Learning the Game...

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What I WISH I had also done was hitting lessons earlier. While she did reasonably well at the plate with only me teaching her, she reached a wall, and the HS batting coach she started seeing as a 14yo really helped her grow. If I had it to do over again, she would have been going to that guy as a 8yo.

Don't let the hitting take a back seat...please. Pitching may or may not work out, but being able to hit will guarantee that she has a spot on a team for as long as she wants it. I asked DD yesterday how many times she's been out of the batting lineup, and she could only come up with one time five years ago.
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Double highlight these paragraphs and get your daughter hitting lessons if it's in the budget. Then invest in a tee, a net and bucket of balls. Carve out time from her schedule to practice on the tee and from both of your schedules for soft toss. Go to the local field, grab a screen and practice front toss. My DD just turned fourteen and is finally hitting consistently ... wish we had started lessons and structured practice much earlier.

 

[wheresmycar]

Sadly we only practice 1 day a week for an hour and half maybe and half the girls don’t show up. Last practice we had four girls and coach didn’t even have balls. It was very frustrating to see this and it shows during the game. We can’t perform simple plays, where to cover, how to perform a relay, cover a bunt, etc. then the coaches wonder and get upset during the games

Back in 10u days, our 10u rec team would practice more than that in a week. Before the Rec season started, we'd have 2 practices a week, for 2 hours each. 1 hour in cages, 1 hour on the field. After games started, it dropped to 1 two hour practice a week, with 2 games per week.

When we made the 10u All Star team for the summer, it was a 2 hour practice 5 days a week until tournaments started, then practice 3 or 4 days per week, depending on if the tournament was a 2 or 3 day event that weekend. That season only lasted about 8 weeks, but it was an intense 8 weeks. And we had very successful summers.

I would sit down with coaches and discuss a more intensive practice schedule for the summer. Honestly, you'd be better off playing rec ball, then what your are doing now. IMHO

Oh, yes to both Hitting and Pitching lessons. AT that age, I would just book 1 hour with your pitching instructor, and ask them to use 20 to 30 minutes on hitting each week.

 

[Gags]

Sadly we only practice 1 day a week for an hour and half maybe and half the girls don’t show up. Last practice we had four girls and coach didn’t even have balls.

This is the part I don't understand. Was this a team she tried out for? Did you pay more than $200 to be on this team? How does a coach not have a bucket of balls? I know you said "travel" team, but like others mentioned, rec teams practice more than this. Start looking around now for other teams. When you arrive at the next tournament, drop your daughter off and walk around to see which team appears well organized and efficient during warmups. Use those as a potential starting point of teams to look at in late July / early Aug for tryouts. I would not plan on your current team being around come the Fall.

 

[Jdeesso]

This is the part I don't understand. Was this a team she tried out for? Did you pay more than $200 to be on this team? How does a coach not have a bucket of balls? I know you said "travel" team, but like others mentioned, rec teams practice more than this. Start looking around now for other teams. When you arrive at the next tournament, drop your daughter off and walk around to see which team appears well organized and efficient during warmups. Use those as a potential starting point of teams to look at in late July / early Aug for tryouts. I would not plan on your current team being around come the Fall.

She did try out for the team last summer (if I remember correctly) and the coach gave the expectation that it was going to be a travel/tournament team and was most parents first time with the organization. We were only playing local teams in the fall and only signed up for one local tournament. We had winter workouts and seemed like we were taking steps to become a “travel team”.

Since the spring season started, things haven’t progressed. In watching the other teams in the tournaments we have seen the teams we played against and are much more finely tuned.

My wife and I have been discussing this with each other and are leaning towards moving our DD somewhere else. She’s been taking her pitching lessons and a clinic and soon to be hitting lessons at a facility where another travel team works out and it’s like night and day. Not sure if she’s good enough for that team but it is a good starting place

I think we saw the writing on the wall and looking for some other opinions and insight. I appreciate the feedback and seems like we might have some research to do.


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[CoachJD]

Not sue if anybody else has said this, but don't rely on team practices to learn the game.

If she's into softball, help her learn the game. Watch games with her (baseball games are an acceptable substitute!). Work with her one-on-one. My best players are the ones who have parents who teach them the game, take them to games, watch games with them, etc.

And, by the way, I've had girls who became pretty solid players and they didn't start playing until high school. There will be some girls ahead of her at 10u, but it's nothing she can't overcome in a year or two.

 

[The Man In Blue]

I have made a conscious effort to step away during games and let her do her own thing and make adjustments during the games.

Also, in regards to your comment about pitching and hitting lessons at 10u. Serious, question, do you think that’s too much too early?

I left those two parts of your statement because I think they are heavily intertwined.

While I frown on 10u going to specialized coaches, it is because many people jump straight to that. That said, ability is the biggest key to determining when a specialized coach is appropriate, not age.

You don't sit your kid down for the first time with a set of high end oil paints and hire Bob Ross to make them a master painter ... You give the kid scratch paper and some Crayola water colors and you let them find their way at first. You don't give your kid War and Peace and send them to a reading specialist when they are first learning to read. Sports are no different. Learning is a progression ... you can't jack your kid into the Matrix and download a curveball program.

IMO, specialized instructors should generally not be teaching introductory concepts in one-on-one lessons. But they will happily do so because it is easy money. Specialized coaches should be for the player who is doing well on their own and has a need beyond what their regular coaches are capable of (that is not a knock on a team coach -- just a different job).

One of the first girls I coached in rec ball decided she wanted to be a pitcher as she advanced. Her dad made her go out in the back yard and throw 100 pitches a night for at least 3 nights a week for an entire year before he would even consider paying somebody to work with her ... and it was a great move. It showed that she had the dedication and self-drive to want it; it provided her with plenty of opportunity to work on things on her own and identify what she wanted out of pitching lessons. It provided purpose.