To speak or not to speak?

[MsDinosaur]

If you do talk to the coach, I'd recommend following jinjet's advice and make it a friendly conversation centered on "What should I be working on with her at home to help her improve?" while trying not to let words like "infield position" and "playing time" pass your lips.

Amy has great advice. Hitters play and it's easier to get noticed as a hitter. Even at 10U, coaches keep batting statistics and while they aren't perfect, the stats don't play favorites as much. A coach can watch the girls fielding in practice and games, develop a subjective opinion that little Susie has the better glove and then, human nature being what it is, overlook whatever doesn't match his opinion. If your daughter's batting average is 100 points higher than Susie's, that's hard to overlook.

Even if her team is usually batting the roster, if she can hit, her coach will want to keep her and is going to make sure that she gets enough playing time to keep her happy. (IMO once he realizes that she's one of his top batters and starts moving her up in the order, she should be the one to go to him before or after practice and say she'd like to play more innings at second, etc.)

 

[Sparky Guy]

How do you run drills and not include all the players?

Screwball, you beat me to it. I've spent the last nine years mainly working with 9-12U players. When I run a practice EVERYONE does all the drills no matter what we are working on. The only exceptions are pitcher and catcher.

Are certain kids better at skill positions? Absolutely!!! But you never know when your diamond in the rough will show up and sparkle. They need to have the time to work at various skills.

I tell my kids I will do my best to teach them two positions. I also tell them that everyone will spend time in the outfield. I try to rotate kids through the infield during practice.

The biggest problem that many people don't realize is there can be a two year variation in physical and mental maturity in young kids who are the same chronological age. Those potential disparities is one of THE biggest challenges when it comes to teaching a team with potential maturity spread of 4 years. Most times parents don't see it. One of the things I tell my parents at the initial team meeting is do not compare your child to any of the girls on the team. They are who they are and will develop at their own pace.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Sparky Guy, I get your argument here, but at the same time, we have to respect the fact that different programs will have different goals which are often in some part dependent on what they have to work with, where they're trying to go, and when they're trying to get there. Teams that were just formed and which are trying to play a December tournament may not be looking at what they hope to accomplish next year during these November practices. The coach of a new team might go out with the intention of merely getting the team some game experience before Christmas, but then might decide after a couple of practices that he wants to be as competitive as possible by then, even though it's just the fall season. What coach enjoys having their team on the wrong side of a weekend filled with blowouts?

If we've only got 8 hours of team practices available before our first tournament and we want to perform our best there, it would be counter-productive to spend an equal amount of time teaching outfielders infield bunt coverages when their assignments on bunts are totally different.

Even in rec ball, it is reasonable to factor team goals into what and how individual players are taught. In 10u, we get many players who are just learning to throw and catch. It would be pointless to by-pass the time needed for that.

Some parents will ask you to expand your roster to 14 to accommodate their player without thinking about how everyone's playing time might be affected. Some parents will say they don't care about playing time, they just want their kid on your team, and then turn around and spend all weekend griping about how many at-bats another player had.

Yes, all players do develop at their own pace, but all teams develop at their own pace, too. Believe it or not, there is no perfect, one size-fits-all softball situation in our reality and we all have different views on how young teams should be managed.

 

[Sparky Guy]

it would be counter-productive to spend an equal amount of time teaching outfielders infield bunt coverages when their assignments on bunts are totally different.

You're confusing teaching the kids how to play the game and teaching them the game. Drills are for teaching them how to catch, throw and fielding fundamentals needed to play the game. Working bunt coverages is teaching them the game and how it flows. Two different activities.

 

[Ken Krause]

This anointing of kids at 10u as good or bad players assumes the coach knows which is which and they don't.

Second it assumes you win at that age based on your best players, when in fact, you win based on your weakest players being better than the other team's weakest players. And one way you do this is to make them confident.

If you only have a few hours, tough, you got 12 kids, you're an adult, it is not rocket science. Get them all involved. A winter tournament means absolutely nothing.

Third it assumes that all these so-called strategies will be absorbed in a few hours and executed 'like magic robots' in the winter tourney. And that this is what makes 10u's successful on the field. Even with good players, this is not realistic. You give them too much to absorb, nothing gets executed well.

It is an awful cycle to give the better players attention so they get better and then dump the bad players on the bench in practice so they can't improve. Then lay it on the parents to go find some other time to practice when the lesson could have been provided in practice. Good grief.

Right on, Screwball! If you can't include all the girls in drills at 10U, when can you do it? If winning a 10U tournament is more important to you than teaching your players how to play a game you should re-think why you're coaching. No one cares who wins 10U Nationals except the parents, much less a local winter tournament.

I have seen so many kids who started out weak finish strong. It's a lot like gardening. If you want the plants to grow you can't just throw the seeds off to the side and ignore them. You have to water them, and feed them, and nurture them. And honestly, figuring out which kids will end up being the best 18U players is about as easy as looking at a handful of those seeds and figuring out which ones will grow the tallest. It's anyone's guess.

 

[BrianMonk]

Good Advice and just to reiterate:

1. Learn how to hit
2. Practice on your own, especially your weaknesses
3. Learn how to play outfield - especially how to take drop steps and proper angles to the ball. It's harder than it looks and even older kids have a difficult time with it.

We have a young lady that, if anyone on team wants to play high level college ball, she has a chance. Last year just coming out of 6th grade hit a ball within feet of going out of Hall of Fame Stadium. Had she not hit the ball sky high, it would have landed in the bleachers quite easily. The ball was never returned to the field so I'm not sure if it bounced over the fence or not - she got a ground rule double.

She had one this fall as a 7th grader that had to be 225.

She's played nothing but outfield the last 3 years but wasn't crazy about it at first. She's learned to enjoy the outfield as her speed is one of her best assets (which by the way, work on speed as well).

Outfield can many times be the easiest way to break into a starting role in high school if that is important.

 

[left turn]

What does your DD want to play?
Are the players ahead of her in her position clearly better?
Is she willing to work to improve?

If there is not a noticeable difference between your DD and the others, are there political reasons players are ahead of your DD on the depth chart? For example, they could be the coach’s daughter, have long standing friendships or the players started with this coach at that position last year? Many coaches feel constrained by their preconceived notions or prior commitments. The better coaches update their opinions based on new information – what they see right now. This is hard for any of us to do.

I believe the conversation with the coach should be frank, polite and respectful. These comments and questions to the coach are appropriate:
- DD would like to play second
- Does she have a shot?
- What skills should she possess to do to compete for the position?
- How can I help her obtain these skills?

The worst thing would be for you to look back on the season and regret you were not an effective advocate for your daughter. (An effective advocate is different from being a nutty parent.)

The fact that she is not even seeing practice time at her preferred position is a concern. As others have stated, 10U is awful young to bar kids from infield time in practice. It is possible a rational reason exists, but outside of safety I can’t think of any.

If your DD truly deserves to play the infield and you don’t think she will get a shot, you may have to find other opportunities in between or change teams next year.

 

[BB875]

Teach her to hit. She will play every inning.

This is my favorite advice for you!

 

[EP Dad]

If you want your DD to play then you have to take responsibility for her development. Have her decide what she wants to do and then you do it. She'll be playing on lots of different teams over the years and dealing with lots of different coaches. You and her have to take responsibility for her development. If you wait for them to do it it will be too late.

You can have a meeting with the coach and I like the friendly idea. But, it depends on the coach. I've had the experience where the coach just isn't in to my kid and has decided she isn't her type of player. I've also had the other experience. The latter is more fun but the former does happen. In the former you have to make lemonade and make the best of it. One thing I learned that you can never forget is that you as parents and your DD are ALWAYS being watched by others and evaluated. The "tryouts" the "auditioning" is always happening. It's a lot of pressure cause they are kids and they're going to make mistakes and have off days.

Oh, and the "teach her to hit" advice is good advice. If you can hit you're going to play.

Good luck.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Screwball, a winter tourney may be meaningless to you, but other parents and players get to determine for themselves whether it's meaningful. A coach sets the tone for his or her team, but even still, parents of younger players are often going to be emotionally tied to the outcomes of those game, much like you are getting emotional over how these teams' practices are structured.

I strongly disagree with your suggestion that we should be teaching all positions to every player in 10u. Even if we take pitchers and catchers out of the equation, it doesn't make sense to teach 8 players how to play 1B. Coaches like yourself who want to rotate every player through every position are welcome to do that, but that doesn't mean that the rest of us should subscribe to that method simply because you and a few others feel that's the way it should be, nor does it mean that your players are going to enjoy the game or learn more from being in your system more than my players do in mine.

All my players went through both outfield and infield drills this fall. For game situations, though, the time was about 80-20, meaning the regular outfielders got about 20% of the infield practice time. You can disagree, but when I consider my own capabilities and limitations, I am of the belief that I would've shortchanged my 10u team if I'd tried to do what you are suggesting.