17yo Maddie

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May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
The journey continues from this thread... https://www.discussfastpitch.com/threads/16yo-maddie.39705/

We have come to the point in Maddie's swing development where we aren't trying to add more peak power. Her current swing regularly drives balls 250'+ in practice, and has displayed that kind of power against good pitching. The current focus is continuing to improve her consistency for quality contact at all locations.

As I stated in the previous threads, I'm not necessarily looking for "help". I'm happy with her development, and the coaching she's currently getting (@Mike-Coach Q has been her hitting instructor for the last 3+ years). That said, I welcome input and comments about her swing, and things you're seeing - good or bad. As much as anything, this series of threads has been about documenting Maddie's progress, and hopefully it can help someone else in their own journey.

This fall starts Maddie's last time through the travel ball cycle. In a year from now, she will be wearing a college uniform*. It's been an amazing journey for our family.

A few swings from last night's session with Coach Mike...


* EDIT: See update in Post #48.
 
Last edited:
Mar 19, 2009
946
93
Southern California
What I am most happy about is that , we (the 3 of us) helped Maddie build her swing the way she wanted. I didn’t try and clone her in to a robot or my idea of the perfect swing. By the time Maddie started with me, she had a lot of brick dust under her cleats and thousand of swings conscious and unconscious. Took more time and patience because I was waiting on her being ready to accept and try some of the changes. You weren’t going to force Maddie to do anything she didn’t want to do or March to the beat of a different drum.This was part of her defense but when she saw I wasn’t pushing my agenda on her but committed to her wants as a hitter she started to trust and listen she rediscovered Eric‘s knowledge because I was saying what he had been telling her all along but got frustrated and closed off, teenagers right. In the beginning a lot of our lessons looked like Maddie and I were goofing off and we were. Eric would playfully say get back to work you too, 😆 . My greatest accomplishment is reintroducing Maddie to her 1st hitting coach and biggest fan….. Thanks Eric and Maddie ❤️
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
What I am most happy about is that , we (the 3 of us) helped Maddie build her swing the way she wanted. I didn’t try and clone her in to a robot or my idea of the perfect swing. By the time Maddie started with me, she had a lot of brick dust under her cleats and thousand of swings conscious and unconscious. Took more time and patience because I was waiting on her being ready to accept and try some of the changes. You weren’t going to force Maddie to do anything she didn’t want to do or March to the beat of a different drum.This was part of her defense but when she saw I wasn’t pushing my agenda on her but committed to her wants as a hitter she started to trust and listen she rediscovered Eric‘s knowledge because I was saying what he had been telling her all along but got frustrated and closed off, teenagers right. In the beginning a lot of our lessons looked like Maddie and I were goofing off and we were. Eric would playfully say get back to work you too, 😆 . My greatest accomplishment is reintroducing Maddie to her 1st hitting coach and biggest fan….. Thanks Eric and Maddie ❤️

You are an excellent instructor, my friend, and it's always a lot of fun to watch you and Maddie work together. There's no question that both of you are having a good time. :)
 
Sep 17, 2009
1,637
83
Hey Eric, there was a time Maddie was going to quit/pull-back. Obviously she changed course. What happened? I ask because reaching that fork in the road is very common among players I've found and I've seen players be happy taking either path -- in or out. Whether or not you feel comfortable answering here, I continue to be a big fan of Maddie's progress. Congrats to her and kudos to you and Mike :)
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
Hey Eric, there was a time Maddie was going to quit/pull-back. Obviously she changed course. What happened? I ask because reaching that fork in the road is very common among players I've found and I've seen players be happy taking either path -- in or out. Whether or not you feel comfortable answering here, I continue to be a big fan of Maddie's progress. Congrats to her and kudos to you and Mike :)

I've talked about Maddie's experience multiple times, and have no trouble talking about it more because it's something that a lot of players bump up against during their journey, for many different reasons.

In the fall of her sophomore year, Maddie was invited to play for one of the top 16U teams of a large nationally-known organization. They play all of the top events, attract a lot of very good players, and have a reputation for getting their players recruited to high-level programs. This is not a team that has grown from a young team and moved up together as a group, They are a perennial 16U/18U recruiting machine. Maddie was excited for the opportunity to play at the highest levels of the game, with some really talented players. Not long into it, though, it was clear that it wasn't a good fit for a number of reasons. It got to the point where she didn't want to even play games. We discussed her situation, team commitment, and how she was feeling about everything. It was clear that forcing her to stay in that situation was only going to make things worse, and we agreed that retiring from the team was the right choice for her. We drove over an hour to where the team was playing the next weekend, and talked to the head coach face-to-face. He was understanding, and we left on good terms. If it wasn't for her enjoyment of playing with her HS team, that might have been the end of softball for Maddie. She took a break from the game for a few months (but still kept hitting with Mike - hitting stuff with a stick is fun!).

The following January, a friend of mine from rec ball days invited Maddie to play with his low-level 16U TB team in a local 1-day tournament. After some initial reluctance, she agreed. She had fun. It was low-pressure, low expectation, and a nice group of players. She was able to just relax and play. When the HS season started, she exploded out of the gate, and had a blast playing with the best group of players her HS has had in over a decade....then COVID hit. It was a bummer not to be able to see the HS season through, but Maddie found the spark again. In May, my friend's TB team got going again, and Maddie decided to play with them. It was not nearly the level of play she was used to in TB, but there were a couple of other highly-talented players who kept things interesting enough for her. The team grew, and developed. New talent came in, and some of the weaker players went away. A bit more than a year after she joined the team, they were invited to play 18U TC Nationals against the best teams in So Cal, and got an invite berth to PGF where they had a very respectable showing. The little team had grown up. Best of all, Maddie told me that she's having more fun playing the game than she has in a very long time. She even enjoys going to practices - LOL.

During Maddie's break from the game, I realized that she had never been away from team activities for more than a couple weeks since she started playing TB at 10 years old. This tends to be the nature of high-level TB. She always seemed to be fine with it...until she wasn't.

Another important thing happened along the way. The experience with the regimented, high-demand 16U program helped Maddie realize that playing D1 ball in college wasn't going to be a fit for her. This has been a huge step for her, and has taken her from being 50/50 about playing college ball, to being excited about the idea. She is currently exploring some very interesting D2 and D3 opportunities, and will be making a couple of campus visits next month. Our focus is finding the right fit for her, not just the highest level of play.
 
Last edited:
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I've talked about Maddie's experience multiple times, and have no trouble talking about it more because it's something that a lot of players bump up against during their journey, for many different reasons.

In the fall of her sophomore year, Maddie was invited to play for one of the top 16U teams of a large nationally-known organization. They play all of the top events, attract a lot of very good players, and have a reputation for getting their players recruited to high-level programs. This is not a team that has grown from a young team and moved up together as a group, They are a perennial 16U/18U recruiting machine. Maddie was excited for the opportunity to play at the highest levels of the game, with some really talented players. Not long into it, though, it was clear that it wasn't a good fit for a number of reasons. It got to the point where she didn't want to even play games. We discussed her situation, team commitment, and how she was feeling about everything. It was clear that forcing her to stay in that situation was only going to make things worse, and we agreed that retiring from the team was the right choice for her. We drove over an hour to where the team was playing the next weekend, and talked to the head coach face-to-face. He was understanding, and we left on good terms. If it wasn't for her enjoyment of playing with her HS team, that might have been the end of softball for Maddie. She took a break from the game for a few months (but still kept hitting with Mike - hitting stuff with a stick is fun!).

The following January, a friend of mine from rec ball days invited Maddie to play with his low-level 16U TB team in a local 1-day tournament. After some initial reluctance, she agreed. She had fun. It was low-pressure, low expectation, and a nice group of players. She was able to just relax and play. When the HS season started, she exploded out of the gate, and had a blast playing with the best group of players her HS has had in over a decade....then COVID hit. It was a bummer not to be able to see the HS season through, but Maddie found the spark again. In May, my friend's TB team got going again, and Maddie decided to play with them. It was not nearly the level of play she was used to in TB, but there were a couple of other highly-talented players who kept things interesting enough for her. The team grew, and developed. New talent came in, and some of the weaker players went away. A bit more than a year after she joined the team, they were invited to play 18U TC Nationals against the best teams in So Cal, and got an invite berth to PGF where they had a very respectable showing. The little team had grown up. Best of all, Maddie told me that she's having more fun playing the game than she has in a very long time. She even enjoys going to practices - LOL.

During Maddie's break from the game, I realized that she had never had never been away from team activities for more than a couple weeks since she started playing TB at 10 years old. This tends to be the nature of high-level TB. She always seemed to be fine with it...until she wasn't.

Another important thing happened along the way. The experience with the regimented, high-demand 16U program helped Maddie realize that playing D1 ball in college wasn't going to be a fit for her. This has been a huge step for her, and has taken her from being 50/50 about playing college ball, to being excited about the idea. She is currently exploring some very interesting D2 and D3 opportunities, and will be making a couple of campus visits next month. Our focus is finding the right fit for her, not just the highest level of play.
Sounds like she is currently in a good place 👍👍
 
Aug 11, 2016
126
28
I've talked about Maddie's experience multiple times, and have no trouble talking about it more because it's something that a lot of players bump up against during their journey, for many different reasons.

In the fall of her sophomore year, Maddie was invited to play for one of the top 16U teams of a large nationally-known organization. They play all of the top events, attract a lot of very good players, and have a reputation for getting their players recruited to high-level programs. This is not a team that has grown from a young team and moved up together as a group, They are a perennial 16U/18U recruiting machine. Maddie was excited for the opportunity to play at the highest levels of the game, with some really talented players. Not long into it, though, it was clear that it wasn't a good fit for a number of reasons. It got to the point where she didn't want to even play games. We discussed her situation, team commitment, and how she was feeling about everything. It was clear that forcing her to stay in that situation was only going to make things worse, and we agreed that retiring from the team was the right choice for her. We drove over an hour to where the team was playing the next weekend, and talked to the head coach face-to-face. He was understanding, and we left on good terms. If it wasn't for her enjoyment of playing with her HS team, that might have been the end of softball for Maddie. She took a break from the game for a few months (but still kept hitting with Mike - hitting stuff with a stick is fun!).

The following January, a friend of mine from rec ball days invited Maddie to play with his low-level 16U TB team in a local 1-day tournament. After some initial reluctance, she agreed. She had fun. It was low-pressure, low expectation, and a nice group of players. She was able to just relax and play. When the HS season started, she exploded out of the gate, and had a blast playing with the best group of players her HS has had in over a decade....then COVID hit. It was a bummer not to be able to see the HS season through, but Maddie found the spark again. In May, my friend's TB team got going again, and Maddie decided to play with them. It was not nearly the level of play she was used to in TB, but there were a couple of other highly-talented players who kept things interesting enough for her. The team grew, and developed. New talent came in, and some of the weaker players went away. A bit more than a year after she joined the team, they were invited to play 18U TC Nationals against the best teams in So Cal, and got an invite berth to PGF where they had a very respectable showing. The little team had grown up. Best of all, Maddie told me that she's having more fun playing the game than she has in a very long time. She even enjoys going to practices - LOL.

During Maddie's break from the game, I realized that she had never had never been away from team activities for more than a couple weeks since she started playing TB at 10 years old. This tends to be the nature of high-level TB. She always seemed to be fine with it...until she wasn't.

Another important thing happened along the way. The experience with the regimented, high-demand 16U program helped Maddie realize that playing D1 ball in college wasn't going to be a fit for her. This has been a huge step for her, and has taken her from being 50/50 about playing college ball, to being excited about the idea. She is currently exploring some very interesting D2 and D3 opportunities, and will be making a couple of campus visits next month. Our focus is finding the right fit for her, not just the highest level of play.

That was my daughter’s experience (well, similar). She realized at some point that D1 wasn’t going to be a good fit, and focused on finding a good D3 college.

She was fortunate to find a good fit with Middlebury College in Vermont, where she started about a week ago. They had their first practice as a team today. She is very excited.

Good luck to Maddie. This is an exciting time for the kids, as they transition to college. At least she will get to go and visit the colleges before making a decision, something my daughter couldn’t do because of COVID.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Oct 2, 2017
2,283
113
I've talked about Maddie's experience multiple times, and have no trouble talking about it more because it's something that a lot of players bump up against during their journey, for many different reasons.

In the fall of her sophomore year, Maddie was invited to play for one of the top 16U teams of a large nationally-known organization. They play all of the top events, attract a lot of very good players, and have a reputation for getting their players recruited to high-level programs. This is not a team that has grown from a young team and moved up together as a group, They are a perennial 16U/18U recruiting machine. Maddie was excited for the opportunity to play at the highest levels of the game, with some really talented players. Not long into it, though, it was clear that it wasn't a good fit for a number of reasons. It got to the point where she didn't want to even play games. We discussed her situation, team commitment, and how she was feeling about everything. It was clear that forcing her to stay in that situation was only going to make things worse, and we agreed that retiring from the team was the right choice for her. We drove over an hour to where the team was playing the next weekend, and talked to the head coach face-to-face. He was understanding, and we left on good terms. If it wasn't for her enjoyment of playing with her HS team, that might have been the end of softball for Maddie. She took a break from the game for a few months (but still kept hitting with Mike - hitting stuff with a stick is fun!).

The following January, a friend of mine from rec ball days invited Maddie to play with his low-level 16U TB team in a local 1-day tournament. After some initial reluctance, she agreed. She had fun. It was low-pressure, low expectation, and a nice group of players. She was able to just relax and play. When the HS season started, she exploded out of the gate, and had a blast playing with the best group of players her HS has had in over a decade....then COVID hit. It was a bummer not to be able to see the HS season through, but Maddie found the spark again. In May, my friend's TB team got going again, and Maddie decided to play with them. It was not nearly the level of play she was used to in TB, but there were a couple of other highly-talented players who kept things interesting enough for her. The team grew, and developed. New talent came in, and some of the weaker players went away. A bit more than a year after she joined the team, they were invited to play 18U TC Nationals against the best teams in So Cal, and got an invite berth to PGF where they had a very respectable showing. The little team had grown up. Best of all, Maddie told me that she's having more fun playing the game than she has in a very long time. She even enjoys going to practices - LOL.

During Maddie's break from the game, I realized that she had never had never been away from team activities for more than a couple weeks since she started playing TB at 10 years old. This tends to be the nature of high-level TB. She always seemed to be fine with it...until she wasn't.

Another important thing happened along the way. The experience with the regimented, high-demand 16U program helped Maddie realize that playing D1 ball in college wasn't going to be a fit for her. This has been a huge step for her, and has taken her from being 50/50 about playing college ball, to being excited about the idea. She is currently exploring some very interesting D2 and D3 opportunities, and will be making a couple of campus visits next month. Our focus is finding the right fit for her, not just the highest level of play.
That's awesome for Maddie! I wish her luck on her Journey!
 
Sep 17, 2009
1,637
83
Thanks for the story Eric, looks like it's headed toward a great 'ending' for Maddie :) I wish her continued success and good health.

I found in my time as parent and coach at 18U that it is important to separate what's possible and what's best. It is really incredible that with hard work many fast pitch players can play at a college level of some sort. It's just important to let the player figure out the best and dare I say happiest path forward and what they want their end goal to really be.
 
May 12, 2016
4,338
113
I've talked about Maddie's experience multiple times, and have no trouble talking about it more because it's something that a lot of players bump up against during their journey, for many different reasons.

In the fall of her sophomore year, Maddie was invited to play for one of the top 16U teams of a large nationally-known organization. They play all of the top events, attract a lot of very good players, and have a reputation for getting their players recruited to high-level programs. This is not a team that has grown from a young team and moved up together as a group, They are a perennial 16U/18U recruiting machine. Maddie was excited for the opportunity to play at the highest levels of the game, with some really talented players. Not long into it, though, it was clear that it wasn't a good fit for a number of reasons. It got to the point where she didn't want to even play games. We discussed her situation, team commitment, and how she was feeling about everything. It was clear that forcing her to stay in that situation was only going to make things worse, and we agreed that retiring from the team was the right choice for her. We drove over an hour to where the team was playing the next weekend, and talked to the head coach face-to-face. He was understanding, and we left on good terms. If it wasn't for her enjoyment of playing with her HS team, that might have been the end of softball for Maddie. She took a break from the game for a few months (but still kept hitting with Mike - hitting stuff with a stick is fun!).

The following January, a friend of mine from rec ball days invited Maddie to play with his low-level 16U TB team in a local 1-day tournament. After some initial reluctance, she agreed. She had fun. It was low-pressure, low expectation, and a nice group of players. She was able to just relax and play. When the HS season started, she exploded out of the gate, and had a blast playing with the best group of players her HS has had in over a decade....then COVID hit. It was a bummer not to be able to see the HS season through, but Maddie found the spark again. In May, my friend's TB team got going again, and Maddie decided to play with them. It was not nearly the level of play she was used to in TB, but there were a couple of other highly-talented players who kept things interesting enough for her. The team grew, and developed. New talent came in, and some of the weaker players went away. A bit more than a year after she joined the team, they were invited to play 18U TC Nationals against the best teams in So Cal, and got an invite berth to PGF where they had a very respectable showing. The little team had grown up. Best of all, Maddie told me that she's having more fun playing the game than she has in a very long time. She even enjoys going to practices - LOL.

During Maddie's break from the game, I realized that she had never been away from team activities for more than a couple weeks since she started playing TB at 10 years old. This tends to be the nature of high-level TB. She always seemed to be fine with it...until she wasn't.

Another important thing happened along the way. The experience with the regimented, high-demand 16U program helped Maddie realize that playing D1 ball in college wasn't going to be a fit for her. This has been a huge step for her, and has taken her from being 50/50 about playing college ball, to being excited about the idea. She is currently exploring some very interesting D2 and D3 opportunities, and will be making a couple of campus visits next month. Our focus is finding the right fit for her, not just the highest level of play.
That's awesome Eric, enjoy following the journey with your DD.

Just wanted others to know there is also another side to the coin. My DD quit when she was 16, she was battling a number of factors, one of them being anxiety, particularly social anxiety. The game and team situation was making her miserable. She never ever played again, but found other interests outside of the sport that make her happy and a better fit for her personality. It sucked at first, I loved watching my DD play, she competed hard. But I respected her decision and now she is happy... and that's most important thing :)
 

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