8U Playing Time

[Orange Socks]

When people ask me about travel/club ball for 8 and 10 year olds, I advise against it. There is no reason to play travel ball at this age unless that is the only option. They just need reps, positive reinforcement, and hopefully some good instruction on fundamentals. Kids (and parents) can get burned out early when they start this young. If your DD stays in softball, you'll need that money for 12U or 14U and above.

I am totally with @Sonerai on this. I recommend 8U/10U Allstars in the summer while doing Rec league in season. Also, playing other sports during those seasons as well. TB at the younger ages are a recipe for burnout for families and the kids, not to mention inexperienced coaches that think they are coaching an 18U Gold team.

I remember parents on DD's 18U team were burned out and they were ready for it to be over. These were families started young and only did softball. DD played all of the in season sports into HS. She would say, I can't wait for Softball to start up. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.

 

[dothekindthing]

Is there a absolutely no rec ball choices where you live? Play rec ball. If not, you must choose your kids team carefully. You went into it knowing it was a drama filled environment. Why? Did you think drama filled adults were going to change???
If it is a bad as you describe it, I would leave.
Find another team. Ask questions before joining.
Also, your DD will need to practice at home. She needs a tee, some balls and a net. Basic hitting drills and techniques can be found on line.
Simplest way to learn how to catch, fingers up.
With plastic balls, DD lies on her back and tossed ball to herself. 25 reps a day/5 minutes.
Proper throwing and fielding mechanics and drills can also be found on line.
The idea is to get your DD skilled enough that she/you will have choices on which team she plays on.

Thank you for the advice!

We unfortunately did not comprehend the drama when we signed up. We signed up and tried out under a team that was one year older than my daughter. Rural area, not a lot of teams to choose from…and no teams for 8u at the time. There was such a tremendous tryout for this very successful team. Incredible environment for the tryout. Old school coaches that knew how to be stern and encouraging at the same time. Nearly 2 hours where the kids were busy doing something every second and they even implemented games and went around and said what they learned about themselves, etc…we were impressed! The head coach decided to create a new team for 8u and invited our daughter based on that one tryout. This assistant coach supposedly had another daughter (younger) so we were told she was not given a spot back on the original team hoping to eventually have her daughters playing together so the younger team made since. So that assistant coach would head coach the new team and the head coach of the already successful team would assistant coach the new team. Two weeks in and the male coach never shows. Supposedly our female head coach wouldn’t work with him or scheduling practices around his work and other team so that led to bickering and him deciding to not help. Of course now in retrospect it seems like maybe there were other reasons she was not provided a coaching spot and her child was not provided a players spot on original team but that was impossible for us to know. The assistant coach now is the second girl that was not provided a spot on the original team as well and they did draft 3 new players on that original team. The manager stayed for 3-4 weeks. We were told we would have player fees and one fundraiser this season. The manager left the group due to a dispute about the money being paid to the manager and going into managers account versus being paid to coach and going into coaches account. As soon as the manager left the coach changed calendar fundraiser due date to 2 weeks earlier and implemented 2 additional fundraisers and asked us to find a sponsor if we could. We aren’t even registered for all of the tournaments on the provided schedule because some are now full and we weren’t even registered for them even after all girls paying the player fee 6 weeks ago.

Our daughter is playing rec ball. Loves playing with her friends. We will 100% continue to play rec. She was just playing at a level that was exceeding her friends and asked about playing for a travel team in addition because she had a friend at school that had started playing travel ball. There is only a few girls that she can play pitch and catch with on our rec team without worrying she might hurt someone if she really throws the ball because many girls are still developing pretty basic skills to catch, throw, hit…which is totally fine by us we love watching the girls get better each season! We were more than willing to do both with her. We practice nightly because she loves it and asks to do it. The girl that was completely benched and not allowed to play in the field or hit in the line up was not our child. You just don’t have to be my kid for me to notice that things aren’t being handled right…crushing a kids spirit is not something I co-sign regardless if it’s my girl or not!

*** I was just trying to understand if that is common to completely sit girls for entire games at this age…when we had the option to bat everyone, to not bat two kids who have hit well and allow kids who strike out into the lineup seems odd to me. I’m not saying that the kids who strike out should not be hitting…I would think everyone hits!

 

[Sonerai]

I would say to your question as to whether it is common not to play everyone or bat everyone, it all depends. It depends on the coach you have. I would like to say that it is less common at the 8U level, at least it should be. You shouldn't be on a team at 8U or 10U that you are not playing at least half of a game. Kids at this age need reps.

 

[CoachCeetar]

It's not like the kids are driving themselves to practice. Play them all equally. It's 8U "travel".

or sorry, I absolutely didn't mean practice. I mean if one kid gets to 12 games and the other has 10, the at bats will reflect that. And when you look back, it can be a useful hint at who's got softball #1 and who's splitting time with dance/soccer/etc. Though I am supportive of "oh, you missed last week, let's bat you leadoff and get you in there idea"

 

[dothekindthing]

When people ask me about travel/club ball for 8 and 10 year olds, I advise against it. There is no reason to play travel ball at this age unless that is the only option. They just need reps, positive reinforcement, and hopefully some good instruction on fundamentals. Kids (and parents) can get burned out early when they start this young. If your DD stays in softball, you'll need that money for 12U or 14U and above.

Thanks for the perspective! Certainly has crossed my mind when we go and she gets crushed at these tournament (despite playing really well when given the chance) She is batting well over .700 and hasn’t missed a ball in the outfield or made a bad throw at any play. Second in RBIs and hitting 10th or 12th in lineup depending on how many girls they actually let play. They still choose to completely bench her from the field for entire games. She has been the only girl on the team to field a ball and throw a runner out at 2nd base. She is the first one on the field with her mask and glove and has spoke up for herself and told her coach she is sitting a lot and is willing to play any position as long as she can play. It’s really hard to watch them send her back to the dugout each time. Girls who are playing our infield consistently throw the ball at first baseman’s shins over and over. It’s all confusing because if the goal is really just to win win win we aren’t even playing that way either…our girl comes home and plays with Barbie’s and watches cartoons and I’ll be honest…I do wonder if she is just too young and sweet to be competing at this level sometimes even though she is really good and wants to do it. Just would have never dreamed that some coaches would operate this way and have no empathy or remorse after seeing girls crying in the huddles over playing time.

 

[dothekindthing]

We had an awesome 10U rec league with 4 very competitive teams. A good number of those girls have committed to play in college and one just committed to an SEC team. Let the kids go to birthday parties and play on bounce houses at that age. There's plenty of time to play softball.

Thanks for this perspective. I always enjoy hearing things like this or interviews with top pro athletes who picked their sport up around twelve…we try to keep things pretty balanced but it certainly feels like a slippery slope when you start dipping your feet into more competitive environments and then feel like you need to be doing more and more. We really thought it was going to be enjoyable and just maybe time consuming or expensive…never dreamed it would be 8 year old players crying and feeling down and questioning their skills and abilities

 

[Sonerai]

Thanks for the perspective! Certainly has crossed my mind when we go and she gets crushed at these tournament (despite playing really well when given the chance) She is batting well over .700 and hasn’t missed a ball in the outfield or made a bad throw at any play. Second in RBIs and hitting 10th or 12th in lineup depending on how many girls they actually let play. They still choose to completely bench her from the field for entire games. She has been the only girl on the team to field a ball and throw a runner out at 2nd base. She is the first one on the field with her mask and glove and has spoke up for herself and told her coach she is sitting a lot and is willing to play any position as long as she can play. It’s really hard to watch them send her back to the dugout each time. Girls who are playing our infield consistently throw the ball at first baseman’s shins over and over. It’s all confusing because if the goal is really just to win win win we aren’t even playing that way either…our girl comes home and plays with Barbie’s and watches cartoons and I’ll be honest…I do wonder if she is just too young and sweet to be competing at this level sometimes even though she is really good and wants to do it. Just would have never dreamed that some coaches would operate this way and have no empathy or remorse after seeing girls crying in the huddles over playing time.

Sounds like you are on the wrong team. It happens and you learn from it. You should try to talk to the coaches about this and see if things change. You may just need to find another team for her.

 

[Orange Socks]

What's the deal with all the fundraising? Y'all traveling across the country?

 

[dothekindthing]

What's the deal with all the fundraising? Y'all traveling across the country?

thanks for that laugh!!! we are playing within a 2 hour stretch of home. One day tournaments on Saturdays only. Families still pay to get into every tournament. There has been no team gear outside of practice for the team and a helmet for the girls with their uniforms. We bought our own pants and sliding shorts. Several girls have been told by the coach that they needed to buy new composite bats for their kids. The catchers bring their own personal gear. We go to these tournaments and several teams have matching face masks and equipment bags and I do wonder if their fees and fundraising goes to that…ours is seemingly disappearing into this air. It seemed bizarre to us but this is our first year doing this…we were trying to make sense of it like maybe there is some overhead cost to the organization or insurance or something. It got more confusing when I started looking on the tournament sites and realizing we weren’t even registered in all of the tournaments on our schedule…only 2-3 at a time, some are full and we are not in them.

 

[Orange Socks]

This is outdated information(2014), but I was able to charge each player something like $500 for a summer that included 6 tourneys, uni's, practice shirt and bat bags. Insurance was super cheap. We had a sponsor that donated $1000. You will need to figure out what you are willing to pay and if you see the benefit of those dollars spent. I understand there are start up costs for a new team. The accounting should also be transparent for a team like this.

To give you perspective, my Allstar teams tourney schedule was dictated by what was available and sometimes we didn't know where we were playing for 2 weeks in advance and usually tried to attend a "National" type of tourney at the end of the summer season.

DD's former TB team was a very small organization run by a coach that had been doing it for over 20 years. He did it very affordably, but he had the benefit of left over funds year over year. He was also quite wealthy and parents never once had the need to question where the funds were going. Parents paid their own travel. They practiced, travelled to the top national tourneys and knew the schedule months in advance.