wasted season

[99&beyond]

I really try to see the positive in each season we play.

Season 1 - fall, 10U, we are new and still learning
Season 2 - spring 12U, again still new, but discovered the passion of softball. made lots of good softball friends.
Season 3 - spring 12U, starts as C and LF, by the end of the season is C and 3B, hitting still needs work.
Season 4 - fall, middle school. Iffy coaches. DD had lots fun. Had 3rd highest BA, starting C, won 1st games for school in years.
Season 5 - spring 14U, team wasn't very good, several uninterested players. DD had fun, coach was good

Season 6 - NOW fall middle school. UGH! We have new coaches. One played college ball, but is fresh out of college after getting her masters. The other claims to have been around baseball her whole life (uncle coached at Arizona??) and plays slowpitch, but at one of the 1st practices she put her glove on the wrong hand. There are 6 really good ball players on this team and 2 more that are improving daily.

My DD is short. She has been catching for 4 seasons now. She has good mechanics and for the most part catches good, we have a few mishaps here and there but they are not too often. DD has also played OF, 3B, and SS, with an occasional time at 2B. The coach puts DD at 1B during games. She never practices there. Ok, well the team hardly practices period. Most of the practices are water breaks. There is very little batting practice. I don't think our pitcher needs to pitch for an entire batting practice. But I don't see why the coach that was a college pitcher doesn't pitch a few in there now and then. The other day, the girls are sitting in the hall outside the locker room waiting on the coaches. After sitting for over 20 minutes, the girls all went outside. The coaches followed later. They practice for less than an hour

Yesterday was a game. It was scheduled at 4:30. DD called me after 4 and we talked for over 10 minutes. When I asked where they were she said on the bus, on the highway. They got to the game at 4:25. They only got a few minutes to warm up. One of the coaches told the girls that that was just a suggested start time. But again, the girls were loaded and ready to go and the coaches were not.

I have never considered a season a waste. DD loves softball and to be able to go out and throw the ball around with her friends is a piece of paradise for her. But this season has become a waste of time. I have watched them teach them weird movements with their arms. The experience girls are now leading practices more than the coaches. This has not been a season to improve our skills.


I know many consider school ball to be a complete waste and joke. This reinforces those concepts. This is the one chance my DD gets to play with her friends from school, and even with all the crazy drama we had last season, we still had fun. We are looking forward to playing for the high school coaches.

We have about 3 weeks left of our season. I am counting down the days until spring ball.

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

I don't know that many consider school softball a complete waste and a joke, but some certainly do.

Your DD's experience isn't all that different than mine, and my DD does NOT consider school ball to be a waste; a joke sometimes but not a waste. She touches a ball 5 days per week during the season (usually 30-45 minutes per day) while TB is shut down for her age group. Yeah she has to practice a lot on her own due to coaches and players not caring or knowing near enough but hey, that's OK with her. During the softball season she gets to be the "cool jock" at school, she gets to play softball with her friends (even the ones that aren't good enough or don't work hard enough to play TB), she gets to see her name in the local paper and she gets to play at a more relaxed pace than during TB.

Don't get me wrong! By the middle of the school season DD and I can't wait for TB to start up again!!!

As far as talking to (or sending a letter to) the AD complaining about the coaches... good luck with that. People at DD's school have done that for years with no response and the same coach showing up year after year.

 

[PA SB Dad]

What you describe is EXACTLY what we see around here in MS. There are no cuts. In 7th grade, they are not allowed to steal (I kid you not). If they did that for boys baseball, there would be a revolt. Unfortunately for MS softball, the best players just don't waste their time to play for the school.

 

[Ken Krause]

Unfortunate that that's going on, but it's not unusual. One of the problems with school sports of any sort is that ADs will put coaches into place who have little to no COACHING experience. For whatever reason they don't seem to understand that having been a player doesn't necessarily qualify you to be a coach.

It gets exaggerated in girls' sports, too. Right or wrong, there's a real desire to have a female in charge of girls teams, so sometimes they overlook the part about whether the female is qualified. If she has two X chromosomes she's hired, which isn't fair to the players or to the coach. Those same ADs would never even consider putting someone with the same level of qualifications in charge of the football team, or the boy's basketball team by the way.

This type of thinking would be the same as hiring a kid out of college and putting him/her in charge of a business. No established business would do that -- they want their managers to have experience in the business world, and management training. If they hire someone with no managerial experience the smart ones put them through training and assign a mentor before turning over the reins. The not-so-smart ones wind up with the Peter Principle at work.

Sounds like the coaches are in over their heads. Maybe they'll figure it out, maybe they won't. You'll need to hope it's the former, because your only recourses are grin and bear it or don't play.

 

[99&beyond]

Yesterday at practice, I watched the coach that put the glove on the wrong hand working with a brand new player. She was teaching her to throw and catch. After watching for a few minutes, I step over to talk to the girl.

1st, I tell her to step into her throw with her left foot. So she works on that.
Then the coach tells her she is throwing it wrong and tells her to keep her arm straight as she throws. Like a windmill, only overhand.
So I watch this for a second, and I step in and show her how to bend her elbow and throw, not push the ball.
This continues. The girl is doing a basket catch at her chest. One time she "accidentally" turned her glove to do a correct catch. The coach told her that was the fancy way of catching that my DD does because she has been playing for so long.
UGH!!!!

The other coach did pitch for batting practice, but since she was only working with the newer girls, plus she was pitching them all in the dirt, there was no fielding practice going on. The girls were all just walking off the field whenever.

 

[Lozza]

Then the coach tells her she is throwing it wrong and tells her to keep her arm straight as she throws. Like a windmill, only overhand.

So she's teaching the girl how to bowl in cricket?

 

[99&beyond]

So she's teaching the girl how to bowl in cricket?

Being in the States, I have never been exposed to cricket. BUT now that you mention it, I saw some people at the batting cage in weird "catchers" gear, doing that exact thing. That was almost exactly the throw only she didn't have the whole body movement going with it to not hurt her shoulder.

 

[Lozza]

This might be the best option to show you, as it's made by cricket America



This is what a wicket keeper (the catcher) wears

Honestly the momenet you said that she was having her throw without bending her arm my first thought was bowling. You're not allowed to bend the arm when bowling. But you run up to bowl, and as you said it's a whole body movement, not from standing. Very, very dangerous what that woman is teaching!

 

[99&beyond]

WOW!! That was so it. Only from a stand still spot.

Oh well, keep said coach well away from my DD and all will be good in my world. 5 games left and then she can go start practicing with the high school coaches and this will all be just a bad memory.

 

[Lozza]

*bangs head*

Bowling is bowling. It would be like teaching your girls to pitch so they could get the ball to first. They throw like softballers/baseballers normally. In fact you often see the Australian teams warming up with softball/baseball gloves on. It helps them loosen up.