u/pzahornasky

Tryout season for softball just completed here in New England. Teams are being set for Fall 2026/Summer 2027.

Except that I continually see posts on Facebook in the regional softball groups I am in (and by clubs that I follow) that they are looking for a few more players at each of their age levels. And not just new or 'never heard of that club' types, but well know clubs with long histories.

Clearly there is a glut of softball clubs out there compared to demand, but is this driven by lagging interest in the sport in New England?

I contrast this to volleyball where most clubs also just had tryouts and, if you didn't get an offer, you are waiting until Novemeber when a few clubs will hold tryouts to fill their lower level and developmental teams.

Like the title says. Daughter has a Kyro but I want to find her a used bat for practice. The two used bats we have are end loaded and she feels it impacts her swing. I think she is full of it, but I'm just her dad, what do I know?

Outside of another Kyro (which seem hard to find used at a practice bat price), what bats would be similar in feel in practice. I see a fair amount of LS LTX bats come up at good prices. Similar enough?

The question I have is: Why don't the sanctioning bodies have some sort of requirment to have a minimum level of athletic training/medical on site? This was an FPN sanctioned tournament but I have never seen any at a USA Softball tournament either. Meanwhile, every club volleyball tournament I attend has a medical table with a trainer available.

The details:

This weekend we were at a 16U tournament with 8 teams on two fields. There was a rundown between 1st and 2nd. While the runner was heading towards second, the shortstop attempted to take the throw and swipe tag the runner. Only she missed and the ball hit her in the right forehead. Ball was thrown so hard it ended up in shallow center afterwards.

Girl dropped to the ground. Coaches and the girl's mom rush out. After a bit of time they had to physically help her off the field (which apparently was the wrong thing to do). Fortunately one of the teams waiting to play had a mom that was a nurse and she jumped in as the girl was having seizures in the dugout.

Someone else (also a parent of a team waiting to play) called 911 to get an ambulance. The girl ended up being medflighted to a hospital with a Level 1 Trauma care unit.

The coaches in this situation were clearly, from talking with the nurse after, not trained to deal with this at all and were making suggestions that would have put the girl at risk. I know coaches have to go through concussion protocol training. I have done it myself. It does not deal with this level of injury.

Injuries happen. This nurse said last year, at the same tournament, she had to assist with a broken leg and had to assist at another tournament later in the year for a different injury. Coaches might be trained in basic first aid, but they are generally not equiped to handle much more than a sprain or a bruise. Even for a sprain, it is better to have a trainer looking at it vs a coach that has his/her mind half on the game.

Greater context -

Daughter had a tournament this weekend. On Sunday the field we were at had fairly thick woods lining the first base side. On top of that there was a fence between the woods and field so chasing down fouls was a challenge. In our Sunday game alone we lost at least two, maybe three basically brand new balls.

We got booted early, but I live close and, once I knew play on that field was complete, headed over and bushwacked through the woods. Ended up with 4 new balls and 4 used, although one of those was probably new that weekend as the seams were still raised and it wasn't that dirty.

Concerned about waterlogged balls I weighted all of them on a postal scale. To my surprise the older ones were abot 6oz or slightly less. The new ones were about 6.5oz or a little more (regulation is 6.25 to 7oz).

Then we went out to pitch using one of the new balls. She thought it felt heavy compared to the usual balls we use (which are a couple of years old but are only used for pitching practice.) Sure enough the older pitching softballs are also coming in at 6oz.

We are going to relegate the older balls to the hitting bucket and put the newer ones into the pitching bag.

Just curious about why they would lose weight though.

https://preview.redd.it/3a7nth52nv8h1.jpg?width=1493&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb070de4a85adf021c4474649a5fb5c26f094de3

Planning on going into Boston the week that the Tall Ships are in port. I have paddled the inner harbor before, putting in at the public boat ramp in Charleston. It's a good paddle from there to get to the downtown waterfront area where I assume most of the ships will be.

Right now I am planning on doing the same again, but wonder if anyone has any other put-in spots that might be closer to the areas that the ships will be docked.

As the title says.

Daughter was on the rubber. Little flair that went behind her and to the right. She gets her glove on it but it pops out.

After the game she claimed it was because the glove was TOO broken in and she couldn't squeeze it. This is a 12.5 glove.

What does Reddit think?

EDIT: Thank you all. I am going to look at the laces as it seems the top of the glove is too loose .

EDIT #2: Tightened the laces up. We'll see if that helps. Realistically, it's not critcal. She fields a ball as the pitcher maybe one or twice a game and has a different glove for outfield work.