Is it character building to face challenges in a sport?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each of my kids has had a season where their team won every game and honestly, I didn't love it even though they did. You get nothing out of that.

My daughter just had a season like this. Her little league softball team won every game. They had by far the best pitcher. My daughter was probably 2nd-3rd best in the 6 team league, but barely got to pitch because the dad of the other girl was the coach and pitched her all the time. Anytime the game was close, the other girl pitched all 4 or 5 innings. Mine was the only other girl to pitch on the team, getting an inning or rarely two in a blow out.

Both girls made all-stars but in different age groups. My daughter was told she wasn’t going to get to pitch because she didn’t get enough experience during the season.

Hate to break it to you, but it sucks to be a softball pitcher. It's not like baseball where 5 kids are in the starting rotation and then you have relievers.

Did you watch any of the College World Series? Some teams ride 1 pitcher for the Regionals, Super Regionals and the World Series because you can.

The HS softball teams in the area do the same thing.

I guess it's OK for a kid to throw like 600 softball pitches in a week...though it doesn't sound like it should be.

That's because college softball is the pinnacle for women. They don't need to ever pitch again.

You are missing the point...which is that you don't need to pitch anyone else if you don't want, unlike baseball which has minimum days' rest requirements which ensures that others will get to pitch.

The same stuff happens in high school too depending on the coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine has experienced all of the challenges listed. I am biased, but yes, I think they have strong character. Being on a losing team was no big deal, but getting cut and short-benched were both tough. One night, I walked in on them talking about it while they were asleep. Its kept them humble, hardworking and empathetic toward their teammates and friends. And its a reminder that school is more important - they're not going pro!

Same for my child. It was a very hard time for them but I believe it made them stronger and more hard working. One of their teammates has never faced this challenge and you can see how it plays out in their attitude. They have to win/be the best or they quickly give up and they're rarely supportive of others.

[Anonymous]

Kids that always want to be at the top of their game at all cost rarely make good teammates.

[Anonymous]

Everything one does is character building in one way or the other.

Whether it's good or not depends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It probably builds a little character, but not much in the big scheme of things.

I mean it's still a privileged activity in most instances.

It's not like learning to do without something more basic or fundamental.

Maybe so, but the lessons learned from how to experience disappointment and get up off the mat are very valuable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each of my kids has had a season where their team won every game and honestly, I didn't love it even though they did. You get nothing out of that.

My daughter just had a season like this. Her little league softball team won every game. They had by far the best pitcher. My daughter was probably 2nd-3rd best in the 6 team league, but barely got to pitch because the dad of the other girl was the coach and pitched her all the time. Anytime the game was close, the other girl pitched all 4 or 5 innings. Mine was the only other girl to pitch on the team, getting an inning or rarely two in a blow out.

Both girls made all-stars but in different age groups. My daughter was told she wasn’t going to get to pitch because she didn’t get enough experience during the season.

Hate to break it to you, but it sucks to be a softball pitcher. It's not like baseball where 5 kids are in the starting rotation and then you have relievers.

Did you watch any of the College World Series? Some teams ride 1 pitcher for the Regionals, Super Regionals and the World Series because you can.

The HS softball teams in the area do the same thing.

I guess it's OK for a kid to throw like 600 softball pitches in a week...though it doesn't sound like it should be.

Another softball pitcher parent here. This is true in school ball, but adamantly not in rec or travel ball. In travel ball when girls are playing a minimum of 3 or 4 games in a weekend the teams need at least 3 (and usually more) decent pitchers. In rec ball - with the exception, weirdly, of Little League (though I think they have pitch count limits) - there are strict participation rules that mean teams need at least 2 pitchers and coaches are usually smart enough to realize they need to develop pitchers. On a rec team my kids were on this season there was typically a new pitcher every inning except in close games, and even girls who really weren't good got to pitch to a batter or two. On our travel team I think they cycled through 3 or 4 pitchers most games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each of my kids has had a season where their team won every game and honestly, I didn't love it even though they did. You get nothing out of that.

My daughter just had a season like this. Her little league softball team won every game. They had by far the best pitcher. My daughter was probably 2nd-3rd best in the 6 team league, but barely got to pitch because the dad of the other girl was the coach and pitched her all the time. Anytime the game was close, the other girl pitched all 4 or 5 innings. Mine was the only other girl to pitch on the team, getting an inning or rarely two in a blow out.

Both girls made all-stars but in different age groups. My daughter was told she wasn’t going to get to pitch because she didn’t get enough experience during the season.

Hate to break it to you, but it sucks to be a softball pitcher. It's not like baseball where 5 kids are in the starting rotation and then you have relievers.

Did you watch any of the College World Series? Some teams ride 1 pitcher for the Regionals, Super Regionals and the World Series because you can.

The HS softball teams in the area do the same thing.

I guess it's OK for a kid to throw like 600 softball pitches in a week...though it doesn't sound like it should be.

That's because college softball is the pinnacle for women. They don't need to ever pitch again.

Hopefully the AUSL takes hold and there's really going to be a viable option for the best of college softball to play pro.

But this actually isn't specific to softball in college diamond sports. See all the articles pointing out that college baseball coaches are breaking their pitchers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each of my kids has had a season where their team won every game and honestly, I didn't love it even though they did. You get nothing out of that.

My daughter just had a season like this. Her little league softball team won every game. They had by far the best pitcher. My daughter was probably 2nd-3rd best in the 6 team league, but barely got to pitch because the dad of the other girl was the coach and pitched her all the time. Anytime the game was close, the other girl pitched all 4 or 5 innings. Mine was the only other girl to pitch on the team, getting an inning or rarely two in a blow out.

Both girls made all-stars but in different age groups. My daughter was told she wasn’t going to get to pitch because she didn’t get enough experience during the season.

This is insanity. Having seen the difference between Little League's participation rules and the independent rec league participation rules, I don't know why anyone would go Little League for rec. If your kid wants to sit bench, then you can do that playing travel and get more practice time and game reps. If you want to play rec, play in a league where they actually want to develop players, and that doesn't seem to be at least some of the area Little Leagues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everything one does is character building in one way or the other.

Whether it's good or not depends.

+1. It’s all in how one chooses to interpret the experience. With sports, usually there are people around how have experienced similar circumstances, so it’s easier to find someone who can show you the different lessons to take from the experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each of my kids has had a season where their team won every game and honestly, I didn't love it even though they did. You get nothing out of that.

My daughter just had a season like this. Her little league softball team won every game. They had by far the best pitcher. My daughter was probably 2nd-3rd best in the 6 team league, but barely got to pitch because the dad of the other girl was the coach and pitched her all the time. Anytime the game was close, the other girl pitched all 4 or 5 innings. Mine was the only other girl to pitch on the team, getting an inning or rarely two in a blow out.

Both girls made all-stars but in different age groups. My daughter was told she wasn’t going to get to pitch because she didn’t get enough experience during the season.

Hate to break it to you, but it sucks to be a softball pitcher. It's not like baseball where 5 kids are in the starting rotation and then you have relievers.

Did you watch any of the College World Series? Some teams ride 1 pitcher for the Regionals, Super Regionals and the World Series because you can.

The HS softball teams in the area do the same thing.

I guess it's OK for a kid to throw like 600 softball pitches in a week...though it doesn't sound like it should be.

Another softball pitcher parent here. This is true in school ball, but adamantly not in rec or travel ball. In travel ball when girls are playing a minimum of 3 or 4 games in a weekend the teams need at least 3 (and usually more) decent pitchers. In rec ball - with the exception, weirdly, of Little League (though I think they have pitch count limits) - there are strict participation rules that mean teams need at least 2 pitchers and coaches are usually smart enough to realize they need to develop pitchers. On a rec team my kids were on this season there was typically a new pitcher every inning except in close games, and even girls who really weren't good got to pitch to a batter or two. On our travel team I think they cycled through 3 or 4 pitchers most games.

Does travel softball have pitchcount or inning rules?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each of my kids has had a season where their team won every game and honestly, I didn't love it even though they did. You get nothing out of that.

My daughter just had a season like this. Her little league softball team won every game. They had by far the best pitcher. My daughter was probably 2nd-3rd best in the 6 team league, but barely got to pitch because the dad of the other girl was the coach and pitched her all the time. Anytime the game was close, the other girl pitched all 4 or 5 innings. Mine was the only other girl to pitch on the team, getting an inning or rarely two in a blow out.

Both girls made all-stars but in different age groups. My daughter was told she wasn’t going to get to pitch because she didn’t get enough experience during the season.

Hate to break it to you, but it sucks to be a softball pitcher. It's not like baseball where 5 kids are in the starting rotation and then you have relievers.

Did you watch any of the College World Series? Some teams ride 1 pitcher for the Regionals, Super Regionals and the World Series because you can.

The HS softball teams in the area do the same thing.

I guess it's OK for a kid to throw like 600 softball pitches in a week...though it doesn't sound like it should be.

Another softball pitcher parent here. This is true in school ball, but adamantly not in rec or travel ball. In travel ball when girls are playing a minimum of 3 or 4 games in a weekend the teams need at least 3 (and usually more) decent pitchers. In rec ball - with the exception, weirdly, of Little League (though I think they have pitch count limits) - there are strict participation rules that mean teams need at least 2 pitchers and coaches are usually smart enough to realize they need to develop pitchers. On a rec team my kids were on this season there was typically a new pitcher every inning except in close games, and even girls who really weren't good got to pitch to a batter or two. On our travel team I think they cycled through 3 or 4 pitchers most games.

Does travel softball have pitchcount or inning rules?

No, and some coaches abuse it, but at least of the teams I've seen most will basically pitch a different girl for each Saturday game, or rotate between a couple innings for each girl. Admittedly I mostly pay attention to younger age groups, but these teams need to rest their best pitchers to win games in elimination brackets on Sunday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Each of my kids has had a season where their team won every game and honestly, I didn't love it even though they did. You get nothing out of that.

This can also be character building in teaching kids not to be d*cks when they are playing against teams well below their ability level. Some teams get it and some do not. Played a few teams this spring that were intentionally playing way down just to get wins and even when beating every team by a lot the players and coaches were still d*cks. Building character, just not the right kind of character.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Each of my kids has had a season where their team won every game and honestly, I didn't love it even though they did. You get nothing out of that.

My daughter just had a season like this. Her little league softball team won every game. They had by far the best pitcher. My daughter was probably 2nd-3rd best in the 6 team league, but barely got to pitch because the dad of the other girl was the coach and pitched her all the time. Anytime the game was close, the other girl pitched all 4 or 5 innings. Mine was the only other girl to pitch on the team, getting an inning or rarely two in a blow out.

Both girls made all-stars but in different age groups. My daughter was told she wasn’t going to get to pitch because she didn’t get enough experience during the season.

Hate to break it to you, but it sucks to be a softball pitcher. It's not like baseball where 5 kids are in the starting rotation and then you have relievers.

Did you watch any of the College World Series? Some teams ride 1 pitcher for the Regionals, Super Regionals and the World Series because you can.

The HS softball teams in the area do the same thing.

I guess it's OK for a kid to throw like 600 softball pitches in a week...though it doesn't sound like it should be.

Another softball pitcher parent here. This is true in school ball, but adamantly not in rec or travel ball. In travel ball when girls are playing a minimum of 3 or 4 games in a weekend the teams need at least 3 (and usually more) decent pitchers. In rec ball - with the exception, weirdly, of Little League (though I think they have pitch count limits) - there are strict participation rules that mean teams need at least 2 pitchers and coaches are usually smart enough to realize they need to develop pitchers. On a rec team my kids were on this season there was typically a new pitcher every inning except in close games, and even girls who really weren't good got to pitch to a batter or two. On our travel team I think they cycled through 3 or 4 pitchers most games.

Does travel softball have pitchcount or inning rules?

No, and some coaches abuse it, but at least of the teams I've seen most will basically pitch a different girl for each Saturday game, or rotate between a couple innings for each girl. Admittedly I mostly pay attention to younger age groups, but these teams need to rest their best pitchers to win games in elimination brackets on Sunday.

That’s the difference…as they get older, you just need a coach that understands that pitchers 2-5 are pretty good too and give them a chance.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but not for an essay topic for college applications.

[Anonymous]

I think it can but so can other things. My kid does several sports but really developed character from his musical instrument.