how does one evaluate their kid vs the team and their future ?

[CoogansBluff]

Things that parents and coaches are afraid to tell their kids (and rightly so):

-Outfield is not as important as infield in 10U.

-Outfield is not as fun as infield for players in 10U.

-Players who play outfield 90 percent of the time in 10U will develop more slowly as all-around defensive players as full-time infielders in 10U.

-An 10U outfielder is more likely to quit travel ball than a 10U infielder.

Notice that I did not say that outfield is unimportant, or that kids do not need to embrace and enjoy the role of outfield or any job given to them on a softball team.

But when kids and parents in 10U are less than thrilled about playing right field, it's not necessarily that they're misinformed. They're human. Why should anyone be as eager to play right field as shortstop?

 

[Lozza]

Coogan's my question is why you have 8 and 9 year olds specializing in one position. There's a woman I grew up with who did not start pitching until she was 11. She was a darn good shortstop in our U12 school team. She decided to take up pitching that year and had to break into it. She's currently in America playing for the Australian team.

At young ages no child should be playing only infield or only outfield. They should be learning EVERY position.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Oh, well. Teach her to be the best RF, there is in the county. Throw or hit her pop ups, ground balls and "shoe string catches." Measure her throwing distance and improve on it. Set the bucket in the circle, and teach her to hit it.

Teach her to move on every play and back up the infield. Tell her to chatter. Be heard! Have her congratulate her teammates and encourage them when they make a mistake.

If I had a good pitcher, I always put my best fielder in RF, because that is where all the balls went.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Coogan's my question is why you have 8 and 9 year olds specializing in one position. There's a woman I grew up with who did not start pitching until she was 11. She was a darn good shortstop in our U12 school team. She decided to take up pitching that year and had to break into it. She's currently in America playing for the Australian team.

At young ages no child should be playing only infield or only outfield. They should be learning EVERY position.

Lozza - I agree w/ you. I don't coach 8- and 9-year-olds. My post was not intended to support specializing. In fact, I'd say it listed reasons why not to specialize in 10U.

 

[hacksaw]

well i see this forum seems to have a coach bias? lol.
a couple of you do seem open minded to my situation and i truly thank you!

those that automatic pilot "cranky parent" in defense of some past situation you may have been in, well, i hope thats not typical of the depth of understanding of fastpisch softball coaches.

i was a certified usaBoxing coach for years. you want to hear about irate parents? how about irate whole families, or whole irate neigborhoods? be happy you dont have softball tourney street fests in the bronx.

i spent another ten years in martial arts and have raised plenty of kids including 3 older girls. i played ASA slow pitch for 35 years. much of it A ball.

so none of that quailfies me to be a fatspitch coach, but i assure you i know talented kids when i see them. i have also seen quite a lot of politics , prejudice, and incompetence in my day. on both ends and in many sports.

so let me back up a bit.
and also add the update.

this is 10u team that we are on is a FEEDER team for lack of better description. this clubs main 10u team is going to the pony nationals. the main team does not move its players around. you are who you are. period.
we tried out for the main team as a second basemen. we didnt make it, but we were refered to the feeder team "since she has good skills". she tried out and made that team. to our surprise, she started at shortstop. eventually they we played every infield position. and thats the way they generally practice, infielders and out fielders.

now all these kids make mistakes. including mine. but when i say she has more range, she gets to balls in the hole and at least slaps stuff down that the other kids stand around and dont even try for. u dont want to take my word becaue i am a parent, fine. but they put her on short for some reason. no? reads the ball of the bat nice and generally knows where the play is. you may be surprised how slow in the head some 9yo are in game situations. she is better than average. when i say she is fast, its because she generally outruns the rest of the team in sprints and around all the bags.

as far as it being said on this board my kid should play out field "because she is fast", she bats right handed, the fast outfieilders i see in div 1 and 2 are mainly left handed slap hitters. so where does that leave us? everything i have seen, is your most verisitile athletes are middle
infeilders. actually, my DD is an even better catcher, but thats another story for another day.

 

[hacksaw]

Coaches: Then rotate the kids from infield to outfield and vice versa. So what's the big deal?

i modified my post while you were posting. sorry. rotating is not a big deal in of itself. they play lip service to it in our rec league.
but our club situation was a bit diff

 

[hacksaw]

so i asked the coach after the loss yesterday about my kids at bats. she had one plate appearnce in the 3 games . he said he is only trying to put his best players on the field. (which is a bunch of poop. too rehearsed for my veteran ears.)

today we didnt even get her in the game. another mercy rule loss.
our team went 0-4 in this tourney. all mercy rule losses.

embarassing losses. and the former ss is intentionally left on the bench.

i never was a quitter. i dont teach quitting at home or in the gym. but this sukks. somebody doesnt want my kid to play. so i guess we dont. my job is to get her playing time , not humiliation . she will learn and grow. welcome to the real world!

hey, its camp time!!!! and the fall league isnt far off. i have also been contacted about a new travel team being formed.
by buddy says "the cream always rises". and so it does.i dont know about playing out the rest of the month with these folks. we may need the break. dont want to burn bridges though. some folks in the organization we care about. but then who really cares about anyone? eh?

 

[CoogansBluff]

Let's see if I've got this straight ...

- It's a feeder team designed to develop players for more elite teams in the organization.

- This feeder team went 0-4 and was frequently routed.

- A girl is sitting out whole games with the only explanation being that she is not one of the best players.

If you choose to leave, I don't think you'd need to burn bridges. Just say that you and your daughter misunderstood the purpose of the team. You expected everyone to play every game and be given opportunities to play multiple positions. Nothing wrong with what they're doing. Just not the team your daughter needs right now.

 

[hacksaw]

not exactly the case. we didnt know what to expect. we were told we would play. and we played. we were told by the director and the original coach, that they played league games and maybe a tourney or two. and that wouldnt have made any diff really. i expected to work up the ladder so to speak, dd was given a major roll right off, and did well. the hc duties were slowly turner over to another coach as the season progressed. my kids playing time went from starter to zero. we had no problem sharing time or any of that.
the newer coach wants his kid at short when not pitching. why mine got bumped out of second base is only conjecture.

in the last game, with our team the visitors clearly headed to travesty, the bookcoach had 2 of our other nonplayers of the day, put their helmets on to bat. my girl asked "me too". he clearly shook her off, no! the batter in that spot my wife says was the hc daughter. we were down somrhing like 17-0 top of the inning.

you dont think anything wrong with that ? my bad for asking advice here i guess. i can accept responsibility for the replies. but some people dont see anything wrong with what is happening in syria either.

i am not looking to burn bridges. but when there was only 8-9 kids there praciting in 97 f heat. ones mine. everytime. nobody told us we werent good enuff then. this team should never have been in this tourney. total blow out x4. this team was supposed to be learning the club family get along stuff. a coach cant accommodate his players in a blow out with some degree of finess towrd the kids whom have made it work up till then? i say BS. he has made it clear he doent need us. it should have been done up front like i would have done with a boxing match that fell thru or couldnt be made.
my dd is a ten yo who loves her team. the look on her face will haunt me forever. its my fault we showed up for game 4. i should have took the hint after game 3. i can guarantee you that will never happen again. no wait. i will guarantee it to her.

this team should win some games before they act like they are anything near thier big sisters.

 

[hacksaw]

sorry for the rant. my kid loves softball and despite what anyone here may think, she is apptitude and attitude good. she will get more chances to play. its just shocks me to see what a mercinary attitude a 10u girls team can have. and one that hasnt earned it for that matter.