Organizational Allegiance

I never dreamed this would bring out such great experience and idea sharing. Lots of insight here. Best wishes to everyone for a happy and safe Holiday.

 

This problem could be solved starting with NSA, ASA, etc. If these organizations were to make it a rule that a player has to "sit out" for 60 days before being listed on another team's roster, then players would think twice before jumping from team to team. Most players do not want to sit out for any length of time during the prime playing season. This is the way it has been done in competitive baseball for years and it prevents this from being a problem especially for teams looking to play in state and national level tournaments.

 

Yea Sounds Good---BUT !!!

It sounds good to others,but bring it home,and see if you still agree..I still say as long as someone is getting their way they are HAPPY !!! But just try to control their DD,and man you are in the HOT SEAT !!!----BEEN THERE THROUGH (5) YEARS OF COACHING !!! I'm not trying to be sarcastic just stating facts, and YES it is sad ,but TRUE !!! I've really tried to think of all my friends,and enemies that would be satisfied even with 75% of the playing time,and to be HONEST, don't know one that would be satisfied with their DD sitting the bench 25% of the time....... Now I know someone will say to me that so and so does,and she doesn't complain,and I would have to say maybe not to your face.........SOOOOOOOOO human nature tells you to move on,and try this team.......SOOOOOOOOORY but that's the way it is..........not saying it is right, but college is a different animal,and of course you can't get your way like travel ball,because college coaches want put up with it !!!

GURU

 

The sport of Fastpitch is still very young compared to other mature sports such as competitive soccer and swimming. I am not sure how soccer does it but Swimming has a single governing body from the bottom (6 year olds) to the top (Olympics). and Soccer is close to that. In swimming, you will sit out 60 days after a team switch. This rule really helps to reduce team hopping and recruiting. It forces most team changes to occur in between seasons. Coaches are forbidden to recruit other teams swimmers. In fact if they are caught recruiting they can be suspended. Swim teams have professional coaches - it is a full time job, they are well trained in all aspects of team and swimmer development from technique to weight training and nutrition.

You may ask - why should you care about how other organized sports do it? The answer is "Why reinvent the wheel". I am not saying that fastpitch should emulate every aspect of swimming or soccer, but the philosophy of player and coach training and team management can be borrowed. We should not think that the sport is so unique that we cant borrow a few ideas.

Softball will likely evolve along the lines that Soccer has. With organizational tryouts and players stratifying at different skill levels so that league level play is available to the entry level players and travel play is availble to the truly elite level players. I think ASA will be the organization that takes us there.

A lot of this is already happening, but the comments of Organization Loyalty makes it worth discussing.

 

I guess one of the differences is that there are so many different (yet the same) sanctioning bodies in TB. I know in my area, there is only one sanction that is worth it's salt. The drawback is if you only played that sanction, you would play the same teams every week in one of three locations. If you went with one of the other sanctions that only dabble in our area, you wouldn't be able to get enough tournaments to make a worthwhile season. When you start mixing sanctions, you would never be able to get the same set of rules for everybody. I guess the best bet would be to win the lottery, foot all expenses for your own team. I'm sure even then you wouldn't be able to keep everybody happy, but at least for a free ride maybe they would be more likely to stay quiet.

 

One of our high school coach's favorite sayings is "You could take 9 girls, play every game, win the world series (or nationals), and SOMEONE would still be unhappy". Nature of the beast with society now days. It's all about "what have you done for me lately" and "instant gratification".

 

I must say....

I must say that while I agree with your post, "you can't make everybody happy, all the time!"
Society only has itself to BLAME! Unfortunately, people have decided that there are no boundaries, to keep their DD from getting what Mommy and Daddy want her to have! (Not necessarily what DD wants!) There is no level, parents will not go to, period! The things I have seen parents do, to innocent children, just for their DD to get, what they want them to have, is unbelieveable!
If EVERY team would make some rules such as:
There will be NO (from players or PARENTS)
Backstabbing
Being Two Faced
Name Calling
Starting or Passing Rumors
One Upping
Walking on teammates
Ganging up againest any teammate
Leaving any teammate out

You know good "Old Fashion" VALUES AND MORALS! Something that I think people have decided to turn their backs on for quite some time now!
Or, even just let the talent of the DD speak for itself, you know, let your actions on the field, do your talking for you!!! Wow what a concept!
Don't even, sit and pretend, that this is not a true description of what goes on in todays world not just in fastpitch!

 

The voice of experience........
Right on target
ERMS