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Who is your daughter’s ________ coach?

by ih8ddyball » Thu Dec 08, 2016 4:16 pm

Why are softball parents so eager to spend money on private lessons for their kid? My daughter plays for an organization that only practices on the weekend so their kids can go to their private lessons during the week days.

My kid just turned 10 but she required to have a hitting coach, fielding coach, pitching coach, catching coach, outfield coach…. Whatever happened to a parent playing catch with their kid? Back in my day, the only time a kid had specialized coaching is when they got paid to play. Now that I think about it, maybe that is the reason I never got the call up to the majors. Maybe if I had a hitting coach at 4 yrs. old I would have been able play beyond Double A…. Or maybe I just didn’t have the goods….

If you can afford private lessons then great but make sure the person you are paying knows what they are talking about and that your kid is receptive of what is being taught.

My daughter’s hitting coach is youtube… She has a tee in the backyard and a big blue jugs hitting net that belonged to her brother. When the weather is right, I’ll take her to the park and she can hit some balls into the backstop because I’m too lazy to shag balls. If she’s lucky, I’ll hit her some grounders….

Let your kids be kids. There’s no college scouts at 10u games. If you are wondering why your kid is not hitting the ball then look into the mirror. Most the time it is us as parents, that is putting too much pressure on kids to do what we can’t do or couldn’t do.
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by ih8ddyball » Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:26 pm

Thanks for joining the party…. Slow day at work for you too?

I invite you to go and watch some 10u softball this weekend. Sit in the stands and listen to the parents. Then see how well their kids does at the plate. Sometime it is funny to see who is more nervous, the parent or the kid. This I my first go around with softball. I’ve only been to 2 softball tournaments and a handful of friendlies. I refuse to take my daughter to practice because all I hear at games are parents asking each other who does your daughter see for _______. After finding out who their child is, I almost want to tell them to go get a refund…. People make softball to be more than it is… It is just like every other sport. Usually the most athletic kid are the top players. You can spend as much $ as you want but money won’t buy hits.

I’m not a big softball fan, but I try to be supportive so every now and then I’ll drop my daughter off to her agility class. I usually just drop her off to her mom and leave. One day my daughter goes in and runs back out and ask me if I have any money. She grabs $20 runs back inside. After 5 mins I realize she’s not coming back with my change so I go inside to see what’s taking so long. I walk inside and it almost looks like a doctor’s office. I follow a group of kids through another door and I discover a gift shop. Thinking okay she bought a Gatorade. Then I go through another door and I see a pretty impressive training facility. I spot my daughter’s mom, after a few minutes of bickering I realized that I spent $20 for my daughter to play catch with a group of girls. I stood there thinking to myself that softball parents must be some of the riches people around. They line up and hand over $20 to watch their kids play catch. I’m not sure how much better these kids are going to get standing 20 feet away from each other as they play catch. They probably did more than just catch but I didn’t feel like sticking around so I left.

A couple of weeks later I’m in town so I my take my daughter to her agility class again. This time I decide I’m going to go inside and watch. The facility is impressive. It didn’t feel right to be watching girls do their footwork drills so I walked around and talked to a few of the parents. I know very little about softball but I’m trying to find out as much as I can. I never asked how much these lessons cost but you have to be kidding me. I watched one of these so call reputable coach sit on a chair a play on their phone during their lesson. From what I heard it is a common occurrence. It was somewhat surprising to see parents try to give their kid hitting instruction during their hitting lesson. It was a fairly large class. I don’t remember how many girls were in the class but it might have been 3 or 4 kids for hour class. I’m not sure what these parents were paying for. Maybe they are pay for this coach to text college about a kid that is doing hitting lessons.

I saw another reputable coach giving instruction. This coach only 2 had kids in their 30 min lessons. Half the time the kids were hitting on the tee. I am just amazed how softball parents throw money at coaches and wonder why their kid is not producing. What am I missing, can someone fill me in?
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by artomatic » Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:44 pm

^^^Pretty sure you're full of crap about not being around softball, and just using a new phony name to talk shite about people...^^^
Deserve's got nothin' to do with it.
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by ih8ddyball » Fri Dec 09, 2016 6:03 pm

^^^^^^^
Alright you caught me. My daughter is 10. This is her 1st year playing softball... so i guess i been around for along time.... you'll probably hear more from me so remember the name.... Okay DD hitting lessons just finished... time to pay the coach. :lol:
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by ocarterok » Mon Dec 12, 2016 6:06 pm

You really can't judge these coaches that give lessons,
because lessons aren't enough. If your child takes lessons
and doesn't practice on her own, whose fault is that? The coach? Or the parent who pays for lessons and doesn't make sure the lessons are applied. That's like, going to tutoring and never doing your homework and expecting an A in your class. It just doesn't work that way. The coach teaches what you need to do and then you have to go home and practice on your own. Otherwise you are just throwing money at a problem that will never be fixed. Only good old fashion hard work along with training is going to develop any player. Just like school, you have to be willing to work hard. What I see as a mom is that most people think as long as they take lessons, they don't have to do additional works outs on their own.
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by toyota44 » Mon Dec 12, 2016 6:48 pm

Well said... I agree. At 10U kids deserves a bonding time :D :D :D
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by BB2830 » Mon Dec 12, 2016 11:10 pm

Maybe the problem is starting in travel ball at 10U. Plenty of time to develop. I know rec ball has been decimated but those 8 and 10U allstar seasons were a ton of fun for the girls and parents, going to tournaments, hanging out at the pool, getting to be kids. No recruiting at that age and no real reason to limit a kid to 1 sport at 10. Let them be KIDS. Lots of money to be spent on lessons but why at that age? Travel and Club sports have gotten out of hand and I have both a softball and soccer daughter, no real difference between sports. It all starts too early, how many of these players will get to HS and lose the love of the game before their HS career is over. Seeing it with friends of my 2018 softball DD already and she didn't move to travel until it was pretty much forced at 2nd year 12's. That being said, wait too long and regardless of the talent level you may miss the boat because of the pressure put on the players at the younger ages. Hard to catch up if you haven't been playing at the higher level before HS. I would make the move second year 12's or first year 14's unless you are a 1 percenter of which there are VERY few.
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by eclipse09 » Tue Dec 13, 2016 7:59 am

BB2830 wrote:Maybe the problem is starting in travel ball at 10U. Plenty of time to develop. I know rec ball has been decimated but those 8 and 10U allstar seasons were a ton of fun for the girls and parents, going to tournaments, hanging out at the pool, getting to be kids. No recruiting at that age and no real reason to limit a kid to 1 sport at 10. Let them be KIDS. Lots of money to be spent on lessons but why at that age? Travel and Club sports have gotten out of hand and I have both a softball and soccer daughter, no real difference between sports. It all starts too early, how many of these players will get to HS and lose the love of the game before their HS career is over. Seeing it with friends of my 2018 softball DD already and she didn't move to travel until it was pretty much forced at 2nd year 12's. That being said, wait too long and regardless of the talent level you may miss the boat because of the pressure put on the players at the younger ages. Hard to catch up if you haven't been playing at the higher level before HS. I would make the move second year 12's or first year 14's unless you are a 1 percenter of which there are VERY few.


Agree. I will say that when the 1% go travel at an early age a number of parents who have kids that played with the 1% player think their daughter should go travel as well. Oh well.... :roll:
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by mikemilly » Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:38 am

Here is my thought on lessons. My daughter is 14, we had been looking for a good hitting coach for a while. We went to a camp that I had heard of in which a very good coach from a very good team was hosting. The clinic was a group setting and was only 15$ while there asked this coach if he had any openings for private lessons. He said yes, even though he does not do lessons with many girls, just a select few. I did not know this coach before but he seemed to see something in my daughter.
While attending lessons weekly asked coach how do uou go to a tryout to an elite team and stand out ,,or get noticed with 50 vety good ball players around. He said its hard unless the coach know you or has seen or heard of you. Long story short at next tryouts for this team he told us we should go. He ends up picking up my daughter. And it was mainly from spending weekly lessons with him , as he could "see what she could do " away from the crowd of a tryout. And yes I believe if you find the right instructor lessons are worth it.
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by sr_design » Fri Dec 16, 2016 4:12 pm

10u - Lessons are good. But it gets very $$$ very quickly if you're expected to shell out for hitting, fielding, catching, strength conditioning and/or pitching at that age on top of whatever your organization fees are. When my daughter was 9 and then 10, I would have considered weekly fielding, hitting and pitching lessons to be excessive, regardless of what she may have said at the time.

I'd like feedback from others out there reading this thread. I'm thinking that one team practice a week at 10u isn't enough. There should be more player development within a team setting occurring than just one day a week, And this is especially important at the younger ages. Just my two cents.
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