Joined new team this year as AC after being a head coach for several years with agreement that I would take my own team for this organization next year. I had several players come with me and will be following me next year into 16U. I had one of my regular girls confide in me Friday that she would miss our weekend practices due to subbing for another team. Don't get me wrong, we use subs every once in awhile and I understand the need, and my DD and this girl has subbed for this team before. My DD is a pitcher and they had been begging me to let her sub this weekend and I told them no due to us having practice and needing to prepare for our next tournament, but they also asked my DD's friend (the other player) and she said yes. Should it bother me that this player is going to skip our practices to play for this team? Should I have let my DD skip and play? The guy is a friend of mine and I know he asked the other girl to try and lure my DD. Should I say something to the HC and let him take care of it? or just ignore it and go home and kick the dog (not really, DD & DW would kick me). Thoughts?
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Seems like there are 2 questions here.
They can't miss all our practices to guest play but occasionally, sure go have a great time.
If they are trying to steal your players you need to be on the offensive and run a good Team so no one wants to leave. Doesn't sound like you have an Issue with the other Team so I would just do the best you could for your Team, if they want to leave oh well. If you did have concerns I would mention it to the parents.
My dog is to quick for me I am getting old.
They can't miss all our practices to guest play but occasionally, sure go have a great time.
If they are trying to steal your players you need to be on the offensive and run a good Team so no one wants to leave. Doesn't sound like you have an Issue with the other Team so I would just do the best you could for your Team, if they want to leave oh well. If you did have concerns I would mention it to the parents.
My dog is to quick for me I am getting old.
^^^^^
What Quincy said.
What Quincy said.
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
My DD loves picking up with other teams but our rule is that our team comes first. That includes practice. We played half a tournament with a friend of hers recently, because we had practice that morning. When practice was over we rushed home, changed, and went to the tournament to play the last few games. I can't imagine our coach would look kindly at people skipping team practices in order to go play with another team. If I were the coach at the very least it might affect playing time. I'd want to play the kids who prioritize the team and come to practice.
We have a similar situation we are dealing with. We are in Iowa and school ball and travel ball over lap. We head to Kansas City Memorial day weekend for a showcase. 5 girls (3 different schools) have conflicts between practice for school ball vs playing travel ball that weekend. School 1 - coach said no, you can not skip practice and are not playing travel ball that weekend (1 girl). School 2 - parents told the high school coaches that they wouldnt be at practice and would be playing travel ball that weekend (2 girls). School 3 - hasnt made a decision yet. JV coach (also the AD) is upset bc they would miss Sat/Mon practices. Might be the only Saturday practice the entire year. 9th grade coach is fine with it and head coach hasnt said anything (2 girls, including my dd). I no this is not 100% accurate, but in Iowa school ball still rules the roost.
I look at it this way. The only thing they are missing in practice is any team work type of stuff. Everything that is done individually they will make up by playing the weekend. The warmups alone will get more reps than any practice would.
When we agreed to travel ball we told them school ball will always come first. This is our only conflicting weekend. I was delighted at how well the 2 schedules meshed. HS practice starts May 9. My dd will start practice that day with between 20-25 games under her belt. figure 50-75 AB's and has been practicing 2-3 times a week since December. To me its a win for the school team.
I look at it this way. The only thing they are missing in practice is any team work type of stuff. Everything that is done individually they will make up by playing the weekend. The warmups alone will get more reps than any practice would.
When we agreed to travel ball we told them school ball will always come first. This is our only conflicting weekend. I was delighted at how well the 2 schedules meshed. HS practice starts May 9. My dd will start practice that day with between 20-25 games under her belt. figure 50-75 AB's and has been practicing 2-3 times a week since December. To me its a win for the school team.
If she's going to miss, she should be telling the HC and not put you in the middle of it.
Players need to understand that when they miss practice, they miss situation drills and plays and won't be in sync with the rest of the team come game time. The older the team, the more important the in-game intelligence becomes.
Just this weekend on DD's team: runner on first & third, pop-fly to center. CF throws to home on the catch, but the pitcher is standing in the middle of the field instead of backing up home plate. The throw is a little offline, and pitcher gets in 1B's way so nobody cuts the ball, the catcher is on the plate anticipating the cut, so she can't get to the ball and it goes to the back stop. Runner scores, and runner on 1st is now at third and goes on to score. Why? Because the pitcher misses practices for other games. One break in the chain and they went from looking like one of the strongest teams in the area to a rec team. And yes, they lost the game by a run. The rest of the team feels it as well, because they know what should have happened.
I like grcsftbll's suggestion. Keep her team commitment, then go sub-in.
Players need to understand that when they miss practice, they miss situation drills and plays and won't be in sync with the rest of the team come game time. The older the team, the more important the in-game intelligence becomes.
Just this weekend on DD's team: runner on first & third, pop-fly to center. CF throws to home on the catch, but the pitcher is standing in the middle of the field instead of backing up home plate. The throw is a little offline, and pitcher gets in 1B's way so nobody cuts the ball, the catcher is on the plate anticipating the cut, so she can't get to the ball and it goes to the back stop. Runner scores, and runner on 1st is now at third and goes on to score. Why? Because the pitcher misses practices for other games. One break in the chain and they went from looking like one of the strongest teams in the area to a rec team. And yes, they lost the game by a run. The rest of the team feels it as well, because they know what should have happened.
I like grcsftbll's suggestion. Keep her team commitment, then go sub-in.
Don't get me wrong. School ball comes 100% first whether it's practice or games, all the girls know this. This girl does miss quite a bit for school softball or travel basketball which she plays on a travel team put on by the middle school. I have no worries about the other team stealing anybody, I already know they would steal her and my DD in a minute, heck he has even tried to steal me. If my DD and the other girl wanted to go to that team, I would go with them, but they are a C level team and we are a B/A so neither would want to go ( I gave them both the option as to which team we would go to at the start of the season and if they wanted to stay together). My only thing is that it bugs me for somebody to skip practice to play for another team. Playing before practice or after practice is no big deal, but skipping practice reduces the ability for some team defensive work and even if you don't feel like you need it (which everybody needs it regardless of what Alan Iverson thought), you might make players around you better and the team better as a whole. I like the girl and she has played for me for a while so I'm keeping it to myself. Just thought I would vent a little and see if I'm in the minority with my thinking.
I just get back to, if she was missing practice for a band camp would it be an issue or is it just an issue because she is going to be playing softball?
DD makes all the practice, if she doesn't want to go for whatever reason we do not care. She has earned that privilege by making all the practices.
DD makes all the practice, if she doesn't want to go for whatever reason we do not care. She has earned that privilege by making all the practices.
- Feb 3, 2011
- 1,880
- 48
School sport/activity > TB team > anything else
There are seasons when it seems like a team is practicing all the time, but then there have been other seasons when it seem like a team doesn't get to practice hardly at all as a full team. As players get older, it seems like they've got more and more going on and if that's the case across the board, then full team practices are truly at a premium.
There are always going to be exceptions, but for a player to skip her primary team's main practice on a regular basis in order to participate with another team in the same sport sounds to me like the substitute team is her primary focus. It's 1 for a team to be in a bind and be in need of a favor (e.g. 3 of their players get food poisoning Friday night), but quite another for them to ALWAYS be in need of a player. If they're always a player short, it's my opinion they're not that serious a team, and if she wants to play 16u rec, then she probably is not a true 16u TB player.
There are seasons when it seems like a team is practicing all the time, but then there have been other seasons when it seem like a team doesn't get to practice hardly at all as a full team. As players get older, it seems like they've got more and more going on and if that's the case across the board, then full team practices are truly at a premium.
There are always going to be exceptions, but for a player to skip her primary team's main practice on a regular basis in order to participate with another team in the same sport sounds to me like the substitute team is her primary focus. It's 1 for a team to be in a bind and be in need of a favor (e.g. 3 of their players get food poisoning Friday night), but quite another for them to ALWAYS be in need of a player. If they're always a player short, it's my opinion they're not that serious a team, and if she wants to play 16u rec, then she probably is not a true 16u TB player.
- Jan 25, 2011
- 2,280
- 38
Practice, practice!!!! We talking about practice? Play in real games is better then practicing IMO. Big deal missing a practice, she got to play a live game with live pitching. A lot better for the player.
