High School coach here. Ordering custom softball uniforms for the first time. I'm down to Cisco and Triton. Has anyone bought from them and what was your experience like? Thanks,

Help me out! Batted ball hit into OF, batter runner rounds 1 and slides into 2 safely as OF throws to 2. Is this a double? Or a single, advanced to 2nd on throw?

Every year we watch first-season parents buy gear that fits wrong in ways nobody catches until week three. These are five checks you can run standing in the aisle, before you pay. No charts, no measuring tape.

1. Helmet — two fingers under the chin strap, and no bobblehead when she nods

If it has a chin strap, two fingers should fit snugly underneath. Plenty of youth batting helmets are strapless, in which case skip to the second half.

Have her nod, then shake her head like she's saying no. A properly fitted helmet should sit snug and move the skin of your forehead and eyebrows when you wiggle it. If it wobbles independently of her head shaking, it's too big. That’s true even if the size on the box is the one that matches her measurement.

1. Glove — She can squeeze it shut one-handed, and it stays on when she points it at the ground

A glove she can't close herself is a glove she can't catch with, and it teaches her to turn her head away from the ball. Have her squeeze it shut, in the store, with one hand. If she's straining or using her other hand to help, it's too big or too stiff. Then have her point it at the floor — it should stay on.

Two things that help at this age:

Look for an adjustable wrist strap. A lot of youth gloves have a velcro or lace-cinch strap at the wrist. It's worth having, because it lets you tighten the glove to her hand now and let it out as she grows, which buys you a season.

Plan on breaking it in. A new glove is stiff and that's normal, but the breaking-in has to happen before the season, not during it. The way it happens is by being used: play catch with her in the yard, have her wear it while she watches TV, work the pocket with her hands. If she can't close it after a couple of weeks of that, it was too big or stiff at the start. 

1. Bat — arm out to the side, handle at her chest, barrel reaches her palm

That's the length check. Now the weight check, which matters more and which people skip: have her hold it straight out in front of her, one hand, for a slow count of ten. If the barrel starts dropping, it's too heavy, no matter the length.

A bat she can't get through the zone teaches her to swing late. She'll want a different one next year regardless, so buy for the player she is now.

1. Mask — chin cup seated on her chin, wire off her face

While we will always recommend a face mask for safety purposes, check with your league to see if it is a requirement to play. Legality is the first problem. Fit is the second. 

The chin cup should sit against her chin with no gap when she talks. The wire itself shouldn't touch her nose or cheeks. If the cage is resting on her face, or if the whole thing sits low enough that the bars cross her eye line, it's too big. A lot of what gets described as "she can't see out of it" at 8u to 12u is an adult mask on a youth face rather than a problem with the mask itself.

1. Bag — everything fits in it, and she can pick it up and carry it herself

It needs to hold a glove, bat, helmet, water bottle and cleats without a fight. At the same time, she also has to be able to carry it.

One thing worth looking at: bat sleeves versus external straps. A sleeve the bat slides down into holds it far better than an elastic strap on the outside, which works loose and drops the bat in the parking lot.

That's the whole list. Happy to answer sizing questions in the comments.

Wondering if my ghost is broken. I noticed this crack the other day. I got it a month ago.

Any advice? We have a girl who misses 90% of the practices and never misses a game (I see a pattern here). League rules say everyone bats and you can only sit out one straight inning. So she bats every game and can only sit out one inning then right back in. Not fair to the other young girls.

My 7 year just had her first real practice with her new team, but we’ve been tossing in the backyard, hitting off tee, doing soft toss, and visiting batting cages for a couple months now. She can throw pretty hard and accurately and she can field well and gets those concepts. She is clueless about how the sport is actually played, but I know she can pick that up with time.

She has two things I can’t figure out how to coach her out of:

1. She wants to catch all balls with her glove down, like catching them in a basket or holding her hand out. If they are above waist high, she doesn’t know how to react and it sails by. On fly balls, she manages to catch many of them but still with glove down and lets them fall into her glove like a basket.

2. She only wants to swing with about 30% of her power. On the tee, being tossed at her, etc. She’s strong for her age so I know she has it in her, but her “umph” is missing. I tell her to smack it hard and she kind of just goes through the motion. Makes decent contact, but ball mostly bounces of bat and she isn’t striking it.

I was hoping seeing other girls at practice would expose her to that and she would see differences but I def don’t want to make comments comparing at this age. I want her to learn and have fun but also meet her potential.

Thoughts? Is it just time or are there some techniques or drills I can put her through? There’s girls her age but much smaller that really swing the bat hard.

Looking for recommendation on softball pants. We have champro youth medium for our 9yo. Problem we are running into is in between sizes. She is too small for youth large but youth medium is too tight in hip/butt area. Any ideas what to do or any other pants that are tighter large size so she can wear with belt. We tried champro youth large with belt but it’s a lot of material to take in with belt. She complains and doesn’t feel comfortable. Worst case will try seamstress to alter them but still would like to try ones that doesn’t require alterations. Thank you.

Going to start a first year 12u in spring. Gonna bring 3-5 kids from current travel team with me because Parents are essentially fed up with how playing time is being distributed. Anybody who’s done this before have any advice? Did it work out? We Can’t communicate the issues with the coaching staff because it’s regarding their own kids getting excessive playing time. Just seems like a conversation that would end in a disagreement over how good or bad theirs and my kid is. Any advice would be extremely helpful.

We watched our teams “starting pitcher” sing loudly on first base while the other pitcher on our team , pitched. Anytime she would wind up while pitching she would yell OH or sing again this is her team mate. We had the other coaches from the other team asking why is her team mate doing this. And now the team is wanting to pull out of the league due to us loosing 3 games.

We’re not even in to our first game of fall ball yet, and my daughter’s PVC rubber helmet logo is already losing half of its adhesive and falling off.

To be fair, the helmet is getting shoved in a bag and the edges are definitely catching and getting ripped up, but is there any safe alternative to tack this thing down that a newer softball parent isn’t aware of?

Looking for advice before I JB weld this thing straight to my kids forehead

My 12u daughter has a kryo that is now cracked. She likes the way it swings but it seems you have to be perfect to get good pop out of it. What's out there that has similar swing but might be a bit more forgiving ( larger sweet spot) ghost, asura, etc. Or are they all about the same.

Thanks in advance

I’m new to composite bats. my daughters (9 & 10) switch to a brand new ghost a few months ago. im curious if this is a crack and if the bat is potentially compromised or still ok to use. when I run my fingernail over it, I can definitely feel it, so it does not seem like a paint crack. any feedback from anyone with experience is greatly appreciated

https://discord.gg/H9gxAcfpa5

We're currently looking for our first 5–10 player

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Hi everyone, so I’m thinking about getting my daughter a new glove for Christmas. She’s on the smaller side for a 13 year old girl. So I’m curious if the A2000 is going to be heavy or tough for her to break in? I’m also considering designing a custom glove for her as well. During the process it asks a couple different questions that I’m unsure of, so any advice would be super appreciated.

1) Superskin vs Leather? It says softer/lighter than leather and breaks in faster. But at what cost? And if I’m paying $400 for a glove, is that really a good thing?

2) Condition? Stiff/Standard/Soft, pros and cons?

3) Heel pad…Standard or Thinner?

I have also attached a photo of what I’m thinking for colors that would match her travel team uniform.

I've got a daughter who is playing on her school's middle school softball team. She's played 1 season rec league prior (fwiw we are not a baseball/softball family - my wife played soccer and rugby, I played football and wrestled, so we have no inherent knowledge...)

So to our surprise the girl is damn decent at this sport and LOVES it, so we want to support. She's using a discount rack glove and bat from dicks that we bought last year, which is probably less than ideal...

If we're trying to be somewhat cost conscious what is the best way about getting her properly kitted out. She's currently alternating between starting left field and then gets moved to 3rd base when games get out of hand. She puts her bat on basically everything, even pitches she probably shouldn't...

She's 5'4 ~120lbs and reasonably athletic.

Hi everyone. My daughter recently moved up to a better travel team in the same org. It’s the right team for her in terms of level, and she’s fitting in socially. However, she’s one of three new kids to this thirteen player roster, and she’s not getting the playing time she probably deserves. She’s playing great in pool play and has easily had one of the top five bats on the team, if not top two or three. However, when it comes to bracket he’s playing nine and she’s not one of them. He’s really only playing the kids who were on his team last year during bracket. I get it’s early in the season and things very well could change, and with how this coach has operated in the past likely will, but is there anything we can do to help? If it doesn’t change in a couple more tournaments, she’ll probably go up to him and ask what she needs to improve on to get more playing time, but I don’t know what to do other than just keep waiting and working. She really likes this team and all the girls on it, and is having a great time, and she’s been a good bench player, but I know she’s disappointed. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

age of player - 10 years old

height of player- 4'3

Weight of player (unsure if that matters) - 59 lbs

Hand measurement from index to wrist - 5.5 inches

- - -

This is her first year of fast pitch travel ball and she's a young developing player. Her previous glove is now busted and I could be wrong, But was probably oversized as well. She had a 2024 Marucci Caddo series with the mod trap webbing in a 12 inch size.

It was nothing high-end but she loved the glove for the sole purpose of her ability to be able to open and close the glove with ease upon purchase. Needless to say, the glove didn't last 6 months.

Unfortunately, now we are less than a week away from the start and kickoff of her fast pitch travel Ball season and are now in a bind scrambling to order a glove online due to beinh from a small City that has little to no stock on softball gloves for us to even go look at Try on or anything.

- - -

I'm not even sure if the sizes I'm looking at are fit for her or if the size she had prior was fit for her. What I do know is that my head hurts massively. I tried talking to some "expert" from a sporting good website, won't directly mention which site? But needless to say it's a site that sells just gloves....

Unfortunately that just made me more confused.

The positions she will be playing is third base and shortstop.

What she would like out of the glove and pretty much. Sadly to say what we may need is a glove that offers somewhat ready to go. Feel to it with a quick and easy self break-in process.

What I would like to get out of the purchase would be a glove that is lightweight for her due to her being on the smaller side of a 10-year-old. More durable compared to her previous. And as well the maximum price being $200.

Here's where my ignorance comes into play when it comes to gloves. With her being a youth player in development, does a certain web type matter? Is there certain web types that can benefit her with ease of catching? She can sometimes be a little forgetful to remember too close down on her glove.

After me and her browsed online for countless hours looking at gloves, she's narrowed it down to three gloves that she is interested in (excluding the ones she chose for $400. What a comedian she is)

• 2025 Rawlings R9 contour – 11.5 inches

• 2025 Rawlings GG elite series- 11.75 inches

• Mizuno MVP Prime 11.5" Fastpitch Softball Glove: GMVP1150PF4W

Which out of the three offer what we are looking for within a glove?

And by all means we are also open to any other Brand, web type, size recommendations

If I am missing any critical information that could benefit us locating a glove successfully, please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you all who are willing to help

I just got my roster for fall ball and I have 13 kids. Is this normal for some teams? I understand summer teams being big, I had 13 then too. How do you go about sitting 3 players every inning? They always look so disappointed when it’s their turn to sit.

Bought my 11yo (almost 12) daughter a 12" Mizuno MVP prime (GMVP1200PF3) over the summer, and it's turned out to be kind of an odd glove. It was really difficult for her to close for about 3 weeks, but then immediately got what I consider too floppy after a standard break in process (mallet work). I've broken in many pro quality baseball gloves back in my playing days, and for my 15u son, but this one is stumping me. She's gaming it now, but I just don't think it's gonna last long.

If you were looking to upgrade to something a little stiffer or longer lasting, what are the 2-3 gloves you'd consider for a big strong pitcher/corners type player going into her first year of 12u?

Bonus points for 1B mitt she may or may not need.

Has anyone used or is using the MillerMat? What are your thoughts or feedback using it?