#1 Reason Teams Lose
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- Jun 12, 2015
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Some teams seem to have this intangible element of fight. I don't know what else to call it. We've had our DD on teams that had it, and teams that didn't. She was on a team once that was full of talent, but just had no fight or chemistry. Smart coach who knew the game, but never seemed very invested in any personal way. That team lost all the time. Most of the individual girls on that team have gone on to be great ball players on other teams. It wasn't a talent issue. They just couldn't figure out how to fight for it (in their defense, they were 9). Her 2nd year 10U team was full of fight. We'd have comeback wins frequently. They very rarely gave up. It seems like teams will either win most of their close games, or lose most of them. I think this is why.
You'll usually lose when you play above your level. A few years ago I had a team that was in all honesty a B level. However we had a schedule of nothing but A, Gold and a couple opens. (My theory was "we won't get better playing low level competition" ) We lost the first 15 games straight. We would compete and stay close but we'd always come up short a run or two. Our first win came in an open tournament against a sanctioned B level team...
Team became disfunctional and parents non stop chatter ate away the team. That season dissolved right before our world series trip. I bought into a B level all sanction tournament in TN... We would have probably killed it there, but the damage was done and 4 or 5 players suddenly couldn't make the trip!
Point is to find a balanced schedule that is challenging yet not so tough they quit on you. The losses mounded up so high that they saw themselves as poor players or "we suck" so what's the point attitudes...
Funny thing is now almost all of them are their current teams stud player several are freshman in HS now and start on the varsity team.
Team became disfunctional and parents non stop chatter ate away the team. That season dissolved right before our world series trip. I bought into a B level all sanction tournament in TN... We would have probably killed it there, but the damage was done and 4 or 5 players suddenly couldn't make the trip!
Point is to find a balanced schedule that is challenging yet not so tough they quit on you. The losses mounded up so high that they saw themselves as poor players or "we suck" so what's the point attitudes...
Funny thing is now almost all of them are their current teams stud player several are freshman in HS now and start on the varsity team.
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Sounds to me like you did not lose, but maybe just got beat by a better team. I tell my team that I could care less about getting beat by a better team, as long as we do not lose due to our own action or inaction. If at the end of the contest you can honestly say that you left it all out on the field you should hold your head high. However, if you feel you did not give it your all and could have done more, we lost regardless of what is on the scoreboard. Each season we have some losses where I am very proud of our performance, and some wins where I am very disappointed.
If we are talking teams of similar talent & skill level, I totally agree. You make all the straightforward plays, you are putting yourself in a great position.
It is also why I promote in early rec and younger age groups that the absolute best fielder plays 2B. There is a lot of balls that go to 2B and they MUST be outs. In the early ages, outs from SS and 3rd are on most teams are 'bonus outs' and are just as likely to be extra bases on over throws as they are to be outs but no one is surprised when it happens. When you make that easy 2B-1B error that regularly turns into the 'big inning'
Absolutely right about the "bonus outs" coming from the left side. In the younger age groups, I'd say that pitcher, as a fielding position, is even more important. My DD could never quite figure out how to pitch, but was a vacuum cleaner there as a 6-10U. I lost count of how many outs she converted, and multiple double plays. Just as important regardless of age...someone at 1B who can catch.
Very true. Competing with good teams is vital to getting better, but the team also need wins. Wins boost morale, provide team credibility, and allow the coaches some leeway to challenge the team with better competition. I can't remember any loss against better competition that didn't make DD a better player, but everyone likes to win a game, and even better, place well in a tournament.
- Jun 29, 2013
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I agree with the idea that the better defensive team usually wins, to a point. If you're rock solid defensively but can't hit or pitch as well as your opponent, you're still likely to lose. But DD was on that team where, despite having a lot of talented players (meaning players who can hit, and are capable of playing adequately at other positions), the defense was atrocious and not surprisingly, we went 0-14-1 in a fall season. And the losses weren't even close. All the other points everyone brought up were true as well (we played one tourney that we had no business being in, we had no chemistry, we had poor coaching decisions, we had parents sniping after the losses started accumulating, etc.) but the root problem was the defense was agonizingly bad, and most of the problem was poor throwing and fielding techniques by infielders that were never corrected. The coaches added to the problem by refusing to sit those who consistently proved they couldn't make the plays.
- Jun 12, 2015
- 3,848
- 83
Teams with terrible defense can win a lot if they have an ace pitcher. I see teams sometimes where they'll beat a really good A-level team, then the next game tank against a much weaker team. They only win when that one girl pitches. Usually that pitcher ends up moving to a higher level team next season though.
you either get beat or beat yourself. we work really, really hard on not doing things to beat ourselves.
