Help me help my DD

[DoodleDad]

Is this a legit travel ball team that you're dealing with, or is it more of a town travel, girls-and-parents-all-know-each-other kind of situation? If new players just showed up and are getting much more playing time despite equal or lower skills and less commitment, it sounds to me like they're friends of the coach and/or his daughter. And that's okay -- early 10's need committed parents to coach, it's not an easy gig.

Just keep in mind that there may not be much your DD can do to crack the lineup if a subset of the team is going out together after games.

With that said, you also mentioned that your daughter tends to catch balls at her side, which is a big problem for a middle infielder. If you read through the threads here on DFP, a recurring theme is that you cannot leave your daughter's development to team coaches. They have a dozen or more girls to work with and limited time. If you can't get out and help your daughter develop outside of team practices, then find some local coaches or clinics who can.

As far as I know it is a legitimate travel organization (is there any way I can confirm this for sure).

We don't leave all of her development to the team. She had a batting coach for awhile to fix some things we didn't realize were broken and I take her out regularly and hit ground balls to her try to break her of fielding from the side.

 

[djcarter1966]

Djcarter - do not hesitate to speak your mind with me. I will be the first to say my DD is not the best on the team and I do my best to view everything from a coaches standpoint (I've coached soccer, baseball, and football and my kids have never been the best or even top 10% on the team.

But when I see girls that never hit the ball, never get on base unless walked, can't be bothered to move out of position to make a play, or that just flat out don't apply the commitment demanded by the coaches, get 95% more playing time than DD I have to question something.

I am by know means angry, just confused. It could be something I'm not seeing, but conversations with the coaches haven't yielded much insight or results either unfortunately.

We will keep working and trying to improve in the off-season.

As others have suggested might be some favoritism going on here. I would definitely work on finding a good developmental travel ball team next season. If the coach is we are playing all these great tournaments and will compete for trophies, stay away. You want a we want to develop girls, everyone will get a chance in pool play but for bracket play expect the best player to be out there...also ask about team size anything over 12 girls would be problematic.

 

[_MIA_]

This is her first year playing TB and she is 10U level,

This is also the 1st season these 14 girls have all played together.

Bolded is an issue..

 

[DoodleDad]

Also, throwing and catching are vital. Just watching a girl play catch in warm-ups we can tell if that girl belongs on the field with us. If there's any moving out of the way of the ball, hesitation with catching, etc. the girls really fall quickly to the bottom of the list.

When you have a girl who always throws accurately and catches the ball, you get a lot of confidence in playing that girl. I'd work really, really hard with your DD on those skills.

She throws great. Very accurate and can throw hard and fast. She does sometimes try to field the ball while also getting away from it. Other times she gets right in front of it. It's like she'll be doing great for a while then she suddenly gets in her own head and starts trying to get away. And she almost never misses anything in the air.

 

[DoodleDad]

Bolded is an issue..

Interesting, we weren't aware this many girls on a team was a problem.

 

[Rick M]

As far as I know it is a legitimate travel organization (is there any way I can confirm this for sure).

Well, it's not like there's an official registry or anything. Are there teams at multiple levels (10-12-14-16)? Do 90% of the girls attend the same school? Does the HC have someone he or she answers to, like a program director? Those are just a few of the things to look at.

 

[DoodleDad]

I know for sure there are 2 10U teams and at least 1 16U teams. On our team the majority of the girls attend the same school but that is because we created the team because girls in the rec league wanted more of a challenge. 50% of our girls attend school together, the other 50% are made up of girls recruited from other school districts.

 

[Eric F]

At your DD's age, I would find a team for her where she is getting a good amount of playing time. Sitting on the bench isn't developing the skills she needs to keep improving as a ball player. I understand that playing with her friends is enjoyable, but if it comes at the expense of improving her game, you (and her) should be really considering what the goals are. I'm generally not a fan of bouncing from team to team, and also generally believe that earning a spot means working to earn it by being better than the current player. However, there are times when finding another situation is the right choice for her development.

FWIW, when my DD moved to TB in 10U, she knew 1 player on the TB team we went with. 4 years later, she has yet to be on a TB team with someone from the same school. Her current team has 13 girls from 12 different schools.

10U is a time for all-around skill development. Your mention of IF'ers and OF'ers being segregated for most of the practice time is a huge red flag for me, especially at this age. Coaches should be building "ballplayers", not position-specific players.

At 10U, a team with more than 12 players is likely not a good situation. This will change as she gets older.

 

[DoodleDad]

They are 100% building position players almost none of the girls on the team can go from one position to another position and be effective except for the three or four really really good players

 

[Eric F]

They are 100% building position players almost none of the girls on the team can go from one position to another position and be effective except for the three or four really really good players

This is another reason why you should seek out another team for your DD (IMO). Obviously, P and C have some specialty skills that are exclusive, but even those players should be involved with improving their overall skills as ballplayers. Every player has to catch, throw, field grounders, and track down fly balls. Playing the game in different positions is an important part of learning the game better. Without depth at every position, the HC is setting the team up for absolute disaster if you have a couple of players get injured, leave the team, or have to attend Grandma's 70th b-day bash.