r/Softball

My daughter is a junior in high school. She’s played softball at a high level since she was 8 years old - a LL superstar and a super-solid catcher and a great hitter in travel. We kept her in a program that was convenient for us as parents and has always focused on development. She thrived. She volunteered to assist with the “littles” when she aged out of LL and loved it, and the kids loved her. She loved playing softball and she loved being a softball player.

In 7th grade, she tore the labrum in her throwing shoulder in a freak accident at home. It was successfully repaired and after many months of rehabilitation, she was right back where she was prior to the injury. She resumed her travel team activity the summer after 8th grade, made JV as a freshman where she caught and called every game with an obscene OPS on top. We were all proud of her comeback. We were told she should start thinking about playing in college by every coach in her orbit. Things were exciting.

The first showcase tournament of her post-freshman summer she was taking fly balls in warmups. She drop-stepped into a hole and we all heard the SNAP​ followed by her screaming like I had never heard. She was carried her off the field. She completely ruptured the ACL in her right knee and damaged the meniscus. The ACL was replaced, the meniscus repaired. Her summer was spent basically immobilized, watching her friends swim and play and have fun. She made it back in time to play a few JV games her sophomore year, focusing on first base to work the knee back slowly and hitting like it had never happened.

After the end of the season, she continued PT when the meniscus tore again, landing awkwardly during a box jump routine. Another surgery over the summer, this with a much shorter recovery. She worked out like a fiend through the fall and winter.

By all accounts she was strong and ready for the spring. She made varsity and caught almost every game though the first month and a half. This time the bat was slower to come back but it was on its way, but something wasn’t right … sometimes the knee would get “stuck” during her swing and she’d lose range of motion and have unbearable pain for a day or two and then it would just … not hurt anymore.

This week we learned the meniscus in the same knee has most likely torn again and is occasionally binding in the joint. Her season is over. She needs surgery just for the surgeon to figure out what can be done - the MRIs are littered with artifacts from the previous procedures. Her goal is to get back to playing shape for senior year and that will bring her playing days to a close. She doesn’t want to go out like this, but she also has no desire to continue past high school any longer. "One last ride," she said.

Being out created a void that she struggled to fill for a while, but she picked up other hobbies like art and antiquing, she’s made friends outside of the softball community. She collects LPs and cassettes, she loves going to concerts. She still loves softball, but I think she’s gained some perspective through the injuries and time spend rehabbing that it's not all she is. In some ways, it’s been a gift that I don’t know she would have received otherwise. At least I tell myself that. I’m still sad for her … but it helps to know there’s other great things for her on the horizon. 

Love your kids, encourage them to have broad interests, make sure it’s always fun for them. It could all be over before anyone wants it to be or plans for.

If you read to this point - thanks for indulging me. Here’s to one last ride, #6.

I just need to vent. My daughter plays 11U travel ball. Her team is B level, at best. They struggle against most B level teams, but handle a lot of C level teams pretty easily.

I am so sick of teams bringing in ringers for tournaments. They are 11 year olds. This is insane. Every single tournament, you can check Facebook and see multiple teams registered for tournaments making posts about how they are “looking for a pitcher for a tournament”. Just play with the damn team that you have. Stop picking up these girls throwing fire just to win damn tournaments. Does it really mean THAT much to you??

Last tournament we were in, we saw a team make this exact post, and someone replied saying “my daughter XXXX can pitch”. Sure enough we face this team in the first bracket game, their pitcher basically strikes out our whole damn team, and of course you hear the coaches saying “great job XXXX!” To their pitcher. Great job. Your team didn’t beat us, the one girl you picked up to pitch beat us.

Just checked Facebook and wouldn’t ya know it, another team we play in a week and a half is “looking for a pitcher”. Wow. Crazy.

I just don’t get it. Am I in the minority here? How fun can it be watching your girls practice all year long and come together as a team, just to have your coach bring in some ringer pitcher and take away playing time from your kid??

End of rant.

This is more for my curiosity about how everyone else sees this, but I wanted to get other opinions. I coach a rec league team that's supposed to transition to competitive soon. The league is structured to foster this transition, so it uses a modified USSSA rule set for the first 3 weeks of the season, then goes to normal comp rules. The relevant modification here is that a runner can never steal home and they can't advance to any base on a passed ball. So, one of our batters strikes out swinging but the ball gets by the catcher. The batter runs to first and the catcher grabs the ball and doesn't attempt a throw, but for some reason they also stand near the backstop just holding the ball and seeming confused about what to do with it. For some reason, and without me telling her to, the runner at third just takes off for home. The catcher is still just looking confused and doesn't realize why everyone is yelling until it's too late. The runner barely beat the tag, but they did so we get another run.

At this point, the other coach comes out and says that was a passed ball and the runner on third can't advance. I pointed out that unlike a routine passed ball, a dropped third strike is a live ball. On a passed ball it's treated as dead and a runner can't advance unless they were already stealing. But with a dropped third strike the batter is a runner just as if they hit the ball. The ball can't only be live for the batter and everyone else has to stay put. I also pointed out that we had a base runner take home on us in the prior game (different opponent) when our catcher dropped the third strike and threw to first. The umpire ended up siding with me, but the coaches kept yakking about it for the rest of the inning.

In my mind, given the wonky rules that we have at the moment, even though the ball made it past the catcher it's not treated like a "routine" passed ball. It's a live ball, and because it's treated the same as a hit the runner on third didn't "steal" home. It was a sneaky and ill-advised decision to run, but a legal one.

What do you all think?

Well the time has come that my daughter played her last college game. Man has it been a ride. Started at 4 years old and never stopped. She loves the game, she loves the fight. She is a catcher and her body is so worn but she would do it all again. She is struggling being done but it has to come to an end sometime. Time to do other things in life.

To the parents just starting here is my biggest piece of advice, be her biggest supporter. Be there through the tears, the injuries, the wins, the losses, the trophies and the late night defeats. Enjoy it with her but let it be her ride. She needs to be in the drivers seat, not you.

The game has changed in the last 18 years, I never thought I would see parents ruin a sport like they have the game of softball. Coaches fist fighting, parents berating kids, parents yelling at each other and the poor umpires, man they are only human. Don’t be that parent or coach. Cheer for all girls to succeed and remember, this is just a game and at some point it all ends. What doesn’t end, the friendship you made along the way. Not just with your team but all the teams, my daughter was given so many opportunities due to great relationships with other teams. Don’t ruin it for your kid.

Have fun, enjoy it because one day it will all just be a memory. Do everything you can do to make sure it is a good memory for your daughter.

My daughter has been playing on a 9U travel team for about 10 months. I've been open with the coaches that this is all new for us as she is our oldest. The team didn't come with a handbook or contract, etc.

Last fall, our team wasn't very active, so I asked what their rules were regarding picking up with other teams. I didn't know so I asked - they answered, and we respected their rules.

My daughter pitches. This Spring, her pitching coach highly encouraged me to have her pitch in rec league and travel ball to help give her more live reps and more confidence. I didn't know what her travel team's rules were regarding that so I asked - they answered, and we respected their rules.

The extra reps in rec made an amazing difference. Truly night and day. So good in fact, that she was unanimously voted onto the all-star team. The 10U all-star team won state last year and is returning 8 of those players this year so it was very competitive. I didn't know her travel team's rules regarding All-Stars and potential conflicts. I asked the All-Star coach for reference on how other girls were balancing All-Stars and travel and he said that over half of the team was on different travel teams and they were all excused from travel team activities so they could participate in All-Stars. Well, I didn't want to make an incorrect assumption so I made sure the travel team knew that she had made the All-Star team. I heard nothing back. When I learned of a potential scheduling conflict (a 1 day tournament), I notified the coach. I didn't know what the travel team's rules were regarding that so I asked - and they DIDN'T answer. The next day the travel coach nonchalantly asked if we had decided which team to play for this Saturday and I told her that my daughter had stated that she loved her travel team but was excited about playing with some of the older girls on the All-Star team. We got no warning, the next message was kicking my daughter off the team. I was and still am honestly shocked.

Honestly, I'm questioning myself here in how or if I mishandled this situation.

Feedback?

Respectfully- thanks in advance-

First and foremost, this is crazy light. Any/all input would be really appreciated because it would help settle a light difference of opinion between my and my HC (we're great friends and have alternated HC responsibilities for the past few years if that matters)

This involves 12u rec. It's worth mentioning we've never seen a kid get thrown out stealing 2B (although a couple have been close.)

Anyways, last week, this situation came up and we don't agree on how to handle it going forward. We had a runner on 2nd and 1 out. A ball was hit just outside the circle towards the 3b side. The runner on 2nd broke for 3rd on the hit and my HC yelled "go to 3rd" while I was yelling "1st, 1st, 1st." Inevitably, our pitcher threw the ball to our 3b person, she applied the tag, but the ball jostled loose and now we have runner's on 3rd & 1st.

We're both having fun with this and do not see eye to eye whatsoever. The numbers we both (mostly) agree with are: our 1b person is as sure of a thing as you'll find at the 12u level--if it's thrown to her, even poorly, she's going to come up with it. I would put a 90+% chance of our pitcher throwing to 1st and getting that out in that scenario (the 10% accounting for a bad throw from our pitcher.) I thought re-running that scenario, our pitcher-to-3b person and applying a tag would have a 60% success rate and that's IF the runner continues to break for 2b with abandon anyways (I think she was poorly coached, should have waited for the throw, and then taken 3rd.) 40% chance of bad throw, bad catch, or ball is bobbled loose.

Getting the runner at 1st is pretty much a "sure thing" and even if you -did- get the runner at 3rd, the runner at 1st moves up to 2nd on the very next pitch anyways. So, you've effectively taken only saved 1 base by a much riskier play. I've literally pulled a RE chart and ran it through Chat just to test it (my thought of going to 1st comes out ahead with a lower RE.)

Curious what others think and would be happy to answer any questions/details related to ability/skill/scenario. As I said, this is all in good fun between me and a friend. Thanks

My daughter is 12 and plays 12u b-class travel ball. She also plays rec league mainly to work on pitching (she mostly plays 2nd base and outfield but is also the 3rd or 4th pitcher on her travel team, so she uses rec league to get better at pitching) and to have an opportunity to play with her school friends.

One of her school friends, let’s call her Eliza, is a kid with a great attitude and ton of heart, lots of grit and perseverance, who just isn’t very good. She’s tried playing multiple sports and sticks it out but always ends up riding the bench most of the time. But she clearly likes sports and wants to be on a team and be an athlete, and while she’s not naturally super fast or athletic, she’s smart and willing to work hard and could be a decent player.

The problem is that her family approaches sports very casually. She attends the team practices and goes to games and does zero work outside of practice on her own time. This has been an issue in the other sports she has tried to play. Her mom has told me several times that she would like to play softball in high school, and she’s played rec league for a couple years now, but she is very obviously behind the other girls because she’s not putting in the same level of work in the off season and on her own time outside of team practices.

Well, tonight she made some very big errors and ended up crying in the dugout. She’s a sweet kid and I hate to see that, and I was glad that the other players and coaches were kind and encouraging to her. But then her mom said something to me about how rough of a time Eliza was having this season, and I think maybe I was an asshole in my response.

I said, “mom to mom, the truth is she would have a lot more fun out there if she practiced and worked on fundamentals. It’s never fun to make mistakes, and some of these skills require hours and hours of repetition to master. She’s not going to get better just practicing 1-2 hours a week with the team. She’s got to put in the work on her own. Take her to the batting cages or go to the park and work on throwing, catching, fielding grounders, sliding, etc.”

The other mom was pretty clearly upset by my comment, and I immediately felt bad, but also, these parents aren’t doing their kid any favors by continuing to put her into different sports without helping her develop as a player. We had to tell this family multiple times to get their daughter appropriate gear (like a fact mask and batting helmet). I know it’s not a financial issue, they just don’t take sports seriously at all and don’t prioritize them. But their daughter wants to play, and it’s more fun to play when you’re not always the worst kid on the team.

So I guess I was the asshole, but maybe they will actually listen. Their kid has played model school basketball and volleyball and rec league softball, with hopes of playing some of those sports in high school, but she is significantly below the average skill level for kids her age because she never practices on her own or seeks out help. My husband even offered to give her FREE private lessons and sent the mom links for very affordable clinics and skills and drills sessions. They haven’t chosen to do any of that. And then she sits in the dugout and cries when she messes up.

Western Michigan Travel Dad. Looking to upgrade my umbrella for the inevitable rains. Any hard learned recommendations? Looking for something that is going to last for several years of truck bed abuse.

The walk (or hit), steal next pitch, steal next pitch, steal home. Or get to 2B and then take home on an infield hit.

I have a very young team. We just left a league that had no steals, no leadoffs, and no walks and joined one with the full rulebook.

Specifically, we left a league with a calendar year age cutoff (because we are all 11) but joined a league with a school year cutoff (so we are '10' playing '12' year olds)

I'm trying to keep things positive and develop the fundamentals, but we have given up nine innings of getting run ruled.

1. I only have one catcher capable of throwing to second.

2. I have one catcher that probably can't transition fast enough to throw to third

3. Of the infielders, I don't trust three of them to catch a hard thrown ball and make a tag out.

4. Two of my pitchers don't throw hard enough for any of this to matter

I feel like we had our best practice as a team yesterday just working on fundamentals and stations. I guess I'm just frustrated and am trying to save my pride of getting run ruled every inning.

I’m coaching a 10U rec team where most of the girls are just learning how to pitch. Most girls have trouble with consistency at this level in my area but it’s usually just accuracy in general.

The issue I’m having is with one of my better overall players, she can throw it pretty hard for her age, she’s very athletic, and 90% of the time her line to the plate is pretty good (between the batters boxes for the most part). Her trouble is that she cannot for the life of her (or me helping her) get her release point down, and often times ends up bowling the ball to the plate. I’ve talked about snapping her wrist on each pitch, over-correcting and aiming high every couple pitches, aiming for the umpires helmet instead of the catchers glove, etc.

I’m trying to help her figure it out but I’m a lot better at everything else in softball than pitching haha. Any tips or suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated as I’m out of ideas and really want her to be able to figure this out. Thanks!

Edit: Thank you to everyone who gave suggestions, I am definitely going to try some of them out. I know about the T and K drills, I know about wrist snaps, I know the basics of softball pitching at this level. Being better at everything else doesn’t mean I know absolutely nothing about pitching. I know about YouTube. This is more about a specific issue with one specific girl that I was just looking for some tips on. This is a small town rec league so practice is one night a week for 2-hours in between the games of the week. She does not want a pitching coach, nor do I think every child who tries pitching should have one. I don’t think I’m ruining her pitching mechanics, or any of the other several girls on the team who pitch and are going fine. I should’ve been more specific and noted that while she has release point issues she also does well overall, and that I’m trying to just work on consistency in her release, as her velocity and line to the plate are pretty good. Thanks again for everyone who gave suggestions! Much appreciated.

My daughter is a 10u pitcher. Last year her team had a pretty long break so we tried picking up. We picked up with a team and played some really good competition and did really well. We continued to pickup with the same people through the rest of the season. At the end of the fall season we decided that it was time to leave her team and join this team we had been picking up with because she was ready for the next level of competition.

Over the winter break we started attending practices with this new team and things were going well. They consider her the ace pitcher and she gets plenty of time in the circle. When our first tournaments roll around my daughter was basically being treated as a pitcher only. There are 10 girls on the team, and one tournament she sat over half of all the innings. She only played defense 3 innings where she wasn’t pitching. We talked to the coach and he agreed to rotate her in more. They play her in the outfield more now and she doesn’t sit nearly as often but still disproportionately more than all but maybe one other girl.

One tournament she made an error and was pulled after that inning. The girl they replaced her with made an error and she was pulled and my daughter was put back. The infield has two girls the routinely make errors but continue to play in the same positions and never sit.

Our most recent tournament we had two games on Friday night and had to miss the first one for her elementary track meet. We arrive a few minutes before the start of the second game. They put her at the end of the batting lineup, which was totally fine. However, we had two pickup players and they played the whole game over my daughter and another regular player. We left frustrated and reached out to the coach who gave us a bunch of excuses about not being warm but would have used her if they needed her to pitch. One of the four coaches talked to her that night and they didn’t warm her up.

One girl left the team this week and our daughter is asking to leave too. Should we try sticking it out the rest of the season? Or just leave because it probably won’t get better and what we see now is what we get?

Every year our town association does “try outs” for the next seasons’s teams. The teams are basically travel teams disguised as rec because we don’t really have rec teams, but all rec rules apply so even playing times, development first, etc…which I totally agree with. I was assigned to coach the newest team because I was a pitcher and can coach the newest players on pitching. But that also means I got the “lowest tier” team as far as skill/experience and they didn’t give our team even one kid who had any experience in pitching, while the other 4 teams got all the league’s most experienced pitchers. The pitchers on the other teams (who I have coached the last 2 seasons) are unhappy because they’re not getting a lot of playing time since their teams have 3 to 4 decent pitchers, while our team has no experienced pitchers. It takes time to build this skill, and it just feels unfair to our team because they are really excellent in every other way. But it’s a walk fest and runs on passed balls at home at 10U without pitchers who can consistently pitch well. I don’t see why they couldn’t spread out this skill a little more evenly across the teams and give each team a better chance at wins during the season. I know it’s not about winning, but when it comes down to it, our girls are a winning team is every way but pitching right now, and it’s just not a skill that develops overnight! I’m working with our pitchers a ton and they are all improving, but that just means they are going to move to better teams next year and there will always be a bottom tier with no pitchers. Even the parents of my pitchers from last year would rather see their kid get more time in the position on a lower tier team than have them be the 4th string pitcher on a better team. I’m just frustrated I guess, because it helps everyone develop more when the pitching is better. More plays in the field, the catchers aren’t clobbered with passed balls at the plate, etc… I don’t have any power over it but I’d like to approach the league about it before they form teams again for next year. I would like to see my team get some wins because they are excellent in the field and they are all really decent hitters, but the pitching improvement is slow and we end up losing from stolen bases on passed balls. My pitchers will be excellent by the end of the season, just in time for new teams to form! Anyone else dealing with this kind of thing?

Coaches, what do you tell your players about crowding the plate. Today we played a game where nearly every batter on the opposing team was crowding the plate. The pitcher started by avoiding hitting the players so she would pitch low and outside. At one point there was a player that had her toes over the line of the batter's box and she was hunched over the top of the plate. Our coach called for a fastball over the plate and it hit the batter for a free walk. The next batter attempted to do the same thing so my daughter (the catcher) asked the umpire and he called a strike. The opposing team coach complained, but the ump held his ground. The batter did it again and our coach called for another fastball over the plate, which hit the player hard and she walked to first sobbing. My daughter called timeout, went to the mound and they eventually got out of the inning.

As a coach what do you do? Do you call for fastballs over the plate, potentially hurting a kid? Or do you call for it to go low and outside.

I am moving from a 5A largish district where I’ve been an assistant varsity and head JV coach for 4 years to a 3A military base school where I will be an assistant varsity coach (no JV team).

The team I am moving to has a pretty good pitcher and a whole lot of inexperience. Was told that a large number of the girls had no prior experience before this last season.

Going into next season, what should we start working on to improve defensively. The pitcher had a great season, but (as you can imagine) the defense did not help her at all. Basically if she wasn’t striking girls out (which she did a lot) the other team were scoring runs. To add to this, due to it being a small school, most of these girls play other sports so we won’t get to softball until the season begins in January.

Basically, how do we keep the pitcher engaged and speed run these girls into at least being below average defensively instead of a mess?

Offensively, I am going to talk to the head coach about becoming a small ball team and creating chaos on the bases to compete. They strikeout a ton and that doesn’t help anyone.

What are you guys doing as end of season gifts for rec? We have a 6U girls team and I want to do something special, I was thinking rings for them to be like a trophy but I can’t find any that don’t say “tournament champions” on them. Anyone have any good ideas or recommendations? Thanks!