HS players with no drive

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Aug 13, 2013
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How do you or can you motivate HS players who have no drive to get better or compete? You cant cut them or you would not have a team so that's not the solution.
 
Feb 13, 2015
164
18
First, I would make sure they lack drive and are not afraid to show failure. Often, players will show laziness and indifference because they fear ridicule if they fail. Remind your players that they are a team and that is like family. They need to have each other's backs and trust each other. Be willing to try hard and fail. Failure is one of the best ways to learn and improve. It's good to fail at practice, you are with family and they won't make fun of you, they want to help you improve.
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
How do you or can you motivate HS players who have no drive to get better or compete? You cant cut them or you would not have a team so that's not the solution.

Anthony, I know this might sound dumb but do these players actually know/have a reference for what you want? Asking someone to be a hard charger when they don't have a reference to charging hard is useless. I can recall one year, we took the HS team to watch a very good college team play in person. The reason for this was that there are so many things that happen in a college softball game that are not on the TV screen. Examples would include BP, infield/outfield, ... The communication on good college teams per outs, situations, ... is something these young players need to see.

One last thing, and this might seem absolutely crazy, have you personally demonstrated what you expect? I had a practice this year where I had the team stand out of play and I became the team both on the field and in the dugout. I had one player play catch with me where I warmed up and then threw to targets as this player was told to hold her glove up anywhere she wanted and I'd throw and hit it. I missed one time in ten throws. Then, I turned away from this player and told her to put a target up anywhere and let me know when she had it where she wanted. When she said she did, I turned and fired. I told the team that when they play catch, this is how you do it if you want to get better. Then, I played every position (Of was like one position) and demonstrated what was expected. I went to the dugout and did both the team coming while on transition to offense and then on offense and then, I also did the players on the bench. It looked crazy and believe me, the baseball teams on the field adjacent to us must have thought I was crazy as I was yelling at a pitcher and teammates who were not on the field. When done, I was soaking wet and kind of out of breath. I then asked them to match the intensity I demonstrated since that is exactly what I expect.

Finally Anthony, I think you are a good coach and you are here all the time asking questions and trying to learn. Good for you. Anthony, if you are going to expect your players to be hard chargers, they need to see you hard charging as well. JMHO!
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
Are there at least a couple players that want to win? A little bit of a slippery slop but see if you can get them more involved.
 

JLF

Sep 18, 2017
46
6
I have done this.
One last thing, and this might seem absolutely crazy, have you personally demonstrated what you expect? I had a practice this year where I had the team stand out of play and I became the team both on the field and in the dugout. I had one player play catch with me where I warmed up and then threw to targets as this player was told to hold her glove up anywhere she wanted and I'd throw and hit it. I missed one time in ten throws. Then, I turned away from this player and told her to put a target up anywhere and let me know when she had it where she wanted. When she said she did, I turned and fired. I told the team that when they play catch, this is how you do it if you want to get better. Then, I played every position (Of was like one position) and demonstrated what was expected. I went to the dugout and did both the team coming while on transition to offense and then on offense and then, I also did the players on the bench. It looked crazy and believe me, the baseball teams on the field adjacent to us must have thought I was crazy as I was yelling at a pitcher and teammates who were not on the field. When done, I was soaking wet and kind of out of breath. I then asked them to match the intensity I demonstrated since that is exactly what I expect.
 
Apr 5, 2013
2,130
83
Back on the dirt...
Anthony, I know this might sound dumb but do these players actually know/have a reference for what you want? Asking someone to be a hard charger when they don't have a reference to charging hard is useless. I can recall one year, we took the HS team to watch a very good college team play in person. The reason for this was that there are so many things that happen in a college softball game that are not on the TV screen. Examples would include BP, infield/outfield, ... The communication on good college teams per outs, situations, ... is something these young players need to see.

One last thing, and this might seem absolutely crazy, have you personally demonstrated what you expect? I had a practice this year where I had the team stand out of play and I became the team both on the field and in the dugout. I had one player play catch with me where I warmed up and then threw to targets as this player was told to hold her glove up anywhere she wanted and I'd throw and hit it. I missed one time in ten throws. Then, I turned away from this player and told her to put a target up anywhere and let me know when she had it where she wanted. When she said she did, I turned and fired. I told the team that when they play catch, this is how you do it if you want to get better. Then, I played every position (Of was like one position) and demonstrated what was expected. I went to the dugout and did both the team coming while on transition to offense and then on offense and then, I also did the players on the bench. It looked crazy and believe me, the baseball teams on the field adjacent to us must have thought I was crazy as I was yelling at a pitcher and teammates who were not on the field. When done, I was soaking wet and kind of out of breath. I then asked them to match the intensity I demonstrated since that is exactly what I expect.

Finally Anthony, I think you are a good coach and you are here all the time asking questions and trying to learn. Good for you. Anthony, if you are going to expect your players to be hard chargers, they need to see you hard charging as well. JMHO!

I sent this to the coaches that I am currently coaching with. We are going to try it. There are 4 of us so I think we can really do a good infield, outfield and in and out of the dugout demo!
 

obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
. He finally noticed there were some girls who were sort of the social leaders. He noticed those girls weren't really that motivated. He decided to try to reach those girls; make them team leaders, hope the other girls followed along.
This is what happened on our HS team. There was more concern with social standing than winning.coach would put a captain out there to try to show them how to improve their game. Eyes would roll and captain was hung out to dry. Other captains saw this and figured if you cant beat ‘em join em. Team stunk. So this year, only one captain returned and coach made (3) of the cool kids captains. Team is having its worst year ever. Coach may be gone. And underclassmen cant wait until the “too cool for school” seniors are graduated and gone! They have 5 games left and are already out of contention for a spot in the playoffs/tournament this year. (But they and their mothers did take lots of nice photosof themselves- pitcher stopped wearing a mask this year so she’d look better in photos)
So THAT didnt work.
That said, you Cant go wrong following cannonball’s advice!
 
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