Pet Peeves with Travel Softball

Yappi said:
Definitely over manage. Definitely wish kids would learn on their own. Unfortunately, it is just where we are with kids' sports. I played pickup baseball, basketball, and football in the backyard nearly every day in my youth. I suspect I played more pickup baseball in one Summer than the current HS baseball team has played in their lives combined.

As an old man myself, in my Little League and beyond, coaches usually called pitches in baseball. I also happened to be around the highest level of travel softball in the late 70s and early 80s and can tell you that the Dads were calling pitches then too.
Click to expand...
I pitched in high school and college and I never remember anyone other than me or the catcher calling pitches. My philosophy is the pitcher knows (or should know) what is working that day and should be able to call their own games.
Unfortunately, today's generations of kids have to have things organized to participate.
 
My daughter was basically a 2 pitch type gal, fastball with location and a change. Her fastball had a high spin rate and great zip so her pitching coach said just learn a change and then that’s it until 16s. She never did master the rise or drop so she did hit a ceiling but that was cool. Was great in later innings against the bottom order to give the 1 & 2 a rest. The reason I mention this is location of fastball was key and that is what the coach would call as well as dropping in a wicked change to keep a hitter honest. His big trick was 1st pitch changes against aggressive middle of the order hitters.

Related to the pet peeve aspect of the thread… was a parent who would steal signs and tell the hitters what was coming. Hated that. No problem if the players figured it out but they were usually more worried about what chant they were going to do the next inning then figuring out opposing teams pitching signals.
 
Auggie said:
Related to the pet peeve aspect of the thread… was a parent who would steal signs and tell the hitters what was coming. Hated that.
Click to expand...
We've played two teams this year where the base coaches were calling the pitch locations. It was easy to tell when the one coach kept saying "pull it" or "poke it". The hitter wasn't happy with her coach when the "low and away" pitch ended up being a fastball "high and inside".

Not sure the girls get any better with coaches letting them know the location or the pitch. They should be learning this on their own based on their own ability, the pitch count, and the point in the game.
 
Yappi said:
We've played two teams this year where the base coaches were calling the pitch locations. It was easy to tell when the one coach kept saying "pull it" or "poke it". The hitter wasn't happy with her coach when the "low and away" pitch ended up being a fastball "high and inside".

Not sure the girls get any better with coaches letting them know the location or the pitch. They should be learning this on their own based on their own ability, the pitch count, and the point in the game.
Click to expand...
Oh I've seen it before. I guess one way to combat that is to signal low and away, but make it high and tight. One dive over the plate and a ball off the noggin' will stop that. For my kids, the "see ball-hit ball" philosophy always worked the best.
 
Auggie said:
My daughter was basically a 2 pitch type gal, fastball with location and a change. Her fastball had a high spin rate and great zip so her pitching coach said just learn a change and then that’s it until 16s. She never did master the rise or drop so she did hit a ceiling but that was cool. Was great in later innings against the bottom order to give the 1 & 2 a rest. The reason I mention this is location of fastball was key and that is what the coach would call as well as dropping in a wicked change to keep a hitter honest. His big trick was 1st pitch changes against aggressive middle of the order hitters.

Related to the pet peeve aspect of the thread… was a parent who would steal signs and tell the hitters what was coming. Hated that. No problem if the players figured it out but they were usually more worried about what chant they were going to do the next inning then figuring out opposing teams pitching signals.
Click to expand...
So is there anything wrong with the players learning how and when to throw the fastball and location, and the change and location. I mean there aren't that many combinations. Girls sports tend to be so robotic. Different sport but for my girls in hoops, we ran very few sets, we did alot of freelance ball. Girls especially will never learn to look for passing lanes or cues if you tell them the ball has to go here, then there, then there.
 
14Red said:
So is there anything wrong with the players learning how and when to throw the fastball and location, and the change and location. I mean there aren't that many combinations. Girls sports tend to be so robotic. Different sport but for my girls in hoops, we ran very few sets, we did alot of freelance ball. Girls especially will never learn to look for passing lanes or cues if you tell them the ball has to go here, then there, then there.
Click to expand...
So over 3 daughters in 10+ years of sports I have 2 takes that seem to apply to girls for all levels and all sports:
  1. The best girls love to gravitate to 1 team, even if it means less chances or playing time. The all American hoops player from Louisville transferring to LSU is a great example of this.
  2. If they think something will make them cool they immediately want that. Like I said softball daughter has great zip on her fastball but because a teammate could throw a rise she wanted to throw a rise. This also applies to gear too. If the best team has a cool uni all the girls say why can’t they have those too. Some even imply this is why they are good. In volleyball nobody wore capri length spandex then 1 girl in college did because of an injury and then girls in 6th grade are wearing capri spandex the following season. Yes the boys do this but more so girls according to one coach I spoke to. Kind of a FOMO things for them.


 
Auggie said:
So over 3 daughters in 10+ years of sports I have 2 takes that seem to apply to girls for all levels and all sports:
  1. The best girls love to gravitate to 1 team, even if it means less chances or playing time. The all American hoops player from Louisville transferring to LSU is a great example of this.
  2. If they think something will make them cool they immediately want that. Like I said softball daughter has great zip on her fastball but because a teammate could throw a rise she wanted to throw a rise. This also applies to gear too. If the best team has a cool uni all the girls say why can’t they have those too. Some even imply this is why they are good. In volleyball nobody wore capri length spandex then 1 girl in college did because of an injury and then girls in 6th grade are wearing capri spandex the following season. Yes the boys do this but more so girls according to one coach I spoke to. Kind of a FOMO things for them.

Click to expand...
You are so correct is many ways....coaching boys and girls are so different.
 
I think you should use the younger ages to teach the thought process behind picking your pitches and as they age you just have a conversation between innings on whats working and whats not and how we are going to approach the next inning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top