What are your thoughts??

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Just wondering if anyone can shed some light, and maybe some suggestions on how to handle a touchy situation.

My dd plays for a travel team. They very rarely practice together. Most of the players are also playing rec ball. So needless to say this team has not won very many travel games. The coach got angry with the girls for losing all the time.

As far as coaching staff, these are all wonderful people. I like everone of them and "angry" doesn't mean yelling and swearing. My question is how much reponsibility do we put on a group of talented girls that have not had near enough practices. How do we as parents who have paid high fees, approach this subject with out condeming our dd to bench time. There are a lot of you out there who've been around the travel circuit much longer than me. Any input would be appreciated.

 

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I'm assuming that this is a younger team since most players are also playing rec. ?We suggested that players not also play rec, but we said that we wouldn't stop them as long as they fulfilled their commitment to us, including practice. ?Basically, they were told that we would be having games/practice 4 days a week, that was the top softball priority and do what you want the other 3 days. ?

It sounds like the team needs to decide what its priorities are and that the coaches are avoiding dealing with everybody's rec ball conflicts by not scheduling practice. If I were them, I'd schedule them anyway and tell the girls they are expected to be there.

Without practicing, plan on it getting worse as the year goes on. Rec ball will not prepare you for what you will see in the travel tournaments and the teams you are playing will be working hard in practice and widening the gap between you and them.

 

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That may well be. However, travel is the top priority. At least for us. I would say that that is the reason however, we only practiced one day a week during the fall and winter. We were not involved in any fall ball tournaments and only scrimmaged a few time during the winter.

I am not saying I expect these girls to win everthing. I guess I would expect the coaches to take it more seriously if they expect them to win. I don't feel I'm wrong in thinking that if they haven't played together or even seen each other for 2 weeks you can't expect them to win when you put them on the field. Am I off base here, or what? :-?

 

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I don't think you are off-base at all. I wouldn't even spend the money to enter a tournament if they haven't practiced in 2 weeks.

 

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okay, if these girls are 10 and 12, and depending on where your team is pooled from, practices might not even be an option. Some teams rely on the weekends to get their conditioning done before the game, and I'm sure most coaches will assume that the girls are getting their "work" in during the week...

if this is a 14 team or higher, the reason there might not be practices is because the girls are tied up in school ball and couldn't practice with their team anyway,

so, if they are 10's and 12's and not practicing because of rec ball practices/games, then you might need to see why your DD is on a community travel team (sounds like one to me anyhow) and play elsewhere where the committment is more to your liking...

my DD played 12's last year...we practiced every weekend and sometimes during the week, maybe once..once the season was in full swing, we sometimes didn't practice, but it didn't mean our girls were at home eating popcorn...

fall ball/winter indoor leagues and winter indoor tourneys are a tune-up for higher level clubs...we played indoor this winter and treated them as a "practice" to work on baserunning, playing as a team, covering positions, etc...

if your team decided not to play winter/fall, that might have been something you should have known, hopefully, before joining...maybe they (the coaches) want to see where they are going before making that committmet

good luck!

 

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? ? I have been in this situation before with my DD. ?The girls and coaches on the team were great and we loved the families too, but most of the girls were still involved in rec. ball during the week and it made it very hard to find time to practice. ?We usually only practiced once a week, if any. ?Like you, we struggled at tournaments, especially at the beginning of the summer. ?We did make minor improvement, but it wasn't enough to successfully compete in travel ball. ?In our case, we stayed because my daughter was happy, I loved the coaches, and we'd already invested money and time into the team.
? ? ? I certainly do not believe you are off base. ?If the coaches expect the girls to be successful without practicing together, then I beleive they (and you) will continue to be greatly disappointed. ?Most teams play in a league together and still manage to practice between tournaments. ?Those teams are the most successful. ?
? ? I think you might have gotten stuck in a situation that wasn't addressed prior to the season beginning. ?I would also agree that your priorities apparently differ from those of the coaches and/or other parents, but I imagine that their are other parents who feel the same as you do. ? If there are, it might be best as a group, to express your desire to have more practice time together as a travel team. ?Even if you are the only ones, I would approach the coaches in a very nonthreatening manner. ?I would use some of the things you said in your post, that you are pleased with the coaches, that you are happy that your daughter is playing with such a talented bunch of girls, and you believe they would be even better if they just had time to practice together. ?You know how much time the coaches put into coaching and you share their frustration that the girls haven't been able to pull it all together during travel games. ?Ask if they think it would be possible to carve out some time to practice. ?If they respond defensively or just don't see it as a priority then you have two choices; stay because you like the coaches, players, and other parents and your daughter is still having a good time or leave telling them it's nothing personal, but that your priorities in regards to the travel team differ from theirs and you feel it is in your daughter's best interest to find a travel team who shares your priorities. ?Of course, you will probably eat your fees, but consider it a lesson learned and move on. ?No matter what you decide...I think it all comes down to "is your daughter happy"? ?JMHO

 

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In the beginning my dd didn't know any of the girls, and because they got together to practice so infrequently it took awhile for her to warm up. She is happy with this team and ALL the girls get along. She and I like all the parents and enjoy spending tournament weekends with them all. My dd is not happy that they are not winning. Especially because the talent is there. I'm not sure all the parents feel like I do, however, I know there is at least one.

My dd will not be leaving this team this year. We are committed financially and most importantly because we do like them all so well. I want to tactfully say that you can't blame these girls for losses when the coaches priorities are not there.

loncor....Thank you for your response. I hope it will come out okay. :-/

 

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My dd is in a similar situation. I told her just to play her best everytime she gets the chance.

 

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sounds to me that you should be confronting the coach (or did I miss that in your posts) as a parent you have expectations too from your coaches. It's not out of line to ask, or offer to help. If it was a tryout team - did you ask them up front what they would be doing? it could be this summer is a lessoned learned.

 

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My dd is in a similar situation. ?I told her just to play her best everytime she gets the chance.

I made this sound like my dd never plays. She plays every game and just about every inning. They just aren't practiced.

 

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Can't offer any magical advice other than to say I feel your pain ---The only difference in our shoes is we have been experiencing success , we have won our 1st 2 tourneys (a 7 and 12 teamer) . and we did it not practicing much at all. Thats what gets me, I think this bunch could be playing high level travel ball instead of smaller to medium size . By no means are we killing our opponents but with a few more days practice per week we could be a even more well oiled machine . But it's good ol' LL that eats up everyone's time. MD