I agree with so much in this thread. The amusing part is skill levels are subjective and defined by parents perspectives. Don't like the coaches opinion on Sally, then find another team. Need another player on your team, then buy into the parents perception of their child, however briefly. If the answers were simple, then they would have been implemented many years ago.
Too many or Too few??
- Thread starter Anthony Vertuccio
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
WARRIORMIKE
Pro-Staff Everything
Travel ball is funner?
Our travel team does a crap load of friendlies. No tourneys. Which is nice because it keeps costs down. I feel spending serious dough on travel teams is a waste until your daughter reaches 14-17 then the recruiting happens. Your kid either has it or doesn't. My kid didn't want to do travel until a few weeks ago. Now that she's been having a taste for it she wants to keep going in it
Our travel team does a crap load of friendlies. No tourneys. Which is nice because it keeps costs down. I feel spending serious dough on travel teams is a waste until your daughter reaches 14-17 then the recruiting happens. Your kid either has it or doesn't. My kid didn't want to do travel until a few weeks ago. Now that she's been having a taste for it she wants to keep going in it
I think you're right about friendlies. When I lived in Georgia, I was in an area where there were a lot of softball fields, many that were remnants of the days when adult softball flourished. It was easy to get fields and set up friendlies. I felt that more teams should be playing for cheap that way. Where I am in N.C., fields are more scarce, and you have to pay a bunch to use them. So not as feasible here.
When you say 'your kid either has it or doesn't,' do you mean ability or desire? Both would be true, but now that my DD is 15, I'm learning that it doesn't take as much ability as I thought to be pretty respectable, if the desire is there. Not that you necessarily disagree, but your comment made me want to weigh in on that.
- Aug 12, 2014
- 657
- 43
You can't have it both ways. I have seen an insane number of posts here that say "if your DD isn't a #1 or #2, you need to find a new team because she won't get enough circle time." Then people complain there are too many teams started by parents who want to get their DDs circle time. It's the same with the clubs that are trying to recruit players for three teams at an age group instead of combining the girls they have - they probably have too many pitchers for fewer teams. (Or they have coaches with big egos who all want to run their own team.)
My guess is that there aren't enough players to fill teams for all the girls who want to pitch. Obviously some of these pitchers (maybe a lot, I don't know) probably aren't good enough to be a 1 or 2 at whatever level they are playing. At the same time, it's not fair to criticize parents for doing what you are saying they should do.
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
^^^^^Except there is a big difference between trying out for an existing team in an effort to get a better spot in a rotation and starting a new team to guarantee your DD is #1.
I do agree about the ego thing though.
I do agree about the ego thing though.
- Aug 12, 2014
- 657
- 43
Very true. At the same time, I think the fundamental problem is coaches giving 90% of the innings to their top 2 instead of developing more pitchers and spreading the work around a bit more.
- Apr 8, 2013
- 192
- 0
but at the same time some tournament formats are win or go home, especially qualifiers. Some will say let them pitch the pool games but then you risk losing and having to face top level team in first bracket game. So it's tough to put in #3 or #4 pitcher when you have to win to move on. Even some of these round robin 5 game guarantees require you to go 5-0 or 4-1 to move on.
It's like college grads looking for a decent job. You need experience but cant get experience until you get hired.
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
Friendlies are the best opportunity for a #3 pitcher to show their stuff and get a shot in tournaments. Lets face it, if you have two good pitchers that are far better than a #3 then they will get a team through a tournament, but if a #3 is roughly on par with the others then she will eventually get her chance when the others falter. As for a #4 pitcher, they need to find another team if they want to pitch anything but mop innings. There is a hidden benefit to being a #3-4 behind strong #1-2 though, good coaches will use the cushions the good pitchers give a team to develop the other pitchers and then use the better pitchers to get out of jams. Lower level girls get reps, higher level girls get to work on being in pressure situations. Win-win.
- Aug 12, 2014
- 657
- 43
Right, athough I disagree with the job analogy. IMO, it's more like you already have workers on staff, but you don't think they're ready to get promoted to the next level. But it's your responsibility as the boss to prepare them to move to the next level and you haven't done it. If coaches are only pitching their top two because they don't think their other pitchers are tournament ready, then why aren't they doing more to develop the other pitchers?
The problem is it doesn't seem like very many coaches do this. Of course, if you develop more pitchers, then they leave because they aren't getting enough innings
I'm wearing a club hoodie as I am typing this. I like the colors, it is comfortable, and it cost me $18. I guess I could grab a Nike out of my closet, but I paid $40 for that. It's not a money thing for me, but I definitely do not avoid the fan gear because of the price. Our supplier is very reasonable.
