Is my 8yr old destined for Softball Mediocrity??

[Bat Dad]

Okay I know that sounded very pessimistic. But let me try to encapsulate it as best I can.

(First of all if I come off as naive about any of this I apologize, this is all still very new to me)


My 8 yr old DD - 9 in April - has played travel ball with a neighborhood-based team since January. In short the talent level is largely what you would expect from a bunch of high-end Rec players; we played 6 tournaments over the summer - three of which were against Rec All Star level teams and the others against well established private travel teams.
In short at our first "real" tournament we witnessed firsthand how darn good and 8 yr old softball player could be. (Courtesy of the Ohio Hawks and Miami Valley Xpress - who literally took our breath away)


Her League has chosen not to develop an 8U team next year as most all of her teammates are moving up to 10U.
So here we are out on an island. I would love her to be able to compete at a higher level with some of the elite teams but I know that she is not quite there yet. And it is possible that we could find a home with another local suburban team.


But here is the crux of my question:

If she plays with the local "Enter-Suburb-Name-Here Lady Ladybugs" but someday WANTS to play for the "Lady-Top-Tier-Whoever" how does she get there?

Won't the Lady Ladybugs continue to play similar competition and the girls ability level will only rise to the level of competition they play?

And meanwhile won't the Lady Top Tier Whoevers do the same albeit against a much greater level of competition?

I don't see how playing say for the next two years for the Lady Ladybugs gets her ready to play for the Lady Top Tier Whoevers.
It just appears from this newbie's perspective that those two roads run parallel to each other, never to intersect - and I want my child, no offense to the Lady Ladybugs, to ascend to a higher level.


How does one get from Point A to point B?


We do not have the disposable income for private or even semi private hitting lessons or any other type of structured off-season development.
And embarrassingly enough being new to the sport myself I do not have the knowledge of how to instruct her adequately. Short of "Watch the ball into your glove" and "Make sure your swing is level" I have very little to offer her.


I humbly submit my question/dilemma to the amazing collective wisdom of this board


Thanks...

 

[longball00]

Congats! Your admission to not being able to instruct adequately is a great thing for your DD! Putting it out here on OFC, you may get some people who are willing to help. If you are from my area, My DD and I would be more than willing, she loves to work with others.

My DD (True 12U) stated playing for a local 10U travel org when she was turning 7. She got her time, but she learned most importantly. We were there for 2 years, and she realized she wanted to play up if she was able. She worked hard, and we moved to a mid level org for a year where she got more work. We decided to give one of the the Lady top tier teams try outs a shot and she made it. This will be our 3rd year with them, and she loves it, and still continues to work her behind off. The best advice is to do some research, watch some other teams, and be realistic when it comes to deciding where she fits in. The younger ages is where development is the most important. If she learns to work hard now, she will work hard for years to come. Finding a team/coach to develop a player is not something to take lightly.

 

[alborules]

I believe that you have already figured out that you need to be involved in travel ball. Taking lessons but not playing travel ball wouldn't work well anyway. The lessons would get stale if your daughter doesn't apply them in practices or scrimmages in the off season. At 8u the biggest difference between recreation and travel is NOT talent, it's the instruction by knowledgable coaches and reps during practices. The travel team will have over 30 practices before next May. How many will the rec team have by next May? You could still find an 8u travel team for your daughter for the 2014-15 season. The costs are probably $200-$600 for the season, which is alot cheaper than private hitting lessons for the same time frame. There are lots of 8u teams everywhere in the state except for NE Ohio. Tell us where you are and we can help.

 

[mike_dyer]

How does one get from Point A to point B?

We do not have the disposable income for private or even semi private hitting lessons or any other type of structured off-season development.
And embarrassingly enough being new to the sport myself I do not have the knowledge of how to instruct her adequately. Short of "Watch the ball into your glove" and "Make sure your swing is level" I have very little to offer her.

I know right where you are coming from. My kid is also a baller on a budget.

I remember when she was that young. She still gets in the same fielding stance now that she did then, I remember teaching her how to do it. I asked her who was the baddest dinosaur around, she said T-rex. I said do you know why T-rex was such a bad dude? T-rex was so tough because T-rex was always in a good athletic stance. He was low to the ground because his knees were always bent. His arms were out in front of him, not down by his side, and they were bent and short not straight and long. There were wrinkles in the back of his neck because his head was up, that way he could see what ever was coming at him. I still tell her things like "get some wrinkles in your neck, little kid" while she's playing. Usually draws a look from anyone who hears me say it.

If you can't pay someone else to teach her you're going to have to come up with ways to prove things to her yourself, and remember, all kids are a lot smarter than their parents. I'm sure you were a lot smarter than your dad when you were growing up, I know for sure I was.

For example, I noticed she was getting long arms a lot over the summer when I brought it up to her she said she wasn't. I had to show her some pictures of her doing it before she believed me, and when I showed her the pictures she told me it was ok to do it that way. I knew it was wrong, she didn't think so, now what? I held my hand in front of her and said hold your arm out straight, now make a fist and punch my hand. She started to bend her arm to wind up and I stopped her. No, no, straight arms are ok, you said so. I wanted you to bend them but you didn't want to. Now punch my hand as hard as you can. Ok, now start with a bent arm and punch it. Which is better? She gave up and I'm glad, I'm pretty much a one trick pony.

Anyway, regardless of how impressed you were with random 8u travel teams A and B the only things their kids were doing on defense was fielding the ball and throwing the ball. Youtube has video after video with softball fielding and throwing instruction on it. I would go there and post a link here for you but I have no idea what you need for sure. If you put some time into searching I'm sure you'll find it. Once she can effectively field and throw a ball all you have to do is make sure she does it so many times an error is an extremely rare thing. My kid fields balls in sets of 10. After she fields and throws the 10th ball she runs to the dug out to get a drink and I toss a ball against the backstop because I'm an old man and I lose track of how many she's done. When there are 20 balls laying there she is done fielding and throwing. Then she hits a couple of buckets, runs bases, slides, etc. You will find instructional videos of those things on youtube too. I wouldn't have an 8 year old kid do anything that strenuous 200 times. She doesn't have the strength or the conditioning to pull it off. It's hard work. She has to get good at it and fall in love with it before you can put her through workouts that she hates and still get her to come back for more. 20 or 30 would probably be a little bit better place to start. Maybe even less.

Best of luck.

 

[nonparentcoach]

There are so many different level teams and organizations out there as you have seen. Your best bet is to have a realistic view of where your daughter is talent wise. Then, find a team or organization thats maybe a little higher and tryout. If you can find a team with quality and honest coaching with coaches that don't just try to find the "best talent" and your daughter is coachable and she is willing to work on her own, theres really no telling how far she could go. All players develop at a different pace or rate, so theres always a chance. Attitude and hand eye coordination are the only things a quality coach can't coach or "fix". Feel free to continue to ask any questions as we have all been there at some point. Give us your location and im sure someone on here can help or point you in a positive direction.

 

[ApogeeDemon]

Post some contact info. I'm sure someone will help.

 

[Bat Dad]

So much good information and feedback so far I am a bit overwhelmed! Because it has been asked I will answer. We are in the Columbus area and have probably been spoiled a bit with her current, I mean former, travel team because practices were 20 minutes away and of the furthest we traveled for a tournament was Dayton.

Speaking of Dayton mike_dyer brought up an excellent point. All those kids were doing that was so impressive was fielding and throwing as well has having good situational awareness. On every play every girl on those teams knew exactly what their responsibility was. Every ball was field and cleanly and every throw was made and every ball was caught. It was pure muscle memory. The game seemed to slow down for them - and lots of the time when we were on defense there was often confusion and hesitation about where to go with the ball, to say nothing of the fact that we weren't always fielding or throwing or catching cleanly.

In short the things that those teams did automatically and without even thinking about it were things that we would normally cheer our players for doing in the first place - I'm sure the other parents thought that our parents were crazy when we would cheer wildly when we would convert a 6-3 lol.

And we did make strides as the year progressed and did beat a couple of more established private travel teams in a tournament in Marion to take 2nd place. Ironically then we stumbled in a tournament filled with nothing but Rec All Star teams - and in those kinds of tournaments we encountered some of the most abhorrent behavior by players, coaches and parents alike (catcalls from players when our players were up to bat in an effort to influence their swing, coaches leading cheers out on the field of play with their players during the game, a parent of their teams catcher behind the backstop chattering at his kid making references to our player that was at the plate at the time)
However we did play similar teams at another Rec All Star tourney a few weeks later and found out that the best way to shut a loudmouth up is that you beat them.

Sorry this is starting to sound more like a resume and I don't mean it to come across like that - but playing against teams (and coaches especially) that don't seem to respect the game made me more determined than ever to get my daughter on a team that conducts itself in a respectful and classy fashion.

It's just a strange notion that my DD is barely 8 and at times I feel like she's behind - I guess "Dayton" left a real impression.

I still feel like as a softball dad I'm stumbling around a bit. And never having played a team sport I think that limits my perspective as well. (Hey when you're 125 lbs and 5 ft tall in High School the football and baseball coaches aren't exactly beating down your door ya know? Lol)

Thanks again for everybody's continued help, I am as always impressed by the wisdom of the collective knowledge here...

 

[Blue Ice]

Most players are mediocre...like my kids are. They turned out alright...their talents are mediocre but their heart and desire were above average. Don't have to travel all over the country to end up playing In college and getting an excellent education. Good luck...

 

[mike_dyer]

It's just a strange notion that my DD is barely 8 and at times I feel like she's behind - I guess "Dayton" left a real impression.

A lot of what you are seeing here could just be basic motor skill development. That happens at different rates for everyone and I don't know if anything can be done about it. Keep plugging away. Field and throw.

It will click. Or it won't and maybe you'll have a lacrosse player, or a gymnast, or an artist, or a musician. That's all good stuff too.

 

[tjsmize3]

It will click. Or it won't and maybe you'll have a lacrosse player, or a gymnast, or an artist, or a musician. That's all good stuff too.

There you have it .... that's just so well stated! When my daughters started in softball every year I would remind them that we don't HAVE to be playing softball if we don't really enjoy being a softball player. That being the case, I would also remind them that we WILL be doing some type of co-curricular activity and that we were going to work hard at doing well in that activity. The choice was always left up to them, however, as to WHAT the activities would be and 2 out of the 4 stuck with softball. Agreed that this game is nothing more than physically and cognitively repeating the same actions over and over again. All that you are really doing in this game as you get older is learning how to perform those skills more efficiently and quickly, as well as applying them in the right situations. Girls who really truly enjoy working on this stuff naturally progress more rapidly and to a higher level. At 8 y/o I think all you can really do is find a good fit for her on the best team possible with the best coaching, as well as get her proper instruction early. That's a must! Of course it's clearly going to be your job to teach her the discipline to work regularly on those skills. Short of that, your daughter will decide soon enough on her own how much she loves this game and how good she wants to become!

p.s. Good point Blue Ice, but anyone who knows your kids knows they are far from mediocre!

 

[Bat Dad]

I'm still blaming myself for not showing her Jennie Finch videos when she was 2 as opposed to that damn Elmo...

 

[CARDS]

At 8/9 I would let her explore athletics in general, other sports can and will help with athletic development.
Yes she needs to work on the throwing, fielding, hitting and game fundamentals but you will find a lot of the kids that seem like studs at 10U actually were playing other sports or started playing at a very young age.

Mine started tee ball at 3 and 4 at 5 went to slow pitch until she was 7 and at 7,8,9,10 she played 10U Fastpitch (back then there were no 8U Fastpitch teams). Over that time she also explored three years of football, one season of soccer, three years of basketball and three years of motorcross. It kept her in shape helped remove the sport "fear factor" this also drove her to want to practice each activity with a desire to be the best and like some has said slowed the game down for her. Now in college she still rides a little, plays softball, and golf for the school and is an avid sports fan in general.

As far as instructing your DD. If, you do not know anything about player development you will need to try to get her with a team that has the coaching to do so, there is a lot out there so; you do not need to drive 2hours to find a fit just do some homework (even if she is number 11/12 on the depth chart).
At 10U its not really about wins and losses the wins will come as the players grow look for a team where the coach has and uses a variety of hitting, throwing and fielding drills, ask them for a copy of a practice plan. This is also a great time to start agility training as well and working on some plyo that will help her in all activities.
We also use softball school to help our younger athletes with the mental game and our older athletes with college prep. This too also grows the ladies. I can send you the PPTs and lesson plans if you want to check them out you would need to buy the video package though they sell on ebay for about $60.

Good Luck, In the end if she is passionate about the sport she will be ok. There are plenty of fits all through the age groups and into college.

Know where you want to go. Do not dream about it plan for it. Set goals and Make It Happen!

 

[dannyboy]

Like Kevin James says "Don't sweat the small stuff". Your daughter is way too young to be destined for anything. My dd was on that Xpress team, and yes they were well coached by Mike and his staff, but there are no superstars on that team. My dd has a great softball IQ because she is forced to watch her sisters play about 120 games a year. Alley loves softball, but if she did not have two older sisters, then she would not be as advanced as she is. For an 8 year old she does work hard on softball, but other kids could catch her in little time. Your little one will be fine!!!

 

[Bat Dad]

Danny you hit on something I've always wondered about in terms of talent development. Or as I asked myself in Dayton "How the hell does an 8yr old get THAT good? And I know it's not an absolute but I figured an older sibling that also played could play a huge factor for some kids. And starting at an earlier age say in T Ball or something another one. These realizations were upon some reflection and talking to other softball families though, as I was convinced at the time that all of these kids far and wide on these teams had private instructors helicoptered in to their back yards every Mon, Wed and Fri lol

 

[dannyboy]

Bat Dad, Alley did play two years of tball and this was her second year of coach pitch. She is probably considered a veteran by you. Lol

 

[WonderMonkey]

Her desire is what is going to drive quite a bit of this. If she wants it bad then it can get done. You see players all the time using what would not be considered "advanced" swing techniques doing VERY well.

I recommend getting her on teams where she gets playing time but is in the bottom half of the team as far as capabilities. This will push her. Make sure the coaching staff are very instructional based and willing to spend some time after practice instructing YOU on how to help HER at home. A bit of time on a self made tee, front toss at a local outdoor cage (rec, high school). Grounders you hit to her, fly balls you hit to her, throws she makes at an old ironing board you have standing up at first, etc.

As far as her "Softball Mediocrity" what are you comparing against? What is the goal? Is it to do earn playing time in high school and contribute to the team? Is it to play ball in college? Play with her friends?