Where to find more time for practice with your DD's?

[wichita]

Hey all.....this has been bugging me for a while now and I just wanted to know where do you find the time for going to the local high school or park or back yard during this time of year when there's not a lot of light after work and work with your daughters on hitting' fielding and the like. I have 2 DD's in travel so my dilemma is 2 fold. One of my DD's is 14 and plays age appropriate. She is a pitcher and middle infielder while the other just turned 15 and is playing for a 18 gold team and plays middle infield and slaps(she's dark now for high school ball) and holds her own with the team. This is our week as follows.

Monday: Get home from work' eat dinner. go to hitting lessons with younger DD by the time we get back it is dark.

Tuesday: Get home from work, eat dinner, hitting lessons with older DD, by the time we get back it is dark.

Wednesday: Get home from work, pitch with my younger DD for an hour, eat dinner, then off to her practice until 8:30 pm

Thursday: home from work, pitch with younger DD for an hour, eat dinner, off to her practice until 8:30 pm

Friday: (If were not leaving out of town for friendlies or tournaments)get home from work pitch with DD and work on hitting in the garage both girls

Saturday: (If we don't have friendlies or tournaments)younger DD practice from 9:00 am - 2:00 pm remember shes a pitcher has to be there an hour earlier older DD has practice from 11:00am to 2:00pm

Sunday: (If we don't have friendlies or tournaments) Usually a day of rest..... HA not for the softball families of the world..... younger DD has yet another practice..

So my younger DD seems like she gets a lot of practice.... but its all team practice not individual practice her team does none of that or very little I.E. short hops back hands etc that's expected of us parents. No work on base running other than running the bases at the end of practice etc.

Now my older DD has high school practice 6 days a week ...shes one of the best players if not the best player on the team. I was having a softball conversation the other night about school ball I.E. Hows it going etc. and i ask her " are you getting enough infield practice at school?" she tells me "I'm getting around 6 balls a day hit off a bat and around 10 rolled to her from 6 to 8 feet" so I asked he why don't you guys get more balls hit to you and she tells me oh everyone else does but the coach says I don't need them because im so much better than the others hes trying to get them to where I'm at ...... now she practices from end of school day to 6:30 at night so i have no time to work with her at all during the week and they both have homework till 9-10 at night during the week ....younger daughter is a 4.0 student and older one carries a 4.14 GPA and has the toughest schedule as a sophomore that she can have at our school.

Both of my DD are very dedicated to good grades and to play softball at a very high level and want to play college ball. Now my question is how do we find time to work on the individual skills that will make them better to get to that next level? one of my older DD coaches told her, me and the DW that she is at a D1 skill level now but I'm not going to bank on that ... there's still things that need work or to refine a little more.

 

[iMlearning]

I think you are over thinking this. They are getting a lot of softball practice and seem to be doing great. I'd let her get through the season and pick up there. I think sometimes practices with our daughters are more for us and not for them. I absolutely love going to the park with DD. A player at your DD's level will not lose anything while playing with her High School that she couldn't pick up quickly when its finished. She won't skip a beat!

 

[TimothyJ]

You get to eat dinner?

 

[quincy]

I only have 1 DD that likes to pitch, what is this fielding and hitting practice you are talking about?

I agree with IMlearning to let HS ball play out and pick back up after it is over. Good news too is after HS ball is over it will stay lighter latter into the evening.

 

[RubberBiscuit]

So you can spend time at softball activities and you can spend time getting challenged to get better.

The ONE thing that I look back on in getting DD to the point of her D1 offer was getting involved with TB teams that drove for and expected the highest level of performance.

We could have spent the same amount of time to get only half as far with the wrong TB team choices. We made ONE bad TB choice where the girls were just expected to "come together" after HS and play at a national level. "Because they were all All-Stars...." was the organizations position.

(Hindsight I should have ran away full speed from that "posing" TB team right away.)

 

[MsDinosaur]

It's time AND space for me. I expect to be able to pull a net and tee or the bag of TCB balls, out into the yard once every week or two over the winter. We get traditional winter weather here, but it's usually interspersed with plenty of periods of thaw and nearly spring-like conditions. The weather hasn't cooperated this season; I'm getting cabin fever and there's supposed to be another big snowfall on the way tonight.

 

[wichita]

You get to eat dinner?

Well tonight I didn't lol but I do occasionally....

 

[wichita]

Thanks for all the input my fellow softball fanatics..... maybe I am over thinking it a bit but there's so many facets to the game there's just not enough time to work on all of it and I know her high school coaches aren't doing anything but hitting and a little fielding

 

[humpty]

You can eat when its dark but you need light to hit and pitch. Check local fields to see when teams are practicing take advantage of their lights off to the side. Or set some lights up in the yard. Make a pitching lane.

 

[Phathead]

Your DD's will suceed in life since they know what it takes to succeed. I posted about DD throwing in towel and vast majority reasons are me. One part is also her. While she will attend everythings practice VB,BB,SB with no fuss getting her to work extra is like pulling hens teeth. I just had her read your post about the DD's schedule and I don't think her 13yr old mind caught the signifigance of how hard they are working and what can be accomplished with the extra work. She does maintain excellant grades however and I give thanks for that.