How is a coach expected to win the 6U league championship if he can't stack his team? You don't expect the coach to actually teach new skills, do you??
Just when I thought it couldn't get stupider...
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How is a coach expected to win the 6U league championship if he can't stack his team? You don't expect the coach to actually teach new skills, do you??
Agree, playing games is critical.
I'm just saying that softball player development is inefficient. I don't know the solution exactly. But the most valuable skill/ability that most players can have is hitting pitchers trying to get them out. That's their meal ticket. Then consider how little time softball players actually spend doing that very thing. And consider how much idle time occurs during games and tournaments, starting and ending with long car rides. Besides baseball, there's probably not another sport where so little time is spent doing the most important thing.
Maybe the 'secret first look" is to identify the craziest parents and avoid them. Or at least....
My DD has spent more time working on the skill of hitting than she has worked on any other individual skill, and has spent more time working with her hitting instructor than any other individual instructor. Not surprisingly, she's a pretty decent hitter. I can understand that this equation might look different for pitchers.
A couple of years ago, my DD's HS coach spent almost zero practice time having the team work on hitting in any manner. I asked him about this (he's also a long-time friend who often came to me for my input/opinion on team matters). He stated that he wanted to focus on defense so the team could limit the runs scored against them as a way to win ball games. I reminded him that half the game is spent on offense, trying to perform the single hardest skill in sports, and if you can't score any runs, it really doesn't matter how good your defense is. He saw the light, and adjusted his attitude. New coaches this year. We shall see how it goes.
Friendlies are additional opportunities to spend 2 hours of travel and wait time to get 2 at-bats.
I'm not saying players shouldn't play games. I just used the Williams sisters to suggest that perhaps they aren't as important as we think. Of course, tennis is different. It's easy to get pickup matches, and tennis matches are far more beneficial to the players' development than softball or baseball games.
However, as my theory applies to softball, I'm not sure it wouldn't benefit a travel player to cut her tournaments in half if she could triple the number of competitive at-bats she got. Imagine if there were an event at a local park every Tuesday where you have 10 pitchers and 20 hitters, maybe 2-3 fields, and every hitter was guaranteed 10 at-bats in 2 hours. And every pitcher got to face 20 hitters, the equivalent of one game. There are no fielders, no base-runners, keep it moving. It's all about hitting and pitching. Compare the efficiency of that to playing a 2-day tournament for 10 at-bats.
Compare the amount of time that your DD spends taking front toss or hitting off a tee to the amount she spends actually trying to hit a live pitcher. For the most part, that ratio is determined by the way travel ball is set up. (That's when comparing your DD to others with the same work ethic and opportunity to practice.)
My argument is that if you change that ratio, putting more time into live hitting, that she'd be an even better hitter. I fact, if not for all the wasted time in tournaments, she'd probably have time to do as much front toss and tee work as she's already doing and simply add to her live hitting, trading that for time sitting in a car or dugout. But the way travel ball is set up, there's only so much live hitting she can get. If she could get more, I think she'd do even better going that route. The ratio is pre-set. It is what it is. But if I could change that, I would. Tennis players, for example, also take what might be called front toss, but they spend far more time hitting the ball in situations that are very similar to a real match. They do this because they can. Softball players can't really do that, not the way things are set up, and because it's a slow-moving team sport. But if there were a way to make it happen, a paradigm shift as it were, I believe that hitters would develop more quickly. Tennis players, IMO, are more impressive ball strikers at the higher levels than softball players, and I think this is part of the reason.
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- Oct 14, 2019
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It does seem crazy that pitchers are working on their craft all the time without live hitters and hitters are working on their craft without live pitching.
radness
Possibilities & Opportunities!
- Dec 13, 2019
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Have always and continue to advocate for live hitting at practice!
Truly helps batters learn to read pitchers mechanics. Especially when we can designate what the pitcher is throwing and the batters can learn what that specific mechanic looks like.
And what details visually become familiar for better reaction time.
There are leagues starting up using Rapsodo and other tech. One around here had live pitching with a pitcher and two hitters as a team. It was during the height of Covid and the players that I knew who were interested did not participate.
Friendlies are additional opportunities to spend 2 hours of travel and wait time to get 2 at-bats.
I'm not saying players shouldn't play games. I just used the Williams sisters to suggest that perhaps they aren't as important as we think. Of course, tennis is different. It's easy to get pickup matches, and tennis matches are far more beneficial to the players' development than softball or baseball games.
However, as my theory applies to softball, I'm not sure it wouldn't benefit a travel player to cut her tournaments in half if she could triple the number of competitive at-bats she got. Imagine if there were an event at a local park every Tuesday where you have 10 pitchers and 20 hitters, maybe 2-3 fields, and every hitter was guaranteed 10 at-bats in 2 hours. And every pitcher got to face 20 hitters, the equivalent of one game. There are no fielders, no base-runners, keep it moving. It's all about hitting and pitching. Compare the efficiency of that to playing a 2-day tournament for 10 at-bats.
So, you want to just scrap the game, and have pitcher-hitter duels. Forget about the development of throwing, fielding, base-running, teamwork, and all the other things that happen while playing actual games.
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