Ever felt kinda embarrassed winning a tourney?

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Feb 19, 2009
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My team won it's season ending 10u rec tourney this weekend. Were in a pretty small rec league so we combine with couple of other leagues to play our season ending tourney. We will play these other rec league teams during our regular season but not as much as our own teams.

So we get to the finals and play a team we've never seen before. They were aggressive on the bases, fielded the ball cleanly and made good throws, always to the right person. I had outfielders picking dandilions and infielders drawing pictures in the dirt. So how did we win?

I'll bet you didn't see this coming (tongue in cheek) but my dd who's pitching coach I've paid a king's ransom to over the past year won it for us. It was pretty much the same formula we've used all season, I give dd the first two innings and she gets us an insurmountable lead that my #2 or #3 pitcher can't lose. It's not like the other team's #1 pitcher completely sucked either, she had decent mechanics and could get it close but not in the zone (fast and over the plate but always high it seemed).

If we had gotten all walks and didn't at least get a few hits off of her I would have considered forfeiting.
 
Feb 19, 2009
196
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Time to move your DD up to Travel ball. This is not a challenge for her. What is the point?

Yeah, we'll go to tryouts and there's the possibility of playing rec & travel next year but she's still a kid who's only 9 and likes playing with friends from school. This is my younger dd btw, not the older one who I posted about in another thread (she's definetely playing travel next year).
 
Feb 19, 2009
196
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I probably made the tone of this thread sound basically like, "my kids a star playing with a bunch of rec-league stiffs" and that really wasn't my intent.

I've got a bunch of kids on my team who are talented and committed but like any rec coach who gets his roster at the begining of the season, I've got plenty of first-timers who play at a rec t-ball level. Even my talented and hard working kids make their share of mental mistakes.

What I found most embarrassing as a coach was that the other team was out of it on the scoreboard after a couple of innings but they were hustling to their positions (always backing up if playing the outfield) and playing hard while some of my kids were dragging their feet to get to their positions to start an inning. Again, this wasn't a travel team we were playing just another rec team like us

It made me wonder afterwards if they were a team that all played together and aged up together or whether I inadvertently created a culture of lollygagging by overreliance on an ace pitcher.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
Oh, if that is your question, the the answer is simple: You inadvertently created a culture of lollygagging by over-reliance on an ace pitcher. A team with as good a pitcher as your DD would have wiped the floor with your team.

Coaching in softball is teaching. If you aren't teaching, you aren't coaching.
Sounds like the other coach taught his team how to play softball, and you didn't. When every kid on the team has a role and something to do, then they work as a TEAM. Sounds like your kids treated the game like going to a movie--"we'll just watch. Tell me when it's over."

The best coaches aren't necessarily the ones who win the championships or the most games--especially in rec leagues. The best coaching I ever did in was when one of my teams went .500. (The kids were small, but they were slow.) I taught those kids every trick in the book and how to play every position to nth degree, because if they didn't play perfectly, we would have got 10 runned every game. Somehow, the kids went from "awful" to "mediocre". Funny thing--when they got to HS, their skills were light years ahead of every other player--so every kid on the team ended up starting on her varsity team.

You've not doubt heard the saying, "It is not whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game." The saying isn't about just sportsmanship--it is about every element of the game, any game. E.g., Every throw is backed up. It is NOT ok to walk out to RF. Why? Because that isn't how the game is played.
 
Feb 19, 2009
196
0
Oh, if that is your question, the the answer is simple: You inadvertently created a culture of lollygagging by over-reliance on an ace pitcher. A team with as good a pitcher as your DD would have wiped the floor with your team.

Coaching in softball is teaching. If you aren't teaching, you aren't coaching.
Sounds like the other coach taught his team how to play softball, and you didn't. When every kid on the team has a role and something to do, then they work as a TEAM. Sounds like your kids treated the game like going to a movie--"we'll just watch. Tell me when it's over."

No that wasn't my question at all and if it was I would have already answered it. Does everything have to be a question here because this forum is called "Softball Discussions" not "Softball Questions"? My only question which is in the thread title was if anyone here coached a team that won a tournament where they didn't feel their entire team gave their best effort throughout.

I guess not, if your reply is any indication. Everyone here has infinite coaching knowledge and are masterfull teachers, even to rec league first timers who are reluctant to learn anything. Oh well, I guess all I can do is go back to my rec coach drawing board hope to gain some wisdom by sifting through message board cliches about teaching and not winning or losing but how my kids play the game.
 
Jun 24, 2008
26
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Sluggers' replies may have been about as subtle and tactful as a punch in the stomach, but don't let that cloud his point because it's a good one.

I've been told things before, both on this message board and others, that I didn't want to hear in ways I didn't want to hear...but needed to hear nonetheless.

You're obviously somewhat embarrassed about beating a team that was, at the very least, a better prepared team than yours was. From the way you described the situation, I'd say they were probably a better coached team. That's not necessarily a bad thing for you...it could very well be that those coaches have been coaching a lot longer, have travel ball experience, a litany of other things that make them good coaches.

You need to make sure you're being honest with yourself as to why you're embarrassed about it...otherwise you won't learn what you need to learn from this experience. Every game, win or lose, should provide you with an opportunity to learn and improve yourself as a coach. Be honest, be objective, and don't continue do the same things - whatever they are - that allowed you to be embarrassed about winning this tournament.
 
Feb 19, 2009
196
0
I enter every message board I post in with a very thick skin so I don't take any offense to Slugger's posts to this thread. I've read some good stuff by Sluggers in other threads and I'm sure he's forgotten more than I know about softball, I just don't see much of a point to his posts to this thread that rises above the level of generic.

Oh what the hell I'll throw out another cliche here, every coach on every level is humbled by this game at some point. Most of the time it's when you lose but ironically enough it can happen sometimes when you win as it did to me. I didn't expect jeers or cheers when I started this thread, I just thought someone might have a good story to tell with a similar experience (maybe from my dugout or the other coach's).

Probably a lame thread idea, I may just hit the self-destruct button on it.
 
Jul 16, 2008
1,520
48
Oregon
I think it all has to do with the discipline of the team. If a team has good discipline during practices, then that turns into discipline at games. Of course this does start at the coaches. I have noticed a lack of discipline on our team and it showed during our last Tournament were we went 1-3 and out. The girls weren't hustling out to their positions, were dogging it at practice, we, the coaches have talked and we determined that it was our fault for not making them. We are now back to the discipline we had at the start of the season.
 
Mar 2, 2009
311
16
Suffolk, VA
I personaly believe and tell all my players on EVERY team I coach that if they are doing something wrong or make an error, its MY Fault, as long as they try hard and hustle. MUST be cause I couldn't have given them enough repitition or made sure they understood a concept.
I believe good coaches organize practices to continually improve. What are we struggling with in games and we plan extra time to work on thise skills. NOW attitude.....I've even had a portion of practice one year (at Varsity - HS), where we practiced running from the Dugout, to the field and we ran BACK to the dugout.... did this for about 20 minutes... and yes, to make a point from the game the day before! they KNEW better to lollygag and that is indicative of coaching and my players know how I feel about lollygagging, so I had to help them learn that we never walk onto a field or walk off a field. (Another pet peave of mine is a player that WALKS back to a base after her lead off a pitch. I tell them "tell your parents you'll be staying after the game to practice your leads for another 20 minutes!" Again, indicative of bad coaching if I let them do that. Its an attitude thing for me and IF I can't help them have the right attitude toward playing the game, I need to help them find something else to do, cause I don't want them and won't play them. EVERYONE has a job, INCLUDING in the dugout and if you teach them this, this is what they expect and are used to.
**** I HATE when I get players from coaches that don't teach them, then I have to fight through "Thats what my other coach told me to do"................ Sometimes, I want to smack the coach for wasting the girls time.
 

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