I’m one of three coaches on a 14U B-level travel team. I’m not the head coach. All three of us are dads of players.

This isn’t a daddy ball thing. The manager’s own kid moves in and out of what I’d call the “long leash” group. And for full transparency, my daughter is in the short leash group, probably the shortest of anyone.

Lately I’ve been questioning how playing time and accountability are being handled. There’s a group of girls who get a much longer leash than everyone else. Some of them show poor body language and keep playing, even though as a staff we’ve talked about needing to put a stop to that.

Meanwhile, other girls get pulled mid-game for things like misplaying a ball that took a weird bounce 90 degrees to the left. Compare that to our third baseman, who didn’t tag an advancing runner and then didn’t throw to first, so both runners were safe. She was told to forget it and move on to the next play.

Recently one of the long leash girls got on a teammate in front of everyone for not hustling on a ball she realistically couldn’t get to. When she got pulled, she walked out of the dugout. The other girl got pulled too, I assume for not making that play. She went to the bench and quietly started keeping the spray chart.

The short leash girls have the best attitudes on the team, and they don’t make any more mistakes than anyone else.

Players have asked me why they got pulled or only used as a sub, and I can’t give them an answer. The other assistant has had girls come to him too, and he didn’t have an answer either.

I’m 100% on board with playing time being earned. The problem is there’s no consistent, known standard the girls can actually work toward.

I’ve coached for a lot of years and I know how to separate coach from dad. This is coming from the coaching side.

I think we need a staff meeting, but I’m not sure how to set it up or how to bring up the inconsistency without it turning into a confrontation. For anyone who’s been an assistant in this spot:

• Did you go to the head coach one-on-one first, or bring it to the whole staff?
• Has anyone helped put together actual playing time criteria the girls could see and work toward?

Appreciate any advice.

any thoughts? (screenshot from yt)

My daughter’s Ghost has developed several smallish cracks.

In your opinion, are these cracks enough to pursue a warranty replacement?

It still sounds good, so I don’t think it needs to be replaced. I’d just prefer to do it now between seasons than after the spring season starts.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpqbW25T_esLXCqJad21cTrX-SoFgivC8YqfcNgYxr-T8dEg/viewform

Mods: Thank you for the approval!

Coaches and former players: I launched a site called 2ndLook where parents or athletes send in video of their swing or pitching, and a coach (you) records a short breakdown of it, drawing on the film with the built-in telestrator.

Coaches set their own price and do it whenever they have 15 minutes. Think Cameo for coaching. You worked hard to learn the sport; utilize your knowledge!

Right now I'm filling the founding group of coaches. They keep 90% of what they charge, and there's no fee to join. Future coaches will drop to 80% (still not bad).

If you give lessons or played in college and want to learn more, it's 2ndlookcoaching.com

Couldn’t help but pass around the Slowpitch community I’m in.

I have an aspiring 10U pitcher and I’m looking for the best way for her to practice at home. We have a practice hitting/pitching net at home but she prefers to have a catcher (aka me). My reaction time isn’t what it used to be and I’ve gotten some fast wild pitches to my shins already while sitting on the bucket.

What do other parents do? Just take the risk and deal with the bruises? Is there a better net with a more visible target? Or do I need to buy myself some catchers gear? 😂

This weekend’s tournament really gave some of the toxic parents on our 12U C-Level team a chance to shine….

Fielder got hit by a bad bounce and it jammed up her finger pretty bad. Not broken but it probably really hurt. There were tears and she wanted to sit an inning out and collect herself. 11 girls today - no problem. Girls take the field and mom gets out of her chair yelling - ‘She’s a soldier. Get her in there now and get (name redacted) out of her position.’ All I hear from the dugout is ‘Mommy no I need a minute.’ This is 12u c level softball. I was impressed our player had the presence of mind to know she needed an inning. She stayed on the bench. Mom decided to stay warm in the car the rest of the game because she ‘doesn’t watch quitters.’ I’m sure that poor, sweet girl had a long ride home.

Guest pitcher - mom actually uses the word embarrassing to describe her performance. I mentioned she pretty much single-handedly won that game for the team. Mom said she had 3 walks. In 5 innings. Unacceptable. She has to sit in the back seat on the way home because she didn’t want to talk to her.

Another Pitcher’s entire family is there. Every ball that got hit and resulted in a base hit was loudly declared to be someone else’s fault. How dare they not back up their pitcher with better play. Right fielder (my kid) fields a line drive that got through 2 other girls. Throws it to pitcher. Pitcher loses it in the sun and another run scores. All I hear from the group is - ‘Not your fault. Nothing you can do when your team mate can’t play for shit.’ I nicely said comments like that aren’t helpful to anyone. And a pair of sunglasses may help. I literally was waiting to be jumped when we walked to my car.

It has never been like this on this team. It’s always been a positive and supportive environment. I feel like a switch flipped and I wasn’t aware we were being awful now.

Why are parents like this? They are freaking 12!!!!

My daughter plays 10u travel and practices 3 times week, but they focus a lot on defense and she doesn’t get a ton of reps hitting (not complaining, I’m all for how the coaches run things) We just upped her bat to bigger one and I want of help her get some reps in on before some games.

The nearest batting cages are 25 minutes away so it’s not really feasible during school nights. I’d like to take her to the local diamond a few nights a week but I can’t pitch with a crap.

A pitching machine isn’t in the budget so I’m hoping someone can recommend a way I can help her, whether it’s using different balls, soft tosses, etc. I’m open to any and all suggestions.

Do you think this is cosmetic or is this structural damage? I’m not certain if this is just the outer paint or something more?

There is some movement where the bat comes together and I’m curious if it’s damaged beyond repair

3yo hitting while playing 6U, how to improve?

Our coaches mainly only want to pitch our bracket pitcher which is fine but today she threw 200 pitches across every game except for 3 innings out of those games. It seems a bit excessive to me.. this is 9U

I'm a former Juco softball player, and I've played shortstop my whole life. Before coming to college, all I would hear from my old coaches and family members is "There will always be someone better, it's your effort that gets you places."  Now this isn't my ego speaking, but I wouldn't really take that quote seriously till I actually got here and saw each girl practice.

This kind girl entered the "villa", and she too plays shortstop. She's an absolute beast at that position. Honestly I praise her, but seeing how good she is really made me question my confidence. Will I still get to play? What if? Overthinking every time the coach would try me short. Overthinking an easy play, doubting myself, lowering my self esteem. I never once was jealous of my teammate, I'm honestly so happy for her. In practice I try my absolute hardest just to be an inch as good as she is. Yet she still is better of course. I've seen myself grow as a person, pushing myself for something I want! But also seeing how i don't put her down just because I'm not a starter. She's my girl, one of my best friends in the team! She's the sweetest little lady ever! Any advice??

Hello everyone!

I am hoping to recruit some help. I'm a former youth fastpitch coach, and I spent too many games as the guy with the little homemade booklet, flipping back through three games of paper charts in the middle of an inning trying to inform other coaches where the current batter hit the ball last at-bat or during the last game.

So I built Diamond Scout, an Android app that charts the other team's hitters across games. Spray charts and a card for each batter, so when she comes up again you can see what she actually did last time, not what you think you remember. It's for scouting opponents and positioning your defence, not a scorebook. GameChanger already does that job.

It's in a pre-release test now, and Google requires a small group of testers for two weeks before I can release it. I figured the best people to test it are the ones that might benefit from it the most, coaches. That's the ask. Android only. Install it, open it a few times, log a game if you can, real or made-up. Nothing to buy.

Testers who stay in for the test and send me one feedback note get the full version free at launch. I'm not after a good review, just honest feedback on what works and what doesn't.

If you're in, here's the group to join. You will get a working link to install the app upon joining.

https://groups.google.com/g/diamond-scout-testers

Thanks for your help! I really do appreciate it!
Jeff

Hi! Looking to get my daughter a used composite bat. Deciding between a Louisville slugger or Demarini CF. Can’t decide between a 29 drop -11 or 30 drop -11. Chatgbt is telling me to stick with 29. She’s about 53 inches tall and over 60 pounds. She’s fairly new but has great contact and is working on adding power. Hoping this helps get them out a bit further on the field. Thanks!

Am I overreacting or is this the beginning of the end? 12u player has had this bat since late May - early June. No cold games or dimpled training balls or anything crazy.

So I just started playing softball for my school (never played before) and I’ve been using like a regular backpack to carry my stuff and I’m soon gonna get like a bigger one to put my bats in and stuff. Which means I’m gonna have to bring that thing on the bus, mind you we have assigned seating 😭 so I’m not gonna be next to like a friend or anything, I sit next to a complete stranger and I have to take up so much space with my backpacks. Any tips?

For those of you that are "all-in" on your kid's softball experience, just know that you will be the issue in most situations. Last night was a prime example so allow me to share.

I was asked to run a tryout for a B-level but rapidly progressing 11U team. One player, a P/OF. She was a really sweet kid, threw a lot of strikes, could locate with fast and change, could throw a surprisingly good drop for 11. She was able to shake off the nerves when we made the experience fun instead of stressful. Decent swing mechanics but clearly still a work in progress, no big deal. She would be an asset to this team without a doubt.

However, they were late showing up. She also, despite her best efforts, didn't take instruction very well. Red flags but easy to overlook because as mentioned great kid, great attitude, and a pitcher. No one turns away good pitching.

Now the meat of the story. Not only was mom late getting her there, she proceeded to feel comfortable enough with the coach that she was dropping f-bombs inside of 5 minutes. She could not stop talking about how she's coached for a few years and built a winning team but she turned it over to someone else because of issues with the ex hubby. Let her dig herself in a little more and you find out that most of the good players had already left. Current husband is GC dad and had an altercation with the assistant coach on the team she's trying out for. Proceeds to badmouth the pitching coach, the hitting coach, and her current team because she feels her kid is getting "too comfortable" and not progressing at the rate she should.

I listened to all of this while I was working with the kid. I know the pitching and hitting coaches personally very well. Like all coaches, some people love them but not everyone meshes so no big deal there. But I'm listening to this lady talk and the picture is becoming very clear, she thinks after coaching 8, 9, and 10u that she's smarter than everyone on the field and anyone working with her child and openly says that she doesn't feel good about not coaching anymore because she built a winner...at C+ level 10u mind you.

I cut the tryout short, thanked them for coming, and said the coach would be in touch within 24 hours. Very pleasant, no drama. Pumped up the kid because she legitimately did a great job. Then I told the coaches that she was a hard no. They agreed despite really liking the kid and knowing how much she would help the team out. If you let a parent like that on your sidelines they will question every move, they will find any other parent that overvalues their own kid's ability and start to plant negative seeds, and they will slowly (sometimes quickly) implode your team before you can do anything to stop it. This team is well built, they've been together since 8U and their coach does things the right way. It's a magnificent environment. No way I'm recommending you risk blowing that up with one bad apple because that really is all it takes.

Moral of the story, don't be that parent. Don't be even close to that parent. Either trust the coach YOU chose to let your kid play for and focus on your kid's happiness or know that YOU will be the problem and your kid doesn't deserve that. This sweet kid didn't deserve it. It should have been an immediate yes...but the parent made it more about them...as so many do.

Surprised by how many freshman players are 2nd guessing their choice of schools due to the team vibe/culture.

Five players we know who play at different schools — all who played club ball last year — have each said that they were surprised by how cliquey their teams are, and by teamates’ immature antics.

A few said they are bullied and/or see others get bullied by more senior players.

My questions are:
1) Is this typical?
2) How do players combat this?
3) How do coaches address this?

Thank you!

Looking for recommendation for ball to use for my 9 year old to do some pitching practice at home in our basement. I have a net and 9 hole pitching target from my son's baseball that I can setup down there. Wondering what's a good non-hard ball to use down there just incase.

Her pitching coach said that Softie balls are good choice, but they're kind of expensive at $135/dz. I saw these on Amazon Flexi-Soft, would that work? I'd like to get something close to regulation feel.

Appreciate the advice!

Background...My 13 y/o has been playing highly competitive travel ball for the last 3 years. She is a talented player (starting SS, lead off hitter). However, she struggles with some anxiety and perfectionist issues and honestly she takes softball way too seriously. This fall she’s developed little league elbow and hasn’t thrown or hit the last 6 weeks. She’s does what she can at practice and goes to games to cheer on her teammates.

During this time it is the happiest and most care free we have seen her in a couple years. She isn’t stressing about softball or if she done enough work out outside of practice. Now, she comes home from school, rides her bike or goes for a run everyday. She seems to be genuinely loving life.

All this has been eye opening for us as parents. As softball is obviously a huge stressor in her life. We are strongly considering having her leave the world of competitive softball. Has anyone been in a similar situation? She’s always said he loves to play but now it feels as she only loved it because of the success and adulation for her performance on the field.

i have my first ever softball conditioning/tryouts tomorrow. i haven’t done sports since i was in elementary school and don’t have a lot of softball knowledge. any tips or things i should know ?