Thread: Holding players accountable

Coaches,

What are your strategies for holding players accountable? By this I mean, you give a player instruction, perhaps many times, what do you do when they simply don't act on the instruction?

I coach 12U travel. I use lots of positive reinforcement and have stayed away from calling girls out, making them do laps or calisthenics to reinforce lessons, etc. When I point out their repated mistakes, I usuallly do it in private. I have just moved up from 10U, and with the eye rolling and sassy preteen years upon me, I am wondering if teher are some other tactics I need to add to my arsenal.

By way of example, I am blue in the face on the following:

* An outfielder that doesn't move with every play, not backing up bases on baserunning plays. I have shown her video, coached her on it endlessley, and then in games it still happens frequently. Forgetfulness, not paying attention, laziness - I am not sure.
* One of my catchers hesitates every time on the stolen base, as though trying to decide if there is any way she can avoid throwing it before she reluctantly decides to do it. I have discussed this, shown her video, done practice drills, and still it happens.
* A few hitters who simply do not step into the pitch earlier when they face a particularly fast pitcher, despite lots of instruction about this. They nod, agree they should, and then don't.
*Not hustling when you tell them to hustle (during a workout, for instance).

Sometimes these kids, after months of the same instruction, will suddenly reveal that they never understood what you were talking about. Which leaves me wondering, why didnt you say so before?? It can be maddening.

I'd love to hear how others motivate players to improve at some of their most ingrained bad habits.

Motivate them with playing time. If they fail a skill due to a mental error (not paying attention in OF or not throwing the ball at C), remove them from the game. Explain that they were removed due to their mental error. This is much easier for the catcher, you can simply tell her that on Saturday, you want her throwing the ball every single time, if she doesn't, she sits until the next game.

With outfielders, it's more difficult. A kid with ADD is going to have trouble out there. She may be being fed energy drinks by herself or her parents, and is crashing. If she doesn't have a mental affliction or a caffeine addiction though, she may simply not want to be out there. Bench her until she performs better in practice.

It sounds like you have a LOT of problems on one team. You say that you're coaching them positively, but are you also leading by example? Do they see your healthy lifestyle, hustle, and passion for the game at every practice? Do you recognize that attitude and effort come before ability and lead with that example? Did you try talking less and doing more? You can't "tell" a kid something. She has to FEEL it to be able to do it. If you can't get her to feel it, it's not going to happen. That is what coaching young ladies is all about.

You may simply have a team of kids that are only going to perform "just a little better" then the kid next to them, instead of performing at their peak. This kind of team attitude makes your best players weaker and your weaker players worse. This is amplified if you do not have a player leader who can motivate the team. Do you have a "cheerleader" AC? Even college teams employ AC's with this specific purpose, to boost moral. Recent college grads or kids home between college semesters work great here.

Good luck coach!

-W

I have to agree. You have to try every tactic that you have, but at some point PLAYING TIME, becomes the best motivator.
And by that I don't mean move them to the outfield, you sit them. Outfield is just as important as the infield, and if players perceive that you are using it as an exile, they will not value those three positions.

Out of everything you listed hustle was one of the things that I found the easiest to fix . When they are taking the field they are to run to their positions , when they are in practice they need to run everywhere they go . When they are practicing fielding , running bases , throwing the ball , anything at all , they needed to be doing it with a sense of urgency If they didn't I would call them out and take appropriate measures . If I saw a girl walking onto the field I called the whole team back , let them know why and asked them to retake the field . If they weren't hustling in practice I would have them run to the foul post and back until they seemed to be getting it . I used to coach soccer and running was the punishment for everything and the girls responded to it as they ran plenty without screwing up . In my experience it only takes a few corrections and your whole team will have it figured out but you need to let them know up front what the expectation is going to be as well as the consequences . The girls that never seemed to get it usually self selected themselves off the team or spent a lot of time on the bench but both she and her parents knew why .

I think the telling them something over and over again and not having them get it is a teenager thing . I have 2 of them at home and it seems like I have been asking them to do the simple things around the house for years , so if they pick up on what they are supposed to be doing in the course of only a season I generally view it as a success

Having them watch collegiate games really does get the point across. It also helps when you play really good competition and the girls see how those teams conduct themselves.

Repetition of the right way. I coach rec softball out of necessity, but as a professional performer and music teacher, I can say that when you focus on mistakes, you get more and better mistakes. The strength of the mental image is what matters -- our bodies strive to produce what we imagine, whether what we imagine is actually desirable or not -- so if you make a negative image stronger by repeatedly criticizing or raising the stakes, you will either get exactly the mistake you are preaching against, or you will get paralysis. Once a wrong image is sufficiently engraved it takes a LOT of repetition of the right way to erase it. Be patient.

There is no such thing as the "teenage" mindset on the field. The responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders as a coach. And is starts from day 1!!!. You have to be THE most dynamic personality on the field at all times. You must be able to show the kids that you will not accept a less than maximum effort at all times from day 1. Your energy level MUST be greater than your players. It has to be your mantra from the beginning. You have to get into their ears and stay in their ears constantly motivating them to move faster, quicker, harder and make the play better than the last time. They will follow your example if they feel like you care about the team and about them as players.

When it comes to players making mistakes. I do and I don't call them out. I tell them right from the start if they make a mistake during practice I will stop what we are doing and ask the team what So-n-So did wrong. Then I will describe exactly what she did wrong and why it was wrong. Then I give the entire team the fix at the same time. That way I'm not re-teaching the same thing 12 times. Once a player understands that being corrected and coached is NOT being yelled at they respond better. On the flips side. If a player does something exactly as it should be I will stop practice and point it out to the entire team so they know what is expected of them. One of the things I tell my teams is "If you're going to make a mistake. Make a BIG ONE!!! That way I know you're trying."

As for your catcher. The reason she is not throwing is she doesn't have confidence in the SS being there. The way to fix that is to first have the catcher throw the ball down to 2nd with no one there. The goal for her is to hit the base with the ball. The put the SS there to catch the ball. Then move the SS 2 steps off the base and have her move when the ball is thrown. Keep increasing the distance the SS has to move when the ball is thrown until the SS is on the run when they make the catch. It will take some reps. But, sooner or later the catcher will understand the SS will be there. It's her job to deliver the ball to a spot. And she has to know exactly what her job is.

It must be drilled into their heads that OF is NOT a punishment. This mindset comes from kids who are just out of rec ball mostly. The weak players were always put in the outfield. The responsibility for the mental errors in the outfield must be put to a player that she let her teammates down by not being there. Put peer pressure on them to perform. Then you tell right up front they will make that backup run a hundred times without having to do anything. It's that 101st time why they make the run. If in the end a player still does not perform then it's time to start to limit the innings.

A BIG part of the mindset comes off of the field. I make the kids responsible for everything in their equipment bags. I will not let them blame their parents for something not being there. They carry all of their and the team equipment. I make sure they relay to the parents all of the team information. I do follow up with emails on that to the parents. Make them responsible for themselves and make sure the parents understand what you are doing. It never fails. You will almost always get one parent on the team who is an enabler.

I'm heading into my 8th year of coaching 8-13U girls without a kid on the team. There's not much I haven't seen. I've had everything from over-committed superstars to kids who do not have the talent to play at a level any higher than rec ball. Trying to fix things things mid-season is very hard to do.

Sparky is dead-on. When a team isn't running the way you like, you have to take a hard look at yourself.

I've learned myself (hard lesson, many frustrations) that I'm not a head coach but (hopefully) a great assistant...I want things to run at the highest levels but can't command the field (and off the field) the way that he described. It's not my personality.

My second frustration is that our head coach doesn't necessarily have the same standards I do. He's a great leader but more lax about CERTAIN things than I would like him to be. So I have to just get over it, have a sliding scale of what's absolutely important (because I'm not in charge), influence what I can and work with him closely to keep our standards high.

A leader as head coach and high standards takes care of most things.

As for the game, teach them early that every PITCH is a play. It starts when the pitcher takes her sign and ends when she gets the ball back. Soooo much happens between those two points on every pitch. Softball/baseball is anything but boring (a common complaint) when played that way.