r/Softball

Under $100 bats non composite vs high end composite. All things equal (speed of pitch, launch angle, same exact sweet spot of barrell) is the $400 bat really gonna have that much more exit velocity? Seriously, like maybe 2-4% more exit velocity? 5 feet longer on a line drive to the gap?

Or do you expect them to be volunteers same as the board members and coaches?

If you pay officials, what is the rationale behind paying them but not paying coaches?

I'm a high school softball player. I'm currently in my senior year, but I'm only just now starting the sport. I've never liked sports because they've always been painful to me (despite my health being okay for the most part) and I've felt inadequate. I'm slow at running and making decisions and pretty much everything (the decision and mental parts are a result of depression and ADHD mixing badly, according to my doctor), I can't catch anything to save my life, I can't field balls, and I can't even throw properly, as recently, throwing has been popping my shoulder out of its socket each time. I am hypermobile, just to stem any worries about that part! Not that it doesn't hurt a bunch each time. I also have issues with stamina, endurance, running, walking, cheering, hitting, team relations, and even the rules of the game itself. Not that anybody ever explained that to me, but that's okay.

The real problem is my running, which also means my stamina, endurance, and my ankles (which are weirdly messed up, similar to my shoulder when I throw). The ankle issue is solved easily with ankle wraps and supportive in-soles, but I can't seem to build endurance and stamina for the life of me.

I'm not sure I should continue the sport for the sake of the team, but I need to play because I have to get another P.E. credit to graduate high school.

If anyone has advice or any tips to help me build stamina and get better at the game, please let me know! I don't want to keep dragging my team down, even if my team members dislike me (which they mostly do).

***TLDR***; senior in high school has inadequate ability, stamina, and endurance to play properly and is worried about hurting the team. Any tips welcome.

Definitely not new to youth sports, but we've got our first team/family meeting this weekend. After taking our bumps and bruises last season (I was an assistant coach) things really went sideways with parents particularly. I want to establish the expectations for the team. Communication, Team Roles, Playing Time, Coaching From The Sidelines, Effort/Attitude, Team First Mentality, I'm good with most of that. After all of the normal stuff, what were some of your blind spots? Thanks everyone!

Possible dumb question, but is the Kinetic Arm sleeve at all viable for underhand throwing/pitchers? From all of the reviews I see, it looks like a device that supports the shoulder/bicep for baseball pitchers and all position players throwing overhand but I'm wondering if it would help with underhand softball pitching motion as well.

My daughter's team was an 13U-A team at the end of the season last year. 9 players from that team are returning for 14U. We have a total of 11 players. Our two new players are coming from a high level 14U-B team. Our coach told the girls that he wants to play 14U-B level ball this season. He didn't say a word about this during tryouts nor did he tell the parents.

Under USSSA Fastpitch rules is this allowed? As a side note, the head coach registered our team under a different coaches' name but it is the same team name with 9 of the same players.

My little girl starts her first season of softball in a couple of weeks. I got her a used broke in glove and we’ve been tossing in the backyard the last month or so. Visited a batting cage a few times, I purchased a batting helmet and some batting gloves.

My goal is to set her up to enjoy the sport as much as possible.

I’m looking for recommendations on the following and consider her “newness” in terms of price point while also wanting her to be comfortable and feel good with going into a new sport.

- Fielder’s Mask
- Bat (what drop is recommended? Pretty strong & tall for her age), should I buy used?
- Equipment Bag
- anything else she will eventually need, accessories, etc

I have a net and some whiffle balls in the backyard to do soft toss with also.

We have a local chain of “Play It Again Sports” in my area that has lots of used equipment but I don’t mind buying new at all for the right gear.

Just curious if anyone still has adult fastpitch leagues near them? If so, where are you located and how many teams?

So I currently have a tote with wheels that holds a bucket of balls, my glove and my wife’s glove, cones and a few 1/4 pvc pipes. Also have a handful of spare gear for the girls and other odd and ends. On practice days that leaves me with two buckets of balls and my catchers by hand. I’m realizing now that on game days I’m only going to need a fraction of that stuff and even during practice I really only use the three buckets of balls, cones and catchers gear. I think what I’m wanting is an oversized duffle bag so I can keep the catcher gear, spare gear for the girls and the cones in it. It doesn’t need to carry a bat because my daughter only uses two out of her four bat slots. Any recommendations on a cheap but sturdy duffle bag? Or what do yall use?

hello! I’m 15 F and have done this sport since I was 4 and I really enjoy this sport, but I’m getting extremely stressed out playing rep / trying out for rep teams. ( Been playing rep for 4 years) I’m just at the point in my life where I want to focus more time on grades and have less stress in my life. The thing is my mom has been playing this sport since she grew up and it’s a really big part of our life’s year round. But I just feel like playing house this year because of stress and I want to focus more on grades. When I tell her that she says “your too good for house” or “you will be so bored” and I’ve tried talking to her about it nicely and she gets angry at me. I really don’t know what to do looking for genuine advice. (I typed this up quick and know my grammar is horrible)

My daughter just got a new glove, it's white with light pink laces. I'm trying to think ahead here, what is the best cleaner to get? & The best conditioner too I guess?

I'm her mom and never played, so I have no idea about glove maintenance lol any advice is appreciated!

My daughter's 26 kryo has a different sound than it used to. It's loud and sounds kind of like loose plastic getting hit and vibrating kind of hard to describe. It's only when she makes contact and has no rattles if you shake it, no cracks and the handle is tight. Is this a normal sound from a kryo or is there something wrong with it.

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.

Different kind of post tonight, but looking for recommendations on your favorite chair for those long days at the field. Looking for something new with a higher weight limit, that’s super comfortable. I looked into the new oversized chairs but with all that padding and no mesh… I’m worried how hot it gets in the summer. I’d love some links to read reviews.

This is our first summer on a travel team, and with the fall season coming up, I’m wondering how it is all going to fit into our lives.

We don’t have the official fall schedule yet, but this summer there is practice four nights a week and then a local-ish tournament every other weekend or so. It’s been manageable because it is summertime and we don’t have much else going on.

Fall is looking like practice 2 to 3 nights a week one game a week and then a tournament every other weekend. Plus, school and other after school obligations. Her hitting instructor availability overlapped with the summer practice schedule so we took a break from that but needs to get back to it. Plus I have another daughter who is as equally involved in her extracurricular activities. My husband and I both work full-time. He works a lot of nights and weekends. I work from home so I am super lucky to have a flexible schedule so that helps a little bit.

I know so many of us are in the same boat. So I need to ask how do you seasoned travel families do it? What are your tips for squeezing it all in? Having healthy meals. Not having to drive through Chick-fil-A every night. Making sure School is the focus that it needs to be. Getting enough sleep. Being there for both kids and not missing anything. Generally not going crazy of the next 3-4 months?

I’ll preface this with my kid is one of the best on the team so she plays the most innings, plays multiple positions(all the positions I want her to play) and gets the most AB’s on the team. Best BA, most hits, etc etc. So I’m 100% happy with my kids role on the team.

The problem is the team sucks because the coaches kids play crucial positions that are vital at winning and they’re not very good at it. The catcher in particular. We’ll never win games as long as the coaches kids are in heavy rotation with playing time because they’re not developing. In fact they might be getting worse tbh.

I think she’d have more fun on a team that wins, even if it means playing less(or at least taking a season to work up from new on the team to legitimate playing time) But idk. Travel Ball is a lot of money to start from scratch on a new team. Also I think her development may advance more rapidly as well on a better team, but again idk. My friends say she’s developed more rapidly because I work with her individually on off days but I also believe it’s 50/50 with the coaches for my kids development, not just me/parents. What makes me question the coaching abilities are, if you can’t develop your own kid, are you really helping that much with developing mine?

Why move is she’s playing and developing at a rate I’m happy with? Grass isn’t always greener. But also could she develop more so on a better team? Would she have fun on another team? So many variables. Anybody else been in a similar situation, if so how did it play out?

We've been casually looking for a chance to move to a competitive 12U team, and I have to say I'm shocked by how bad teams are at this stuff.

These AI-generated posters you see on FB and softball groups are particularly big offenders. How do you not put where you play? Do you think you're going to sweet-talk me into driving three hours each way for practices? Also, how do you not think to list the date of the tryout ("Wednesday" could be a lot of Wednesdays, particularly with how the algorithms work - this could be this week, it could have been 2021).

Then there's the coaches. Hey, we're only one player away, we swear we have a whole squad but we won't talk about who they are and need your commitment no later than tomorrow. Your kid will play their position and middle outfield and bat cleanup. C'mon, what are you, used car salesmen?

But my new favorite? Team where they swear they're great coaches and love the kids but absolutely will not tell you where they're playing so you can go see a game and where they absolutely won't give you access to see a game recording in Gamechanger. Let me tell you man, there's nothing you could possibly be hiding that's worse than what I assume here.

For a lot of these professional coaches, this is your job man. How are you this bad at it?

Just curious how other travel softball teams handle monthly dues and late payments.
My husband coaches a team, and right now we have parents send their monthly dues through Zelle or Venmo. Dues are due on the 1st of every month, but today is the 12th and we still have five players who haven’t paid.
It’s honestly getting really frustrating having to constantly message parents and remind them, especially when the due date is the same every month. Are dues around the same amount of other travel teams in our area. I would say maybe even less. The team still has fields, tournaments, insurance, organization fees, etc. that need to be paid whether parents pay on time or not.
How does your team handle this? Do you use an app or payment system that automatically sends reminders when dues are coming up or overdue? Do you charge late fees or have any kind of policy for players whose dues aren’t paid?
I’m seriously tired of having to chase people down every month for money they already know is due on the 1st. I’d love to hear what has worked for other teams.