throwing in the towel too early

[packhand]

We had a game last night vs. a really good team. This is the 2nd time we played them. Last time we lost, but we fought the enitre game. Ended up losing 0-2. Last night, we were away so we batted 1st and went 3 up 3 down. They stuck 4 runs on us in the bottom of 1. Not a good start but not too big of a deal. 2 more runs for them in the 2nd but we got a run on the board. So 6-1 them after 2.

After that, it just seemed to really come apart. I could just see the girl's eyes that they were done. I tried to give the inning by inning speech. I got them together after the 3rd and tried to fire them up a little. They just werent having it.

The other team took their foot off the pedal a little and we got back in it but they brought their ace back in to close it once we got close. So a final of 11-6 but the game was never in doubt.

So here's my question... Mental toughness... Is it just something you have or you dont?

Once we went south every girl was looking for someone else to do something.... Then the laughing and goofing off in the dugout, leaving the dugout, not ready to bat. Killer mistakes on routine ground balls. Pitcher wasnt getting calls on lower pitches so I told her to bring it up, your not getting those calls, and she didnt. Just not a good night for her. NO hussle. Like they didnt want to be there.

Throughout the year... I noticed my team loves to beat up on crappy teams... I have to actually hold them back from stealing when we have a huge lead or just rubbing it in... But when we play a tough team.... They are intimadated and fold right up... I dont get it. It makes me really question who on the team wants to play...

This is our 3rd stinker this year. I dont even care that we lost but fight and show some heart...

these girls are 11-12 league age. Some 13's or almost 13's on the team. So no babies. I guess I am just venting

 

[mad hornet]

I would love to read some words of wisdom on this one. My 13s last game went very similarly against a team we tied in our last match up. This time their lead off hitter took a 3-2 pitch out of the yard and it was all downhill from there....

 

[Little Angels Softball]

I hate to say this and will probably get chastised for it, but you have admittedly taught your own team that it is OK to take their foot off the gas when they're beating up on other teams. How can you expect them not to do it when the other team is beating up on them?

While it isn't all about winning, IMHO a good coach teaches his girls to always compete. Part of that is burying your opponent when you have a chance, because it breaks their will to compete. For example, I tell my girls and their families that I have a responsibility to end all non-competitive games as quickly as we can via mercy rule so we can rest players, avoid injuries, and perhaps have a chance to make the other team believe that they can never beat us. If that makes me a jerk, fine. I'd much rather have a pitcher go 11 or 12 innings on a tournament day than have to go 14 innings because we took our foot off the gas and let the other team hang around under the mercy rule threshold for a couple of more innings.

I teach my girls that is never OK to stop competing. Never. If they do, then I can point it out to them and have a meaningful conversation with them about why they are not competing and doing their best, and I can explain to them that their team needs them and needs to have confidence in them 100% of the time. That usually fixes everything.

 

[CoogansBluff]

The more a team focuses on winning and losing, the more they are likely to play according to the score. If you focus on the effort itself, letting that be the goal of every game, then winning and losing doesn't enter their mind so much. Yet it takes care of itself and does not become a distraction to the main goal.

One sign of a team that focuses on winning (and not the effort) is one in which coaches are constantly bringing up the score. If I say, 'We're only down 4, we're still in this!' then I've also implied that there is a deficit greater than 4 in which we wouldn't still be in this and that it might be OK in that situation to play with a different mindset.

 

[Easton33]

Whereas I do agree with the posters, I think that mentality will develop over several seasons, not 1. To me, what you are describing is what I call, "rec mentality". Not all rec teams have this, just most of them. Is this a rec team? have you coached them long? They have not learned to be true competitors and most are just out there to have something to do. That's how it is here. The girls that want to compete join the TB teams. You practice to get better and improve, you play to win. Every pitch is battle between offense and defense and every pitch, every player should try to win that battle or be in aposition to win. No matter the score, they just got to keep grinding and in the end whoever wins the most battles has won the war. That's how I explain it.

 

[abbygale]

Watching the girls dig the wheels out of the ditch and put them back on is one of the best parts of the game. It can take years for them to learn/realize that only they can get the wheels back on and the wagon rolling again. It helps making those times when the wheels come flying off a little more tolerable.