The Difference a Year Makes

 Our granddaughter Audrey is playing travel softball again this year. 

The picture above is of one of her at bats. In this case she let a pitch go by and was called out on strikes. She did have a couple of doubles during the doubleheader. 

I watched several games last year and had conversations with her afterward about the mental parts of the game. She needed to know what she was going to do on defense if the ball was hit to her. If she was on base when her team was batting what would she do depending on where and how the ball was hit. Yesterday was an eye opener. The team she plays on this year was defensively flawless. They fielded well. They threw to the correct base. They hit the cutoff person. They backed each other up. No extra throws. So two things have happened. The girls have grasped the mental aspects of the game. They know what to do and they executed plays. The second thing is they are well coached. The coaches are willing and able to teach fundamentals. The are encouraging. They want the young ladies they coach to have fun. It doesn’t matter how many games they win, when they are older they will look back and realize what a great experience this was.