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Unhappy with Your Situation? Try Subbing
At any given time, but especially during the heart of the season, there are players (and parents) who are unhappy with either the amount of playing time they’re getting or the amount of playing time they’re getting at their preferred position.
I get that. You don’t sign up for a team and spend thousands of dollars on player fees, uniforms, equipment, travel expenses, and maybe even private lessons and personal training sessions just to get a closer seat to the action. You don’t spend all that time and effort working on the skills for one position only to never get the chance to try those skills out under actual game conditions.
Now, if you’re on a middle school or high school team you have two options: accept it or move. You can also entertain the option of complaining to the administration or school board but to be honest I’ve never seen that work personally, and have rarely heard about it working.
Your better bet is to find a good real estate agent and start packing.
If you’re in college you do have the option of transferring the old-fashioned way or entering the transfer portal. But just be aware if you opt for the latter of those two you could find yourself without a place to play next year.
If, however, you are playing travel ball you do have another option – you can sub for another team without giving up your place on your current team.
Subbing is a great way to test out the waters to see if you actually have the goods to play more/play a particular position more with essentially no risk (providing your current team doesn’t outright prohibit it).
What you want to do is look for a team at or below your current team’s skill level that is in desperate need of a couple more players in order to play in a tournament, round robin, or other situation. You don’t want to just be there for insurance in case someone gets hurt; you want to know they will actually need you on the field and at the plate.
If you’re looking to sub at a particular position – especially pitcher, catcher, or shortstop – be sure to look for those opportunities specifically. If you’re a pitcher looking for an opportunity to show her stuff, the last place you need to be is on a team that will already have four pitchers available that weekend and just needs a player or two in the outfield.
Basically, you want to look for an opportunity where the team you’re subbing for is forced to put you where you want to be. At which point it’s then up to you to perform.
One of the great things about subbing is that it takes some of the pressure off of you when you’re given your opportunity. Even under the best of circumstances, where your current coaches are rooting for you, you know that if you don’t perform it will probably hurt your future chances.
That adds a lot of pressure to the opportunities you are being given. It’s tough to perform well with a gun to your head.
And, of course, if your current coaches already don’t think much of you, any failure to perform will just reinforce their already low opinions of you.
If you’re subbing under the right circumstances, though, worst case is you find out your current coaches are right that you’re not ready, you get through the round robin or tournament as best you can, and you get back to work. That happens.
Best case is you get the opportunity to prove to yourself (as well as others) that you are, in fact, ready to play regularly and contribute and you build more confidence. Then, if you’re given an opportunity on your own team you can approach it with a “watch this!” attitude.
And if you still don’t get the opportunities with your current team, you can start making plans for next year knowing that someone will want to take advantage of what you now have to offer.
Think of it like a software app. Many paid apps offer a 14-day or 30-day free trial before you’re actually required to pay for it. This trial period gives you a chance to see how the software works and if it does the job you want it to do.
Subbing is your free trial. If it works out great!
If it doesn’t work out you’ve learned something about yourself and can keep working to put yourself into the position you want to be in – literally as well as figuratively.
There are plenty of places to learn about subbing opportunities – friends, former teammates, co-workers, Facebook groups, etc. Keep your eyes and ears open and when your schedules align do your best to take advantage of them.
It just might be the situation that launches your playing career in a new direction. Not to mention being a lot of fun.
Webinar: What to Do When a College Coach Calls
A few years ago, the college recruiting rules changed to restrict NCAA Division 1 coaches from speaking to potential student athletes until September 1 of their junior year. That was a huge improvement over the Wild, Wild West of recruiting that had seen verbal offers going to eighth grade (or even younger) players on a widespread basis.
Well, September 1 is rapidly approaching, which means there are a whole lot of rising juniors sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if they’re going to get a call or email from the coaches of their first-choice schools. If you are one of those, how prepared are you to take that call or respond to that email? After all, what happens next could determine whether that offer finally comes.
If you’d like to make sure you have your bases covered, Rick Pauly of PaulyGirl Fastpitch has put together a tremendous webinar that explains the process and talks about what you should say as well as how you should say it should you get the opportunity.
It’s about a half hour long, chock full of information that will help prospective student athletes and their parents prepare to make the most of any opportunities that come their way. It’s definitely worth taking a half hour out of your day to see what Rick, a former college coach himself and someone who has helped many players through the process, has to say.
Give it a listen sooner rather than later, and practice the recommendations he makes – just like you would any other skill. Good luck, and hopefully you’ll receive the call of your dreams come September 1.
5 Positives to Not Being Invited Back
Right now the tryout season for next year is winding down in many part of the country – and beyond. That’s hard for an “old school” coach like me to conceive since I know of many teams that are still playing in various “National” tournaments with this year’s players,
But such is the reality of today’s fastpitch softball world.
For many next year will look pretty much like this year, i.e., same players (more or less) and same coaches. But for some, this is a time of heartache and tears because they’ve been informed that, despite having a tournament or two left to play right now, they are not being invited back to the team next year.
It’s difficult in any situation in life to hear you’re not wanted anymore by the people you’ve given your heart and soul to. If you’re a young, competitive athlete it can be particularly difficult.
So for those in that situation right now let me share a little secret: this may not be as bad of a thing as it seems right now.
Yes, it hurts not to be wanted. But this involuntary change of scenery might actually offer you one huge advantage – a clean slate with which to start over with no history or expectations.
Allow me to share a few of the positives this opportunity presents.
Positive #1: You’re not stuck in someone’s impression of you
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that once a coach decides who you are and what you can do that view never changes. Never mind that you worked hard over the offseason to improve your skills or increase your speed or build your strength.
For too many, the impression they got when you first joined the team is the impression you’re stuck with going forward.
On a new team you get a do-over. Even if that coach has the exact same issue – his/her first impression is the one you’re stuck with – you have that rare opportunity in life to create an all-new first impression.
In other words, wherever you are now is how that coach will see you rather than where you were a year ago. If you really put in the work you may find you’re rewarded better on the new team than you would have been on the old one.
Positive #2: Extra motivation
There is something to be said for revenge or an “I’ll show you” attitude to keep a player motivated on improvement throughout the long, boring offseason. There’s a pretty good chance you’re going to see your old team on the field, this time as an opponent.
What better way to get the better of the situation than to perform well, contribute to your new team’s victory, and show the old coaching staff what they missed in letting you go?
Now, I’m not saying you need to be mean or nasty about it. You don’t want to go into negative territory.
But there’s a pretty good chance that more has been accomplished in all fields in life by people who were once told they weren’t good enough to stay where they were than those who were safe and comfortable. If you’re a competitor at all, not being asked back should be all the fuel you need to kick your dedication and training level up or a notch or two.
And even if you never get a chance for that revenge game, the improvements you make in preparing for it will carry over to every other game in which you compete. Which is pretty cool by itself.
Positive #3: New opportunities
Sometimes moving to a new team can create opportunities you might never have gotten with the old team.
Perhaps the coach of the old team has a batting order he/she likes and never changes. Moving to a new team and proving yourself could give you the opportunity to hit higher in the lineup and get more at-bats. Especially if the coach bases his/her decisions on the stats instead of gut feel.
Or maybe you’ve always fancied yourself a shortstop but that position was already taken by one of the best to ever play the game. You’re not going to displace her no matter how good you are or how hard you work, whereas a new team will welcome your skill level at that position.
Having opportunities is particularly important for pitchers. So if you weren’t pitching much on the old team because you didn’t hit your spots or couldn’t match the others for speed, a new team with greater need at that position just might give you the opportunity you need to develop under game conditions – simply because they don’t have much choice.
All you can ask for is the opportunity to do whatever it is you want to do. The rest is up to you. But at least with the new team there could be more of a chance of getting that opportunity.
Positive #4: An overall better fit
Maybe you joined your old team because they had a great reputation for being the best in the area. But then you found out one of the reasons they’re the best is they are better at convincing already-developed players at coming to them than they are at developing players themselves.
Or maybe you enjoy being a multi-sport athlete while the rest of the team (and the coaches) are more about all softball all the time. As a result, you missed some games for your other sport(s) which caused you to have to sit the bench as punishment for choosing that sport over softball, even if the other sport was in-season and softball was not.
Or maybe the culture of the team was win at all costs, even if it means cheating or hurting your opponents on purpose while you’re more oriented toward playing a clean game.
Whatever the issue might be, you know in your heart of hearts that the old team wasn’t a good fit for you as a person, even if it was a good fit as an athlete. In that case, they probably did you a favor.
You can now find a team whose culture and attitude is a better fit for who you are and who you want to be. With a little distance you may even find that they did you a huge favor by not asking you back; sometimes it’s tough to see the negative behaviors when you’re in the middle of them.
Positive #5: Meeting new people and making new connections
It’s easy to get caught in a sort of closed-loop system, especially in today’s fastpitch softball world where you play so many games and have so many practices that your experience of the world outside your current team is limited.
By moving to a new team you may discover things or people you never knew existed. For example, you may find a skills coach (pitching coach, hitting coach, etc.) or a trainer who can elevate your game tremendously because one or more of your teammates goes to him/her.
You would have never known about that person had you stayed where you were. But this type of serendipity could end up leading you to skills and abilities you never knew existed within yourself.
The same goes for the other players. You may discover a friend for life you would have never known about had you stayed where you were.
Or you may find the way the players on this team approach the game is more in keeping with how you think of it, leading you to have a better overall experience. With a net result that you keep playing long after the attitudes on the old team would have driven you out.
Darkest before the dawn
Not being asked back to the team who already knows you can be tough on the ego and the psyche. It can make you feel like something is wrong with you, or cause you to think that you are somehow “less than” those who were asked back.
Don’t let that kind of thinking creep into your head. Just accept that there are many paths forward, and that what seems like a trauma right now could end up being the best thing that ever happened to you.
Keep a positive attitude, find that new team, and remind yourself that a year from now whatever sadness or hurt you’re feeling today will be little more than a bump in a much longer, better road for you as a player.
Now get out there and kick butt!
Heading photo by Karolina Kaboompics on Pexels.com
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 