Does a player improve by training or a strong team ????

[justwannaplay]

Hello All ,

I need some advise on steering my daughter in the right direction. we have two options stay on our exisiting team which is competative but the training sticks and coaches are dads. Or make a switch to a slightly less competative team with real good training and college coaches but we probably will not win many tournaments.

Does a player improve by training -vs- being on a strong team / playing time being equal on both.

 

[Wookie]

I'd have to answer that with a question: does your daughter ask to train on her own? If not, then it really doesn't matter what team she plays for because she'll only do what's asked of her by the coaches and nothing more. Once she starts setting higher standards for herself, then the player will improve. I can find plenty of players (and parents) who think that the coach should be providing all of the training during practice.

Then there are players who don't rely on someone else to get them off the couch in between practices. Those players are the ones that swing 200 times a day, play catch 30 minutes against a brick wall, beg dad to hit ground balls to her until his hands bleed. These players do not need a coach to motivate them, whether the coach is a dad or college coaches.

You can't teach desire.

 

[sluggers]

Does a player improve by training -vs- being on a strong team / playing time being equal on both.

It isn't a question of one or the other. She has to have both.

Training: Obviously, the child has to be taught the skills.
Competition: The child has to learn how to fight for a position on a team. You want her in a situation where she has to fight for playing time. She will either work harder or quit. That will tell you and her whether she likes the sport enough to be "good".

On most highly competitive travel teams (softball or otherwise), the players go to individual practice outside of team practice. The player individually will practice an additional 10 hours a week OUTSIDE OF PRACTICE on batting, fielding and throwing. And *YES*, I had to pay for the individual coach.

For my DDs, we found the most competitive teams around. Then, they went to team practice, worked out with an individual coach for 2 hours a week, and then practiced at home with me for another 10 hours per week.

One DD was an all-conference D1 pitcher. The other DD scored 1300 points in HS and won an NCAA D3 national championship in basketball. What we did was not unusual in either sport. I compared notes with the other parents. The majority of kids who started worked out with an individual coach and then practiced at home with their parents.

 

[wild man]

No athlete Softball or other wise is made during the season At practice. It is work at home that does it .The other posts give very sound advice.

 

[EP Dad]

I suggest reading the book, Bounce. It opened my eyes.

Amazon.com: Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of…

 

[mudbug]

I am at a loss to understand how the team with better coaches and better training is the lesser team. Maybe I misunderstand.

A player improves by being taught right, and drilled hard, repeatedly, often, and corrected when they do wrong and regress. Training does no good if it is done improperly. Simply being around better players, or on a better team will not make a player better. Witness the discrepancy between elite travel players and "other" players on many HS teams.

 

[PAcoach]

I am at a loss to understand how the team with better coaches and better training is the lesser team. Maybe I misunderstand.

A player improves by being taught right, and drilled hard, repeatedly, often, and corrected when they do wrong and regress. Training does no good if it is done improperly. Simply being around better players, or on a better team will not make a player better. Witness the discrepancy between elite travel players and "other" players on many HS teams.

I disagree. Good players will want to be in a competitive enviroment. These players will push one another, at practice and in games.
The big difference in your discrepency example is this..on a High School team, your lucky if you have 1 elite travel player. The remaining players are your average kids who may or may not enjoy softball, some are athletes, some are not....some want to practice, some just wanna socialize. Now, go to a travel teams practice. 12-13 girls all there for the same reason, athletes who love competition. It makes for a fun practice when 12-13 bodies are flying , diving and giving everything they have during D-work and when a player at practice makes a great play, their teammates are chirping them up..good stuff. Their never satisfied. They want to be good. Our girls actually text one another to see who is training and who isn't. They decided as a team, they would run extra at home, so they check in daily. If someone is having a down day, expect about 11 texts picking you up. Now thats an example of how being around better players makes you better.

 

[fastpitch]

You do need a little bit of good coaching to win games... but for the most part I feel like being around better players helps my DD become better. They push each other and motivate each other. Right now we have 3 girls all working to be the number one pitcher and pushing each other to get better.

Also I really don't know one very good player who doesn't work on the side on their own anyway. All the girls on my DDs 12u team do a lot of work on their own. While the team practices do have drills the focus is usually more on working situations together and not so much instruction on mechanics etc. Their really isn't that much time for a coach to fix every girls flaw. If that girl has problems with grounders; the coach can only do so much. They can give them certain things but the muscle memory and the work would mostly have to come from outside team practice. Its sort of like in school. At a certain level the teacher can only do so much there. The best students usually have to study on their own and come to school with questions.

 

[justwannaplay]

There is no doubt that a player will not improve without proper training and dedication.
But it looks like some say you need to be on a competative team to improve and some say not.

How about a different scenario ;

So if you are on a competative team but you are
the 12th player and dont see alot of game time experience how then does that benefit a player ?
Some would say hang in there and wait your time will come? But how much time does a player really have at a 14/16 u level?

 

[CoachKevin]

Remember that team practice is just that.... practice for the team going over bunt coverages, slap coverages, defensive plays, ect... Yes you do get some individual skill practice (fielding, throwing, catching, and hitting), but nowhere near enough during a team practice. These skills need to be perfected at home.