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[quote=Anonymous]The advantage for girls in some sports - like softball- is that you don’t have to physically be “something” in order to participate at least through high school.  You need not be, big, or fast, or able to do flips, or ….

Softball is a sport for lots of different types of kids.  But, like any activity, you do have to work at it and practice.  A lot.  You don’t sit down at a piano the first time and play Mozart.  That’s 10 years of lessons and 5,000 hours of practice later.  Want to paint.  Get started.  Take classes.   Paint a lot.   Dance?  Sing?  Whatever.  It’s lots and lots of work.

The key though, as kids mature, is that they come to enjoy the work of getting better.  No it’s not all “fun”, but there is satisfaction in completing a task that is hard, of realizing that 
You are just a little bit better than before.

From the parent side - if I had a 13 year old daughter who liked softball and was okay but not any star I would;

1.  Assess what is needed to play high school softball where she is likely to go.  Go watch a couple games with your kid.  Find out - are there 50 kids trying out for 20 spots?  Is softball a big deal at the high school or not?  Mostly softball fallls behind other spring sports so making the high school team is not that hard for kids who keep playing through middle school.

2.  Help her get fit.  Age appropriate fitness training will help her gain abilities and confidence in everything she does.  Find a gym that works with teen girls.  Also, get her swimming for fitness.  Not to race (unless she decides to pursue that), but to get fit.  And, of course, swimming laps for fitness turns kids into good, safe, swimmers.  Always a very important factor.

3.  Take batting/fielding lessons.  Find the locations that are doing that, and get her going on some private (or very small group - tops 3) lessons.   Then, at least once a week get her to a batting cage to work on her own.  These are short sessions so you can do them on the way to something else.  The reality is that you can’t hit with good form for half an hour.  Do sets of 15 good swings and take a break.  It’s all about form.  After 10 minutes do sets of 10.  After another 10 minutes do “at bats”.  It’s important to maintain good form (or as good as you can get) rather than just taking a ton of swings.

All of these things will help her first to make teams, and then second, play better.

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