What to do with Brand New Player to fastpitch

[#10]

Where are you posting from, Screwball? Here in SoCal, kids don't even make the freshman HS team if they aren't playing travel ball.

I agree with Momo's Dad that, at mimimum, three coaches is optimal for a practice. The more coaches you have, the more drill stations you can run. In team scenarios, assistants can run them while the manager observes.

Sorry for derailing the original post.

 

[MsDinosaur]

I am coaching a fall ball traveling 14u team. My team is has a very wide range of skill level, from players playing "A" ball to brand new (never played any kind of softball) My dilema is the one player who has never played before. She says her favorite position is
2nd base and then 1st but she cannot field or catch a ball. With limited practice times and a short season, 5 weekends, I am somewhat at a loss as to how to work with this person during practice and where do I put her for games. I do not want to hurt the "team" by placing her in a position to fail,(not to mention getting hurt) but I also want her to be successful. Help, suggestions are appreciated!

Wow. I would be terrified if my daughter was a beginner at 14U and was thrown onto a team with experienced A players; some of the 14U's look like grown women.

I've got some wacky ideas... How many assistant coaches and experienced 'helper' parents do you have? You could assign one just to her, to work with her AND at least one of her parents. Because IMO if it's possibly going to work, her parents need to work with her *every* single non-practice day. Or do the parents have money burning holes in their pockets--perhaps they could hire a personal coach for their daughter? At her level of experience that could simply be a slightly older girl who plays softball. Or are you friends with any coaches from the young age groups? I know it would be embarrassing for her, but would this girl be willing to attend a few practices with much younger girls? She needs to learn the basics that those coaches spend a lot of time working on.

 

[Coachmom]

As sluggers said, most of this is on the parents. Parents need to practice with their children. Go out and play catch.
Every season at the start of spring rec ball I get 12U kids who have either never played or played 1 season. During my first parent meeting I am very specific with them that they need to go out and play catch with their daughters twice a week for 30 minutes.

In every weekly email starts with the phrase "Have you played catch with your daughter today?"

Coaches, especially at the rec ball level, do not emphasize this enough. Improvement REQUIRES parents involvement.

This also helps me when I get parents that complain about playing time and/or positions play. My first question to them is "how often do take your girl out and practice with her?"


PS.. I also live in SoCal and it's not true that kids don't even make the freshman team if they don't pay travel ball. My DD's Varsity team only had 5 travel players out of 14 last season. It depends on the area that you live in Southern California.
There are some very strong travel-centric high school areas but on average it's not quite what #10 has implied.

 

[Lozza]

Loooool. I'm laughing at some of the ideas here. I manage to be be asst coach in a program with over 20 girls and we do it all with two coaches. If you can't teach even the basics to your girls in the three hours without 3-4 coaches you're doing it wrong.

Has the org stuffed up by putting this girl on with top A grade players? Yes. But the OP can't change that. So he needs to coach this girl and teach her how to play the game properly not make excuses as to why he can't coach her (and he's not doing this) Teach her from the ground up and get the parents and other players involved.

 

[splinterpicker]

I had one of those players. She played infield in rec., so I put her in the outfield. Her attitude was not great in the begining. To her credit she never missed a practice and would stay late when needed. In this case the parents did work with her on the side. Eventually worked her way into the infield. It is easy to coach athletes it is harder to coach kids to be athletes. The biggest rush I get is not necassarily winning games, but seeing that aha moment. It can be done but patience is required.

 

[rowdy]

If she can throw and catch she will catch on to what you are teaching. If she can throw and catch run her thru all the drills you run and try to get her to a level of competence. She will not be great be the end of the fall season but if she falls in love with the game and is determined to improve over the winter, then you have done a great job with her.

Make sure you don't cater too much her level that you bore the others to tears.

 

[dld56]

#10, from my first 2 practices, she is not athletically inclined. First practice we worked on throwing with several drills. Looks like her glove is the right size, however it is brand new! I really do pride myself in developing players and establishing a good coach/player relationship. She is one of 2 girls that I have not coached in 6 years, so I am just getting to know her and her parents. Very quiet young lady and does not really know any of the girls on the team. I am not writing her off, just trying to balance practice time with the skill level I have to work with. I have one AC and another person that comes to help, but he is also coaching another team. I would love nothing more than to spend the whole practice time with this girl, just don't have the man/woman power. In the past I have had multiple players at this level and it was easy to work with a group, but in this case she is really the only one that has not played some kind of ball. I am not writing her off and I do view it as an opportuinity, just looking for ways to effectively work with her and the whole team. First games are this weekend, so we will see how it goes. By the way, second practice we worked on hitting/bunting and I did spend a whole lot of time with her. Guess what, she did a really good job on bunting. Hopefully her confidence improved. I appreciate all the comments and advice.

 

[Quake Softball]

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Rather than looking at this kid as a dilemma, view it as an opportunity - a fresh slate to work with, rather than a kid who already has bad habits that need to be undone. To me, helping a kid like this succeed is far more rewarding than any won-loss record.

I have never put together a team with the goal for winning State Championships. Way to many teams are caught up in winning being the #1 goal. Your #1 goal has always been are we better at the end of the year than we were at the beginning. Some years we have finished .500 some not even close. But, every year we were better at the end than the beginning.

 

[dld56]

Quake, not my goal either. I tell my team that I do not measure our success by our win/loss record, but if we developed as a team, improved, made new friends and had fun. then I have done my job. Not to toot my own horn, but that is why there are so many kids that want to play on my team. I have Coached C level, up to A, so winning is not everything in my book.

 

[Quake Softball]

Of course it's not just coaches that are wrapped up in winning. Too many of the parents from our area are wrapped up in what the front of the jersey says instead of their daughters best interests. We were talking to a pitcher about coming to play for us, but she decided to go to another team where she will be the #3 pitcher. She will hardly ever pitch on that team. She would have been the #1 or #2 on our team and would have pitched all of the time. What good does it do your daughter to be on a team that wins alot but your daughter never pitches???