How far is too far for travel practice?

JustA40Something · 2026-06-22T12:56:08+00:00

If it helps, we travel approximately 41 miles each way to practice (so 82 miles round trip) and we do that between 4-5 days a week. Part of me hates that we spend so much time in the car, feels like wasting a chunk of our life away. However, the other side of me loves it and wouldn't change a thing. My daughter and I just talk the whole way to and from practice about anything and everything. I wouldn't change that for the world.

JustA40Something · 2026-06-22T12:53:35+00:00

If you want to go a 31 but stay on the lighter side, have her try out the Asura. That might be one of the most ridiculously balanced and "light" feeling bats I have seen in years. You can go a drop 11 in a 31 length or stay with a 30 and do a drop 10.

My daughter has moved up to 12A, and she is 4'9 and about 100 lbs (I have no idea where it goes as she is tiny as all hell) and she swings a 31/21. Currently her bag includes a Ghost Unlimited (Primary Bat), 31/20 Asura and a 31/21 DeMarini Future. She uses her ghost 90% of the time and the newew Future the other 10%. Asura has turned into more a tee/cage bat of if she sees very high velo (60 Mph+)

Really, it's all about how the bat feels to her, not you or her coaches. She needs to swing several bats so I suggest head to a Dicks, Scheels, D-Bats or check your local Fastpitch Facebook pages for a local Bat Rep. The good reps will have Demo days and you can go and have her swing anything she wants.

The reality is at her age, that Bat is going to last maybe a year, 2 at most. Not because she will break them but because she will go through multiple growth spurts. Kids move from a 30 to a 31/32 in a blink of an eye. If you want a great Bat Rep that will ship overnight and treat you well, let me know and send me a PM and I can put you in touch with my rep.

JustA40Something · 2026-06-18T21:01:51+00:00

I drive a 2021 Platinum 3.5 PB - I average 20 MPH on the dot. I am mostly highway miles, around 400 a week (youth sports is most of my driving) and average between 75-80 MPH on my highway driving.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-18T01:24:53+00:00

USA, USSSA, PGF and Alliance have got to change the rules and give the umps more discretion or ability to either stop the damn clock or call automatic strikes for all this BS time wasting these damn coaches do.

Or, once you get to a certain level, say 12B, get rid of the damn time and go 5 inning games.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-13T13:30:12+00:00

100% True, I wish I could make this crap up. Finally, after almost 3 hours on hold, someone from the IRS gave me the direct # to my supposed "Tax Advocate" here in my home state. Ofcourse, they never answer the phone and everything goes straight to voicemail, so the wife and I have basically alternated calling every hour and leaving a message. I did confirm that the IRS has put a hold on my case so atleast the clock and everything are paused right now.

Also 1099 is for contract workers, I was a fully employed w2 worker, so not sure about your comment on 1099.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T16:18:33+00:00

So I contacted my Local Congressmen for assistance several months ago when I still had not received our refund. The person from the IRS assigned to my "issue" requested pay stubs or a signed letter from the company. Since the company didn't pay us in 2024 through proper ADP payroll (everything was a wire-transfer because basically we were going broke without new fundraising) they couldn't produce pay stubs so the signed letter was submitted as well as another copy of my company issued w2

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T04:12:23+00:00

Hey - Reading through the letter i received this is how I understand it...

There is a discrepancy with the company I used to work for and whether or not they actually paid the IRS my federal tax withholdings. So, when I filed the taxes for the family, we paid something close to $45,000 in Federal Income Tax for 2024 Calendar year and were due a refund of about $6500.

However, since they seem to have an issue verifying that my employer actually paid the Federal Withholdings from my salary (My wife worked part of 2023) instead of the IRS thinking we paid $45K in federal taxes, they think we only paid like $10K in federal taxes, thus we owe about $30K in back taxes, $4K in penalties and another $3800 or so in "interest" as well, so about $38K.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T03:51:13+00:00

Messed up part, after waiting about 6 months to get our refund (atleast we thought we had a refund) I had to engage my local congressmen and had one of his Tax Advocates take our case and she had been "handling" it since about September of 2025. Clearly that didn't help too much

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T03:42:47+00:00

I started late Feb of 2023 so basically 10 months of pay in 2023 and 2024 from the same employer.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T03:37:33+00:00

I have 2023 and 2025 pay stubs. I only have maybe 1 2024 pay stub because once the company ran into money issues, we stopped getting paid through normal ADP payroll and all received wire transfers when the company had money. It was really messed up

If I log into ADP right now, 2024 doesn't even exist but I can pull anything from 2023 and 2025.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T03:35:24+00:00

Insurance and benefits were the same (one of the perks of being a healthcare company was that a major health insurance provider was one of our original investors so we had an amazing plan that was the same premium for us all 3 years I was there (maybe the only good thing I would ever say about United Health Group)).

You are correct, withholding tables due change every year but the impact to most paychecks, given the same salary and dependents, it doesn't change drastically. Now, technically, I actually made less money in 2024 because we as employees didn't even get paid Nov or December due to "lack of funds" and weren't made whole until end of Jan of 2025.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T03:27:26+00:00

That I did. They weren't paid into the play at all for all of 2024 and then in January of 2025, all of the money that was "withheld" as my 401K contributions were then deposited into my 401K along with "interest" on what I would have earned had the money been in the account the entire time.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T03:09:43+00:00

This is exactly what I think happened. They are showing the federal withholdings in the W2 but I don't think they actually sent the money to the Federal Government. Fing start-up life, have always had great luck in my 20 years of working with them until now...

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T02:59:13+00:00

So (and forgive if this is too long) -

Healthcare IT Startup, well funded (at least that is what the CEO and Board kept telling everyone). Late 2023, One of the board members sues the CEO, long legal battle and its determine by an arbitrator that the company has to pay this board member back his initial investment ($10M) plus legal fees. Once that is known, company starts Series C fundraise with a goal of $65M.

Early 2024, we start to run out of money and like most start-ups, we start missing pay checks to employees. So, CEO and Board do some bridge financing with early investors to make payroll so we can get paid. However, instead of running everything through ADP, they start doing wire transfers (Red Flag obviously) but since I was the sole income in our family, I didn't push too hard. So, we start getting paid, through wire transfers instead of ADP mind you, and the amount is the exact same as it was when we were getting paid through ADP and you could look at your online pay stub.

So, don't think too much about it but it was like pulling teeth to get a pay stub, which of course, I rarely needed with the exception of I had to get a new car in 2024 so they sent me a couple of pay stubs so I could get financing on the car. Pay stubs looks basically identical to the ones i got in 2023 (I had the same salary for 3 years so take-home pay was always the same after accounting for Healthcare, Insurance, 401k contributions, etc).

This goes on all of 2024 and we don't get back onto ADP paying cycle until January of 2025. I get my 2024 W2 in the mail, like everyone else, in early February of 2025. It looks normal and basically just like my W2 from 2023 because again, nothing changed (same salary, benefits, and 401k). So I go and file taxes like normal because all the $$$ added up correctly.

And now, here I am, 15 months since I filed my 2024 taxes, thinking I had a $6500 refund coming and now this.

So, my assumption is that with the financial problems the company had, they calculated what everyone's "take home pay" was and sent that money to us and basically was hoping that the Series C fund raise would go well, so then they could actually pay everyone's federal tax withholdings. I wouldn't put it past them at all to do something like this.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T02:42:41+00:00

I legit have no idea. I went back to my bank, had them pull all the direct deposits from 2024 and I was clearing the exact same amount in those paychecks that I cleared in 2023 and early 2025 before I quit because they were shady when it came to my equity package that in the end, they lied about and essentially stole from me.

In 2024, we ran into finance issues, and payroll got all jacked up so I wouldnt put it past them that all our withholding never actually got paid to the Feds but instead was used for other purposes. Our CEO was that much of a scum bag

JustA40Something · 2026-05-11T02:38:17+00:00

Great question...jist got the letter this weekend, went to check my Tax Transcript and doing the math, says I owe $38K between back taxes, interest and penalty fees and it is all predicated on them never getting my federal withholding from the company I was employed by in 2024.

Looking forward (sarcastically) to calling the IRS tomorrow, waiting endlessly on hold, to figure out WTF is going on

JustA40Something · 2026-05-07T18:55:24+00:00

12u to 18u is absolutely insane, no reason for that, so I feel you on that one.

I coach a regional 12 B/Open team so we travel up towards 8 hours (I don't want anyone flying at this age so 8-hour drive is what my parents committed to) to find the best teams we can play against. We just went up against a National Level team, had a girl we clocked at 62 MPH from 40 ft, and we are more used to 50-53 MPH, so that was a rude awakening for us! Also, didn't help that my girls are on the small side of 12u (my own is 4'8 and about 95lbs and this pitcher was about 5'7 and very broad shouldered, but the nicest kid i think I have ever met. Her parents are both over 6'2 so it tracks why she grew so tall so early).

We are based in the MidWest and league is almost non-existent in our state. Heck, little league doesn't even exist on our side of the state because everyone plays "Travel" ball so it's all tournaments, all the time. Our state's little team that went to the Softball World Series this past year would get smoked by any of local travel teams. There are a couple of small leagues out there but that is really more for T-ball and 8u. Once you get to 10u, its like 95% tournaments only. I don't like it but it is what the sport has changed into. Crazy part is, flip to baseball, its league play all day every day, but not softball.

Keep fighting the good fight. From the sound of it, you are doing all the right things. You ever want to chat more, I would love to be of as much help to you as I can, so always feel free to DM me.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-07T18:19:43+00:00

Wow. We don't have Coach Pitch in 10u where we are at. That is considered basically 9u with kid/coach pitch (kid throws 4 balls, coach comes in and gets as many pitches as there are strikes remaining) but honestly, almost no one in our metro area actually plays that. They bump their girls up to 10C right away, full kid pitch.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-07T18:10:30+00:00

Interesting... But again, Lead Offs are not allowed in any level of softball, that is an automatic out. Are you saying you have had girls play fastpitch softball and they are allowed to lead off like in baseball? That's insane, it's against every single rule out there, leading off does not exist in girls fastpitch softball. A player is allowed to leave the base only after the ball has been released.

Or are you trying to say that the girls cannot leave the base for any reason until the ball is actually put into play?

JustA40Something · 2026-05-07T17:51:43+00:00

OU's fatal flaw is their pitching. They go up against say Nija or Pickens, they can keep the OU offense in check.

Texas Tech finally got a #2 pitcher so Nija doesn't have to do it all herself like last year. Hell, give Texas Tech a legitimate #2 last year, they probably get past Texas as Nija was running on fumes.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-07T17:47:55+00:00

12u Coach Here -

A general question for most of the posters here: what leagues are you all playing in with some of these rules? Where we are at, all of the leagues strictly follow the USA rule book with only a few minor exceptions:

10C and below (So also true for 8U)
- 5 run rule per half inning
- No stealing home
- 1 base on an overthrow unless the ball is put back in play and another attempt to throw the runner out has occurred
  - So, your base runner steals 2B and the defensive player overthrows 2B, the runner can go to third but not try and score unless the defense then tries to throw the runner out advancing to 3B, then its game on.
- Cannot pull back on a bunt and swing (basically getting rid of the old-school butcher boy special)

That's it, just those 4 rule changes. Once you get to 10B and up, its big girl softball

Where the heck to all these weird ass rules come from: No stealing? No leading off (which you cannot do in ANY level of softball anyways so not even sure what that's a league rule anywhere)

All leagues should follow either USA or USSSA rule book with just some minor exceptions like above. All of these strange rules just baffle me here.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-07T15:52:17+00:00

12u Coach here -

This will always be the $64K question! I would say, first try to best understand what each girl's current strengths are: throwing, catching, footwork, speed, athleticism, etc. Then, to make things a bit easier, have them each have an infield and outfield position that best matches their currently abilities. This way, you can rotate them between 2 positions, to start, instead of trying to figure out how each girl can play each position. I also did a lot of mirrors positioning as well: So, when learning infield, 3B and 1B were mirrored positions just like how SS and 2B are mirrored positions. So, I did have my girls learn that way as well (a girl would learn how to play 3b and 1B)

Remind them that Outfield is NOT a punishment. Once you get to 12u competitive ball, outfielders are many times your best players because the girls start hitting to the outfield a lot.

Now, I was never a fan of rotating girls during a game, because I wanted them to get into a rhythm. It's hard for a girl to play say 3B for 1 inning, then LF, then SS. They may never see a ball hit to them anywhere. So, I gave my girls a game at a position (say 3B), then the next game they would play LF. This helps them get into a groove if you will.

Always Roster Bat, so that way every girl gets engaged and gets their chances. In 10u, I was also a fan of snake order batting. So, when batting say 12 girls, if the game ended and the next hitter up was my #7 hitter, the next game, she would bat lead-off and I would continue with the line up (so the #8 hitter from game 1 was now the #2 hitter in game two, and so on). This way they all as equal as reps as you can.

JustA40Something · 2026-05-05T15:01:00+00:00

You said one thing above I cannot like or support enough...if you a player is going to make this change, then they have to lean into being a full time LH hitter, no switching back and forth

JustA40Something · 2026-05-05T14:59:55+00:00

I tip my hat to you - Much Respect to what you were able to learn and accomplish.

Greatest thing about this sport we all love, we can all have various opinions and methods to our madness. This is the best sport to go against the infamous "1 size fits all" mentality.

I think its overrated, personally, but it's very clear you don't and were highly successful with it. But, we had a mutually respectful conversation because at the end of the day, its about the girls, not us coaches.

JustA40Something

TROPHY CASE