My team has lost confidence PLEASE HELP!

[Greg]

We have a young HS team, most are freshman, none are seniors. I am an assistant coach so my say is not the final word. Our season began fair enough as we played some outstanding games and we fell apart and gave some away. We lost 4-5 games by 1 run and in each of those games we would have 3-4 errors scattered across our infield. Our HS has 2 state championships in the past 5 years and our past teams are know to play with pride and skill. After our head coach moved a few of the girls around, trying to eliminate some of the errors, it seems that we are now playing scared. We went to a tournament this past weekend and after we arrived and watched a few of the games it became apparent that we had a good chance to win this tournament which would be great for our confidence. So 2 days later were playing the final game and we get our first win, just to stay out of last place. Please share any thoughts, ideas we are reeling. thanks, greg

sorry I placed this in the wrong area...

 

[jimginas]

** Many coaches can teach proper mechanics, only the best can MOTIVATE! The hardest part of coaching at the higher levels is understanding the girls you have and how best to motivate. VERY HARD!

they need to experience success.

1) Depending on maturity, the girls CAN learn from losing experiences and take advantage of this (otherwise its wasted experiences)
2) BASICS: they need to BELIEVE and have BUY-IN that if they can do the basics (fielding batted balls and good, accurate throws, then progress to transition times
3) TOO Many teams bat balls at fielders in positions and make throws to all bases WITHOUT base runners, gives the fielders a FALSE SENSE of security and TIMING, BUT in GAMES, they rush. Rushing causes errors and transitioning a ball to the throw too slowly leads to SAFE CALLS. SO answer is have runners at whatever base they start be at the POINT their LEADS would realistically be from each base (they SHOULD be realistic to help infielders understand timing.) a ball is hit and fielders having to make plays with runners going GAME SPEED.

"Boys have to play good to feel good, Girls have to FEEL GOOD to PLAY Good" This for me seems so true so keep pumping the positive, be truthful when you criticize and criticize mechanics, not the player. Sometimes you have to break down mechanics and get good at specific aspects to begin to see success and once they see success, the start believing.

 

[sluggers]

"Playing scared" and "losing confidence" are what coaches say when (1) they don't have a clue as to why the team is losing or (2) they want to tell the media or fans to divert attention from the real problem. These statements have no meaning. (The link to Bobby Knight discussing "Game face" is here. Watch it and ponder the crap that coaches spew out to explain wins and losses.)

Good coaches know exactly why they lose games and exactly why they win games. That is what is called, "Knowing how to win a game." Bad coaches blame losses on ethereal, undefinable reasons like "no confidence" or "playing scared".

Why did you lose the game? What are the specifics? Specifically, how did the opposing teams score their runs? And, specifically, why did your team not score runs? I suspect that you were watching the game with your heart and not with your mind.

In my experience, the team that wins is 99.9% of the time is the team that throws better, catches better, hits better and runs better than the other team.

I disagree with jimginas about motivation. Motivation is the easiest thing in the world at the higher levels--you take away what the players want the most (playing time) if they don't perform.

"Boys have to play good to feel good, Girls have to FEEL GOOD to PLAY Good"-- I don't have a clue what this means. Boys feel good if they play well, but girls don't? Girls play well as long as they like themselves?

 

[SnocatzDad]

If they are playing scared the coaches need to look in the mirror and answer some questions.

#1 Have you benched a kid immediately or criticized harshly for making a physical error that was not the result of lack of effort or mental preparedness? If you have your creating an atmosphere where they are afraid of failing which makes failing more likely IMO. With a girls team if you do this to one player it's the same as doing it to every player on the team. In boys sports you have the luxury that boys always feel that nothing applies to them, sometimes even when it's directed specifically at them. For example telling a girls team "We can't keep making errors on defense!" and every girl will feel they have failed in some way even if they haven't. Tell a boys team "We can't keep making errors on defense!" and every boy onthe team will look around at his teammates thinking "Yeah, you guys have to stop making errors. Not me I'm playing fine" Confidence is a huge factor in being able to execute properly. If your kids know that you'll let an occasional error go as long as the effort is there, they won't worry about it and they will play with confidence.

I'd prefer to bench kids when they are showing a lack of effort, even if it doesn't result in an error. I.e. bench someone who doesn't feel the need to back up a play as practiced.

#2 Have you benched or criticized harshly a player for making a mistake on something you have never worked on in practice, and/or not recently worked on in practice? Who's fault is that, that they aren't prepared? We've all been there, a good coach takes those situations and makes his next practice plan, a bad coach screams at the girls that they should know these things. Again, the girls can't control what you haven't instructed them on. Now they are worried about what else you may have forgotten to tell them that they will be accountable for. Examples would be "continuation plays" "Pitch outs" "Intentional walks" etc. We tried to explain an intentional walk on the fly to an 11 year old catcher/pitcher who had never heard of such a thing. Head coach told the catcher to give the signal then set up in the opposite batters box to receive the ball. Catcher kind of understood, pitcher was clue less and threw inside which went to the fence and allowed a run to come in from third. Head coach told the girls that he took full responsibility for it because as soon as he realized they had never worked on it in practice he should have let it go.

#3 Do you have realistic expectations for your team. If they are truely that young, there is at least the chance that teams made up of girls that are predominantly older are actually better than you are and you are simply going to take lumps with a team full of freshman many of whom may never have faced pitchers 3 years older than themselves, or had limited exposure to them. There is a positive spin to that, if they can take their lumps and learn this year, they can be better next year and the year after without losing any key components. The teams you find intimidating now will probably have to retool next year with kids who did not play at the varsity level this year. I've seen very few error free college games. Every game may have one or two errors, as a coach you may feel that those errors cost you a close game, but the reality might be that you were simply beaten by a better team, who also made a few errors, but in the end out hit, out pitched, and out fielded your team.

 

[Coach JV]

Great advice gentlemen! If your team is well prepared, and plays that way,
this is the stamp that they are well coached. Your team is behind the coach
and follows his/her lead on game day. Be positive, the girls will respond accordingly.

 

[Greg]

Great response with different opinions, I can use several of these responses . And as you know sometimes you know the problem but it really helps to hear it from someone else. I Thank you..

 

[George R.]

Greg, what is the level of talent for your team? Are they seasoned travel ball players or is school ball the only time they play during the year? In my experience, the most common fielding errors are caused by 1) looking for a play before they control the ball, and 2) rushing their throws. The more seasoned the player, the less likely these 2 things. All other things being equal, a young team is likely to lose to an older one anyway.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

"Boys have to play good to feel good, Girls have to FEEL GOOD to PLAY Good"

This is a true statement. Also, be aware that if one girl gets mad at you, all of them will be.

If the team has been working hard, if the leaders are doing extra work at home, either throwing or hitting, I would give them a day off and go to the pool or something. Maybe, bowling would be a good activity.

Buy the DVD Mental Fundamentals and find a way to get the girls to watch it. The authors are Karl Kuehl and John Kuehl. There is an earlier addition, but you want the baseball, softball edition.

I saw Cathy Veroni (W. IL. U.) speak one time and she wanted the girls to defend their territory. She instilled in them a "nothing gets through" mentality, on defense. If you make an error, she said, draw a large box, draw an X in it, and stand on the X - and defend your box.

Also, make certain that the girls can throw. I used to know the percentage, but it is like 85% of errors occur on the throw.

Good luck. I have been there and if the coach doesn't address it now, it can carry on to next year.

 

[ang4yanks]

Greg...perhaps they need a dose of Sue Enquist. This speech she made in Utah (I believe) is broken down into five parts. Part I - Self Esteem; Part II - 33% Rule; Part III - The Game, Your Game; Part IV - Love of the Game and Part V - The Mental Game.

She is pretty motivational with a lot of insight. I am posting Part I. The others parts should appear in the right column.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxhWot7QHc8&feature=related

Good Luck,

Angela