Is winning important at young age?

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Oct 14, 2019
897
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we just played our first showcase. more boring than a jets-giants game.
I don’t know if this is normal at a showcase, but the other team’s coach didn’t want his players taking free bases. The team we were playing for had an inexperienced pitcher. The pitcher hit the batter 2 times and she stayed in the box. Finally, on the 3rd HBP, the coach let the batter take 1st base.
 

BigSkyHi

All I know is I don't know
Jan 13, 2020
1,385
113
Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Playing to win is so much more fun than playing not to lose.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
I don’t know if this is normal at a showcase, but the other team’s coach didn’t want his players taking free bases. The team we were playing for had an inexperienced pitcher. The pitcher hit the batter 2 times and she stayed in the box. Finally, on the 3rd HBP, the coach let the batter take 1st base.

What age group are you talking about?

We didn't start attending showcases until 16u. College coaches don't often attend showcases at any younger level in our region. You will not generally see an inexperienced pitcher at a 16u or 18u showcase event. That said, each showcase has their own rules, but in general, the goal is exposure for the players. Winning is secondary... One event we were at while DD was pitching, we were asked to have the other team load the bases with 0 outs to see how DD handled it. The other team pulled three players off their bench that were not even in the game at the time. At another event one of our players was asked to hit in consecutive innings because a college coach wanted to see her against different pitchers. We often moved players to different positions due to college coach requests. Our #1 catcher was being recruited as an OF, so when that coach arrived, we moved her where the coach wanted her. Again, it is all about the players. Score is irrelevant in these cases.
 
Nov 8, 2020
402
43
Winning is important at EVERY age.
I don't wake up 5 am on the weekend and sit at park all weekend watching girls softball to see them lose. Then deal with crabby kid the rest of the.day because the kid lost every game of the weekend.
Losing absolutely matters to her so its definitely going to matter to me
 
Mar 4, 2015
526
93
New England
I don't think anybody would say it's not important at all. Question is how important, IMO.

You can raise your winning percentage substantially if you seek out weaker competition. Most teams don't do choose that route, so that tells me that competition level is more important than winning to most.

In fact, you could say that winning percentage is a good measure of a coach's desire to win, at least for the middle 80% of travel teams. If you know what you're doing, you can choose tournaments that accommodate whatever winning percentage you want. That's except for the very best and very worst teams, who are so good (or bad) that they can't help but win (or lose).
 
Last edited:
Nov 20, 2020
995
93
SW Missouri
Our girls suffered their first true heart breaking loss this year at a Summer tournament.

It was their second game of the day, but fourth of the tournament. They were playing a better team and were absolutely controlling the game. My DD had started the game pitching with our #1 planned to come in and close it out. We use this pretty regularly as they’re two different pitching styles. Unfortunately, our #1 twisted her ankle pretty bad coming into 2nd base. So DD had to stay in and pitch the entire game which she isn’t totally accustomed to. Then the game started to get long. Defensive errors were made. DD missed closing out some batters when she was up in the count and started giving multiple walks in a row. I believe she even walked in a run or two.

It was a real rollercoaster of emotions for the team. Many of the girls were absolutely crushed. It was interesting to see who took the loss harder than others.

At the end of the day the girls got over it. DD didn’t want to talk about it for several days. Which is fine. She felt she let her team down. So we had a discussion on winning/losing as a team and how to move on. And also how to behave with such a loss......as she shut down and wouldn’t even talk to the HC afterwards.

I think “losses” can be more important from a teaching/learning standpoint. It teaches kids how to handle disappointment, how important working hard is, and that it’s also not the end of the world in the grand scheme of life.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Nov 22, 2019
297
43
We are in a similar situation at 10-U, but currently on a club team that went 3-19 in the fall. Only 3 girls, including my DD are 2nd years. We have an offer from a town team that went 20-2 in fall that is all 2nd years. My DD is the #1 pitcher and can keep them in most games when she is on, but errors, walks, and a lack of hitting hurt. However, we played the 20-2 town team, and the game was close. We could have won if we didn't spot them 5 runs in the 1st with our #4 pitcher. My daughter shut them down pretty good the rest of the way (1 H, 2 walks) and we hit their #2 pitcher. Plan now is to stick with the current team, work hard in the winter, and hopefully come out with better control/consistency and a strong change-up that gets them more wins.
 
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
From our experience, being on a so-so team as the #1 pitcher will do wonders for your DD.

Lots of mound time. Lots of lessons learned in losing. Great practice keeping her composure as things fall apart around her.

Wins are great, and fun to celebrate. You'll want some of them. Sometimes teams drop down into an easier tourney once a year just to get a trophy and give the girls a taste of that.
 

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