winning vs teaching

I remember back in my rec softball days (4th grade) when I was an AC and would bump heads with another AC. His DD had some pitching experience and was OK and my DD was just starting out. He would keep making the case to pitch his DD all of the time and not allow my fledgling DDs pitching career to start. I would state that this is a rec league and its charter is to development players and have fun playing the sport of softball. This other player said that he thought that the girls weren't having any fun because they weren't winning. This was after a loss and the girls were running around, laughing, and having fun. Apparently, not adversely affected by the "loss". I said, "Looks as if they are having fun to me!".

Just a little fast forward, the next year this coach became the HC for the team and shutdown my DDs pitching career in favor of his DDs and his neighbor's DD. The year after he left for travel ball and my DD had to chance to pitch and totally dominated the league with about a 90% strikeout rate. So, it was time for travel and because this guy was the "A" team coach my DD, until this past year, never made an "A" team. But now she is the clear ace, this guy's DD doesn't even want to pitch, and I am very proud of my dd for persisting and succeeding with her pitching aspirations.

My opinion is that rec ball, certainly, while trying to win the games your main focus is developing the players. I believe this to be the case even in early travel ball (10U and 12U). I don't recall how many victories that we had back in rec ball but I do recall that we certainly had a lot of fun!

RetiredCoach said:

I would state that this is a rec league and its charter is to development players and have fun playing the sport of softball.

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I agree w/ you.

We had a weekly pitching clinic for rec players. When I coached rec ball, I did require that players attend those clinics in order to pitch in games. I did believe that pitchers needed to put in a minimum amount of work to earn their circle time. But yeah, when I look back on my days as a rec coach, I never wish that I had been more competitive and won more games. I'm much more likely to regret not giving some kids more opportunities that would've made it more fun for them.

Teach! Teach! Teach! I am a big proponent of kids learning the game before winning. Especially in rec ball and always at the early ages rec or TB. I don't care if my daughter's 12u team wins or loses, I really don't. I want to see player development. Winning is fun, but it's more fun to watch them grow as players. Just my opinion, for whatever that's worth.

You titled this thread "Winning vs Teaching" but I don't think these two objectives are counter to each other. Teach the 8U players the fundamentals of the game: catching, throwing, fielding, and hitting and they will probably win their share of games. That is your job as a coach; develop each and every player so by the end of the season everyone gets better. My 3 objectives as a rec coach were: 1) teach softball fundamentals; 2) field a competitive (not necessarily winning) team, and 3) make sure the girls had fun so they signed up for the following season. Come to think of it, these 3 objectives are pretty much applicable to any level of fastpitch.....

If you want to teach players to stand around and watch the best players make all the plays then continue to run it in. I firmly believe that learning how to throw and catch is the most important thing you can teach at 8U. At that age you have to do things that might make it harder to win. You have to bat the whole lineup, you can't just stack and infield,etc. That's the way it's supposed to be. To me the best coach in rec is the one whose team improves the most from start to finish combined with how many come back the next season. That includes every player who wants to play. I remember at 10U we actually somehow won the championship. The coach pointed out a play that every player made that was special during the season.

8U the most important thing is no one goes to the emergency room.

Since it is a throwing Issue, keep throwing it. I think the answer would be different if it was a catching Issue.