1st year 14 u team development

[John 800]

posted in the coaching forum, but it has not gotten any resonses so Ill try here:
My Daughter is on a 14u team in our local league. We have a pitcher that is one of the stronger ones in the league, and a group of athletic girls, but almost all of them have volleyball as a higher priority than softball. The team in almost all first year 14 players and will get stronger defensively next year with a few kids that are moving up from 12u. We are just over .500 this year, I would put most of the losses on outfield defense, and hitting more so than pitching. The losses have all been close, but the league is not extremely competitive.

The league we are in plays two nights per week. We are only having one practice per week, and have had bad luck for rainouts and conflicts. I am leaning towards switching to a different league that only plays one night per week or playing tournaments only for next year, which would leave more time for the girls that want to for hitting and pitching lessons without getting burned out. I think the gols of most of the girls on the team is to develop into a competitive team for jv and varsity school softball. What do you guys think?

 

[radness]

Hmmm did I read that correctly? you want to have less of a League schedule so the players don't get burned out if they want to do hitting and pitching lessons and yet their goal is to develop into a competitive team for JV or varsity.
And the players priority is generally volleyball.

With random conflicts on schedule if only have one game night per week you could still have conflict of schedule... not playing a game at all that week.

It seems to me play more games will prepare for more competitive team come JV or varsity.
(Especially with only one practice per week.)

The tournament schedule will get a lot of games in a couple days and if the players want to work on hitting on their own during the week that's a good thing but they have to consistently do it.
If not there's going to be a skills gap with not enough practice.

 

[Dabears17]

From my experience throwing overhand and serving a volleyball is very similar. My DD got yelled at once when she tried out for a relaxed fall volleyball league with half club players in when she was asked to serve for drills during tryouts 'To stop hitting the ball with a "throwing" motion instead of a serving motion. On the other side, many softball pitchers can put interesting spins on their serves and softball players are good at tracking and getting to the ball.

There are levels of teams for all players. Not sure if they still do, but there was a league about an hour from me that had a section on their website for 16u and 18u rec teams that used 10u rec rules.

Two of the rising juniors at my DD's HS are playing this summer on teams I consider B- teams. Two others are playing on a team that should be playing a more challenging schedule but played in the Western B nationals last year as a 14u team. One of the B- players can't play on a higher-level team because her robotics team schedule conflicts with her fall ball softball practices and some tournaments.

Someone needs to provide the skill development for those players with volleyball, soccer, or field hockey as their primary sport, but still want to play softball as a 2nd HS sport in the spring. Some teams need several of these players to have a varsity team. On some teams these are players are 8 or 9-14 on the team, so there would be no bench or team if they didn't develop.

When does club Volleyball season end? 8 to 10 years ago most teams had their last tournament Memorial Day. 4 years ago it was mid-June. Is this a summer league or a spring league running to late June? Thank you for stepping up to help coach these players and get them reps.

Not sure the best path forward is without a better idea of your season vs. the volleyball season.

My DD missed most of the summer volleyball workout sessions last summer due to them conflicting with her club softball practices. There was a new coach, and she had to skip her sophomore season because Covid V-ball overlapped with Covid V-ball, so he didn't know her skillset.

 

[John 800]

A little more detail:
Of the 11 on the softball roster 10 play club volleyball and school volleyball. School volleyball is august-nov club is late jan-early may. School softball starts practicing in mid march and ends in late may, summer ball starts early jume and runs until mid July, fall softball runs from late august to mid October. So as you can see there is lots of overlap and very busy schedules. My thoughts were that one game a week rather than two would allow for one game, one team practice and a batting practice or group batting lesson. So, the question is what would be more valuable, one more game a week or a group hitting lesson. I think they really need proper hitting instructions. We have seen some good progress hitting with the group lessons we are doing currently. Without playing two nights a week, we could probably do an extra tournament or two a year. The way it is now we are only doing one or two small tournaments a year.

I am honestly not sure what other teams are doing. What are your practice schedules for teams this age?