How Strict is Your Travel Ball Team?

[sleepwalker]

After watching three weekends of fall college softball, I would suggest that there are several coaches out there that punish their girls for not making the starting line ups in games. I find it peculiar that there are several teams out there where the bench personnel run to the outfield fence when the defense is coming off of the field and run to the outfield fence when the offense is leaving the bench area. In a seven inning game, that is 13 to 14 jogs to the outfield fence per game. Heaven forbid that it is a doubleheader and you are bench personnel. That would be 26 to 28 jogs to the outfield fence per day.

I am guessing that girls who played for TB teams where their coaches had them do wind sprints after games would be better adaptable to play for such college teams.

My dd's TB teams were lucky if enough kids showed up on the weekends. Usually her teams were scrambling for pick up players. I gotta believe that it is easier to discipline committed kids than non committed kids.

 

[SoCalASABlue]

After watching three weekends of fall college softball, I would suggest that there are several coaches out there that punish their girls for not making the starting line ups in games.

As with almost all subjects on this board, it's a matter of perspective. I don't see the reserves running to the fence and back in between innings as punishment. I see it as (1) keeping them warm and loose in case of injury or sudden substitution and (b) another session of conditioning.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

What are some real-world example of that in softball? When behaviors in a 14-year-old travel player would you punish, and what would the punishments be?

Apparently I'm not smart enough to operate the "multi-quote" function. Anyway, I figure we can leave the philosophical stuff aside and just go with the concrete:

Bad attitude gets punished. Severity depends on infraction. A lack of hustle might receive a benching, might result in some extra laps at practice. Mental errors, if repeated, might warrant the same. Physical errors don't deserve punishment.

MLB players get suspended, lose money, get kicked out of the league, are prevented from being elected to the HoF. Lots of consequences there, and who's to say that managers don't make the guys run when we can't see them?

 

[bucket pinata]

God bless all our brave soldiers past and present but if being labeled the gentler generation means we no longer tolerate 60million people dying fighting a world war, Or I don't have to escape from a cattle car while being shipped to a camp like my dad did I'm all in. Now I'm not a big fan of the wussification of the younger generation but I don't see a down side in lowering the bar on violence and cruelty. As far as the running I love a coach who works the kids hard, AT PRACTICE, If they need decipline then by all means make em run do pushups Whatever.AT PRACTICE,I guess I'm sort of in the whatever happens on the mile stays on the mile camp.There are allot of kids whose issue is after a mistake they over self punish.one error leads to another. so I don't see how during the game most coaches are saying "let it go" "you got the next one" "flush it" "Teams got your back don't sweat It" then right after the game you run them till they puke Right in front of the team that just beat you. It isn't the greatest for the winning team either because while they are trying to enjoy the win the team they just beat is getting punished in the background this puts a damper on it. I remember last year we played a team that was not quite at our level.We were a top level 12u national team and they were not.they had a hard time fielding the ball mostly because our team crushes the ball pretty hard compared to most. After the Game my DD was warming up with the catcher getting ready for the next game and every few minutes the other team came running right by her, having to swerve around her Huffing and Puffing and sobbing.To me and my DD that whole scenario was simply Pathetic. So if your team needs discipline and condition or whatever no argument here even for my own DDs but for me,keep it on the mile!

So true. It is also used in most of the top college softball programs in the county. Unfortunately it is the kinder, gentler generation, and helicopter parents that got us where we are today:

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[riseball]

God bless all our brave soldiers past and present but if being labeled the gentler generation means we no longer tolerate 60million people dying fighting a world war, Or I don't have to escape from a cattle car while being shipped to a camp like my dad did I'm all in. Now I'm not a big fan of the wussification of the younger generation but I don't see a down side in lowering the bar on violence and cruelty. As far as the running I love a coach who works the kids hard, AT PRACTICE, If they need decipline then by all means make em run do pushups Whatever.AT PRACTICE,I guess I'm sort of in the whatever happens on the mile stays on the mile camp.There are allot of kids whose issue is after a mistake they over self punish.one error leads to another. so I don't see how during the game most coaches are saying "let it go" "you got the next one" "flush it" "Teams got your back don't sweat It" then right after the game you run them till they puke Right in front of the team that just beat you. It isn't the greatest for the winning team either because while they are trying to enjoy the win the team they just beat is getting punished in the background this puts a damper on it. I remember last year we played a team that was not quite at our level.We were a top level 12u national team and they were not.they had a hard time fielding the ball mostly because our team crushes the ball pretty hard compared to most. After the Game my DD was warming up with the catcher getting ready for the next game and every few minutes the other team came running right by her, having to swerve around her Huffing and Puffing and sobbing.To me and my DD that whole scenario was simply Pathetic. So if your team needs discipline and condition or whatever no argument here even for my own DDs but for me,keep it on the mile!

I agree that what happens on the mile needs to stay on the mile. But at the risk of getting this shutdown for being too political, I would point out that the greatest generation did what need to be done, when it needed to be done. It is the kinder, gentler, generation that simply stands by refusing to act. Had we had the kinder, gentler generation back when, we would be conversing in German or Japanese.

 

[bucket pinata]

Totally agree with you. We did what was needed during those times. we owe our freedom to those brave soldiers. Hopefully in this kinder gentler world (some excluded) we will never have to make a sacrifice that large again. SOOOOOOOO I saw a girl throwing this amazing sharply breaking rise ball in a pole barn yesterday. think it was one of Hals students.

I agree that what happens on the mile needs to stay on the mile. But at the risk of getting this shutdown for being too political, I would point out that the greatest generation did what need to be done, when it needed to be done. It is the kinder, gentler, generation that simply stands by refusing to act. Had we had the kinder, gentler generation back when, we would be conversing in German or Japanese.

 

[indianafp]

To answer the OP's question, I'm not the one that did this, but I have heard there is a coach in the area that if you have a Facebook account, you are to A) make the coach a friend on there, and b)if you are caught after 10pm on Facebook(any day of the week), you will have to run or lose playing time. There is lots of other things that go along with this, like forcing them to miss school functions, I could go on a long rant, but you get the gist of this one.

 

[dbronstein]

Then forgive them, move on, and cover it in practice. Yapping at them during the game is pointless--if the type of situation comes up again, then the coach should coach, which is proactively give them a plan prior to the play. rather than slapping their hand after. I hate when kids' only thought is "here comes the coach" and not in a positive way.

All of us make these mistakes, again due to the pressure and fast reactions needed, so work that in to the learning.

I agree. It's in how it's addressed. We just say "you need to look at third on that" or something like that, we don't berate them for making the mistake. My experience is they tend to remember better if you say something right at the time when it's still fresh. Even if we wait until after the inning, this is rec ball so they could be out there another 15-20 minutes and won't recall the situation as clearly.

 

[JJsqueeze]

I agree that what happens on the mile needs to stay on the mile. But at the risk of getting this shutdown for being too political, I would point out that the greatest generation did what need to be done, when it needed to be done. It is the kinder, gentler, generation that simply stands by refusing to act. Had we had the kinder, gentler generation back when, we would be conversing in German or Japanese.

I call BS. Today's America would have answered the call even quicker. We had to be dragged into WW2, we waited until we were directly attacked before we jumped in. IF England were at war today we would be there with them in a heartbeat, I also believe we would all make the necessary sacrifices to see it through. Just because we disagree on a lot of BS as a nation does not mean we don't stand together when confronted.

softball

 

[BobInMadison]

I call BS. Today's America would have answered the call even quicker. We had to be dragged into WW2, we waited until we were directly attacked before we jumped in. IF England were at war today we would be there with them in a heartbeat, I also believe we would all make the necessary sacrifices to see it through. Just because we disagree on a lot of BS as a nation does not mean we don't stand together when confronted.

softball

True. The US didn't enter WW II until after Pearl Harbor. That was more than 2 years after the UK was attacked.

Not only that, but the "greatest generation" was, to a large degree unfit to fight, which was NOT their fault. (Yes, I am including my own father, who had very serious allergies and some very serious health issues, which lead to a 4-F classification, and so sat out the war.) After the Great Depression, a very large portion of the US population was so malnourished that they were unable to fight. A lot of people actually starved to death during the Great Depression.

I don't want to get into politics, but the extremely high level of malnutrition could have cost us the war. The initial reasons for the School Lunch Program and for Food Stamps were national security issues. During the Vietnam War, the rate of 4-F classifications due to serious malnutrition issues were FAR lower.

As for whether the nation would stand together if attacked: yes, it always does. Tojo thought the US would refuse to stand together after the humiliation of Pearl Harbor, and after the devastation of the Great Depression. Yamamoto warned him that Pearl Harbor would waken a sleeping giant that would defeat Japan.


“Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil fields in Texas,” he would later remark, “knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America."

Someone else made the same mistake as Tojo not too many years ago. His name was Osama bin Laden. Haven't heard much from him recently.