Teaching your players to be good teammates

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Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
My DD had a great experience recently that I wanted to share.

She was a pickup player last weekend on a team that already has 15 players. The TB coach did DD this favor because a college coach asked him to accommodate her. The coach wanted one more evaluation of her ahead of a visit to the school.

My DD benefits this team and coach in no real way. To most teams, she would be an inconvenience. We live 7 hours away from this team, so she's not a prospect to join the team, and they're full any way.

Yet, this coach spends extra time with her in the batting cage, working through some timing issues, and after DD had played her last game w/ the team, he spends several minutes talking w/ her, encouraging her, giving her recruiting advice, telling her she should immediately text the coach and express how grateful she is that the coach watched her, etc.

And DD didn't even play very well. She added no value on the field on this particular weekend. But he expressed how he liked her hustle, her ability to fit in with the team, her attitude, etc.

This week, she gets an email from this coach, further encouraging her, telling her to keep in touch, that she's got a bright future.

And then, she gets a couple of emails from players on the team saying how they enjoyed meeting her and good luck with her recruiting.

Now, I imagine that the coach encouraged these players to do that, but they did it, and the sentiments from those players were genuine. You can imagine how all this made my DD feel.

DD has been on teams where pickup players were shunned. She's been on teams where a teammate announced she had committed and no one was particularly happy for her. She's been on teams where teammates criticized each other, talked behind each other's backs, blamed each other for making errors.

I don't blame the players so much. I blame the coaches. It's about leadership. You have to teach kids what it really means to be a great teammate.

This coach taught his kids to see things from my DD's perspective - she's playing in front of a college coach, she's nervous, she wonders if she'll be welcome. He's teaching them how to be players that coaches want, those that are unselfish, who genuinely root for each other, who have each other's back. That's how you bring out the best in kids.

I was more than impressed. That is great coaching, IMHO.
 

JohnnyO

Began this habit in 1980
May 13, 2015
270
18
Midwest
Thanks for the message, maybe if we could sneak that into each coaches playbook we would have a lot better softball nation wide.
 
Feb 4, 2015
641
28
Massachusetts
Thanks for sharing. That coach is teaching the girls about so much more than softball. What a great role model. As for the college coach, how cool to throw your DD into a foreign situation and she how she adapts. Regardless of how she played on a particular weekend, the coach got to see her other qualities! great story.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
One of the lessons I learned as a coach and a dad when we reached 16U, it was no longer about wins and losses, it was about getting your players recruited. And while there will always be potential for jealously, I truly believe that all of our players are ecstatic when one of their teammates verbals. I imagine it is like baseball players in the minor leagues waiting to be called up to the majors. Most do not care which team calls them up, as long as they get the call....
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
As for the college coach, how cool to throw your DD into a foreign situation and she how she adapts.

That's one of the things that the TB pointed out to her. That's a very nerve-racking situation. She joined a team of strangers, taking away some of their playing time. All while a college head coach is watching every step. That's some pressure. She played 2 games, hit 2 balls fairly well that were outs, then a 9-pitch SO. Where I'm from, that's 0-for-3, but according to this coach, it was '3 quality at-bats.' That's what she needed to hear at that moment because she's worried she's blowing her chance w/ a college. Like I said, good coaching. I've always thought that one of the biggest mistakes w/ youth coaches is that they fail to see things from the perspective of their players. When they do that, it makes all the difference.
 

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