grumbling, rant, or how do we approach the coach

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Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
"Coach...I want to play some OF when I'm not catching". THAT is something that should be well received by Mr Coach. A word of advice based on experience...team practice isn't the time to get OF practice. It's the time for DD to show off what she can do out there. You hit to her...alot. Reading the ball off the bat is an acquired skill that comes from chasing balls, and plenty of fast players suck at this. Learning to gauge the hitter, how the ball sounds and assessing trajectory at contact will greatly increase the effective range of a slower player, and will make a faster player scary good. She won't get that at team practice. Work on where the ball goes in given situations so that she knows something when asked. That alone will place her ahead of the curve.
My DD has such great confidence in herself, but she admits that she would suck in the OF.
 
Sep 13, 2020
63
18
If the team is terrible and you're getting run ruled all the time then hitting top vs bottom of the order can make a huge difference in number of plate appearances. It sounds like that's not the case, though.

DD1 is a contact hitter with ~.450 BA and ~.650 OBP. She bats 7th on a team that has 10 or 11 in the lineup each game. We don't sweat it.
 
Mar 28, 2014
1,081
113
you missed one, confidence. in fall, she struggled, lost some confidence. she worked hard, improved her hitting relative not only to herself, but to several other players on team, and the result was . . . if she moved up a couple of spots, her confidence would improve even more, and it might light a spark undeer some of the others.
if she is gaining/losing confidence based on her position in the order you are doing it all wrong.
 
Oct 10, 2018
305
63
My DD is a decent hitter and regularly hits 6th. I'm sure it was mentioned earlier, still reading through, but the line up isn't always about best hitter to worst hitter. Generally speaking 1, 2, and 3 are your best contact hitters and get on base (hopefully) and 4 comes in to blast one and get some runs (hopefully). Then 5/6 gets on base and 7/8 are the "second power" that brings the runners in and so on and so forth. DD was disappointed at her spot in the line up until this was made clear to her. Teach your DD that it's not best to worst, she's needed where she is.
 
Aug 25, 2019
1,066
113
On my DD's travel team, she almost always batter last, whether they bat, 9, 10, or 11. Her average was 7-8th on team. One day I had enough and asked the coach. He simply said he needed a good hitter at the bottom to get on base for the top hitters to drive in. I still don't like it, but I kind of see what he means.
 
Aug 8, 2016
131
28
When I look at my stats at the end of the season, I want the most plate appearances, going to the kids who will score the most runs, or drive in the most runs. If you are giving more pa's to someone who you know will produce less than someone behind her, you are not being smart with your lineup. Obviously you will do some rearranging to set up the runs and rbi, and your really big innings will happen if the bottom gets hot. But you should always have production at the top that way.
 
Mar 4, 2015
526
93
New England
Is it common for players to be concerned about the spot in the lineup? And if so, is it natural, or taught somehow?

My DD never cared where she batted. She hit 9th. She hit 1st. All things in between. She never brought up the subject of batting order with me a single time in 10 years. I'm not saying that to glorify my kid. She had all sorts of other problems. :)

I don't know how it can be broached with a coach without coming across as a little selfish, even if the player's argument for hitting higher is justified. Coaches don't generally like unsolicited lineup advice from players, and it's hard to frame it the way a coach would want, which is ''this will help the team'' vs. ''this is what I want.''

I don't think ''it would help my confidence and motivate those players who dropped.'' And if you bring it up with the coach, then you can't be sure that later on that you deserved it. "Did he move me up because he believed in me, or because I asked?"
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
we are 25 games into spring schedule. team is doing very well overall.
...
not certain what else she can do to move up in the lineup to get more PA.

My DD#3 in college basketball got about 20 minutes of playing time a game--which was how much all the main players got. It was the way the coach did things. But, I'm a dad, so I thought the coach was an idiot for not playing my DD more.

The team went 40-1 that season and won the D3 National Championship. Had the coach played my DD more, I'm convinced they could have won all 41 games.

What an idiot.
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
I guess just frustrated because of the rigidity. even in games he knows they are going to cruise, nothing changes. if you really believe in all 12, then shake it up a little now and then, just to see what happens. this also to me would make it easier to make changes if you think they need to be made later on as well, without causing all sorts of issues.
 

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