Letting them lose to show them they need to work harder

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Dec 4, 2009
236
0
Buffalo, NY
A friend of mine is a 1st time 12u travel coach. Today his team scrimmaged against our other 12u travel team. He knew they were going to lose badly, he had all travel rookies while the other team had been together for 4 years. Needless to say, they looked awful. First batter walked and just keep going to 2nd and it went downhill from there. I can respect his motives, however I feel this will backfire on him. He is a good rec coach but travel is a different world. I talk to him after the game and he thinks that this will make them listen more, I doubt it. His season starts this weekend, I think he will lose these girls very quickly. What does the Forum think?
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
It is just ONE scrimmage game so it means very little in terms of the whole season. I've been on both ends of this type of game and there is a lot to get from a friendly scrimmage over a game where you lose 20-0

* Getting beat up does help some girls realize where they need to be to be competitive if they want to put the work in. For others it shows them that this whole travel thing is not for them.

* It is also helps set up parent expectations - especially those new to travel - "We are not that good compared to a REAL travel team"

* I am sure the coach found some positive things as well - players he wasn't sure of coming through or showing flashes - and others maybe not the spark expected.

* Also good to get the first game out of the way without any real result on the line.

None of those things are necessarily bad things.

And travel coaches rarely lose the girls -before they get a chance to lose the girls, they will lose PARENTS much faster. And that is really the issue. Unlike rec, travel has a whole bunch of losing to do in a short period of time. You can lose 3-4 times per day with little or no break. Do that for a few weekends and that is a lot of concentrated losing. That is TOUGH for all concerned.

If he has level appropriate tournaments lined up, then great. Kids will do some losing and some winning and hopefully a lot of improving. There was a 'C' level team this weekend locally - all the weaker teams were there and at least half the field got their first wins of the season. Four teams got deep into a tournament bracket for the first time ever. Great for them.

You want to be somewhere in the 40-65% win percentage to have a chance. This is not the only indicator, but is a decent one that says you are playing around your skill set and experience level regularly.

Major issues occur in season above and below those numbers (Below because when you are losing 20-0 parents start to ask things like 'does it REALLY matter who is at SS. Why can't my DD play there' - massive frustration occurs, players leave, new players are even less experienced and it snowballs fast. Above treat every loss as a national disaster - most times if you are winning 75% of your games you are probably playing below your level - not going to be a problem here by the sound of it.)
 
Jun 1, 2013
847
18
You get better by playing better competition. Taking rec parents to tournament ball is rough and he will have a ton of battles to fight this year. I agree with the coach's decision to play better opponents and I also agree he will lose girls. Losing girls should probably be expected though when moving from rec to tournament ball regardless of the any one game or scrimmage. I would say it is the norm to lose several girls when transitioning, some based on their expectations of travel ball and some based on his. Might as well dive into the icy water vs tip toeing.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
I don't think a scrimmage or a tournament where you get killed is going to hurt you much. It's nice to show the potential of where you can go do. New TB parents often think that they are at the top of the game and need to understand where they really are.
 
May 6, 2014
532
16
Low and outside
A few years ago, we scrimmaged a team to prep for a tournament. They were entered in the same tournament. They crushed us in the scrimmage. We figured we could wind up being a 2-and-out. Then, on tournament weekend, we watched those guys be eliminated. We stepped onto the field directly after that to play the team that eliminated them, and we handed them an absolute beat-down. We wound up going to the semis.
 
May 6, 2012
149
16
Texas
I think if we was using it as a learning tool for himself as well as the girls this is a great thing he did. Sure you need scrimmages like this to show the girls this is what your up against so you need to step up your game, but at the same time he needs to be sure he is taking notes on the good tings the girls did as well as the things he needs to spend more time during practice working on. Every time my current 18u team was looking to move up we put them in the next level tournament or scrimmage a really good team in the age group to show them and use coaches what we are getting ready for and what adjustments we need to make.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
I have always been a firm believer that you learn more from losing than you do from winning. When you win you forget all about the missed signs, strikeouts looking with bases loaded, fielding errors, throwing errors, walks.....when you lose, especially a close game, you can lament on the "if only" scenarios....
 
Jul 10, 2014
1,283
0
C-bus Ohio
Every time my current 18u team was looking to move up we put them in the next level tournament or scrimmage a really good team in the age group to show them and use coaches what we are getting ready for and what adjustments we need to make.

This was me and my MS team this season. It wasn't until the end of the season that we really started to gel and play heads-up. It took getting whupped by superior competition to show us where we were weak and needed to improve. Especially it showed me how much I have left to learn about this game!
 

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