Phantasmagorical

[Bench Coach Dad]

They feed off of each other.

They push off the pitchers plate. Really push. Spikes digging in push.

They step up and out landing on a strong leg. Like a wall.

One of them "grunts" it's kinda silly sounding.

They have good arm speed. Really good.

But most of all...they both really "snap" the ball. They both really dig their fingers in. They don't use their palm..

Just waiting for consistency....I am learning that's the hard part.

oh yeah...remember they push really hard off the pitchers plate.

and dynamic stretching before too...

 

[PA SB Dad]

I sense another troll.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

She understood how important that start was to the team..I wonder if she understood how important it was to her? She tells me she does. A day later, typing this, I feel maybe, just maybe there is still hope...or maybe it's just the evil, magical, part of baseball that tells you everyday offers a fresh start, a chance to start again. I hope my kid gets a chance to "start" again.

Maybe is a troll?

 

[Sparky Guy]

but I just felt terrible. How could this have happened? What was wrong with my coaching? What was wrong with the pro I hired? What was wrong with my kid?!? Mechanics? Technique? Been thru them all. Practice? Never miss. Vacation? The pro I hired will take one but not my family. While my out of body experience was underway I questioned everything I have ever done. T-Ball, all of it rushing by...

She is 10 years old. She will have good and bad days. That's the nature of the position. Heck, even the pros being paid millions have bad days.

Now read below and use it as a template for the rest of your daughters softball career.

In this day, and economy, where we could all put our time and money into the necessities this makes a good point.

You see athletes large, small and in between. Some are gifted and know it, so they coast. Others are not and know it, so they work like crazy. A select few are gifted and work like crazy. There is a place for all of them in youth, junior high and high school sports.

There also is a place for their parents. So many places. You find them behind the wheel, in dugouts, on benches, in lawn chairs, at concession stands, in hotel lobbies. They work ahead or work split shifts or work into the wee hours, all in an attempt to be there when the boy or girl they welcomed into the world digs in with the bases loaded or drives to the basket.

Occasionally, they look in the mirror or at the bank statement and wonder, "Is it worth it? Is all of this really worth it?"

Here's the good news, a tad late for Mother's Day, but early for Father's Day.

Yes. It is absolutely worth it.

The wins and losses fade. Trophies collect dust in an attic. Stat sheets wind up in a recycle bin.
None of them matter.

You realize it years later. Like the day you wake up and your youngest is graduating from college.
At our house, it is Friday. You hear her talk about a semester-long project that involved building a city - designing the water system, infrastructure, etc. - and the mind drifts to softball diamonds here and in other cities, other states. It was a group project requiring strategy, planning, execution and, more than anything, teamwork. Sports introduced her to all of it.

They taught her that life isn't always fair. Line drives get caught. Bloopers fall in. Umpires miss calls. Players drop balls.

Deal with it. Learn from it. Move on.

Sports strengthened their resolve, toughened their skin. So when an irate boss openly voices his/her displeasure, they can tell a concerned co-worker: "It's OK. I've had coaches yell at me."
Doesn't mean they like it, doesn't make it right. But they can handle it.

Sports prepare them to manage success and disappointment, deal with adversity. Remember that the next time you drive six hours to a sweltering summer tournament, or shiver under a blanket at a spring doubleheader.

It's worth it.

Just be sure to occasionally take a breath, take a step back and take a second to enjoy the moment. It doesn't last much beyond that.

Games turn to seasons and seasons to years, faster than you can say, "Do you have everything in your bat bag?"

Squeeze what you can from the long rides, the overnight stays. You never get those back. Be a shame to waste them listening to an iPod or dwelling on a loss.

Encourage them to succeed but allow them to fail. They learn from both.

Be there either way. It's all they will remember.
Experience the journey with them, not through them. You had your time. This is theirs, no matter how many hours you contribute.

Keep in mind, the key is not whether they make or miss the winning shot, but accept responsibility for taking it. If they can do that, they won't shy away from much at work, in school, in life.
Hold them accountable beyond the court/field. Remind them playing sports is like any privilege. It can be taken away.

Finally, continue to give them love and support, win or lose. Stay in the game.

It's worth it.

 

[sru]

I had the worst experience last night as our girls bounced back to even the season series at 2-2.

As a matter of fact the experience was surreal.

Let me give you some background – We have 2 pitchers on the team (both about 7-9 months of once a week pro training and constant at home and team practices) and one of them is my daughter and the other is the head coach's daughter. They both throw hard for 10 years old, about a month ago they got clocked between 49 and 53 mph. over 8 pitches. They both have good action on the ball, tough to see the seams and often there is a slight "wrinkle" on the ball as it makes it's way in.

This is where the story falls apart. Because they can't consistently throw strikes, we have found ourselves giving up almost all of our runs on walks. They either strike them out or walk them in, some of the better girls can hit them. Anyway, we loose the first game of the season on walks and not getting timely hits and we loose our second game the same way. However, in one of those losses my kid comes in in relief, inherits a bases loaded no outs situation and strikes out the side on 13 pitches. Everybody, including myself, sees light at the end of the tunnel. All the work is paying off! Our third game the other pitcher goes the entire game with stellar defense playing behind her and not only a wins but wins with a no hitter! We are all excited now as we see what can be and can't wait until the next game so we can get back to even on the season. It would seem we now have 2 pitchers that are throwing hard and getting it in (or close) to the strike zone!

The fourth game of the season my daughter starts and does not even make it out of the first inning. She struck out 2, walked 2 and (ugh.) hit 3 batters. (2 in the toes, the third in the back. ugh.) She was done by rule. She got moved to first and the head coaches daughter pitched well enough to get us thru the game. We won. But I felt like we lost. After she hit the third batter I was in shock. I did not say anything, I don't yell at any of the kids during a game, but I just felt terrible. How could this have happened? What was wrong with my coaching? What was wrong with the pro I hired? What was wrong with my kid?!? Mechanics? Technique? Been thru them all. Practice? Never miss. Vacation? The pro I hired will take one but not my family. While my out of body experience was underway I questioned everything I have ever done. T-Ball, all of it rushing by...

She understood how important that start was to the team..I wonder if she understood how important it was to her? She tells me she does. A day later, typing this, I feel maybe, just maybe there is still hope...or maybe it's just the evil, magical, part of baseball that tells you everyday offers a fresh start, a chance to start again. I hope my kid gets a chance to "start" again.

Whats wrong you ask. Everything is wrong....

I don't know if this post is real or just some pining from a guy who took a creative writing course at the local college.

 

[Bench Coach Dad]

Not a troll. No reason to be, nothing to gain from it and no time for it either.

Thanks to everyone who had helpful advise and insights.

Hope to talk more with you on other softball topics...

 

[obbay]

I had a similar experience this year.
My 11 yo DD had a great year last year, a fantastic first game this year, then down the tubes from there. Her low point was one game where she walked a crazy number of batters and hit 7 in less than two innings! Our biggest problem was that due to scheduling difficulties, we weren't seeing her PC every week.
additional problems:
- she had too many people telling her how great she was. (not me!- other coaches and kids in school)
- learned a new pitch so her concentration drifted away from hitting her spots to getting this new pitch to drop off the table. went from having a good fastball and an even better CU to having no pitch she could count on.
- we practiced a LOT at home, but didn't focus on location and she gradually drifted out of the strike zone and into the batter's box.
- she developed a LOT of bad habits.
- she lost all confidence.

when we finally got back to her PC she began undoing the damage we had done. slowly addressing problems one by one, we have rehabilitated her to the point where she can come in and throw 2 or 3 good innings. (we have 3 pitchers so that's not a problem) she is not throwing as hard as she was 2 months ago and her changeup is still not accurate, but she is getting back to where she was, regaining confidence and having fun again. She also learned (I think) some hard lessons- one of which being how damaging praise can be if you let it get to your head. At 10 or 11, they aren't equiped to take praise graciously and then just forget about it.

There is another girl in the league who started off really hot- smoking everyone and blasting her team out to a 6 -1 record pretty quickly (14 game season). Then she too began to lose the strike zone and is struggling with this now.

I credit DDs pitching coach with the save. she is a woman, a former college player and a current TB coach. DD loves her and the coach is excellent at picking up flaws and correcting without frustrting the student. she is excellent at communicating and connecting with her. DD knows that her coach was once in her shoes.

I don't know if this will help at all, but hang in there and don't expect a fix overnight.

 

[nanotech14]

Nothing's wrong. She's a pitcher, not a girl who just throws 35mph strikes. Pitchers take a lot longer to develop consistency. Enjoy it.

sorry I don't call throwing as hard as you can a pitcher,if you hit every thing but the catchers glove you are a thrower,not a pitcher,my dd at 10yro threw her first no hitter and shut out,was she as fast as other girls? No,but she had control,at the time went to states in LL.I will take control over speed anyday,seen those fireballs to much,walk in runs ,throw it over the backstop hit the icecream truck in the parking lot,at least with a control pitcher you have a chance to use your fielders.She has already been successful in TB at u-12,the other girl on are team is a thrower and we lose alot with her pitching,and by the way now dd has speed and control.

 

[redhotcoach]

Just go with the flow. One of my hardest things this year of coaching is not pitching 12u girls that I know have been "pitching" for up to 3 years, because we don't stand a chance with them on the rubber. On the other side of the story, we faced a girl last weekend that was the 10u legend two years ago. My girls knees were smacking together in the batters box and we didn't hit a thing she threw two years ago. Last weekend we gave the outfield fence a workout. Softball pitching really is a roller coaster.

An unscientific observation: at 10u a good pitcher dominates, at 12-14u hitters develope and dominate, 16-18u it equals out for the most part with a super star pitcher here and there.

 

[Lozza]

I sense another troll.

Can we please stop calling trolls every time a crazy daddy rears their head? Calling people trolls when they're misguided is frustrating.