I believe parents learning how to help their daughters is just as important as the players learning it for themselves.

Your private coaches aren’t at every single practice or game – but guess who is? YOUR PARENTS.

Parents can be such an amazing resource for your players – IF you let them!
I have ALWAYS been a firm believer in making sure parents stay to watch their daughter’s lessons and clinics whenever possible – because hopefully, they will learn something too! And learn enough to be able to be helpful when their daughters are struggling!

Knowing WHAT to say and HOW to help in these situations can definitely turn your player’s day around.

When I was younger and was struggling with something the first person I would look to for help was my Dad. Yep, total daddy’s girl here , but what softball player isn’t?

If you’ve been around and read my posts before you know my dad was/is amazing – and knew NOTHING about softball. But, he would take me to every single practice and ALWAYS sit and watch.

He would NEVER leave to go run errands etc. (superman right?) . I remember always asking him if he would get bored just watching all the time. His answer was always ‘Of course not, I love watching you play.’

If we were at home practicing and I wasn’t getting a drill right and IF I asked him for help he would be like a tape recorder from my coaches. ‘Remember what Coach Mitch said about your hands’ etc. And that would always seem to help.

If I didn’t ask for help (typical stubborn girl over here ) he usually would just let me figure it out on my own. More on that topic another day…

SO HOW IS AWS GETTING BETTER?!

This is why AWS has been sending their players home with these ‘Things to Remember’ cards!

If you have ever attended our sessions before – you know we give the players A TON of feedback, and it sometimes can be hard to remember EVERYTHING that they worked on.

It can be tough going to your team practice trying to recall what you learned over a week ago.

These cards are a great reference point for both our players AND their parents and coaches!

PLAYERS – Pull this card out at your practices to remember the finer points of what you learned and are supposed to be working on before your next practice. Pick 2-3 bullet points and get to work!

COACHES – I am sure you are thrilled that your players are working even outside of your team practices, but want to know exactly what they are doing? Ask to see their cards!

PARENTS – On the car ride home from our sessions have your daughter explain to you all of the bullet points she wrote down in her own words like she’s teaching YOU. In my experience, if the girls can explain and teach it back to you, it means they KNOW IT.
Now, the ‘hey what did you learn today’ question will ALWAYS have an answer.

 

At AWS I am constantly trying to make US better so our girls can walk away with the best experience after every single session.

 

I take so much pride in what our girl squad does day in and day out. I count myself SO lucky to get to do what I do every day.

 

Thank you for helping me help your daughters, AND for being so amazing!

 

Oh, and thanks Dad and my coaches for always telling me to swing for the fences.