My DD is 7th grade. Her middle school only has one team with a mix of 7th/8th grade girls.
I have heard that the coach always starts 8th grade girls regardless of abilities. I'm pretty confident that my DD would be top 5 on the team.
Questions:
1) Is middle school ball that big of a deal?
2) Does she need to play now to "prepare" for HS?
3) How do TB coaches typically react about a player missing practice for middle school ball?
4) I have heard that TB girls can "develop" bad habits from middle school ball? (eg: slower pitching and lack of fielding may develop a "laziness" on offense. And a lack of hitting may develop a poor "comfort zone" when playing defense).
Thoughts...?
IN
I should point out this is Indianapolis area. But all opinions are sought.
- WalkOffHomer
- Posts: 88
- Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:59 pm
Let her play. It's more as for fun and bonding with the girls. My daughter was on the 7th grade team last year. It was the coach 1st year coaching. She didn't have a clue. She had my daughter hit balls out to the outfield. It was all about having fun with her friends from school. BTW, They went 15-0.
- slingblade
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 7:14 am
@WalkoffHomer...
1) Yes and No. I lean towards no IF your DD is doing lessons and playing travel.
2) Yes and No. Leaning to no for the same reason.
3) Most are ok. Be upfront from the start. Our guideline was this: If it was game vs. practice, whoever had the game is where she went. If it was practice vs. practice or game vs. game, we always chose travel. That's the #1 commitment for us. High school changes everything.....and we're relieved to not have to juggle both at the same time anymore!!
4) True. To an extent. They'll tend to play at the level of the girls that they are with. A zebra won't lose their stripes, but yes, it does change how they play when they're with the jr high team. I didn't see it overflow to travel.
...
We generally follow our daughter's lead when it comes to sports. However, my husband and I played the "if we're going to support your travel ball ambitions, you need to represent your school and play for them" -card. We're a 1A school, so it's not like there are travel ball players lined up for the school team tryouts. We don't even have tryouts, if that tells you anything.
So, she played 6th grade...even more reluctantly, she played 7th grade. She did not play last year, in 8th grade. I regretted pushing her to play her 7th grade year.
When players repeatedly giggle at overthrows and can't catch the ball, it can be annoying....it isn't fun. She didn't like it. My DD takes softball pretty seriously, though, so idk.
Follow your daughter's lead on this. If she wants to, let her. If she doesn't, don't push it.
@Slingblade...lucky you, I think we were more like 0-15. Both years.
1) Yes and No. I lean towards no IF your DD is doing lessons and playing travel.
2) Yes and No. Leaning to no for the same reason.
3) Most are ok. Be upfront from the start. Our guideline was this: If it was game vs. practice, whoever had the game is where she went. If it was practice vs. practice or game vs. game, we always chose travel. That's the #1 commitment for us. High school changes everything.....and we're relieved to not have to juggle both at the same time anymore!!
4) True. To an extent. They'll tend to play at the level of the girls that they are with. A zebra won't lose their stripes, but yes, it does change how they play when they're with the jr high team. I didn't see it overflow to travel.
...
We generally follow our daughter's lead when it comes to sports. However, my husband and I played the "if we're going to support your travel ball ambitions, you need to represent your school and play for them" -card. We're a 1A school, so it's not like there are travel ball players lined up for the school team tryouts. We don't even have tryouts, if that tells you anything.
So, she played 6th grade...even more reluctantly, she played 7th grade. She did not play last year, in 8th grade. I regretted pushing her to play her 7th grade year.
When players repeatedly giggle at overthrows and can't catch the ball, it can be annoying....it isn't fun. She didn't like it. My DD takes softball pretty seriously, though, so idk.
Follow your daughter's lead on this. If she wants to, let her. If she doesn't, don't push it.
@Slingblade...lucky you, I think we were more like 0-15. Both years.
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afastpitchfanatic - Posts: 96
- Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2010 11:57 am
1.Speaking as a high school coach, but my opinions are many times 180º different than others, no.
2.No
3.? My guess is some will work with you, some will not.
4.Possible.
To expand a little bit, we're kind of reevaluating what we do with our MS program. We've had it for two years and I've not been all that happy with the results. Most of our travel kids are not going to play this year. My hope is that means more reps for the kids coming from league ball, which to a certain extent to this point, I've had to depend on a few of them. Hopefully by getting more reps, with some coaching, a few of these league kids can develop into better players, thus helping our high school program.
Some good advice up above, let your DD guide you, don't force her to do something she doesn't want to do. Speaking from my own experience, my DD never had the opportunity to play MS ball, but when she got to high school, I wasn't the coach at the time, it was an opportunity for her to play with her friends that she didn't really get in TB. It's also a very big deal for her to have Seymour on the front of her shirt. Just understand going into it, school ball is a much different animal than TB. Girls play for vastly different reasons. As an added bonus, you'll get to join in the jeers and bashing of the the school coaches on Hey Bucket as school ball season rolls around.
2.No
3.? My guess is some will work with you, some will not.
4.Possible.
To expand a little bit, we're kind of reevaluating what we do with our MS program. We've had it for two years and I've not been all that happy with the results. Most of our travel kids are not going to play this year. My hope is that means more reps for the kids coming from league ball, which to a certain extent to this point, I've had to depend on a few of them. Hopefully by getting more reps, with some coaching, a few of these league kids can develop into better players, thus helping our high school program.
Some good advice up above, let your DD guide you, don't force her to do something she doesn't want to do. Speaking from my own experience, my DD never had the opportunity to play MS ball, but when she got to high school, I wasn't the coach at the time, it was an opportunity for her to play with her friends that she didn't really get in TB. It's also a very big deal for her to have Seymour on the front of her shirt. Just understand going into it, school ball is a much different animal than TB. Girls play for vastly different reasons. As an added bonus, you'll get to join in the jeers and bashing of the the school coaches on Hey Bucket as school ball season rolls around.
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slapperdad - Posts: 887
- Joined: Fri May 01, 2009 7:28 pm
Thank you for sharing. All will be taken into consideration. She will definitely make a well informed decision.
- WalkOffHomer
- Posts: 88
- Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:59 pm
Middle school softball? I didn't even know that was an option. What NWI schools have middle school softball. I have never heard anything about it. Do any of the DAC schools offer MS softball?
- Mark 75
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:12 pm
WalkOffHomer wrote:My DD is 7th grade. Her middle school only has one team with a mix of 7th/8th grade girls.
I have heard that the coach always starts 8th grade girls regardless of abilities. I'm pretty confident that my DD would be top 5 on the team.
Questions:
1) Is middle school ball that big of a deal?
2) Does she need to play now to "prepare" for HS?
3) How do TB coaches typically react about a player missing practice for middle school ball?
4) I have heard that TB girls can "develop" bad habits from middle school ball? (eg: slower pitching and lack of fielding may develop a "laziness" on offense. And a lack of hitting may develop a poor "comfort zone" when playing defense).
Thoughts...?
Oh the awful memories from DD's middle school days rear their ugly head with this one.
1. Quality of play not very good generally. Is it important to your daughter to be a part of the school team probably as she doesn't want to get the reputation that she is "above" others if that makes sense.
2. She doesn't need to play to prepare but as mentioned above doesn't want to get labeled per say either.
3. We have to deal with it in the same manner we deal with other reasons of missing practice.
4. See the freebie on the softballexcellence.com website about hitting slower pitching. Have watched DD's college team struggle with slow pitching/junk ballers many times. It's part of the game. It will happen for the balance of her career she will have to learn to hit pitching of all speed. Defensively there shouldn't be any difference. Remind her to react as she always does. Don't take anything off her throws. It's her job to field it and make the throw. It's the person on the other end's job to catch it.
If a coach tells her to not throw it hard then time for a meeting with the coach and the school athletic director. Had that meeting as her 8th grade coach actually said that to her. Asked the question point blank to the coach and she said she did ask her to slow it down because she didn't want someone to get hurt in practice. That was a fun meeting....
As I said what fond memories this thread brings back.......she will get to learn what politics are all about and in my humble opinion will learn some real life lessons along the way.
Doubtful middle school softball will help her develop her on field skills but it will help her to learn other things that will be a part of her life later on.
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bucketboy - Posts: 206
- Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:28 am
Portage here, my 10u TB daughter will be in middle school next year and they don't have middle school ball. I'm almost sure neither does the other school in the DAC.
- HoosierBBall
- Posts: 39
- Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:51 pm
cedar lake has a middleschool team so does boone grove and there are a few other schools in this area
- ctowry1
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:24 pm
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