Is it ever OK to purposefullly lose a game to get a more favorable bracket?

[MsDinosaur]

I agree with the majority here. Deliberately losing because they were afraid of getting trounced in the gold division sends the wrong message to the girls.

A team can learn a lot from playing against strong, competent teams, not only can it teach them to look for the small victories like Rockettech1 and BB875 mention, but it gives them a view of their long-term goal. Do you want a team that is happy playing and measuring their performance against only mediocre teams or do you want a team that's driven to be better and do more? JMO.

 

[Coach JV]

As a followup to my 'Bush League' remark. The only reason a coach would do this
is the fact that he has lost sight of the fact that the game is about the girls. Sounds like a
coach is trying to:
1. Stroke his/her ego or...
2. Protect the players from playing good competition

in the case of #2-some day the girls will be older and run into teams
that are in fact a 'buzz saw' this is all part of the game-intentionally losing
a game for placement sends the wrong message, and more importantly ignores
the integrity of the sport and competition.

 

[gophert]

I'm an emotional coach. I don't think I could live with myself. We had the same thing happen to us (10U) last fall. I had a very young 10U team. Half the team was 8U coach pitch girls moving up with the other 4, rec ball players moving to TB. Only my DD (pitcher) had TB experience. At the time, my DD was our only pitcher and could hold her own and make our team very competitive in a silver bracket. During pool play us coaches realized that if we lost 1 pool game we would be the top seed in the silver bracket, or if we went 3-0 in pool, we would move up to the gold bracket. We knew as a young team we would get killed in the gold bracket, but we wanted the girls to see the level of play we want from them. Sure enough the silver bracket was won by a team we killed many times. We play our elim. game in the gold bracket, but our girls NEVER knew they were the weaker team. We put 6 runs on that team in the top of the first. That team was stunned to complete silence. We did lose the game by 6 runs, but what a impact it had on our team. It also showed me, the coach, what my girls were made of. I say play to win...period.

 

[sluggers]

It is not acceptable to play to lose. It cheats both your team and the other team.

Some games I didn't field my best players and I would shuffle people around in the lineup or on the field.

But whoever was out there was expected to play to their ability. I would coach the kids on the field, and if someone made a mistake, she would be coached. If some kid made a great play, she would be praised.

 

[SCDad]

It is not acceptable to play to lose. It cheats both your team and the other team.

Some games I didn't field my best players and I would shuffle people around in the lineup or on the field.

But whoever was out there was expected to play to their ability. I would coach the kids on the field, and if someone made a mistake, she would be coached. If some kid made a great play, she would be praised.

Some games it is best to sit your stud pitcher to get some rest. Pitch a younger up and coming pitcher, because of the circumstance.

Our HS did just that in a late season tourney, against a region foe we knew we were going to face in a couple weeks. We pitch a freshman pitcher so not let the region foe see our senior stud, before a more important region game.

The freshman pitcher stepped up and delivered in a 8-0 win.

Similar things happens ALL the time in travel. For each game the manager picks his pitcher depending on circumstance of the overall tourney. happens all the time, never trying to lose, but making the best of a pitching staff.

Goes for hitting too. If you want to see different hitters in different spots, go for it. You are not trying to lose. You are trying to help the team grow by showing different girls, different looks. Give other players different opportunity, for you never know, these players overlooked may step up and make the most of this chance.

 

[Rocketech1]

Similar things happens ALL the time in travel. For each game the manager picks his pitcher depending on circumstance of the overall tourney. happens all the time, never trying to lose, but making the best of a pitching staff.

Goes for hitting too. If you want to see different hitters in different spots, go for it. You are not trying to lose. You are trying to help the team grow by showing different girls, different looks. Give other players different opportunity, for you never know, these players overlooked may step up and make the most of this chance.

Yes, and this is a different scenario than the original question I posed. To your point, I have had various coaches over the years say don't pitch your #1 to a team that we might face later on in a qualifier tournament. The reasoning being you don't want the other teams' batters to see your best stuff. But I have always questioned this because the reverse is true, if your #1 pitcher has faced these batters before, she now has information about what pitches worked well against them and what pitches didn't and she can adjust the next time she plays this team. Seems that everyone only looks at it from the standpoint of the offense gaining an advantage, and not from the defense gaining an advantage. What do you guys think?

 

[Abrasiveboy]

I didn't believe this was possible that someone would stoop so low to earn a tournament win. Then USSSA WS comes along and a team from OK was playing a team they were destroying, not a runner touched a base. Next game same thing and then into bracket play they sit there #1, the girl who pitched the 2 previous games I watched. They lose that game but during the game the chatter was they are throwing it because they want an easier route to the championship game. They fly through the losers bracket and take 2nd in the WS. Coaches that played against them said they should have been in either A or a different league. I lost faith in USSSA after that more so some coaches. Its wrong and if you need your ego stroked you shouldn't be coaching. Its about the girls not you.

 

[Pdiddy]

maybe I missed something...but the way it was described sounds like an open pool play tournament and then it was split into two divisions (upper and lower)....here in KC when they do that, if there are 16 teams in both divisions....the team that wins the lower bracket is listed as finishing "17th place" in the tournament standings.....so purposely geting into the lower bracket is not only crap....it's just doesn't make any sense....

 

[FP26]

maybe I missed something...but the way it was described sounds like an open pool play tournament and then it was split into two divisions (upper and lower)....here in KC when they do that, if there are 16 teams in both divisions....the team that wins the lower bracket is listed as finishing "17th place" in the tournament standings.....so purposely geting into the lower bracket is not only crap....it's just doesn't make any sense....

We have been in some tourneys that split after the pool games. In our area the silver bracket winner receives "first place" medals just like the gold bracket winner. The only difference is the medal is silver instead of gold. Most parents will post the pictures on facebook and make no mention of the different brackets. Only those involved in the tourney know the truth. So in a 16 team tourney, the 9th place team gets medals and the 4th place team gets nothing. Always seemed silly to me...

 

[JAD]

I don't know if I will say that we ever purposefully tried to lose a game, but I do remember a couple years back when we were a low B team when we did not give 110% trying to avoid going into the "gold bracket" of a tournament that pool play seeded teams into "gold" and "silver" bracket play.