Do they really play down to the level of the team?

[BT3100]

My DD is 11. She plays for a 12U TB team in a different township than we live. Last fall she made the team as the youngest on the team. In our area Middle School starts at 7th grade so DD is in 6th grade. Ten of the other girls on her TB team are playing school ball. Due to this our tourney schedule was pushed into May. That's fine but we wanted to get DD some circle time as she primarily pitches, so we signed her up for our local REC team. They did assessments and the top three pitchers/players (it worked out that way) were all placed on different teams. Our team is comprised of DD and 12 other girls who have not played in majors yet. DD played majors last year but all other girls on her team last year aged up. I really like that DD has a chance to be a leader this year as she was always pushed to play up and was the youngest on most teams she has played on. She is showing nice leadership skills so far and likes the girls on the team, many go to her school.

Here is the issue.. we had a practice with her TB on Wednesday night. During the practice she looked great. She is middle of the pack in IF usually, but looked amazing on the left side and her pitching was great. Her bat was strong and she looked confident. Tonight we had our second REC practice and she looked awful. When I saw awful I am comparing to TB but it was bad. She overthrew first a few times, made some mental mistakes and her hitting, though good was very pressed. She did not look like herself out there. I asked her about the overthrows and she shared that she was scared that the girl on first would not be able to catch the ball. She was right but...come on.
I asked her why she was pressing. I think she is trying to prove herself. Why I don't know.
The other concern is that we have not one girl who has every caught live pitching.
I like the fact that we have 3 girls that want to catch, just not one that has caught yet.
It's a real dilemma as I can't pull her off the team and wouldn't. There are no other pitchers on the team and I appreciate that the coach said he picked DD as he knew she was a good pitcher and leader. But I have been reading that most people on here think that playing REC ball and TB is a bad idea...
Mistake on my part???

 

[3bmama]

Last year my d's was the #3 pitcher on her travel ball team, so we thought we'd sign her up for rec. After the first practice, I knew it wasn't going to work. The rec league here is 6-8 games max. That's why we went travel in the first place, wanted more games. It showed when I couldn't tell if any of the girls had played before and when my dd tossed the ball from 2nd to 1st and was told to do it softer. She was already tossing it softly. The league would not under any circumstance allow Her to move up an age level bc of safety concerns. I felt it was a safety issue having her play with inexperienced girls who probably would have cried when faced with her pitching, shoot she made some first year 10u girls cry in fall ball this year. So we quit. I wasn't going to let all her hard work go down the tubes for a couple of extra innings and a "commitment" There were 12 or more girls on each team anyway.

 

[marriard]

It's a real dilemma as I can't pull her off the team and wouldn't. There are no other pitchers on the team and I appreciate that the coach said he picked DD as he knew she was a good pitcher and leader. But I have been reading that most people on here think that playing REC ball and TB is a bad idea...
Mistake on my part???

Mistake? Not necessarily.

It is often a mistake if:

- Combined you end up with too many nights per week of softball - sometime multiple softball activities per night
- You are playing both at the same time
- You end up with no breaks at all from softball
- The number of games you are playing seems ridiculous
- The player can't play all out in rec (the whole 'throw soft' thing is a big red flag
- You end up with a bad coach - or worse you end up coaching the rec team yourself (now any flexibility you might have has is gone)
- The rec local rules are a long way from full softball
- You end up getting sucked into all-stars after rec season is over - and travel is in full swing

It is often the right decision:
- If you need time at a position you are not playing in TB (especially P & C)
- You are not doing travel and rec at the same time
- You are generally playing 'up' an age group (no way would I have unleashed ANY of the girls on my DD's travel team on rec girls the same age)
- The coaching is excellent

I made a mistake in 1st year 10U for my DD. She ended up playing rec, filling in for older rec AND playing travel all at once... after playing a tough travel season the previous season. Add in pitching lessons, batting lessons, practices, getting 'A's in school, homework and it was too much. It started OK but it was clearly too much as the seasons went on (and there seemed like there was never going to be an end of it).

We had success one year when we worked to bring our 10U-A team into a 16U rec league as a full team. The maturity of the 16U teams helped even the playing field against a much more skilled team we brought to the table and we didn't have to deal with extra practices.

 

[chrispots]

My DD is 11. She plays for a 12U TB team in a different township than we live. Last fall she made the team as the youngest on the team. In our area Middle School starts at 7th grade so DD is in 6th grade. Ten of the other girls on her TB team are playing school ball. Due to this our tourney schedule was pushed into May. That's fine but we wanted to get DD some circle time as she primarily pitches, so we signed her up for our local REC team. They did assessments and the top three pitchers/players (it worked out that way) were all placed on different teams. Our team is comprised of DD and 12 other girls who have not played in majors yet. DD played majors last year but all other girls on her team last year aged up. I really like that DD has a chance to be a leader this year as she was always pushed to play up and was the youngest on most teams she has played on. She is showing nice leadership skills so far and likes the girls on the team, many go to her school.

Here is the issue.. we had a practice with her TB on Wednesday night. During the practice she looked great. She is middle of the pack in IF usually, but looked amazing on the left side and her pitching was great. Her bat was strong and she looked confident. Tonight we had our second REC practice and she looked awful. When I saw awful I am comparing to TB but it was bad. She overthrew first a few times, made some mental mistakes and her hitting, though good was very pressed. She did not look like herself out there. I asked her about the overthrows and she shared that she was scared that the girl on first would not be able to catch the ball. She was right but...come on.
I asked her why she was pressing. I think she is trying to prove herself. Why I don't know.
The other concern is that we have not one girl who has every caught live pitching.
I like the fact that we have 3 girls that want to catch, just not one that has caught yet.
It's a real dilemma as I can't pull her off the team and wouldn't. There are no other pitchers on the team and I appreciate that the coach said he picked DD as he knew she was a good pitcher and leader. But I have been reading that most people on here think that playing REC ball and TB is a bad idea...
Mistake on my part???

You daughter will hurt someone throwing from the infield to 1st base. I just ran 4 hours of rec clinics last weekend and saw a few of the strong rec players almost take some girls' heads off during the drills...and that's rec players throwing to rec players...

Wait until there's an easy force out and your daughter has no one to throw to...and she feels like a failure because she didn't make the play...

Wait til she's rounding 1st headed to 2nd and realizes she can't advance on her big hit to the gap because the girl in front of her doesn't know she can take more than 1 base at a time.

She will press at the plate...and be a mile in front of most pitches at rec and then struggle when she goes to play TB the next night when the girl is blazing 50mph past her...

Did you make a mistake? Nope...but take it for what it is...

Her physical skills won't improve because they won't be taxed...

Mentally, her knowledge of how to play the game\situational recognition should increase and her confidence as a pitcher should go through the roof. Use rec to develop a 2nd and 3rd pitch too...oh, don't let her get frustrated by dropped 3rd strikes...

If you keep it positive, it will be positive...CP

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I think that a great player learns too many bad habits in rec ball. My student (minors LL) fielded a hard hit ball at SS, this week. She rifled it to 1st base and the first baseman was standing about 10 feet from the bag and had no idea, that the ball was being thrown to her.

 

[ArkFastpitch]

IMHO nothing good ever comes from putting a TB player in Rec. ball. We've tried it a couple times with DD and it has been disastrous every time. Good players need to be challenged to get better. TB talent usually stands far and above most rec. talent. DD got bored really fast and even started to soften up because she knew she could. Her pitching suffered because she knew she could throw it fat and blow it by the batter and her hitting suffered because she rarely saw a good hittable pitch and would chase anything close just to hit something. She couldn't make good throws to first base because she "throws too hard". Her last rec. coach tried to get her to throw the ball underhanded so it wouldn't be so hard to catch..

DW and I thought rec. ball would be good for DD because she would get extra reps. I'd say take the extra time you would spend with a rec team and do drills or go to the cage and hit a few hundred balls. The time will so much better spent. Or just let her be a kid during the downtime.Just my 2¢ worth. Best of luck..

 

[BT3100]

Thank you all for the time you took to post.
I appreciate all of your feedback. I need to work with my kid to help manage expectations but also to understand that she needs to stick to the basics and stop trying to impress.

 

[Strike2]

It's not always bad, and the presence of a player who does things right can be a positive influence. For various reasons, my DD is on a rec team this Spring. Fortunately, we've got a decent developing pitcher with a PC, and DD is taking this opportunity to work on her own pitching. We also have a more-than-adequate catcher, and there are a few other kids on the team with potential. I've coached for several years, including some TB, so my experience level is above the other volunteers, but they've been more than willing to accept my help.

From my kid's perspective, it's more relaxed, and she's having fun. However, her comments about how "easy" these Rec practices are compared to what she's seen in the past spurred me to work the team a bit harder, and make sure that DD gets enough individual work doing the things that her team mates aren't quite ready for.

 

[nicelag]

Same dilemma with my first year 10 DD also. We have a saying "play for May" which is all-stars. With that being said I think with my DD realizing for herself that rec is just not competitive enough for her is a good thing. It's always better when it's their choice as well.

 

[CoachBroker]

TB kids playing rec is a double edge sword. Yes it generally does nothing to improve their game however it can be huge for their social network in school. By that I mean kids getting to play with their friends can be important for some kids, especially at younger ages. It can eat a parent up watching their kid play below her capabilities in rec but then again rec is more for them to have fun. My daughter plays both and I have had to learn to lighten up in rec ball. There is no doubt she plays better against harder competition.