Does Size Matter in S.B.?

[ANNASDAD]

My DD is 18 now, freshman in college, 5'0" and stays around 135 pounds. I will say size absolutely matters in softball, of course there's differing opinions, but I got to see it first hand for years!

She was attending an invite camp at a D1 campus, probably 25 girls? She had an outstanding camp, pitched two shutout innings, went straight to SS and turned a double play, then made a diving play behind the bag and flipped for the force back to second. She had two base clearing triples and a single. All of this in the camp's ending scrimmage. Overall just a great camp with a couple of coaches going out of their way to talk to her.

Both elbows were bleeding and she looked like she had been drug around the infield. During the coaches talk afterwards, now this is the coach of this D1 school, he calls Anna up in front of everyone, he wants to talk about heart, leadership, and character. This guy is probably 6'5" and he had his arm around Anna standing beside her.

He says "this little lady here has to hit for the cycle and make 2 or 3 ESPN plays just to turn a coaches head" and about that time this 6'+ tall super clean blonde girl walks through the gate for the afternoon camp. He says "wow, perfect timing........all that girl right there has to do is walk on the field and she grabs every coaches attention, it's a fact!"

Anyway, he went into this spill about he'd take heart and commitment any day blah, blah, but he admitted right then, size matters!

 

[Rolling Hard]

Unfortunately size does matter at the 12u level. Coaches often overlook skills and chose size. I get it. Softball like baseball is becoming a HR derby. With the new bats(ghost) and pitchers throwing hard the ball floats out over the 200 ft. fence on mishit pop ups. Smaller girls will have to work harder. I have seen coaches play the tall and athletic SS with great range but she routinely kicks the routine GB or over throws the 1st baseman on a regular basis. As girls become young ladies size should matter less and skill set and consistency will play a bigger role. Like I said with the new bats even smaller athletic ladies with good swings can hit it 200ft. Unfortunately some college programs still using size as a major determiner in recruiting. That's why I always root for the smaller players.

 

[_MIA_]

I was under the impression that this thread was about whether size directly effects performance and not whether some parents think Suzie is playing over Sarah because she is bigger/taller/has a better smile/etc or whether coaches have a bias towards a larger player. The only way to do this objectively is to look at a large sample size for a population where bias is not likely to affect the data..hence my use of MLB data on height and weight. There are obviously outliers, with my favorite MLB pitcher of all time being one of them (Pedro Martinez).

Personally I like to win.. A LOT. At the college level (won't get into the right way of handling all this for younger age groups) I am going to play/recruit the best players. I don't care if the 1B is Mugsy Bogues if she is my best 1B I am going to play her.

This goes to show you there are some dumb (or maybe just full of themselves) college coaches just like there are some dumb (definitely full of themselves) college professors...

 

[Rambler34]

SIze absolutely matters at the point players are trying to get to college. You could have two girls side by side with one 6 inches shorter than the other yet have a little more ability on the field. 90% of colleges coaches will take the larger player. I have watched it too many times over the last couple of years. A girl I coached was 5'3" tall in 14U. She was cruising at 63mph (coaches radars watching her pitch) in games and out pitching top DI "prospects" head to head in pretty much every single showcase game we played. Had a Pac 12 coach tell me her speed was right where it needed to be at this point and her spin was outstanding. The big school offers never came.

She is a kid that would have had 20 P5offers if she was 5'10". There are several other girls I have watched sign or commit that were not as good as others we play against but had them by 5"s.

 

[radness]

I continue to know and see athletes of all shapes and sizes, play competitively,
get recruited and play in college at all levels.

SOFTBALL IS RAD!

 

[mudrunner]

Like it or not size matters. My DD is a shrimp. I can’t begin to tell you the number of times my kid has been passed over. She has been to camps with some friends that regularly hit in the .250 range during the season, but they are 5’7” or taller. They can crush front toss though and coaches are salivating over them. My DD has hit between .400-.500 the last 4 years and barely gets a “ thanks for coming”. She learned early on that she has to outwork everyone else and that’s exactly what she does. She’ll find a school somewhere I’m sure, but her opportunities are probably not what they would be if she was above, or even average height. Then again maybe she wouldn’t work as hard if she were taller.

 

[diamond14]

I watched some highlights of LSU vs FAMU (?). I was shocked at the disparity in sizes of the athletes. Then looked up LSU roster. They have big kids playing (and not just large framed, but tall and muscular). I think most smart coaches are going to recruit the tallest, strongest, fastest athlete for a given role. This is just common sense. But there are enough talented athletes out there that can compensate for less stature (Reynoso) or with speed(Bates) or heart (Kaitlin Lee) that I think no HS age player should not dream big.

 

[ANNASDAD]

I watched some highlights of LSU vs FAMU (?). I was shocked at the disparity in sizes of the athletes. Then looked up LSU roster. They have big kids playing (and not just large framed, but tall and muscular). I think most smart coaches are going to recruit the tallest, strongest, fastest athlete for a given role. This is just common sense. But there are enough talented athletes out there that can compensate for less stature (Reynoso) or with speed(Bates) or heart (Kaitlin Lee) that I think no HS age player should not dream big.

A D1 school that I was very interested in, and for the longest was interested in my DD finally told the president of our org in a phone conversation that they weren’t going to make us an offer, because of size! And if she was six or seven inches taller she would have already been signed!

She said her reasoning was.....at the end of a long, grueling season, bigger stronger girls were fresher towards the end of the long season grind.

 

[badmonkey]

A D1 school that I was very interested in, and for the longest was interested in my DD finally told the president of our org in a phone conversation that they weren’t going to make us an offer, because of size! And if she was six or seven inches taller she would have already been signed!

She said her reasoning was.....at the end of a long, grueling season, bigger stronger girls were fresher towards the end of the long season grind.

I would guess it’d be the other way around. Smaller people usually have better endurance and recovery times.

The flip side is, smaller frame can be more prone to injury.

 

[ANNASDAD]

I would guess it’d be the other way around. Smaller people usually have better endurance and recovery times.

The flip side is, smaller frame can be more prone to injury.

Just saying that was this coaches exact words.