6 Tips For Softball Parents

One of our missions at Brick Dust University is making sure softball parents are getting the right information that’s actionable but also helps their players avoid common pitfalls during a softball career.

Which is why below, you’ll find 6 tips for softball parents to help them avoid overwhelm while having a high impact on their kid's career.

1. Pay For The Best Training You Can Afford

Be aware of how much a commitment playing softball is. Getting the proper training will streamline their development and shorten their learning curve.

This means, getting a private instructor is key, whether for hitting, fielding, pitching or even catching.

There’s plenty of information online and because of how these platforms are designed, the cream often rises to the crop.

Do your homework and seek various perspectives but don’t be surprised just how much work getting to the next level takes.

"Softball development is a much larger commitment than most parents realize."

– Jorge Araujo – Associate Head Coach for Cal State Fullerton

2. Encourage Your Kid To Lead Their Own College Recruiting Process

While recruiting at Cal State Fullerton, one of the things that catch Coach Araujo’S eye is seeing a young player that is self-reliant.

If you’re a high school softball player looking to get recruited, make sure it’s you that’s reaching out to these college softball programs and no your parents.

“One way I notice this is with the emails I receive. If it’s an email from the parent, I almost want to write it off and toss it into the bin but when it’s from the players, I give it an extra look.”

– Jorge Araujo – Associate Head Coach for Cal State Fullerton

3. Don’t Mold Your Kids Based on Another Athlete

The truth is, each player is born with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Modeling other players is great, but not at the expense of ignoring what your own unique strengths are as a softball player.

Really what this comes down to is being a great competitor who understands the basic principles of hitting, fielding and catching while having the instincts to play this game the right way.

It’s not about being great. It’s about being good consistently.

"One of the things that I’ve noticed too with catching is sometimes parents are trying to mold their player based on another athlete."

– Kylee Lahners – Former All-American at University of Washington

4. Let the Coaches Coach

Here’s the reality.

Most parents will agree with you when you say that the most talented or “best” players should be in the starting line-up…

…until it’s their own kid sitting the bench. Then it’s suddenly favoritism, the coach's kid playing over my kid, politics. Sure there are some coaches out there but MOST want to win as many ball games as possible.

It’s hard to do when your “best” players are on the bench.

If you find your kid on the bench, use this as an opportunity to do a few things such as:

• refining your softball I.Q.
• cheer for your teammates
• use this as fuel to prove your coach wrong

"The piece of advice that I will give to the parents is to let the coaches coach. They know what they are doing.

Most have the best intentions with your kids and they want to help your kids."

– Christina Washington – Cal State Fullerton Pitching Coach

5. Choose Your Words Wisely

One day, your kids' career will end. The last thing you want is regret. The missed opportunities to show unconditional support in the car on the rides home from the ball field.

The moments where you should have followed up a negative with a positive.

Softball, like baseball, is the biggest self-esteem destroying sport in the world. The #1 job of a softball parent is to build our players up to the point of 100% self-sufficiency.

Meaning, we communicate with them so that they can develop the skill of positive self-talk on their own.

"I think if a parent could see themselves on film on how they react to the game while watching their kids expression…

…They would check themselves a little bit more.

Often times, they don’t see the impact of what they say has on their player’s demeanor."

– Noleana “Woody” Woodard – All American & Hall of Fame inducted playing career at San Jose State University

6. Master the Mental Side

One of our favorite lines is a line from our friend at Quality At-Bats.

If hitting is about confidence, the question is how do we create more confidence?

One of the topics we’ve tackled extensively is the mental side of hitting because we’ve seen it first hand. A player with a great swing but no approach. Or a player with a great swing but no mental game.

If your player looks great in practice but struggles in the game, there’s a good chance that their approach is off our they’re playing with less than 100% confidence.

"My father was a big part of my playing career. He was always the guy that took me out in the yard, worked on extra stuff with me, trying to get my game to the next level, as well as my coach that I had when I got into high school and travel-ball. Tony Rico, (Firecrackers) introduced a whole other side of hitting that I never really was aware of.

And that was the mental side of the game. That was making your adjustments pitch the pitch instead of just at-bat to at-bat."

– Kylee Lahners – Former All-American at University of Washington

If you had any key takeaways from these 6 Tips For Softball Parents, leave it in the comments below!

If you enjoyed these tips, make sure you test out the softball training courses at Brick Dust University.