How do we "peak interest" in fastpitch?

+1 Dead peroids and off season practice limitations should be totally abolished. Anyone who wants to "volunterally" practice should be able to do it with their coach, head or assistant anywhere anytime as long the coach is willing with no restrictions on dates or number of players. Better for them to be on a ball field than some of the other places they could be

 

....Argentina, lol. Going to our family reunion. BIG event in the Marlin family.
UncleFish

 

some people don't get it...

Totally agree. It's amazing how difficult people try to make it with some of these stupid rules regarding high school coaching. Someone sitting in a room had to decide how they could make it more difficult for coaches and players to get together in the off-season and work and develop, and are probably proud of the fact they had the power to do it. Like I've said before, everyone just wants to try and play a simple and uncluttered game. Some people just don't get it. All apologies to the Fishman, but people stand around scratching their heads wondering how they can get more girls interested in the sport, and develop coaches and talent.

 

Off-season contact restrictions, dead periods, etc... were created for a reason... it is foolish to think that only Football coaches would abuse the opportunity.

Can someone define "peak interest"?

 

I believe he means to "pique (stimulate) interest."

 

That's what I figured but I didnt get all the talk about camps and such as being a tool to pique interest in the sport.

The sport needs to grow(like it used to) from the ground up and that means Rec League and Little League play. The travel ball crowd have dissed rec league as beneath them and this has been a disservice to the roots of the sport. Kids 5 through 12 can and should be playing rec league FIRST. Travel ball used to be the elite group of kids and now travel ball has been diluted with all the kids that should be starting out in rec league. These kids, whose interest in the sport has not been solidified, are being disillusioned with the intensity of a travel ball schedule and they never get a chance to learn the game, play for fun, play with their neighborhood and grade school buddies.

Of course there are the exceptions, but take a kid that is 10 and throw them into a 13 tournament summer travel ball schedule and you will have kids that will never come back to the sport.

 

HS coaches don't necessarily have to be the ones working with kids. There are no restrictions on others.

I went to several fields the past few evenings to see what teams were playing. The only teams I found were at South Garner Park. They were practicing and appeared to be 10 or under except for an older kid who was practicing pitching with a coach and, I assume, her father.

I had expected to find kids on the Garner field. They have one of the most popular programs. I believe that is because of the effort put into it by their community. It has been strong for years.

Believe it or not but there are some communities that have a strong interest in the game. Cleveland/McGees in Johnston County, East Wake/Knightdale, Bunn, Goldsboro, Wilders Grove in Raleigh, etc. If a few of the leaders in those type of communities could connect I believe we would have the start of something interesting.

I believe, in large part, softball has gotten so expensive that a lot of families can't, or don't want to, spend as much money as is required. Remember, it's not the kid that makes the final decision; it's the parent. There are many more that we are unaware of that don't play because it's just too expensive.

There would be a lot more interest if it was more local. Travel could be an occasional thing instead of the norm. Too much of anything is too much.

Bottom line is we need more local heroes (coaches and players).

We need to get down to the business of softball and get most of the business out of softball. $300 to $400 per tournament to play in a dozen tournaments should be raising a few eyebrows. And that's not even considering related expenses. This kind of travel and expense should be an occasional thing--not the routine.

 

We were typing at the same time. What you're saying is exactly what I'm talking about.