I commend your DD for stepping up and challenging herself. Iron sharpens Iron. I know from my kids team that all 15 girls are pretty high level players and they all work at the game very hard. I have noticed since joining this team this year that the practices have improved my kids skills greatly and playing with girls better than her has motivated her to work even harder. She started off hitting down in the lineup and she used that as motivation to put in even more offensive work on her own to show the coaches what she can do. She has moved her way up to the 4 hole and has kept pushing herself to stay in the top half of the lineup. If your DD can keep her confidence up and keep working she will get more out of being on a team of high level girls and prepare her for what college will be like especially if the coaches run a good practice and keep teaching fundamentals. Good luck to her this summer.
Worst player on the team. How do you deal?
- Thread starter CoogansBluff
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You're borrowing trouble. Wait for the situation to arise before trying to deal with it. If she put herself in the mix, trust her to handle it.
Maybe. Keep in mind, though, that she's been on the team for months. They haven't played because of school ball and rain, but they've had several practices and some scrimmage games, spent a weekend out of town for 'training camp,' enough for her to see the challenge and express feelings of doubt and pressure already. We don't know how the season will play out, however. That's true.
As a coach it is easy to keep players and their parents happy during the off season and when you are playing friendlies and other non-competitive tournaments. Coaches bat everyone and will make defensive substitutions to get everyone playing time. The problems start when the team is "playing to win" and it is best 9 on the field and in the batting order. Most parents become disgruntled when they spend an entire weekend at the ball park, lots of $$$, and their DD does not see the field...
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IMO, if she's already pressuring herself then maybe she just needs help finding (and believing) the positives? I know my DD doesn't believe a word I say when I praise her, but if I help her find a positive on her own it seems to sink in better. Dunno. It's not easy. for sure.
Good to here similar stories as ours. My dd is great athlete who excels in bball and vball. In 2nd year of sball and travel ball. Earlier this year in Jr. High being 5'8 she started at first. Her bat was non existent as she started season 1-18 with lots of k's. Eventually she was Flex/dp for. That didn't get her down and she led team in field %. Summer started slow just like Jr high. But in keeping gamechanger I was able to see she was doing all the little things correctly. BB, QAB, moving runners, rbi's etc. Recently her batting has picked up and she has 6 hits and 10 hard hit balls in last few games. I know others on the team with better numbers but they also have hundreds of more ab's in their career.
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