This is her first year playing TB and she is 10U level, she turned 11 yesterday. In rec she was consistently 2B and although she does not get on base every at bat she makes contact AB.
She is not the best player and she is not the worst player. If I had to rate her based on the overall talent level of the team, 6/10 right now but have seen her play higher and lower.
It has been a rough 1st season. This is also the 1st season these 14 girls have all played together. Some have played together on other teams but never all of them on the same team.
The first incident happened around the time rec ball started. It was planned that she would play her last spring of 10U rec with the girls she has played with for years, but in order to stack the 12U rec team the president/coach moved all of my DDs friends up to 12U except her. She was crushed, my wife is still crushed, I was angry but have mostly moved on. We were all hurt not because they moved the girls up, but the way they did it. DD is better than some of those girls, not as good as others. She is older and has more experience than most of them. It was all done very sneaky and underhanded and has now affected our relationships with people we thought were friends and has affected my DD friendship with all of the girls that moved up. So much so that she refused to play rec ball at this season.
The next issue is practices....there are no drills, very few game scenarios and they segregate the OF from the infield 95% of the time. Girls that might be practicing different positions in their off time (my DD and at least 1 other girl) get no chance to show they are working and improving in these positions.
Then there is the issue of commitment, the coaches made a big deal at the beginning of the season of being committed to the team and the game and that everything else (sports mostly) needs to be secondary. We understood this and that was what were signing on for. My daughter has sacrificed games and practices for her other activities, missed birthdays for friends and family, and done so willingly. But midway through the season 2 girls are added to the roster that are not starter quality players and barely make contact during ABs, and are consistently late to practice, miss pool games in tournaments, and leave early for other commitments and are never penalized and play 95% of the innings. My DD went from playing every inning every game to being lucky if she sees the field or picks up her bat at all. When she does play she is relegated to LF which creates 2 issues. 1) boredom, very few teams we are playing are hitting the ball into the OF 2) knowledge, she never played OF before she had always played on IF position and the coaches aren't teaching them the OF aside from make the catch.
Is this TB and its not what we were expecting or should I be expecting more from the coaches? I work with her 1:1 as much as I can but there is only so much I can teach when its just the 2 of us.
Should we feel slighted at the lack of playing time? I played baseball if you were bad you didn't play, but you always played before people worse than you and/or people that weren't as committed.
Also the coaches don't seem to put any emphasis on the girls being friends and teammates, just that they are the best players and have a drive to win games.
She is not the best player and she is not the worst player. If I had to rate her based on the overall talent level of the team, 6/10 right now but have seen her play higher and lower.
It has been a rough 1st season. This is also the 1st season these 14 girls have all played together. Some have played together on other teams but never all of them on the same team.
The first incident happened around the time rec ball started. It was planned that she would play her last spring of 10U rec with the girls she has played with for years, but in order to stack the 12U rec team the president/coach moved all of my DDs friends up to 12U except her. She was crushed, my wife is still crushed, I was angry but have mostly moved on. We were all hurt not because they moved the girls up, but the way they did it. DD is better than some of those girls, not as good as others. She is older and has more experience than most of them. It was all done very sneaky and underhanded and has now affected our relationships with people we thought were friends and has affected my DD friendship with all of the girls that moved up. So much so that she refused to play rec ball at this season.
The next issue is practices....there are no drills, very few game scenarios and they segregate the OF from the infield 95% of the time. Girls that might be practicing different positions in their off time (my DD and at least 1 other girl) get no chance to show they are working and improving in these positions.
Then there is the issue of commitment, the coaches made a big deal at the beginning of the season of being committed to the team and the game and that everything else (sports mostly) needs to be secondary. We understood this and that was what were signing on for. My daughter has sacrificed games and practices for her other activities, missed birthdays for friends and family, and done so willingly. But midway through the season 2 girls are added to the roster that are not starter quality players and barely make contact during ABs, and are consistently late to practice, miss pool games in tournaments, and leave early for other commitments and are never penalized and play 95% of the innings. My DD went from playing every inning every game to being lucky if she sees the field or picks up her bat at all. When she does play she is relegated to LF which creates 2 issues. 1) boredom, very few teams we are playing are hitting the ball into the OF 2) knowledge, she never played OF before she had always played on IF position and the coaches aren't teaching them the OF aside from make the catch.
Is this TB and its not what we were expecting or should I be expecting more from the coaches? I work with her 1:1 as much as I can but there is only so much I can teach when its just the 2 of us.
Should we feel slighted at the lack of playing time? I played baseball if you were bad you didn't play, but you always played before people worse than you and/or people that weren't as committed.
Also the coaches don't seem to put any emphasis on the girls being friends and teammates, just that they are the best players and have a drive to win games.