Your kid says she wants to quit pitching.....

[HasBeenorNeverWas]

What's your response? Potential is limitless...throws hard and has lots of movement. Struggle is real though as has always delt with some performance anxiety. Torn between "its your life" and "you're doing it because we've invested so much time and effort."

Edited: She loves to pitch but it's been such a struggle that she just wants to give up because it's causes so much stress for her

 

[Rolling Hard]

Age?
There are things you can do about "performance anxiety". Relaxation exercises, practicing visualization, concentration grids, meditation, diaphragm breathing, hypnosis, yoga, etc. Books. Confident building stuff. Almost everybody agrees the game is mental but only a few work on it. It has been said that every 10 minutes of working on the mental side of the game is worth an hour of real practice. I believe that to be true. So mental training is a time saver too.

 

[HasBeenorNeverWas]

Age?

14u

 

[Rolling Hard]

The Art of Mental Training. Short easy to read (120 pages double spaced). Nothing scientific. Can read it in 2 hours. Also any of the Brian Cain stuff including his free concentration grids on line.

 

[sluggers]

14u

14YOA is about the time girls start quitting athletics. For boys, it's around 16YOA.

They learn:
1) It takes a tremendous amount of practice time to be "good" at softball. And, practice in softball is not like playing a game.
2) No matter how much a kid works, there is an upper limit to achievement determined by genetics.
3) Life skills (how to get along with others/hard work/commitment/etc.) can be learned in band, choir, and theater.
4) Softball is as upredictable as the weather, because, outside of SoCal and Az, it is dominated by the weather. As in: "We have a tournament this weekend. The first games starts around 8:00AM, but we have no idea when the last game will end. So, scratch off the entire weekend."

A rational, thinking adult can decide that softball is not worth it.

I love softball, but I can't really argue with a kid who says, "The heck with this. I'm going to play the tuba and march in the band."

My youngest DD was a tremendous softball player. She quit because she wanted to focus on basketball. I was heartbroken. It was her journey, and I was there to support her and guide her in achieving what *SHE* wanted.

 

[DNeeld]

Depends on how much she means it. Does she was to quit because of nagging injuries or other outside cause, or does she simply not enjoy the activity any longer?

My DD developed cataracts at 13 and was almost legally blind by 14. She was struggling with both pitching and hitting and was very discouraged and wanted to quit and did for a year. Fortunately her cataracts were discovered and removed and with her returning eyesight, her passion for the came back.

That said, if the kid is really serious about quitting then no matter what you do or say, the kid is going to get her way sooner or later.

 

[HasBeenorNeverWas]

Depends on how much she means it. Does she was to quit because of nagging injuries or other outside cause, or does she simply not enjoy the activity any longer?

My DD developed cataracts at 13 and was almost legally blind by 14. She was struggling with both pitching and hitting and was very discouraged and wanted to quit and did for a year. Fortunately her cataracts were discovered and removed and with her returning eyesight, her passion for the came back.

That said, if the kid is really serious about quitting then no matter what you do or say, the kid is going to get her way sooner or later.

She loves it. When she does it and does it well she's so happy and wants to do it more. But there are times she puts way to much pressure on herself and can't perform, and for that reason she has decided she's fine with just being a "3rd string pitcher" and she assumes she will have to pitch in high school because she is the best options but still doesn't want to.

 

[_MIA_]

"you're doing it because we've invested so much time and effort."

This is not a reason for her to play..

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Pitching is very hard, and the stress levels on these girls to perform is very high. As someone who has a catcher and a pitcher, I can say the pitcher causes me way more stress than the catcher. That's me, not her.

She loves to pitch, and I believe her stress is more about the recruiting process than the actual game performance. But you have to love to pitch to be good or even great. It requires so much time and effort, not to mention money, that if your head's not totally into it, I don't believe it is worth it. Now that is not to say they can't play other positions and excel at them, but I've always felt pitching is a different animal. You can't do it halfheartedly.

 

[Cannonball]

I am about to bore you here. I grew up in a small town that was a part of a bigger metro area. Even back then, we traveled on the weekends and had our own little league. I was the top pitcher in my town and often threw "up" with the older team. To add to this, I had a coach who cheated and threw me almost every league game. Since we played our league at 3 venues, no other team could keep up with which pitchers pitched when in the league. My mom and dad didn't know better and were almost always at work. By the time I reached the equivalent of 14U, I felt so much pressure from all of the coaches and teammates. I never had a sore arm and I could pitch and pitch. It was the mental game, as mentioned previously in this thread, that I lost control of. It got to the point that my mom would carry Pepto Bismo for me to drink before I pitched. In high school, the HC asked me if I pitched. He knew that I did but I didn't put that down for one of my positions. I told him no. I say all of this because I consider myself mentally very strong and yet, I broke down. I didn't pitch after my 15-year-old season. My dad told the coaches I was done pitching.