Interesting observation. May be something to this. My DD does the work, but seems to have an unshakeable belief in the Law of the Conservation of Energy. She rarely works at 100% intensity in practice, occasionally to my frustration. However, she is a “gamer” and shows up to compete in games. Perhaps that is the ultimate fuel when I ask her to throw “one more good change up” in the bullpen…and she does it, despite the dagger stare.Aside from talent, the most important predictor, IMO, is how much the player enjoys competing in softball games, and not work ethic.
Work ethic is nice, but it's a trait that depends on passion to be sustained. Lot of kids have work ethic early because that's how they're wired, but then they decide they don't love softball enough to continue putting their work ethic into softball. They find other stuff. That's my daughter. She liked practicing better than games.
On the other hand, best player that I was saw (lived down the street) was the opposite. She didn't work that hard at these ages. But she loved to play softball (the games, not practices) and loved to be good at it. Once the competition began catching up w/ her, she naturally started working harder to stay better than everybody.