School ball Coach not pitching DD

[speedseeker11]

DD is the number 2 on her low B travel ball team so gets a good share of the load every weekend. Just started middle school ball and in the beginning of the season the coach threw her into a scrimmage without notice or warmup or anything...frazzled her as it was unexpected. She's used to a thorough warmup before entering the circle. Actually ran over to me for a quick warm up worried but there wasn't time as she needed to jump out there right away. It was between innings - didn't give her the heads up until they were heading back out on the field after their offensive side of the inning. Kind of looked at the clip board and say something like "ok you go here, you go there..." Also a situation where she wanted to impress the new girls and the community around her. Needless to say she didn't do well...walked several. Weird thing is the coach was calling balls and strikes from behind second base. DD and catcher both thought some of the calls were off...I couldn't tell from my vantage point but they looked close. Was agony watching the whole thing go down. Serious blow to her confidence. He just let her walk and walk and walk those batters with the occasional "come on, just dig down and throw strikes". Now, he's not pitching her at all and ended up putting her in center field. As an athlete she does well out there but I know it upsets her. The REAL problem is it seems to have creeped in to her performance on her travel team.

The other thing I should mention is she's gone through a mechanics change from HE to IR this last year and strike percentage has gone down. Before this incident though she's managed to make things work, but after this incident it just seems things started to fall apart.

What do I do? Anything? How do I talk to her? What's my attitude here? I remain composed and positive with her on the outside but inside its killing me. Hoping for some sage advice from those who have been there, done that.

 

[BrianTx01]

Is she pitching Bullpens at her school practice?

 

[speedseeker11]

Is she pitching Bullpens at her school practice?

No. None of the pitchers do. We try to get her a bullpen every night at home when we can fit it in to prepare for the upcoming weekend tournaments but nothing with the school team. Really odd to me...even in rec and Select ball I made sure we were giving our pitchers some workouts and warming them up properly. She did fine before the season during the evals but after that scrimmage its like he flipped the switch off.

 

[BrianTx01]

I really don't know what your middle school team does as far as practice. If it is like a class and they have practice everyday I would think that the coach would get a bullpen in during the week. The other question is what other pitchers do they have? You mentioned she is low B. Do they have an A level pitcher that is getting the innings?

 

[speedseeker11]

I really don't know what your middle school team does as far as practice. If it is like a class and they have practice everyday I would think that the coach would get a bullpen in during the week. The other question is what other pitchers do they have? You mentioned she is low B. Do they have an A level pitcher that is getting the innings?

They have a 14U rec pitcher and another B travel ball pitcher. They both get the job done but nothing stands out other than performance during that scrimmage. DD pitches a bit faster than them both and, until then, had just as good command with a pretty good change. They practice every day and from what I've seen its mostly just basic fungo stuff.

 

[DrRiello]

Forget middle school ball. It’s a joke. Focus on getting her ready for travel. If she gets time in the circle with middle school great otherwise practice outside of middle school ball.


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[MNDad]

Encourage her to keep a good attitude and focus on what she can control. If she’s in CF or in the circle she’s still getting reps. School ball is what it is. Kid can learn great life lessons focusing on the positive.

 

[Hillhouse]

Forget middle school ball. It’s a joke. Focus on getting her ready for travel. If she gets time in the circle with middle school great otherwise practice outside of middle school ball.


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Sometimes HS ball is a joke too. Sometimes Travel ball is a joke. The point is, anyone who sends a pitcher out there without warm ups and notice is the real joke. Other than playing with her friends at school, there is no advantage to playing school ball at any level. It doesn't help with college recruiting and you just saw first hand how it can be harmful to someone's career. Give the pros and cons of this school ball a second thought. NOT ALL SCHOOL BALL IS BAD!! But don't be confused into believing it helps with the next level, it doesn't. However, there's a lot of great coaches who love and try their best for the game. It's a shame the that bad coaches and situations like this populate the forums. There's a lot of great ones out there too. Just don't think this will matter when it comes to college, in fact it appears it will be the opposite of helpful. And it's clear it will effect her love of the game. Good luck.

 

[MNDad]

Sometimes HS ball is a joke too. Sometimes Travel ball is a joke. The point is, anyone who sends a pitcher out there without warm ups and notice is the real joke. Other than playing with her friends at school, there is no advantage to playing school ball at any level. It doesn't help with college recruiting and you just saw first hand how it can be harmful to someone's career. Give the pros and cons of this school ball a second thought. NOT ALL SCHOOL BALL IS BAD!! But don't be confused into believing it helps with the next level, it doesn't. However, there's a lot of great coaches who love and try their best for the game. It's a shame the that bad coaches and situations like this populate the forums. There's a lot of great ones out there too. Just don't think this will matter when it comes to college, in fact it appears it will be the opposite of helpful. And it's clear it will effect her love of the game. Good luck.

HS ball absolutely helps with recruiting. College coaches attend HS games to look for players or to look at girls that contacted them. Many HS coaches are also travel coaches. That can help a player get on a top travel program as mush as attending a tryout. HS coaches and college coaches talk. Impress one and word spreads. I’m not saying it helps anywhere near as much as travel, but anytime a player can get in front of coaches helps.

In addition to recruiting HS ball helps kids deal with the politics they’ll face. In college. Probably the biggest thing it does is show them what it’s like to compete for a spot and be on a roster with more than 12 kids. I know you’ve seen how many kids can’t cut it and quit their freshman year.

 

[DrRiello]

Sometimes HS ball is a joke too. Sometimes Travel ball is a joke. The point is, anyone who sends a pitcher out there without warm ups and notice is the real joke. Other than playing with her friends at school, there is no advantage to playing school ball at any level. It doesn't help with college recruiting and you just saw first hand how it can be harmful to someone's career. Give the pros and cons of this school ball a second thought. NOT ALL SCHOOL BALL IS BAD!! But don't be confused into believing it helps with the next level, it doesn't. However, there's a lot of great coaches who love and try their best for the game. It's a shame the that bad coaches and situations like this populate the forums. There's a lot of great ones out there too. Just don't think this will matter when it comes to college, in fact it appears it will be the opposite of helpful. And it's clear it will effect her love of the game. Good luck.

I probably wasn’t clear. My point which I didn’t really make clear is with travel you have recourse. You dont like the coach or team you can leave and find one you do like. With HS or middle school you’re stuck. Unless you want to change schools which seems drastic. In this case focus on her travel team since she’s getting a raw deal in middle school.


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