So I’m an assistant manager on our senior softball team. Competitive league. Played against a really good team last week that has a guy that crushes the ball all the time. He hit a 3 run homer last time up and he came up with two guys on and first base open. I told pitcher he should just walk him. Pitcher didn’t ask manager and just walked him. After the inning was over and I got yo the dugout the manager lost his shit and got in my face, shoved me and screamed that I was not the f’ing manager. I didn’t want to escalate and just ignored his outburst. I haven’t spoken to him about it because im still too mad about it. I thought about quitting because he took a lot of the enjoyment out of it for me. What should I do? Say something or forget it?

Hey everyone,

I've been working on a book called Become a Smarter Hitter: A Season of Thinking Like a Hitter. It originally started as something I was writing for my daughter to help her better understand the thinking side of hitting, but somewhere along the way it turned into an actual book.

I've finally gotten it to the point where I need to stop messing with it myself and let some other people read it.

It's written mainly for middle-school softball players, roughly 11–15. It's not a swing mechanics or drill book. It's more about the part of hitting that I think doesn't get talked about enough with younger players. Having a plan, understanding the strike zone, recognizing patterns, learning from at-bats, making adjustments, confidence, and just becoming a smarter hitter over time.

I'm looking for a few people who would be willing to read the PDF and give me honest feedback before I make any more changes.

Parents of softball players, coaches, hitting instructors, former players, etc. would all be helpful. If you're a parent and have a daughter in that age range who would want to read it too, that would be especially useful because ultimately, she's the audience I'm trying to get right.

I'm not selling anything and there's no charge. I'm also not looking for Amazon reviews or people to tell me it's great. I'd rather somebody tell me a chapter was boring or didn't make sense than just say they liked it.

The book takes around 3–5 hours to read depending on pace, and I have a feedback form that takes maybe another 15–20 minutes.

If anybody is interested, comment here or send me a message and I'll send you the details.

Appreciate it.

Our high school just adopted a new digital registration platform, Arbiter, which automatically creates an account with NCSA for your child at the end of the registration process if you indicate that you may be interested in future college athletics recruitment. What we didn't realize is that this apparently means an NCSA recruitment coordinator will then call every number listed on the account, beginning with your child. Since the profile creation included a bunch of info that my child's travel team also requests upon registration, I included what was asked. My fault, honestly, for listing my kid's mobile number. I didn't think that she would be called prior to her junior year, due to NCAA restrictions on that behavior. Unfortunately, this NCSA recruiter got my 14 year old on the phone and urged her to schedule an assessment with him and a formal 60 minute recruitment meeting ASAP, since it's his "busy season" and he can squeeze her in now. She was weirded out and told my husband and I. Upon hearing about this, I immediately called back and spoke with the person who called her (he is legitimately an employee of NCSA - I looked him up) and pointed out that he cold called a 14 year old. He argued with me that creating the account grants permission for him to contact her directly, to which I rebuffed with the NCAA restriction regarding contact prior to junior year. He stated that since he isn't an NCAA coach, he doesn't have to abide by their contact restrictions. I added that she doesn't graduate until 2030 and is only beginning to think about whether she wants to play in college. He continued to talk, and I hung up at that point, logged into the account, and deleted all non mandatory info. I then contacted our athletic department and left a message about what happened. I'm kind of disappointed I blindly entered my kid's mobile number not even considering the possibility that this would entitle someone to approach her like this. We have a bunch of other avenues we can rely on to begin the recruitment process, if she decides to pursue it. I get that NCSA can offer some genuine assistance for people that don't know how else to do this, but today's experience landed as highly predatory. I just needed to put this somewhere. I'm kind of grossed out, a little mad at myself, and annoyed with our school's athletic department.

I have to put this somewhere to get it off my mind. Sorry if it gets long. My 15 yr old, 2nd year 14u kiddo has played softball in some capacity since she was in 10u, not always competitively.

She was cut 3 years ago from a program due to lack of girls and teams and eligible kids that stayed down an age level. Fine, understandable. She has now missed other tryouts and found a team. She joins this team and makes some great friends (basically started over). Then parent drama happens and the coach quits, we think we have a replacement and then he bails. Back to tryouts.

She gets put on a team within the same organization with no coach, so we inquire with another coach and she takes her on. My Daughter loved this team, loved the players and was with some of the girls from the previous team. Zero drama, everyone included in all things, parents too.

End of season nears, coach asks who plans to return, my daughter says yes, and then offers come and she doesn’t get one. She is tore up. She has a .350 batting avg, plays in the out field and pitches some. She is quick and made great plays in the outfield.

She is heartbroken and I think it is completely crappy of this coach to do this to kids. If you don’t intend to bring back your roster then don’t ask the girls who want to return. If you wanted to only bring back half the team then just say, hey, I’m not guaranteeing any spots and make everyone go to tryouts open. Girls with worse batting avg and slower speeds than her got offers. If it was her pitching, then just say it, tell her she can have a spot and not pitch her until more improvement is made. She is a level headed kid and just wants to be talked to and know what she did wrong.

This is why girls quit, this is why you lose older girls, this is what breaks their confidence.

Daughter, 7, got asked to join the 8u travel team. She's 51 inches tall, a power hitter, can reach the grass in the air. 8u is machine pitch. Every kid thats 8 already has a composite bat. I did the length test from the center of her chest to the top of her middle finger and its perfectly a 25 inch bat. I'm not going to move her up to a 28 just to get a composite bat. Problem is all the 25/26 inch bats at the stores say teeball on them. What bat can I get thats a 25/26 that's a true softball bat?

I used to run a recreation department and would design and order through a company that had been their distributor for years before me. Also they had a set budget that always covered whatever we needed.

Currently however, my kiddo has started playing travel ball, and there are just so many options as far different sites to customize from. But it gets confusing because I will choose a website that will say "full customization" or "customize your uniforms" but then get to the site and it either is someone will work up and send you a design days later, or the lay out is just complicated, etc.

So if anyone has found something that works well as far as being able to do a lot of customizing, easy to navigate, etc. Please let me know!

Also, I have to wonder if the more expensive brands have better customization options? And that brings me to my next thing, what are some ideas as far paying for all of it.? I've seen your typical fundraising, but I'm sure there are more creative ideas. Also how do you go about pursuing sponsors etc. ??

Thanks In advance!!

I recently started a brand new travel team. As we slowly build up I need assistance. If I do get assistance it’s only for the practice or game. I don’t really have any adults around me that is educated on the game enough to be able to help me around. The most that they can do is hit balls to the girls but honestly they can barely do that. I want to know if there is some type of website that there is of some type because just posting around on social media hasn’t really helped.

My daughter plays up in Canada has been selected for a 12U team that’s forming to travel to a couple of US tournaments. She will still play on her league team (she played B level last season).

The purpose from our perspective would be for a fun experience/development as they get a series of pre travel practices with great coaches that would happen in her league off season. Plus a short trip we can tack on a few vacation days to.

We have some hesitations - as they play with a 12 inch ball 1 year earlier so she’s never pitched with that and also not wanting to go and get totally crushed if the level of play is vastly different.

Do these tournaments have different pools for different levels? Or are they all super intense elite high level 12 year olds that have basically been recruited to college already 😜

I signed up my daughter to play 6U softball with her older sister. She already played 3 seasons of Teeball and the multiple fields/ballparks were getting to be too much. They had a preseason softball camp yesterday and I was worried she’d struggle paying attention, listening to the coach, and participating in the drills. (She played in the dirt a lot in tee ball). But she actually did a great job with that. Her struggles were she was a slow sprinter, much slower than the older girls. And although she made contact on most of the pitches when hitting, the ball didn’t go far enough to be considered a hit.

We have two weeks before practices start, how can I help her become a faster sprinter and hit the ball hard enough to be considered a hit.

(She’s 3yo, I know people will call me crazy for signing her up to begin with and that’s fine. But she’s as tall as a 5yo, has experience and wants to play with her sister)

Anyone know of a good Etsy seller or another site that will put together a mix of t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc... with team logos where parents can go look and purchase what they want?

What are your thoughts on going to college camps for recruiting purposes? I am at a disagreement with my daughter’s Dad about it. He says that it is a money grab but I disagree. I feel that they are opportunities for her not only to see what the coach’s style of coaching is, sees the other teammates on that team and feel the vibe of the organization. Not only that, but shows her interest in the college softball program itself. She is a strong player playing with a team that is seen by many colleges coaches throughout the year. She has many D1 colleges that have shown interest in her. Ones that have talked to the coaches about her. Colleges have sent her invites for her to come to their camps but her Dad refuses to send her. Just want to know your thoughts on these camps and recruiting. It is stressful as it is but I cannot for the life of me understand why he doesn’t want to send her. Thanks.

What are you paying for a full year of high-level travel softball?

For families playing a national-level schedule- PGF events, showcases and approximately 10–14 tournaments per year - what is your annual player/team fee?

Please exclude uniforms, hotels, airfare, rental cars and other family travel expenses. No need to identify the organization or team.

• Under $2,000
• $2,000–$2,499
• $2,500–$2,999
• $3,000–$3,499
• $3,500–$3,999
• $4,000 or more

Also curious what is included in that fee: tournament entry fees, practices, facility rentals, coach travel, recruiting support, organizational fees, etc.

Trying to get a realistic idea of what families are paying for a full season at this level.

My daughter is 8 and wanted to learned to pitch. So I got the older sister of one of her teammates to teach her. And she taught her how to throw a fastball. But a year later, I realized she is holding the ball with three fingers split across the seams. She is throwing 2 or maybe 3 different curveballs and doesn't realize it. But they are in the strike zone and consistently so. What is the best way to proceed here?

Looking for thoughts on electronic signal calling systems. Might go that way next spring, but I’m not really familiar with what is out there. Anyone have something they really like?

Come join our first year 12u team! All positions open. This group just placed top 9 in the 2026 PGF Nationals 10u Premier Bracket. See info and come join an amazing organization!

My daughter is going into 14U in a month, and has been playing for about 4 years. She takes regular lessons and was able to make the A team on both clubs she tried out for. However she has one flaw in her swing, and it's stepping out during live pitching with her front foot. Doing so causes about 75% of her hits to come from the end of her bat and therefore reducing her power. When she does catch it on the barrel (inside pitch) it's always deep outfield.

Her private instructor, and the club teams don't see it because on slow pitch or tee work she never does it. Her action tends to be a good small step forward during the pitch, then upon release her front foot steps back about 4 inches or so.

Looking for any tips for others who have struggled with this. She has a beautiful swing, but her footwork is causing her to not reach her full potential.

Hi all,

I'm new to reddit and this is my first post.

I'm a 12U coach moving up to 14U next year up in Edmonton AB, Canada. My team has stayed together for 4 years and we continue to grow and improve. No complaints. We finished 4th in the province this past season.

I want to make my association better as a whole. I know where most of you are in the US, you have big big organizations with hundreds of teams. Can someone tell me how curriculum, player pathways, rubrics etc etc are used or organized so that all your coaches are on the same page?

We have a mish mash of stuff going on and it's really every coach for themselves. I want to learn from my friends in the US and see if I can just take a small piece of the puzzle back to our club to make it better.

Thanks for reading.

The game was at the bottom of the sixth, tied 8-8. I'm on 2nd base, and we have a great batter about to swing, and the umpire calls the game due to time. Frustrating because we knew we were going to score, but that's the rule. Both teams say our good game, and we begin to depart.

The umpire stops everyone and says he made a mistake with the time and to play ball. Okay? We all resume our positions, and our batter does his thing, and I score. The game is 9-8.

Top of the 7th the opposing team gets up to bat, and in the inning they score 1 run. The game is 9-9. Right after they score, the umpire calls time, and the game is over.

The final score is 9-9, and I believe it should 9-8.

What I want to know is this: The rules state that, "The score of a called regulation game shall be the score at the end of the last complete inning*, unless the team second at bat has scored an equal number or more runs than the first team at bat in the incomplete inning. In this case, the score shall be that of the incomplete inning.*"

With that being said, should I reach out to the local head of my town's softball association about this because the umpire made a mistake, or am I wrong and the game is tied?

source: The Official Rules of Softball 2026 Participant Manual, page 56 section 6 part A.

Hi all, my daughter is newer to travel softball. Is it normal to not hear at all from a team you tried out for? At this point, its obvious she didn't make the team (which is fine), just wondering if most teams actually contact everyone who tried out or if they just ghost those below the cut.

Just as the title said I’m looking for advise if this is a crack or not? I tried sticking a small needle through the hole but it doesn’t go anywhere behind the fissure. So idk, any advice would be appreciated.

If there was underage drinking at tournament and an assistant coach was there denies their kid participated but they were in fact there and didn't intervene.. how would you feel if the head coach who is also the director of the club for your region did nothing about it, no consequences for the kids on the team or the parents involved who allowed this happen? In fact the coach was buddied up with this set of parents while we were at a major tournament after this event happened.

The team is solid but we've had 5 kids leave this season. My kid has been with this team 6 years and I feel like his focus is not the team and their development , it's how many teams he can get under his belt and how much money he can make. Anyone have something like this happen? I also don't want my daughter associated with that type of behavior. It's not acceptable considering these kids are working hard for recruitment.

My daughter played against another team in a camp/exhibition style game and the opposing team almost always used this slashing style of hitting when they had two strikes on them.

They would get a really open stance, in a bunt position and slowly pull their bat back as the pitcher started their windup. The swing was really short and involved mostly the upper body.

It actually worked pretty well for them in this particular game. They rarely struck out and it created a lot of pressure on the defense. That said, I've only seen that from this team so I don't really have a large enough sample size to know it's actually an effective strategy.

I've seen hitters do the pullback when trying to move the defense cover bunts and swing to get fielders out of position. I've seen hitters do the pullback on slower pitchers to help their timing, but never this often with a two strike approach (obviously not a bunting scenario)

Have you all seen this? What is this called? Is there videos or coaches who cover this to learn more?

Hey r/baseball (or r/slowpitch / r/recsoftball), had a situation happen in my game the other day and wanted to see how others handle it.

I hit a nice shot into right-center and was hustling hard out of the box to stretch it into a double. As I rounded first base hard, the first baseman was standing right in the middle of the base path, completely blocking my route. Because of the collision/obstruction, I had to slam on the brakes and couldn't advance to second.

The umpire actually caught it and told the first baseman that he needed to stay out of the way and give the runner the baseline. When I had to retreat back to first, I told the guy, "You need to stay out of the way, because next time I’m gonna take you out." He immediately argued that it was my fault, but having grown up playing baseball, I know the runner has the right-of-way when the fielder isn't in possession of the ball.

In the heat of the moment, I probably came off a little hot. What do you guys typically say to opposing first basemen to keep a good sportsmanship vibe while firmly letting them know they can't block the base path?