- Jun 18, 2023
- 406
- 63
Parents need to parent 14 year olds. What a concept! The idea "it's up to her" or "its her decision" is lack of parenting. You hold the purse strings. Simply inform your DD that you are not going to pay for lessons unless she commits to throwing bullpens. Pitching is not easy and requires a 3 or 4 times a week commitment. Without that you are lighting your money on fire. There may be some exceptions but very few are going to develope into a college pitcher throwing once a week.
What if that's not the goal? Or at least, not the priority. By 14 maybe you need to sorta have your sights there, but _under 14_? ...meh.
I'd be interested in what percentage of the girls this coach thinks aren't better at the end of their their season compared to the end of their previous season. I bet it's close to zero, if not zero.
While they may not work much/any on their own, they still practice what they learn in lessons. They still mentally absorb the lesson. They apply it when they're pitching. In the offseason it minimizes backsliding.
It might not make top flight pitchers out of 'em, but it'll do a lot to keep them improving and at least competitive. And more importantly, it'll keep them from quitting.
Not every nine and ten year old that develops a liking, even a love of, softball is going to instantly jettison every other interest and commit the majority of their effort to it, and the ones that do very well might burn out or find another interest in two years and move on.
And certainly at the 12ish area, when girls are moving from little league/rec type stuff to high school/JV type stuff...while also playing other sports, doing girl scouts, homework, band, getting interested in romance, etc.
Yes, they should find time to do more work, at least occasionally, but there are only so many hours for so many things. Plus, this is just the coaches opinion. They generally have a good sense of it, but maybe another 40% of those kids are finding 20 minutes here and there every week or every other week. Or finding 5 extra minutes after practice. Just because the kid hasn't mastered the instruction from the last lesson to this one doesn't mean they didn't/don't practice or learn.
tl:dr of this is that it's fine. There's plenty of value to professional coaching even if they don't put in much/any work outside of it for a myriad of valid reasons.