Travel vs. School vs. Private Coaching Conflicts

[CoachJD]

Not really if the girl is 6' tall and runs like a deer and has a cannon for an arm. Lots of college coaches recruit players based on projections/high ceiling.

I totally understand recruiting projects, but from the sound of it, she already was an excellent hitter. That's the part that strikes me as odd.

 

[softball dad 6]

You must know my DD. She is 6'. She is fast. Historically she has been a very successful hitter. However my main point was related to the initial post about coach's instructions. In a highly competitive environment being able to take instructions from your coach and implement them will go a long way toward helping earn playing time.

 

[Long Baller]

Be open-minded.

 

[tamss13]

Hello Everyone. My DD is an 8th grader. Been playing ball since she was 6, travel teams from 10u until now. She was on a really good 12B team for 2 years, and now on a 14B team with a big organization. She has had really good training and we have spent 2 and a half years with the same batting coach. We are on week number 2 of 8th grade ball, we did not have a 7th grade year because of covid, and this team is stacked. They have 8 players that play on top or very competitive travel teams which is not common for middle school in this area. The softball IQ on these girls is crazy good. They all play for travel coaches that have taught the girls to run their own games defensively and be very aggressive.

So far it has not been a great start. DD is a third baseman, has great reaction speed, and has been trained to play up almost her whole time in travel ball. During tryouts the coach made a comment that "we have to fix that". During one of the first practices she was playing up, a ball went past her to short, short made the play and the coaches felt it should have been her ball. (She has played with the shortstop for multiple years in travel and the shortstop and her know how to work together).

Wow so you have Jr High School Softball? Wow

 

[PlatnumCoach]

this is why i dont let my girls play high school ball They get all sorts of bad coaching from high school coaches and i have to fix it later.

 

[Long Baller]

this is why i dont let my girls play high school ball They get all sorts of bad coaching from high school coaches and i have to fix it later.

Interesting...DD and I always looked at Travel vs HS as a "business vs pleasure" type of thing. HS was the lighter side of the sport, to have fun with friends. If you happen to make a run at the state title, that's even better. She's been lucky to have really good HS coaches though.

She has only ever had one team coach that questioned her personal hitting coach. He was a 10U travel coach, who's qualifications were "high school baseball player/slow-pitch softball player". The guy was a tool. Every other coach she ever has would say "Let me know who your hitting coach is. If I see any issues, I will talk to him/her. I will not teach anything that contradicts lessons that you are paying for."

 

[OsDad]

The "school ball coaches will ruin my kid" stance is a weird one to me. From my experience, school ball coaches wouldn't have the time to ruin your kid, even if they wanted to. If your kid has a TB coach and is getting private instruction, they should be able to politely smile and say something like "I could try that", and then go about their business.

If a kid can flat out rake, I suspect she will find her way into the lineup regardless. If she can't, maybe she/the parent should be a little more gracious.

 

[CoachYodaD]

I totally understand recruiting projects, but from the sound of it, she already was an excellent hitter. That's the part that strikes me as odd.

It could be something as simple as the change in pitching. We don't know where the girl came from, what level of high school ball she was seeing. 3A and 6A are vastly different. A 3A player of the week might be #2 on a depth chart for a 6A school.

Also depends on the level of college being played. What area, division, conference is she now in. A D1 SEC conference, I can get the changes because those pitchers can spin the ball.

College pitchers are much more consistent. Maybe she had a hole with inside pitches. Once word, or scouting reports make their rounds, you can bet that girl will see a lot of inside pitches.

Sometimes, we coaches see things that make us say, "that worked where she came from, but I don't think it will be as effective where I am going to take her". Thus we suggest change.

I had a girl come to me, she played B level travel, great kid, good attitude, very strong. When she made contact, she would send the ball. She never used the lower half of her body. She was a top hitter on her TB team. I needed her to hit to all sides of the field and I needed her to engage the lower half in her swing. Pure strength wasn't going to cut it where we played, and against who.

 

[jcapitz]

Hello Everyone. My DD is an 8th grader. Been playing ball since she was 6, travel teams from 10u until now. She was on a really good 12B team for 2 years, and now on a 14B team with a big organization. She has had really good training and we have spent 2 and a half years with the same batting coach. We are on week number 2 of 8th grade ball, we did not have a 7th grade year because of covid, and this team is stacked. They have 8 players that play on top or very competitive travel teams which is not common for middle school in this area. The softball IQ on these girls is crazy good. They all play for travel coaches that have taught the girls to run their own games defensively and be very aggressive.

So far it has not been a great start. DD is a third baseman, has great reaction speed, and has been trained to play up almost her whole time in travel ball. During tryouts the coach made a comment that "we have to fix that". During one of the first practices she was playing up, a ball went past her to short, short made the play and the coaches felt it should have been her ball. (She has played with the shortstop for multiple years in travel and the shortstop and her know how to work together).

Today, they were doing a batting drill. My daughter talked to the coach and said the drill was messing with her swing. And the coach's response was thousands of girls do this drill without issue. And a second comment was made to the girls that their batting coaches are not always right. Half of our girls see batting coaches with great reputations.

DD struggles a bit with adapting to change and does take a little longer to make adjustments some times. As parents we do not really like to get involved with coaching and feel it is up to her to talk to them. (Although based on the comments made so far I don't think the coaches are open to the discussions.) We have told her that this middle school season is only two months and a great chance for character building and playing with girls she has known for a long time but we know that the first time she misses an out from third because she is playing back she is going to be mad.

Any other parent or coaching advice for making it through the season? Or even just anyone who can commiserate with us? lol

Hope some wisdom from the master can help:


"Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own."

– Bruce Lee


"Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."

– Bruce Lee

 

[Rolling Hard]

slugger asked, "what was the drill"? DId that question ever get answered? Does it matter which drill? What if it was this one?