After watching my DD's HS season, and some college fall ball, I would like to take a moment to emphasize to all DFP parents to work with your DD's on improving their softball IQs. Everyone practices the physical skills it takes to play softball at a high level, but I am astonished at the number of high level players who are either ignorant or have not been properly coached in the fundamentals of the game. Know the rules, know where to go with the ball when it is hit to you, find the lead runner, hit your cutoffs. Preventing a base runner from taking an extra base can be the difference between winning and losing in a tight game.
I would not assume that they haven't been taught it. I know my own DD does stuff that I can't easily break. I've seen her make base-running errors (not tagging up on a line drive to the outfield, staying too close to 1B on a drive to left field) not long after having specifically practiced and gone over it. Not to pick on DD, but she's the only one where I can confirm that she's been taught something that she didn't then do.
Not being taught is certainly one reason, but I have another theory.
Many kids today are dependent on what they've been taught and don't really think for themselves. Today's TB players are the products of years of structure and organization in their sports. They learn that you do what the coach says. Which is fine to a point. But what you have mainly are players trying to do as they're told. It's instruction by memorization. Imagine that a runner gets thrown out at third trying to advance on a ball that short-hops the catcher. The over-taught player will say, 'If the balls in the dirt, I go. That's the rule,'' The instinctive player will say, ''I sized up that catcher and figured my speed was better than her hands and her arm. Just got beat this time.''
So the problem isn't so much that they haven't been taught fundamentals. It's that they haven't been taught to view the game in a way that encourages them to have their own theories about what to do. They're waiting on us to tell them. The players with the best softball IQ aren't necessarily the most well-coached, but the ones who are motivated and encouraged to think for themselves.
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