I have asked this question many times and never received an answer that I could accept... so I'll toss it out to the folks who have an interest in baseball and softball.
Volleyball and Football began conditioning training during the summer school break. The skills training begins shortly after the conditioning. Appears that quite a bit of time goes into the preparation of these sports. But when it comes to other sports such as softball, the girls receive so much less. This 2004 season, UIL has set Feb 2, as the first day of practice. In our school that will mean that is the first day many of the girls have touched a ball or glove for the year. Feb 12, is the first scrimmage game, that is only 9 (nine) practice days if there is no rain-outs and one Saturday is included.
My question is why are these kids not given more time to prepare if for no other reason then safety. Take a 3rd basemen.. in softball she might be only 30' from the batter. Guess I need a math major here but if a pitcher is pitching say only 55 mph, and a 140 lbs girl is swinging hard, how fast would you say that ball could be moving? It takes more then 9 practices to built up the needed reflexes. Throwing a ball 150 feet without tearing yourself up takes some practice too. I'm not trying to take anything away from VB and FB but it just seems rather dangerous to send these kids onto a field so quickly after practice begins.