League and rules

[Wbasham23]

Guys I have played college baseball and have coached my daughter since tee ball and about 9 other girls. This past year our county wanted play from each city. They asked me to come to another to help build it yet the director allowed for slow pitch to still occur and the girls can choose. I was told I was getting most of my old team as well, but I lost it all to a rival team that I had beaten each year from hard work. Actually, the year before that coach got four players from another team with out no one getting a chance to bid on them. This year I had 9 girls that never played and only played slow pitch. As the pressure and change took place the girls started playing more slow pitch, well we came in second despite the hardship and girls not showing up to practice so they could be attending slow pitch. I could not understand, but in our tournament I had some girls to bunt and because of the coach and her connection tot he umpire as he was umpiring while his daughter was pitching. So I had them to show bunt which caused their pitcher to do an illegal pitch, but I got penalized stating it was a fake bunt and the batter got a strike called and a ball at the same time. The director decided to not allow me to protest the game because it would cause to many problems. So our community had always had a strong league program, but my daughter is 10 and has grown to 5'3 and is long and all left handed like me. She has crazy movement and is starting to fill confident in pitching, she just started pitching since we were made to use machine pitch and now we play under USSSA rules but things are not followed. I am learning this along the way as my daughter started pitching this past January and has increased speeds from 30-44-47 mph and now we are working on a change up. Her pitching coach is used to the snap and to pull up like flexing a muscle, but I feel like that can cause arm troubles because it is like tightening the muscle and other components as oppose to becoming free flowing motion to create the momentum and energy needed. Also the league allowed a rock back which rules state our illegal but allowed, should I move to a travel ball team? I believe in training this time of year and practice on improving. I have never been a part of a travel team as when I played they did not have this and we had a very dominant program until so many coaches from the time I was in college that never played hurt the kids by being video coaches and did not know strategy, they just ran until something happened which performed correctly is easily stopped but players IQ is being diminished. Should I leave the league all together and try to find a travel team. I thought of forming my own travel team but did not know if I could get enough girls. I need to figure this out because so many coaches never liked me winning when they had better teams. It is very sad and I am so discouraged by it because the rival coach wants to control and coach as well even when I tried to form a team together. I just have coached high school ball as a hitting coach but with so many getting lessons by high dollar people who they would not listen to as they were told they were D1 material but several never could make D3 teams due to all of their mistakes. I just want to improve the experience for my daughter and others? Any suggestions, would be greatly appreciated by me as I learn more about travel ball as well.

 

[EC22]

Rec is rec, I dont think you need this forum to know to move on.

 

[hb_hound]

Holy wall of text.......................
Best I can gather, it is time to leave the Rec program and find a Travel Team in your area that fits your DD's needs.
I would not recommend starting a new team just to have a place for your DD to play.. That is a whole new set of issues that you probably do not want to deal with.

 

[Eric F]

Reach out to the coaches of a few local travel teams. Find out more information about their programs, and see if it might be a fit for your DD.

My DD moved from rec to TB at 10yo. For her, it was the right time. Better coaching, more practice reps, and more game time made a significant difference in the speed of her development. It was pretty stunning, actually.

 

[The Man In Blue]

My head hurts ... I got to “a strike and a ball on the same pitch” and called it good. Yes, rec has to be geared towards the lowest common denominator. However, rec leagues are killing themselves with all of the made up hokum that does not benefit the game or the players.

I’ve written on here before about my experience running a rec league and the fact that we added rule after rule after rule ... ALL of which were aimed at controlling coaches and few of which benefited the kids,

You have two options: get out or take over and fix it.

For a positive comment: I do like that your program offers “slow pitch”. Now, I am assuming this is “lob” pitching and not “rainbow arc” pitching. I think this may be a place where community rec programs could redefine their niche. I’ve never seen any of it around here ... at least not intentionally called slow pitch.

 

[Gags]

Wbasham - are you in GA? From what I've read on DFP, Georgia still has a slow pitch program in the high schools. If that's your area, I've also read enough to say that there's plenty of travel teams throughout the state - save yourself the headache and search one out, rather than start your own.

If you're daughter is 10, and hitting 47 on the radar gun, you should have no problem joining a travel ball team over the winter. Take your time to research each team. If you jump at the first offer, you may end up with a team or organization that is just as incompetent as the league you're thinking of leaving.

Related to that, yes, you're concerns are valid about her current pitching mechanics - check out the "stickies" in the Pitching forum, and start a new topic there if you need help finding a local pitching instructor that teaches internal rotation.

 

[djcarter1966]

Rec ball is what is is. I was in the military so I actually had this happen twice once with my son and once we my daughter, we would get to a new place and sign up for ball and I would volunteer to coach. The established coach always seemed to by whatever rule system was in place have some really stacked team and I was left with the bottom of the barrel. Some pretty bad unbelievable stuff actually....literally a girl couldn't show up for tryouts there were just three girls left and they really weren't too bad so I picked on of the girls that was there...other coach says "well I think I remember this girl I'll go ahead and take her"...turns out of course this girl was easily top 3 out of over 25 kids. Also the "I happen to have 4 assistants and one girl who can only get rides to practice with her cousin"...yeah those 6 girls were all top 10. A guy umpiring his own kids game in league playoffs and calling his kid safe at home for the tying run after his kid literally gets there via the pitchers mound...the list goes on. After the first year of my below average team in both cases competing and sometimes beating the stud team I gain their respect and in both cases got on the board and changed the system so it couldn't happen to the next guy...I always knew I would be gone in a couple years so it was best I thought I could do.

So the 'mini" wall of text to say...most will tell you since this is really travel centeric board to just go travel...which if your daughter is ready isn't a bad idea but if she is doing three or four other activites and doesn't want to make that kind of commitment don't be afraid to be the guy that tries to buck the system but it is not easy I'll give you that.

 

[chinamigarden]

Your description of how your dd is being coached to pitch. Sounds like what we call hello elbow around here. You are correct that it’s not the best method.

Hang out in the pitching forum. Read the stickies and ask questions there.