Training Techniques

DONE THAT

Had plenty of these times........When she has a teammate practicing with her there is not any tension at all.

 

I think that her being and 11 year old and only playing travel for a year you maybe should cosidering just letting her watch older teams play as well as her own age groups.It is a great learning tool and it helps by giving her a break physically but yet she is still getting something out of it.She still has plenty of time to make the elite teams just don't burn her out by over doing it now they are still very young at this age and need down time.When you work together work very hard when it is a day off don't mention anything about softball enjoy the day off.
Good Luck to you and your Daughter wish her the best of luck!!!!

A word of advice from a veteran let her be a girl also, trust me , or you will regret it. My daughter did all the training and workouts and yes it's paying off, but now it's a little girlie time,and boys are in her life, cars,and friends, don't stiffle this or you will be sorry ...--Guru[/quote]

 

Which is more important. Practicing/playing with an elite team with coaches that know the game inside out and getting limited playing time or practicing/playing with a marginal team with coaches that somewhat know the game and playing every inning of every tournament? Practice is your time to sharpen the skills to make you great come tournament time, correct? If you practice the skills but don't get to use them during the games is it detrimental to your development. The reason I ask is she has the opportunity to play for an elite team right now. It's not at the position she'd like because the other girls in her normal positon (2nd,ss) are bigger, stronger, and faster than she is. More than likely she'd have to split playing time in the outfield until the team splits up next fall (12u/14u). Next fall she could more than likely play any position she'd like.

 

IMHO, that all depends on her. The main thing to consider for girls, especially at her age, is she has to like the team. If she doesn't like the coaches or doesn't get along with some of the girls (especially the starters in front of her), it doesn't matter how good the team is, she will not be happy and will not thrive.

Now if she likes both teams and gets along with everyone, again IMHO, it is better for her to be on the elite team with coaches that know the game even if that means limited playing time and/or not playing in the position she wants. There is a lot more to the game than just playing time and the coaches will make sure that when she is ready, she will succeed at all aspects.

Hope this helps....

 

My advice will probably not be favorable on the board, but based on the info you presented, put her on the team that she'll get playing time and work hard with her on your own. When the time is right you can move her up to a higher level team. My daughter always played at a higher level because she was ready(plays in college now), jumping in before you're ready could cause more harm than good. This is just one opinion based on 32 years of coaching keeping in mind that I respect the other opinions on this board as well.

 

32 Years Of Coaching ??

Wow.... I hear you...awesome.... give us more insight..Please !!! I hope I'm around 19 more years....this game is the ultimate !!!

Guru

 

...hey pardon me Jeffermc, but.....what? the star drill as I understand it is nothing but crossing the diamond. And yes its hard at first but when the kids get the hand of it they pump up with confidence! Our 10u kids learned this and loved it. It doggone sure beat the hell out of a bunch of kids standing around in the outfield pickin clovers.
To me thats raising the bar with a little pizazz to make the game fun.

fish

 

Fishman, all I was saying is that every time I've seen the drill introduced to girls not used to it, just throwing around the bases, it took 15-20 minutes before the girls weren't occasionally heading the wrong direction, forgetting to move, etc. And this was with only one ball and where no one should be crossing into the flight path of the ball. And that's AFTER 10 minutes explaning the drill.

This includes 12U rec, 14U travel, etc.

Yours sounds like a good "next step" once they can do the simpler version forwards and backwards. I wasn't saying I didn't think it was a good drill. I was just saying, like, "wow! what a drill!"

 

"Elite team"??

I'm not sure what an "elite" 12U/14U team is. Do these teams have fancier uni's or travel to more prestigious tournaments? At 11 years old don't worry about 'elite'. Find a team (1) coached by a person you trust, (2) on which your daughter will be on the field most of the time and (3) where she will have fun (this is most important). In about two/three years you'll begin to sense whether being on a so-called 'elite' team is important.

 

I Agree! Good advice.