Play time or being on a good team

[bedevil]

Asking all Coaches: If you want a player to get better In the younger division is it practice plus play time.
Option 2 is it they practice to play the Best teams and they ride the Pine?

[Ovr Weight N Bald]

The hardest thing for most parents to do is self evaluate their own kids talent. Your kid should be on a team with players of the same talent level. If she rides pine every weekend she is not learning. You learn by doing it. A few hours a week in a group setting is not going to get your daughter where she needs to be. Private instruction and playing time will.

To take it to the next step coaches need to evaluate the level of their teams. Players come and go so your team is changing every tryout. For some reason everyone is in this huge hurry to play up now, 12's playing 14's, 14's playing 18g, low level Nor Cal teams wanting to play in So Cal. For What???
If more coaches took the thought process that you have to win at this level before you move up the world would be a better place. If your team is a B level team play there and prove you can move up by winning, If your a low level A find those tourneys and play them and prove you can move up to the harder A tourneys by winning. It's fine to Dabble one level up to see where you stack up if you get it handed to you your not ready yet. A team needs to win where they are before they move up and if you can't win a local ASA tourney with solid talent multiple times, why on earth would you think about traveling down south. Playing up and getting it handed to you every game just teaches you how to get your ass kicked.

Learn to compete then learn to win.

[Iluvblue]

Ovwt and bald,

I can not tell you the number of players I have lost out on in the past few years because the parent wanted their kid coming out of 12u to place them on my 16u team. I basically refused because i feel, as you do, that the kid needs to get better first before they move up.

Too many coaches wanting to keep up with what everyone else is doing. Oh... that team is in socal 4 times during summer, so I better do it also. Too many followers not enough leaders.

Your kid can not be on a team where they are by far the best player, and they cant be on a team where they are by far the weakest. They need to play, and they need to win to gain confidence. If they are sitting 75% of the innings, you are on the wrong team.

[ICMTM]

I think if you simplified the question you'd come to a better answer. What would help my daughter get better playing or not playing? The obvious answer is playing.

A few points to make here:

1. Why would you consider sitting the bench versus playing? Sitting only builds anxiety and doubt in a player's mind that they are not adequate enough to do a job.

2. If the jersey name isn't important why do perfectly good teams who are well known become Firecrackers? Why do smaller orgs join the Grapettes? Street cred? Respect? Low Self Esteem? If you want to be an insert your team name here and sit that kind of is backwards. It's like saying wearing Jordan's make you a better basketball player.

3. There are a few coaches that do a great job of advancing the skills of individual players, but what I see is fastpitch is a sport where you get individual training on your own and you work on team skills at your practices. When I see kids who have gotten better it's from the work they put in AWAY from the team that makes the difference.

What the person said above about private instruction is so true. You can learn so much quicker 1v1. In the time it takes for you to take ground balls, fly balls, etc you get 12 times the amount of reps in that time period working 1v1. Even if no instruction is actually given the power of just working out by yourself is huge. You can accomplish so much more in such a shorter period of time.

[Boogieman]

ICMTM,

I agree that it should not really matter what jersey you put on. But for a team that decides to join a Firecracker,Grapettes or Sorcerers is because of the long term effects. As you start to play in the showcase tourneys, you want your team to play on the good fields. When I say good fields, its the fields that have the most college scouts. There is also a difference in asking to be a part of a big name organization or being INVITED to join a big organization. Good luck to everyone this fall.

[Sftbll4ever]

Just because you have a big name team on your jersey doesn't mean you are going to be on the main fields. Usually, it is only the main team that will.

Look at the Firecrackers, if ALLLLL of their 18u teams were on the main fields, there would be no room for any other team.

[ICMTM]

If you are good/not good will be resolved on the field. If you were "invited" it's a safe bet the community already knew you were good.

The players make the affiliation/organization, and not the other way around!

[notme]

There are people out there that can't accept change and some do. Usually the ones that go for and accept change are the ones that push organizations and companies ahead of the curve, the others fall behind. In this case, with Smash 98 to Firecrackers, we will see if this change is going to push their club to a better situation or not. For myself, what can it hurt. The team is still basically there trying to get to a higher level.

[ICMTM]

It's not about accepting change. Really the change doesn't affect me. In terms of the original poster names matter. I'm just giving my spin on why they don't. I am not condemning anyone for switching teams, but providing an example where people get caught up in the hype. It's a simple game that's hard to play. The name on your shirt at best can make you feel good about yourself. The rest is about what the players are able to do.

[notme]

understood.