Player evaluations

[Momo'sDad]

(10u)

- 3 easy grounders at short with throw to 1B
- 3 easy fly balls to short center with throw to 2B
- 3 swings on machine pitch with run to 1B on 3rd swing

- girls who wanted to pitch got 4 throws each

I rated everyone on the following: throwing, fielding, catching, batting, running

(We didn't bother to evaluate the coaches' kids, but only about half of them would've gotten top ratings.)

Of the girls in the pool, there were no 25s.

24 - 4

23 - 3

22 - 4

20 - 1

18 - 3

There wasn't a lot of skill after the top 12, but I could see that many of those upper-teen girls are going to play hard. I wasn't surprised that so many girls had trouble fielding, but I was totally caught off-guard by the number of girls who'd never been taught to throw a ball.

Although I had hoped to get a little size, I put the highest premium on throwing.

There were no flat-out burners, so I had to rate speed relative to the group and was keen on the way the girls ran. I wanted to see how coordinated they were.

As for batting, some of the girls stood right on the plate. That's conceivable. But what I didn't get were the number of girls who held their bats up and stood facing the pitching machine. I saw this quite a few times. And of course, several of the girls carried their bats all the way to 1B.

Maybe these girls have never watched much TV or seen video games (which would be great!), but how do you make it to age 9-10 without ever having seen someone swing a bat? I know she's a different beast, but my DD had that figured out when she was 2.

As for pitching, other than the team with the two #1s, we're all thin. That's something our league needs to tackle aggressively this season, not just for 10u, but also for 8u and 2nd-yr 6u.

I'm glad we've got so many new players, but I want us to give new girls in 2012 a chance to at least learn how to throw and swing a bat before sending them into an evaluation scenario.

 

[nanotech14]

Is this rec. ball? This is normal for most rec. leagues. All I have to say is welcome to rec. ball , not saying it is bad , but just like all sports you have to go start somewhere.

 

[starsnuffer]

Sounds good, however, IMHO the most valuable recruiting scouting you can do (as a coach) is watch the girls when they're warming up. Pay attention to their attitude, athleticism, and most importantly, their ability to throw and catch. All the other stuff is easy to teach.

-W

 

[Momo'sDad]

Rec ball, yeah. It was unusual for me to see 6u skills in 10u bodies. I'm really, really glad we've got these girls, but I had to shy away from most of them in the draft, because I didn't feel that *I* had the necessary skill set. I'm sure they'll be fine, but I'm being genuine when I say that people who really know basic skills are probably better suited for teaching them than I would be. I did teach my little 7yo niece to hit the other night, but the fact that she already knew how to throw a ball showed me that she's pretty coordinated.

Not having a partner did affect me on eval day. I wish I'd gotten a chance to watch warm-ups, but I had to help out with the 8u evaluations, so because we were running over time, I didn't get to see the 10u players until they came up for their evals.

Based on MY draft list, however, I did a better job working alone than most of the other teams did. But as everyone knows, preseason rankings mean nothing.

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

Sounds good, however, IMHO the most valuable recruiting scouting you can do (as a coach) is watch the girls when they're warming up. Pay attention to their attitude, athleticism, and most importantly, their ability to throw and catch. All the other stuff is easy to teach.

-W

IMO, Hitting is the #1 most complex thing a fastpitch player has to perform and the most technical to teach. Even good hitters "fail" at it 7 out of 10 at-bats (.300 batting average); and Pitching is #2. Throwing and catching is a lot easier to learn than #1 and #2.

 

[Momo'sDad]

IMO, Hitting is the #1 most complex thing a fastpitch player has to perform and the most technical to teach. Even good hitters "fail" at it 7 out of 10 at-bats (.300 batting average); and Pitching is #2. Throwing and catching is a lot easier to learn than #1 and #2.

I won't tinker at all with the girls on our team (if any) who have hitting instructors already. They'll just have live batting practice.

The girls who know how to hit will do a lot of the standard drills, batting practice, and tee work.

I've also got some drills in mind to help all the girls start learning to read pitches which might help them get more aggressive at the plate.

For the absolute beginners, we'll start with setup, raise, step, knob-to-the-ball to get them to learn what a swing feels like. In addition to throwing, this is going to be a stressed from our very first practice. I know you guys don't like for us to dumb things down too much for the girls, but we have to get their bodies moving in the right direction before getting too technical with them.

 

[starsnuffer]

IMO, Hitting is the #1 most complex thing a fastpitch player has to perform and the most technical to teach. Even good hitters "fail" at it 7 out of 10 at-bats (.300 batting average); and Pitching is #2. Throwing and catching is a lot easier to learn than #1 and #2.

I agree and disagree.

While I agree that hitting is complex, and perhaps the most complex, I also disagree that it should be the emphasis. The reason I disagree is because I subscribe to the adage "if they can throw they can hit", because 80% of hitting mechanics is similar to correct throwing mechanics. Therefor, if they already throw correctly, teaching them to hit correctly is very easy. If their throwing is abysmal, you have to teach that first, and THEN you can focus on hitting.

Besides, at 10u you can win games by bunting the whole lineup (not that winning is the point, but getting runs helps the girls feel better)

-W

 

[Momo'sDad]

I know that the goal of any legitimate rec league is to have reasonably balanced teams, but then they have us draft and some of the coaches are going to try to draft the best team possible, while others are going to try to keep as many friends together as possible or get kids that they like.

Some liked going for the older players, some liked going for the bigger players, but I generally tried to get the best athletes available, with a focus on throwing. We won't bunt the lineup, but I expect for us to put pressure on opposing defenses to make plays.

 

[Jojo]

I always coached back in my DD's younger days and when recruiting for rec teams, players with skills usually ran out in the 3rd round. I filled up the rest of roster with attitude and personality.

One year in 10u, I was in the last round where coaches were down to the kids that picked their noses and put their gloves on the wrong hand. I decided I was going to choose the kid that SCREAMED everytime she tried to catch a ball. What amused me was the fact that she was terrified of the ball, but yet she was actually "trying" to catch it, which she never did, but there was definitely desire there.

I lost her in the last round and ended up with the- glove on the wrong hand kid-.

Although she played for another team that year, I watched her slowly improve throughout the season and talked to her dad a few times. He said her athletic skills were less than adequate but her heart was totally into the game. She played with me that fall, and she was one of the most enjoyable kids I ever had. I just had that one fall rec season with her, she moved up an age bracket the next year and then I moved out of league and into travel ball.

Then one year around 14U I'm at a tourny and who do I see playing second base? Yes, Miss Screamy! Playing travel ball! Still loving the game and still working as hard as she could.

I kept in touch with her dad after that and wanted to relay that she never lost her love or desire to be the best she could be and ended up with a scholarship playing second base at a DII school, so she could continue playing the game she loved.

Right now they may not be able to swing or catch, but look for those "with the love of the game".

 

[Momo'sDad]

Awesome, Jojo!

I ended up with 3 players out of the blind (girls who weren't able to attend the tryouts for whatever reason), so I have no idea what I'm getting with them, but I was keen on evaluating desire when selecting the other 9. Having been through past seasons when half the girls were only out there because their parents made them play, I was only interested in players who showed they wanted to be out there. I know it's 'only rec ball', but I'm going to demand a sincere effort from everyone. I'll never criticize a player for making a mistake, but not giving effort is an intolerable offense, even in rec ball.