| SOFTBALL TIPS |
|
|
|
| SITE STUFF |
|
|
|
|
ARCHIVES
|
| • |
June 26, 2005 |
| • |
July 03, 2005 |
| • |
July 10, 2005 |
| • |
July 17, 2005 |
| • |
July 24, 2005 |
| • |
July 31, 2005 |
| • |
August 07, 2005 |
| • |
August 14, 2005 |
| • |
August 21, 2005 |
| • |
August 28, 2005 |
| • |
September 11, 2005 |
| • |
October 02, 2005 |
| • |
October 09, 2005 |
| • |
October 23, 2005 |
| • |
October 30, 2005 |
| • |
November 06, 2005 |
| • |
November 13, 2005 |
| • |
December 04, 2005 |
| • |
December 18, 2005 |
| • |
December 25, 2005 |
| • |
January 08, 2006 |
| • |
January 15, 2006 |
| • |
January 29, 2006 |
| • |
February 05, 2006 |
| • |
February 12, 2006 |
| • |
February 19, 2006 |
| • |
February 26, 2006 |
| • |
March 05, 2006 |
| • |
March 12, 2006 |
| • |
March 19, 2006 |
| • |
March 26, 2006 |
| • |
April 02, 2006 |
| • |
April 09, 2006 |
| • |
April 16, 2006 |
| • |
April 23, 2006 |
| • |
April 30, 2006 |
| • |
May 07, 2006 |
| • |
May 14, 2006 |
| • |
May 21, 2006 |
| • |
May 28, 2006 |
| • |
June 04, 2006 |
| • |
June 11, 2006 |
| • |
June 18, 2006 |
| • |
June 25, 2006 |
| • |
July 09, 2006 |
| • |
July 16, 2006 |
| • |
July 23, 2006 |
| • |
July 30, 2006 |
| • |
August 13, 2006 |
| • |
August 20, 2006 |
| • |
September 03, 2006 |
| • |
September 10, 2006 |
| • |
September 17, 2006 |
| • |
September 24, 2006 |
| • |
October 01, 2006 |
| • |
October 08, 2006 |
| • |
October 15, 2006 |
| • |
October 22, 2006 |
| • |
November 12, 2006 |
| • |
November 26, 2006 |
| • |
December 31, 2006 |
| • |
January 14, 2007 |
| • |
January 21, 2007 |
| • |
January 28, 2007 |
| • |
February 04, 2007 |
| • |
February 11, 2007 |
| • |
February 18, 2007 |
| • |
February 25, 2007 |
| • |
March 04, 2007 |
| • |
March 11, 2007 |
| • |
March 18, 2007 |
| • |
April 01, 2007 |
| • |
April 08, 2007 |
| • |
April 15, 2007 |
| • |
April 22, 2007 |
| • |
April 29, 2007 |
| • |
May 06, 2007 |
| • |
May 13, 2007 |
| • |
May 20, 2007 |
| • |
May 27, 2007 |
| • |
June 03, 2007 |
| • |
June 10, 2007 |
| • |
June 17, 2007 |
| • |
June 24, 2007 |
| • |
July 01, 2007 |
| • |
July 22, 2007 |
| • |
July 29, 2007 |
| • |
August 12, 2007 |
| • |
August 19, 2007 |
| • |
September 02, 2007 |
| • |
September 16, 2007 |
| • |
September 30, 2007 |
| • |
October 07, 2007 |
| • |
October 14, 2007 |
| • |
October 21, 2007 |
| • |
November 04, 2007 |
| • |
November 18, 2007 |
| • |
November 25, 2007 |
| • |
December 02, 2007 |
| • |
December 09, 2007 |
| • |
December 16, 2007 |
| • |
January 13, 2008 |
| • |
February 17, 2008 |
| • |
February 24, 2008 |
| • |
March 02, 2008 |
| • |
March 09, 2008 |
| • |
March 30, 2008 |
| • |
April 06, 2008 |
| • |
April 13, 2008 |
| • |
April 20, 2008 |
| • |
April 27, 2008 |
| • |
May 04, 2008 |
| • |
May 11, 2008 |
| • |
May 18, 2008 |
| • |
May 25, 2008 |
| • |
June 01, 2008 |
| • |
June 15, 2008 |
| • |
June 22, 2008 |
| • |
June 29, 2008 |
| • |
July 06, 2008 |
| • |
July 13, 2008 |
| • |
July 20, 2008 |
| • |
August 03, 2008 |
| • |
August 10, 2008 |
| • |
August 17, 2008 |
| • |
August 24, 2008 |
| • |
August 31, 2008 |
| • |
September 07, 2008 |
| • |
September 14, 2008 |
| • |
September 21, 2008 |
| • |
September 28, 2008 |
| • |
October 05, 2008 |
| • |
October 12, 2008 |
| • |
October 19, 2008 |
| • |
October 26, 2008 |
| • |
November 02, 2008 |
| • |
November 09, 2008 |
| • |
November 16, 2008 |
| • |
November 30, 2008 |
| • |
December 07, 2008 |
| • |
December 21, 2008 |
| • |
December 28, 2008 |
| • |
February 15, 2009 |
| • |
February 22, 2009 |
| • |
April 12, 2009 |
| • |
April 19, 2009 |
| • |
April 26, 2009 |
| • |
May 03, 2009 |
| • |
May 10, 2009 |
| • |
May 17, 2009 |
| • |
May 24, 2009 |
| • |
May 31, 2009 |
| • |
June 07, 2009 |
| • |
June 14, 2009 |
| • |
June 21, 2009 |
| • |
July 05, 2009 |
| • |
July 12, 2009 |
| • |
July 19, 2009 |
| • |
August 02, 2009 |
| • |
August 30, 2009 |
| • |
September 06, 2009 |
| • |
September 20, 2009 |
| • |
October 04, 2009 |
| • |
October 11, 2009 |
| • |
October 18, 2009 |
| • |
November 08, 2009 |
| • |
November 15, 2009 |
| • |
November 22, 2009 |
| • |
November 29, 2009 |
| • |
December 27, 2009 |
| • |
January 03, 2010 |
| • |
January 10, 2010 |
| • |
January 17, 2010 |
| • |
January 24, 2010 |
| • |
January 31, 2010 |
| • |
March 14, 2010 |
| • |
March 21, 2010 |
| • |
March 28, 2010 |
| • |
April 04, 2010 |
| • |
April 18, 2010 |
| • |
April 25, 2010 |
|
|
| SOFTBALL LINKS |
|
|
|
Growing Pains
by Dave
Monday, October 06, 2008
I've heard a lot of local discussion about how the number of "travel teams" has been exploding over the past several years and that this has the sole effect of "watering down the talent pool." Teams aren't as good today as they were yesterday. My local experience tells me that both of these assertions are true to some extent. I figured this was just a normal cycle that would eventually play itself out. And my perceptions were that this was a peculiarly local event despite hearing a few comments to the contrary. So, when I read an article on the topic in "Fastpitch Delivery," the publication of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, I was a little surprised.
It seems like every year, several new teams pop up nearby. Last year, there were numerous new teams advertising for players right in my backyard. Some of these popped up in association with a new indoor facility. Some were outgrowths of other organizations where a group of parents became disatisfied with the old organization and set out to create a new one. Many were once local all-star clubs who ventured once or twice into the travel world, liked it, and resolved to stay. They opened their rosters up to kids outside the local community so as to draw in pitchers, coaching or whatever. Sometimes they broke away from their recreational roots, sometimes not. But, in any event, due to whatever causes, each year there were more teams than in the previous one.
Before I address the issue of whether the current expansion is good or bad, I want to look at the broad assertion that play today just isn't as good as it was yesterday. I'm talking broad strokes here not specifics. We'll get to the talent pool aspect a little further down. In my humble opinion, those who claim that play today is not as good as it was 15, 25, 30 years ago, are just plain wrong. They are wrong because they suffer from a delusion they can't indentify. I'm going to call this delusion "perception inflation" and I know of what I speak because I've suffered it myself and seen it in those close to me.
Several years ago, I got my first taste of travel ball at the 12U level. I went through a season being very impressed by the level of play. Then the next year I managed a team in the same age group. It quickly became apparent to me that the girls this year were not as good as those from the year before. I wondered if last year's group was just perhaps more talented. I remember that talent varies from one year to the next in whatever context you view it. Pro sports scouts will complain one year that the talent available for their draft is weak. A college sophomore may come out for the draft this year because he realizes he'll go higher than he would have last year or may next. It is clear that any given year will be stronger or weaker than any other. But, as it turned out, my perceptions about the second year group of 12Us was not a valid observation.
I realized I might not be poerceiving things right on one occassion. The older team needed to borrow some players including my daughter in order to field 9 for a tournament. The younger kids were happy to oblige. Our team had nothing that weekend so off we went. As I stood along the sidelines watching, it occurred to me that my 12s were holding up their end of the bargain. Actually, were it not for my 12s guesting, had they had their normal rostered kids, the team would have lost. These 12s were not less than their predecessors, they were probably better than them. But watching the current crop of 12s in its own vacuum, I hadn't realized that.
The next year, possessing full knowledge of perception inflation, I heard somebody whose kid had played for me made a similar observation. He lamented the degradation of the kids who remained back in 12U ball. The level of play was nothing like it had been the year prior. There were no kids around like the good kids from last year. He wished he had played his kid up.
Then I had the same revelation with respect to 14U. Then the same thing appeared to happen in high school, then showcase ball. These kids just weren't as good as their predecessors, unless of course, I was suffering from perception inflation. I studied the issue at length and in the end I had to admit that the only thing which had changed was my perceptions.
Then I saw this same phenomenon with respect to pitching. When my kid was first becoming a pitcher, we used to go watch this travel league. The kids were really pretty good. several A teams used this to prep for tournaments. The pitching appeared to be phenomenal to my inexperienced eye. As the years went by, my daughter learned to pitch and then began their travel ball careers. Before long they were playing in the very league we had watched. And I couldn't belive how weak the pitching had become. But thwe pitching hadn't become weak. It was about the same caliber. Again it was my perceptions which had changed.
A final way I can describe perception inflation involves an interesting observation I had last year with respect to high school baseball. I used to watch loads of baseball, any kind I could find. Those days are long over. Other than MLB on TV, I watch loads more softball than I do baseball. This has been the situations for years uncounted. Last year, we had nothing to do - no softball anywhere - so we went to watch our local high school baseball team play. Earlier in the day I had watched a very competitive softball game in which both pitchers were in the low 60s. Then we sat in back of the backstop for the baseball game. Both pitchers were probably chucking 80 or thereabouts. At one point, a kid came in who threw a little harder than the others. Now, when I was 15, I caught 85. I also saw pitchers allegedly near 90. But that was years ago. And I have to say that these kids' pitches looked slow, really slow. You could have fried an egg between release and pop. Then somebody told me "that second pitcher throws about 85 to 90." He looked slow to me. My perceptions had been inflated.
The level of play ten, twenty years ago in girls fastpitch softball may very well have been better than it is today but I doubt it. The pitchers are throwing 60+ at many of the top level games I've watched. The younger kids are throwing hard too. I've watched the radar readings. And if anything breaking pitches are far more common now than they were. All those great players are now giving lessons professionally. There are more instructors who can teach you the rise ball, a sweeping curve or a screwball than there were ten or twenty years ago. Either these coaches all stink or somebody is mistaken. There are many other apsects of the game for which there is training available today that was not available twenty years ago. There's no way the level of play has dropped off significantly.
I've exchanged many, many e-mails with folks seeking to start up a new travel club in every corner of this country. I feel as if I am familiar with almost every kind of reason to start a new club. I can't possibly go over every one but here are some of the more common ones:
In some rural areas, the local kids have to try out for one or two organizations. Often there are dozens and dozens of kids at tryouts including all the kids who played in the organization the year before. In a given age group, you've got a team which was younger (say 11s playing 12U or 13s playing 14U) in the previous year, plus a team of kids coming up, sometimes entirely intact, from the younger division. There are a few kids who never played travel before but who were standouts in rec and will be added to the team this year. Most newcomers won't make the cut.
After perhaps two years of this, the kids and their parents will become very frustrated with the process and lack of opportunity. The parents will say to themselves, we know she can play at this level - all she needs is a year of decent coaching. The organization which just can't fit these girls onto their rosters will begin to give the parents a bad taste in their mouths. They'll be frustrated but because they can see how easy it is to put something together, they'll begin to talk with others at the tryouts about maybe forming up another org. Or perhaps they'll go back to their rec orgs and demand that they put some sort of travel team together.
In another sort of scenario, people involved in one travel organization will get themselves upset over excessive fees, poor coaching, or some sort of perceived shortcoming of the existing travel org. They'll break away and form up anew or get the backing of a local rec league and take the entire team to a new location. The old org doesn't want to surrender. They need to field something at the age group so they'll conduct tryouts and, voila, where there was one team, now there are two.
In yet another scenario, sometimes a rec program will just end up having somebody onboard who is a little more farsighted, a little more visionary than those who preceded. This individual will see the opportunity to bring up local girls' games by drafting the best kids in the rec league, practicing after rec ball is over and then participating in a few tournaments. Maybe the Little League, or other sanctioning body, team got summarily booted out of the international championship tournament by a team which will continue on to a pretty high level. The organizers of the all-star team practiced every day for three weeks with a pretty good group of girls only to play just 3 games before being rudely sent home. They bought uniforms, the girls are just starting to really play well together, everybody would like the thing to continue. Somebody sees something about a tournament posted, calls a couple friends from the team, and before long, a few more games are arranged for. These folks get a taste of B tournaments and decide they'd like to do another. Accidently, they walk into an A tournament and see a whole other Universe open up. They can't compete with this level this year - they don't have the pitching, they aren't familiar with the tactics, they need a few more players ... and they'd like to compete at this level next year!
For whatever the causes, there are more teams this year and they'll be even more yet again next year. The jungle gets really thick after several years of this. After a while, new players and their parents begin to see nothing more or less than a sea of names of the various organizations. They can't distinguish between one travel program which always has good coaching and training, always played top level tournaments, been around for 20 or 50 years, and another which is really just starting. Many times people will join a program and then, when it is too late, discover that this one only plays B tournaments, that has weak coaching, this one loses all the good players from tryouts to that other organization, etc., etc. It is a jungle and it gets more overgrown every year.
Over time, many of the old stalwart organizations begin to have trouble attracting talent. Some of the new ones pull in better and better kids. New talented coaches might not even know of the old stalwarts. A few kids want to stop driving 45 minutes, one hour or more, to practice and would prefer to play with their school friends. The result is the level of play on a top team by top team basis is in fact watered down.
The top team, usually made up of the top 12 girls from within a 40 mile radius, finds one year it can only get 6 or 8 or 11 such athletes. It's draw radius has diominished to 30 miles. or maybe a competing organization has cut its draw in half. The same thing happens to the team they beat at last year's state or regional championship. Perhaps the next ten teams in the pecking order struggle to find a third pitcher or catcher. These girls want to pitch, after all, and they will not be happy to sit the bench 5 of 6 games when they can actually pitch and play 5 of 6 for another set of coaches while wearing a different colored uniform and maybe cutting down the practice commute by ten minutes each way. The top teams begin lamenting the watering down of the talent pool.
This watering down really does occur. Team 1 can only get two pitchers this year. Team 2 would be great if they could only find a true A-ball catcher. Team 3 has all the makings of a great team but when you get down to their 8th through 12th players, these girls would never have made a travel team 5 years ago. Team 4 has three good infielders. Teams 5 through 15 have half the number of decent hitters they used to get. They still may be the top teams in their state or region, at least for now. But the level of competition is reduced since everybody else has a diminished level of quality on their rosters too.
Folks begin claiming that softball is going down. There's just too many teams out there. The level of competition is going to suffer. The game is going to suffer. That's one way to look at the situation. That's the glass half empty point of view. I'd prefer to see things a little differently. In softball, I suppose I'm more of a glass half full kind of person.
The things which cause my optimism in the ever increasing fastpitch travel world involve observations from my youth, experiences as a coach, and some good old fashioned common sense. You are free to disagree but you'll have a hard time convincing me.
First of all, when I was a kid, we had rec baseball and that was it until a player got old enough to play Legion or some such. Our rec season was something like 15 games or thereabouts. We played Saturday mornings. If a game got rained out, we usually lost it due to the difficulty of recheduling. If we were lucky, it might get fit in at the end of the season. And once the season was truly over, we were left to our own devices.
We filled the gaps with several varieties of stick ball, some fairly sophisticated whiffle ball, and whatever else we could figure out on our own. We couldn't really play 9 on 9 live pitched baseball. It was extremely difficult to organize 18 or more kids at one field. If we were able to get nearly that number together, the age span was generally far too broad to make the play meaningful. And there was always the issue of strike zone. We played stickball of one or another variety almost every day. It was easy to steal a broomstick and then wait by the tennis courts until somebody hit one over the fence. There's a good reason why tennis balls come three to a can. Two for your game and one hit over the fence for the kids to use for their stickball game, we reasoned. And most of the tennis players were too lazy to chase us or figure out that we were around the corner with their ball. One tennis player once did figure this out and came round to reclaim his property. That was interesting.
Whiffle ball was a great passtime. Somebody always had a whiffle ball and bat. We formed up teams of two or three and sometimes put together entire leagues. Some of the time, we actually kept stats. BJ led the league with over 50 home runs one year. That didn't include those hit during the occassional homerun derby exhibition. But the next year, the commissioner decided these would count and there was a near mutiny. It wasn't fair anyways because we had decided that any ball hitting the overhanging tree branch in right field was a homer and BJ was lefty. None of us could hit to the opposite field with power like that until ... we started practicing to do just that. After that point, BJ never again led the league in homers! And we all became fairly accomplished opposite field hitters!!
With all the fun we had playing stickball and whiffle leagues, we still would have preferred to play the real game. But there was nothing available. Our rec league had some sort of all-star program from age 12 up but the teams were filled with the second and third best players whose fathers all coached. The good kids from rec never made it to the all-stars. Then one day, one of the coaches got tired of getting beaten and put a few decent kids on his son's all-star team. This opened it up and from that point forwards, all-stars became a reality. Only the fellow who managed the all-star team had an actual kid on it. That left lots of slots for the rest of us and we gladly took advantage of the opportunity. But this had the effect of merely adding another 15 or 20 games to our experience. We were completely jealous of major leaguers playing 162. We would have killed our teachers and our enemies in order to get something like that.
When I think back to my youth and then compare it to today, well, there is no comparison. My kids initially got just the usual 15 or so game rec season plus a few more games at all-stars. Then we discovered something called "fall ball." (Fall ball? What a great idea. Why were our parents too stupid not to have had fall ball for us? Then again, the pee wee football field ran right through the baseball field.) My kids were able to double their pleasure, double their fun with the additional fall ball schedule. But this was just not enough. They wanted to play more.
Another brutal reality of my youth is that there was no real instruction. I remember a camp ten miles from my home and went to it. But that was maybe 3 whole day and two half ones and, poof, it was over. We learned lots there but I could have used about two more months worth of training. I would have gladly done baseball drills from sun up til sun down for the entire summer. I wouldn;t have cared how hard the drills were or how hot it was out. Heck, I would have played baseball in the rain any day just to play some more. By contrast, my kids are able to go to any of several good instructors several times a week, join in more clinics than I played games, etc., etc. all within ten miles of their home. And they do! Perhaps most importantly, because they play travel ball, they often get in 70, 80, sometimes more actual games each year.
The second traunch of my optimism over the increasing number of softball teams comes from my own experiences as a coach. For one thing, I'm not at all married to the notion of "natural talent." I have seen far too many kids in far too many sports who were "naturally talented" fall by the wayside because they did not drill and thereby enhance their synapses and cultivate their "natural ability." I have also seen many kids who by acts of sheer will, available practice time, etc. pull themselves up to a high level fairly rapidly. Too many times that really good kid who at 10U was the brightest star but for whatever reason stopped working, becomes a mediocre player. Some suggest there is some sort of finite pool of talent, those good natural athletes, who all the really good travel clubs compete over. Make more teams and the "talent pool" gets spread to more teams, period. OK, but what about coaching?
To me, if we go back to those mythical teams spoken of above, I expect that their coaches will want to win despite theri ability to draw in another pitcher, a very good catcher, a fourth infielder, some decent outfielders. And if they want to win, the best thing they can do to insure that is to work these secondarily talented kids really hard. Their roster of 12 includes just 6 or 8 true A ball players and maybe little cats numbered 9 - 12 couldn't make a travel team 5 years ago but after four or five months of practicing, I suggest to you that it is just possible these girls will be as good as the ones they replace. Oh, it may take longer than that but given loads of practice under decent tutelage, and they will be every bit as good as yesteryear's players from the thicker talent pool.
The kids who moved over to the "new teams" may or may not thrive under the new coaching. There are certainly a limited number of people who step to the plate knowing how to coach a softball team. On the other hand, there are those who might be OK at it but really care about succeeding. These people are going to get exposure, learn, improve, and go at it when in years past with fewer teams around, they might just sit along the sidelines watching their daughters play. Now, instead, they're involved. They are making a net contribution to the "talent pool" of available coaching. This never fails to happen. And the kids are always the beneficiaries. If the number of teams were fixed, scores and scores of kids would only play rec and then join impromptu computer games teams at their friends houses after school when they turned 14.
In terms of common sense, it stands to reason that when, for example, the major leagues of baseball expand, there is insufficient pitching and other talent to go around. The level of play takes an initial step backwards. Somebody with real talent hits .375, another drills 60 homeruns, scores go up, etc. Then things settle down as the level of play gradually gets restored. When we talk of "expansion years" and the records which are broken therein, we foten forget to talk about the following ten or twenty years during which the play again achieves a high level. Instead we look to the expansion which takes plays a couple decades hence and lament anew the diminished play. But every time expansion is tried, after the initial period, everything works out for the better. Growing poains are a natural outcome of growth. Despite the recent pain in the financial markets we always come back to the eventual conclusion that growth is good. Growth empowers the masses. Growth provides opportunity. There is no real limit to the talent pool or maybe there is. But that limit is never realized until the growing thing has reached its optimal level. We are nowhere near an optimal level in the sport of fastpitch softball.Labels: youth tournament teams
Permanent Link: Growing Pains
 
|
|
|
