New Member...Travel Team parent, Newly formed coach.

[Gymtansmush]

Found this site last week and been reading it just about everyday. My DD plays on a 10U travel team in Louisiana (after I played travel baseball decades ago) so being around the diamond again is awesome. She unfortunately took 3 years off of softball so we are trying to catch up and do what we can to increase her playing time.

My travel team organization has been around a few year (Lock'D N Sports) so we have 3 established teams (10U, 12U, and 14U). Myself and a friend of mine were just appointed coaches of a new 8U team we are trying to build to help expand the brand and build better starting fundamentals. (our local rec leagues are absolutely terrible and none of the girls seem to enjoy just playing rec ball). Looking forward to getting all the help I can handle from this great community.

Looking forward to posting more and getting answers that will make this new way of life manageable. Glad to be part of this community now!

 

[BRsoftballDad]

Welcome.....glad to see some more Louisiana members. Lots of good information in here and it's very active so your questions get answered quickly.

 

[bmakj]

Found this site last week and been reading it just about everyday. My DD plays on a 10U travel team in Louisiana (after I played travel baseball decades ago) so being around the diamond again is awesome. She unfortunately took 3 years off of softball so we are trying to catch up and do what we can to increase her playing time.

My travel team organization has been around a few year (Lock'D N Sports) so we have 3 established teams (10U, 12U, and 14U). Myself and a friend of mine were just appointed coaches of a new 8U team we are trying to build to help expand the brand and build better starting fundamentals. (our local rec leagues are absolutely terrible and none of the girls seem to enjoy just playing rec ball). Looking forward to getting all the help I can handle from this great community.

Looking forward to posting more and getting answers that will make this new way of life manageable. Glad to be part of this community now!

a few years off at that age will not kill here, below 10u lots of standing around at all levels. make certain her mechanics (fielding, throwing, hitting) are sound is main thing. and lots of simple reps (GB, pop flys, tee and soft toss if you cant pitch like me to get her swing together).

so is your Dd on your 8u team as well? is that kid or coach or machine pitch?

 

[Gymtansmush]

a few years off at that age will not kill here, below 10u lots of standing around at all levels. make certain her mechanics (fielding, throwing, hitting) are sound is main thing. and lots of simple reps (GB, pop flys, tee and soft toss if you cant pitch like me to get her swing together).

so is your Dd on your 8u team as well? is that kid or coach or machine pitch?

My DD is on the 10U team but the other coaches helping me are kids on the 8U team and we have been friends forever so I know their kids like my own. I'm thinking more fundamentals will go along way as long as we throw some fun drills in the mix as well. I have started a binder with practice routines, drills, tactics, tips, stuff for me to quickly read over since we will all be learning together.

 

[bmakj]

My DD is on the 10U team but the other coaches helping me are kids on the 8U team and we have been friends forever so I know their kids like my own. I'm thinking more fundamentals will go along way as long as we throw some fun drills in the mix as well. I have started a binder with practice routines, drills, tactics, tips, stuff for me to quickly read over since we will all be learning together.

sounds like you are well on your way, and you know the value of organization. have a plan for each practice, what you want to work on, what stations you will have, how long until you rotate. adjust each practice what you work on based on what you see in previous practices and games.

that is the next big thing, do NOT line up 9 fielders and pitch to a batter or hit balls to them yourselves for more than a 10 minutes a practice. use that type of setup only to work on situational (ie runner on 2nd, 1 out, etc.). have stations with one or two adults and only a few girls for the majority of practice, they need lots of reps of each skill, cannot get that in full field practice.

also, at 8u, forget about trying for lead runners, look backs, etc. MAKE OUTs, give up runs, but get outs.

 

[Gymtansmush]

sounds like you are well on your way, and you know the value of organization. have a plan for each practice, what you want to work on, what stations you will have, how long until you rotate. adjust each practice what you work on based on what you see in previous practices and games.

that is the next big thing, do NOT line up 9 fielders and pitch to a batter or hit balls to them yourselves for more than a 10 minutes a practice. use that type of setup only to work on situational (ie runner on 2nd, 1 out, etc.). have stations with one or two adults and only a few girls for the majority of practice, they need lots of reps of each skill, cannot get that in full field practice.

also, at 8u, forget about trying for lead runners, look backs, etc. MAKE OUTs, give up runs, but get outs.

Thank you for your advise and tips on practice. That is some solid advise to split them up and not do a full field practice just hitting to the girls. I would love to win as much as we can but I don't want to sacrifice fundamentals and just making the girls better overall players. I don't want to be one of those coaches that cheeses the games just to win and the girls don't learn what they should.

 

[bmakj]

talk to parents, explain your goals (long term development, vs Ws now), and they will be on board. at that age after game snack is way more important to them than winning. one of my mantras was you will have to try and make a particular play X times in a game and fail before you get it right. this is for individuals or teams. but definitely always try and make a play every time ball is put in play. lots of coaches on some plays will yell pitcher or hold the ball, rather than let girls try and make play, when they think there is little chance of it in order to avoid advancing runners. dont worry about it, have them make the play.

also, talk to oppiosing coaches before games, talk about your objectives, you can probably agree (if they have similar objectives) to limit running on overthrows, etc. to one base, etc.

 

[JOHNN]

Welcome to the forum. Tons of good knowledge in this place!

 

[bmakj]

Thank you for your advise and tips on practice. That is some solid advise to split them up and not do a full field practice just hitting to the girls. I would love to win as much as we can but I don't want to sacrifice fundamentals and just making the girls better overall players. I don't want to be one of those coaches that cheeses the games just to win and the girls don't learn what they should.

if you build up your girls fundamental skills, they will be winning eventually. it might take a little bit, but trust me, if you start off teaching them the right way to play the game, rather than coaching to avoid losing, they will develop further and faster than the coach who has his girls walk the ball in all the time, hold it rather than make plays, etc. they are depending on Ks and easy grounders to 1B (which happen a lot at younger ages) but that strategy falls apart at 12u. you gotta play defense.

 

[Gymtansmush]

if you build up your girls fundamental skills, they will be winning eventually. it might take a little bit, but trust me, if you start off teaching them the right way to play the game, rather than coaching to avoid losing, they will develop further and faster than the coach who has his girls walk the ball in all the time, hold it rather than make plays, etc. they are depending on Ks and easy grounders to 1B (which happen a lot at younger ages) but that strategy falls apart at 12u. you gotta play defense.

One of my assistant coaches, also a friend, pulled his daughter out of rec bc of this exact reason. All the coaches but him were just teaching girls to roll the ball back to the pitcher or to first. Then when the team was batting he was just send send send his girls until they got the ball back to the pitcher (bc my friend was teaching his kids to throw the ball, field it, try and get outs on force plays. He wasn't going to let his daughter suffer through that anymore, so here we are with an 8U team now. Just can't wait to get started