What is your take on this ?????????????(FRIENDLY)

[Sam]

Sam,
What about 18Gold teams that have been around for a long time and never get to play on the good fields. They pay the same high price they have great players on their team but get stuck on crappy fields that very little if any scouts go to.

I guess I'm not aware of too many of those teams...do they have different managers than they had in the past? The TDs know the managers and generally reward the guys that have been around forever.

[Sam]

There is a 18Gold team called the Sliderz, they are a pretty good team with a few teams in their organization. They have been around for a few years at least 8 maybe 10 or more years and they alway get pushed aside. What about Minors Gold 18 Gold, pretty big name in the softball world and they to never got a the main field in the fall. I think the girls on these team work as hard as any girl on the main fell and deserve to get the same exposure. What do you think?

Not sure about the Sliderz...I only remember their younger teams being around for about 5 years. Minors Gold is 5 years old...they were Hot Stuff prior to that. For teams that haven't been around very long, they also haven't done anything at Gold Nationals...I don't remember either team ever qualifying. I'm not saying that it is necessarily fair that they don't get on the "good" fields. It's just that the system is the system.

[Gone in 2.6]

How do you feel when the other team coach is calling time outs, killing time, changing pitchers or managing the clock with a few minutes left on a friendly for the time to expire and win the game or keep the score tied. When my DD's coach does it its fine but when another coach does it to my DD's team it hurts. And I see it all the time from 10u and up. You see it more with the good teams is this called good coaching or just plain and simple chicken ?????????

I'd answer your question with another. Who cares? It's a friendly. When I was coaching, I tried to make a point never to worry about what the guy in the other dugout is doing. Just worry about what you can control. There are plenty of people out there that will do anything to get that all important friendly win so they can post the winning score on their website. If the Lancaster Swinging Tikkis wanna stall, let 'em.
And like Sam said the only tournament you have consistent 7 innings is Nationals. Since those are the only games that REALLY matter to me, I've never had my daughter on a team that uses stall tactics. But every coach, player and parent will decide for themselves what's improtant to them. To each his own.

[SoCalFP]

Sam:

Minors Gold has been around longer than 5 years, at least the Gold team. And the Hot Stuff Gold team did not become the Minors Gold team as they were playing at the same time until Roy Barnes quit coaching Hot Stuff about 6 years ago.

[yoyo]

I have actually been coaching for 12 years, rec for 4 years, Travel for 5 years and High School now for three and I have a daughter playing softball on a D1 softball scholarship and another one following her. I used to feel the way that you do back in the day, but my perspective changed when I opened my eyes and saw how the teams and coaches that I admired the most approached friendlies. That is with a desire to compete and stay on our game, but with a greater desire to get the work done in these FRIENDLIES that is necessary to be prepared for a game that we want to win; a game where it is not only about bragging rights. I would rather lose a game that I was able to preserve my pitchers arm and get my #2 and #3 some work.

If you think that not being concerned about winning or losing friendlies means that you never win, you are miss-interpreting me. Winning will happen if you have great players and they are competing, but since you really should be working on things it may not. The biggest difference is that in a 1hr 20 minute drop dead practice game, you cannot put pressure on kids to pull off a win where you do not get the full set of innings. It is not a true format and should not be treated that way.You will be let down and so will the kids. If you want to win friendlies that bad, chances are that you have a bunch of kids sitting on the bench and they (and their parents) already hate you.

[Gone in 2.6]

I have actually been coaching for 12 years, rec for 4 years, Travel for 5 years and High School now for three and I have a daughter playing softball on a D1 softball scholarship and another one following her. I used to feel the way that you do back in the day, but my perspective changed when I opened my eyes and saw how the teams and coaches that I admired the most approached friendlies. That is with a desire to compete and stay on our game, but with a greater desire to get the work done in these FRIENDLIES that is necessary to be prepared for a game that we want to win; a game where it is not only about bragging rights. I would rather lose a game that I was able to preserve my pitchers arm and get my #2 and #3 some work.

If you think that not being concerned about winning or losing friendlies means that you never win, you are miss-interpreting me. Winning will happen if you have great players and they are competing, but since you really should be working on things it may not. The biggest difference is that in a 1hr 20 minute drop dead practice game, you cannot put pressure on kids to pull off a win where you do not get the full set of innings. It is not a true format and should not be treated that way.You will be let down and so will the kids. If you want to win friendlies that bad, chances are that you have a bunch of kids sitting on the bench and they (and their parents) already hate you.

Let me add to that. I 've noticed teams that put SO much importance on winning every freaking game all the way through fall, living and dying with every friendly win or loss, often are not as strong after high school and fall way flat at nationals. These are sometimes darn good teams that are contenders for nationals.

I don't see it as much in Gold as in the other age groups but have observed a team or two who's parents are yelling at the umps over calls and the coaches are getting tossed.....in exposure tournaments. I wonder how they're going to fare in Oklahoma City after nearly a year of that kind of intensity. But that's their business. To each his own.

[coolstuff]

but it is reality that there IS going to be a clock for virtually all softball games. Might as well learn to work it.

As for working it to WIN a showcase or pool game - to each his own, I guess. Seems like a weird priority to me. I'd rather get one more kid one more AB in front of colleges than worry about stalling so that a score will / will not revert. Mindless.

What other reason is there to work the clock than to win a game, no matter what it is? First you say you should learn how to work the clock, then you say it's mindless to work the clock. What is your position?

[SoCalFP]

Sorry Heretostay, but you are wrong. Can you tell me just how many years Roy Barnes coached the Hot Stuff Team? And what those years were? Well before 2001 and after as well. Having a daughter that played for both Rob Way (Minors) and Roy (Hot Stuff) I do know of what I speak.

[ssarge]

ssarge wrote:
but it is reality that there IS going to be a clock for virtually all softball games. Might as well learn to work it.
As for working it to WIN a showcase or pool game - to each his own, I guess. Seems like a weird priority to me. I'd rather get one more kid one more AB in front of colleges than worry about stalling so that a score will / will not revert. Mindless.

coolstuff wrote:
What other reason is there to work the clock than to win a game, no matter what it is? First you say you should learn how to work the clock, then you say it's mindless to work the clock. What is your position?

Sorry, I thought the very portion of my post that you quoted made my position obvious:

Might as well learn to work it.

I would NOT "work it" to do this:

As for working it to WIN a showcase or pool game - to each his own, I guess. Seems like a weird priority to me.

I WOULD "work it" to do this:

get one more kid one more AB in front of colleges than worry about stalling so that a score will / will not revert.

In other words, hurry and get one more AB for one more kid, even if that kid making an out means we lose the game (rather than having it end with an incomplete inning and revert to to a previous inning where we were winning).

Scott

[Dad]

It always gets brought up about Football and Basketball having a clock and the time management used there. The big difference is they have an official timekeeper, the clock stops for injuries, timeouts, or when officials conference. Clock management in those sports is done by the plays you run, not by tying your shoe.
That being said we all use the clock in are favor when we can. Some teams do it with there play some do it with coaching. As long as a clock is there I want to use it to help my team, when I can.