Travel Ball Parent Confessions

[tghorley]

Yea, I agree GOINGDEEP, keep them guessing. With runners on 1st and 3rd, with less than two outs, our SS will act like she is cutting the ball off but 80% of the time, she lets the ball go through. The other 20% of the time, she is close enough to cut it off if the runner is breaking from 3rd and throws home. They have practiced this quite a bit.

DGD really worked hard last year getting her arm stronger and developing a quicker pop time. She improved greatly. She got into the habit of making pretty good throws down to 2nd base after pitcher warm-ups. She and I talked about it and I told her to quit throwing from her knees and start acting. I told her to act like she was trying to throw down to 2nd, slow her arm down a bit and to make a rainbow throw and maybe even grunt a little bit. Sometimes she would bounce the ball or be way off line. Worked pretty good on teams that did not know her. She would usually throw 2 or 3 out stealing or picking one off of 1st base.

 

[Lozza]

Lozza and Mike, your statements reminds me of a play late in the 12u season last year. Our team was up by two runs in the last of a time limited game with two outs. There were runners on 1st and 3rd. The runner on 1st broke on the pitch and my DGD threw a line shot to second to get the runner.

See that's a different twist that's not as common. Every player expects the ball to go to shortstop. Not many expect it to go to second base.

Goingdeep I've played this game a long, long time. I've seen that work once in that time. And the entire bench knew what was happening.

 

[Lrgmouth]

Here's my confession. I was a D1 hockey and tennis player. Never played baseball beyond the 6th grade. DD has played travel ball for 3 years and I've obviously watched a lot of games. I couldn't begin to teach the mechanics of hitting or pitching, but, and here comes my confession, I truly believe that I know more about softball strategy than 95% of the coaches that I've seen. Some of the moves they make are borderline idiotic. Believe me, I'm not one of those parents. I never say a word. But I notice the so-called little things. Here's but one example from 12U nationals last year. It's the final inning and our team has a TWO run lead. One out. Other team has runners at first and third. Runner at first had just walked. She is a bigger girl, not very fast. Because the other coach is also not very bright, he has the runner at first steal second on the first pitch. Our coach never let the catcher throw down to second with a runner on third all season (another point of contention), and this wasn't going to be an exception. The girl stole second without a throw. Can anyone explain the logic? Our catcher has a strong arm. Make that a very strong, accurate arm (no, not my DD). The other team is pretty much conceding an out. If the runner from thrid scores, so what? We have a two run lead, and it is the final inning. You have just allowed the tying run to steal second - uncontested. I mean what's the better situation? One has us up by two runs but with only one out and the tying run at second. The other has us up by one run but with two outs and the bases empty. Like I said, that's one of a thousand examples over the years, and our coach is no worse than anyone else. I see the same stupid decisions from every team. Man did it feel good to finally get that off my chest.

I can't believe the other coach held the bigger not very fast girl at first on the walk. She absolutley should have been running to first not broke stride and continued on to second. Now he has 1 out and 2 girls in scoring position. If you are not going to throw to second during the whole game, why would you do it now?

 

[chinamigarden]

I can't believe the other coach held the bigger not very fast girl at first on the walk. She absolutley should have been running to first not broke stride and continued on to second. Now he has 1 out and 2 girls in scoring position. If you are not going to throw to second during the whole game, why would you do it now?

A team that knows how to defend the walk/continuation is more likely to get an out and compete the double play then if you go for 1st and 3rd steal.

 

[Ital]

Well love it so much, we go to tournaments when we'r not playing just to watch. Don't know what we'll do with ourselves on the weekends when it's over.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

Confession: I signed up my 6 year old DD for softball because I missed the deadline for soccer. She's 17 now, on a well-recognized travel team and committed to a D1 softball program. oops.

Well I took my daughter to a travel tryout having never played before (it was just local kids in our hometown) because when I mentioned to another parent that I was thinking of signing her up for softball she gave me this really snotty look and said "You mean for league? We don't play league. My daughter is playing travel" I said well by God if yours is good enough then I know mine is. So she made the 8u team being the older of the age group and is now 12 and by the way has surpassed the snotty parent's kid as well as most of the others.

I'm probably be in the minority here but amongst my daughters team it is mainly the moms who are the most die hard softball parents. My youngest daughter only plays rec and my husband is her teams coach and he loves to watch our kids but it's me that's online researching a catchers mitt or a bat or whatever. And it's me that tivo's the college softball games and it's me that gets into it with some coach that wants to argue that a slingshot pitch is illegal. I'm the crazy one when it comes to softball in our house. LOL

 

[chinamigarden]

Wow, the adults win the little kids' games for them with and the competition is the other coach in a chess game.....I guess this forum is properly named.

Funny post from someone who makes money teaching kids how to throw pitches that will fool a batter. Why not just throw fastballs and let the batters and the pitchers go right at each other's strengths?