasize development and winning, but they compete against each other sometimes. Playing to win can undermine development, and development can undermine winning. But if development is a major priority, kids need to play.
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
Wow..that is a lot for what I assume was a HL 18U team. Were all the kids local?
It WAS a lot. This was an old school coach that prepared kids for college. Sent players to college all over the country. My wife's former coworker was even coached by him. Players came from all over the Southeast Texas Region. Had players driving from up to 2 hours away and some further that I am aware of, which seems like nothing compared to some of these teams today. But teams didn't practice like we did. Many of these National teams are assembled and they get together only at the tourneys. We lived 13.9 miles from the park. It can take 45 minutes on bad traffic days.

One of DD's coaches/recruiter used to come on here (Mark H) and talk hitting. "Hanson Principle" His DD was the HC at Dartmouth and Stanford. When I heard him talking about hitting at practice, I knew immediately it was him!!! I had to call him out. He lived over and hour and half away south of Houston.

Fall-We usually had Saturday 2 a days with a lunch break in the middle. I even brought out the Webber grill and cooked up burgers.
 
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
At much younger ages, I've often taken players that were super athletic and showed potential. But my experience is that talent > potential. The potential needs a bunch of drive, persistence, dedication and time to become talent. Of course it happens often, but for the few girls we had it didn't pan out.
 
Apr 20, 2018
4,581
113
SoCal
Didn't read whole thread but a 16u player with bad/poor throwing mechanics or hitting mechanics is a tough nut to crack. If she is a true athlete, maybe gymnastics or martial arts, you got a chance. Lots of work. Remember, a little work a lot is better than a lot of work a little. She needs to work every day or close to it. If you are playing TB and do not own a tee, bownet, bucket of balls and hopefully someone that can feed front toss you are going to have a hard time, IMO.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,474
Members
21,443
Latest member
sstop28
Top