Too early to worry?

[canyonjoe]

You should have had this all figured out before your last 6U game.

 

[Eric F]

You should have had this all figured out before your last 6U game.

College commitment, too, right?

 

[canyonjoe]

College commitment, too, right?

At least a verbal

 

[Bullseye]

My DD is an 8u player on one of the best A class teams in our area. Playing time has never been a major concern for her as she does a lot of side work and keeps improving drastically which keeps her on the field

My concern is that the development of the team as a whole (and even some girls) seems to have hit a plateau. Assistant coaches and some other parents also have the same concern. Practices are getting stale. I can pretty much tell you what they’re going to do every practice before i even get there. Down to the minute. DD doesnt want to leave the team that shes played with for the past 2 seasons, and neither do i because i think they have a bright future ahead of them as a team, although she has asked if she can play for other organizations (not sure she fully understands how it all works sometimes). But something has to change

I am contemplating on bringing her to a few other high level organizations tryouts this fall but have no intention on leaving her current team. My thought is to bring her to these tryouts to get more eyes on her just incase nothing changes with the current team

So my question is this…
I know theyre only 8, but is it too early for me to be concerned with the lack of development on the current team and getting her name out to other organizations?

Spend more time playing catch and swinging the bat with your kid and less time worrying about what other people are going to do for them.

 

[SoftballDadnWV]

Spend more time playing catch and swinging the bat with your kid and less time worrying about what other people are going to do for them.

This is what you do.

 

[Imalt]

I've seen plenty of very successful 8u travel teams implode once they got to 10U and kid pitch. The struggles come and the parents can't handle not winning and the whole team falls apart.

 

[wheresmycar]

Spend more time playing catch and swinging the bat with your kid and less time worrying about what other people are going to do for them.

This. One of my kids favorite things to do at this age was hitting whiffle balls in our back yard.

 

[uncdrew]

Don’t worry about them as a team. They are 8 and younger. within 2 years 4 of them will quit for soccer. 2 will just quit and another 4 will be on other teams. In 4 years 2 more will just quit the game all together and the remaining 4 will be on 4 different teams. Sad update one of the 8 who don’t play softball may include your dd.

don’t stress about the team development. Put your dd in the best situation for her to learn and have fun.

Yeah, so much this. Heck, my DD didn't even start softball until 10U.

So much changes in the 8U and 10U world. I think our current 14U team only has 2 players who were on the team in 10U. You can certainly tell the coach very kindly and tactfully that the girls are thinking the practices are getting too routine/stale/mundane. Or have your DD mention it. It really should be fun at that age (and any age).

But it doesn't necessarily have to be urgent "make these girls better at any cost" type of stuff. In my opinion, they're just too young to go that route at this point.

As the years go by, do expect people to leave, people to be asked to leave, and the team to change a lot. You should be able to recognize when the time is right for you to move on, and you should have other teams in mind to approach when and if you're ready to leave. You may need a better team, you may need a worse team, you may need a team closer to home, or just a different coach/girls. And never, ever forget that it's a very small, gossipy world. There are many, many families on blacklists and many people who don't speak to one another anymore. All because of girls playing a fun game.

 

[4Martini]

My daughter’s 8u rec team was run by two volunteer highschool girls. They had soo much fun! Base relays etc. maybe you could volunteer to find an end of practice game for all of the girls each week.

I had no idea how into softball these two girls were when we started - but the assistant coach - who pitched for them - got a full ride to pitch at a good D1 school two years later. And the head coach also played at really good college. At times those two high schoolers were having as much fun as the kids. They taught them the basics but also spun their heads on bats and ran around. I think 90% of the girls on that team are still playing at 14u. I feel like those coaches in the middle of their own college recruiting journey knew exactly what was needed at 8u.

So if practice is not fun offer to research and run a game for the last ten minutes and send all of the kids home laughing.

 

[lostcreek1]

I didn't know they had A class in 8u. I also don't think there is anything wrong with going to as many tryouts as you want. Lets your daughter meet a lot of girls that she is going to be seeing at the ball field, also makes it not that big of a deal when she gets older and tryouts may be a lot more serious. Get to see how different coaches run there practices, may pick up a few new drills. Just because you tryout doesn't mean you are joining.