Although those 13-14 year-olds have no doubt heard the F-bomb before, it has no place in a coach's dictionary when addressing players. That said, we all could find plenty of non-profane words that could wreck the confidence of any ball player. Calling anyone out personally in a post-game meeting for anything other than a job well done is wrong at any level.
It isn't easy playing in the rain, much less pitching. A catcher who is overtly hostile to the pitcher is an enormous problem, and if that was really the case, that by itself is toxic to the team's viability. A pitcher failing to catch a hard line drive is usually NOT an error, but I'm unclear whether the bad throw to 1B occurred on the same play or a different one. An error is a failure to execute a routine defensive play, not a failure to make an exceptional one. Regardless, in a team sport, it's rarely on one player.
I heap much responsibility on my kid's shoulders, and normally, she makes it happen. We had an important game recently, and as usual in tight contests with closely matched opponents, whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins. DD made a great defensive play on the first batter of the game, but then later booted a well hit grounder, allowing two runs. She took one on the elbow during AB #1, and then had two runs in scoring position late in the game. Typically, she's worth betting on in that situation, but fouled it off to the catcher. There were critical mental / physical errors by others, and we didn't hit very well overall, and narrowly lost. In the post-game, I swallowed my frustration, told the kids to forget about it, and move on mentally to the next game starting 15 minutes later, which we easily won. I later told an unhappy DD privately that had she fielded that hard grounder, and gotten a base hit late in the game, that the results might have been different, but that the loss wasn't her fault. I also told her that when I play, I always try to tell myself the truth about what happened, and use that to get better. It was most definitely a team loss, and had others hit better, or not brain-farted, or whatever, her less-than-perfect game wouldn't have mattered.
Coaches have no less invested in a team's success than the players. Tremendous amounts of time, energy and money go into this stuff, and you wouldn't want a coach who wasn't emotionally invested in the team's success. That said, perspective needs to be maintained, and that emotion controlled. Adults are in charge, and they need to act responsibly. Personally, I'd have a talk with the coach about all these concerns, and if I didn't hear ALL the right things, and then see those words promptly acted upon, I'd be on my way elsewhere.
It isn't easy playing in the rain, much less pitching. A catcher who is overtly hostile to the pitcher is an enormous problem, and if that was really the case, that by itself is toxic to the team's viability. A pitcher failing to catch a hard line drive is usually NOT an error, but I'm unclear whether the bad throw to 1B occurred on the same play or a different one. An error is a failure to execute a routine defensive play, not a failure to make an exceptional one. Regardless, in a team sport, it's rarely on one player.
I heap much responsibility on my kid's shoulders, and normally, she makes it happen. We had an important game recently, and as usual in tight contests with closely matched opponents, whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins. DD made a great defensive play on the first batter of the game, but then later booted a well hit grounder, allowing two runs. She took one on the elbow during AB #1, and then had two runs in scoring position late in the game. Typically, she's worth betting on in that situation, but fouled it off to the catcher. There were critical mental / physical errors by others, and we didn't hit very well overall, and narrowly lost. In the post-game, I swallowed my frustration, told the kids to forget about it, and move on mentally to the next game starting 15 minutes later, which we easily won. I later told an unhappy DD privately that had she fielded that hard grounder, and gotten a base hit late in the game, that the results might have been different, but that the loss wasn't her fault. I also told her that when I play, I always try to tell myself the truth about what happened, and use that to get better. It was most definitely a team loss, and had others hit better, or not brain-farted, or whatever, her less-than-perfect game wouldn't have mattered.
Coaches have no less invested in a team's success than the players. Tremendous amounts of time, energy and money go into this stuff, and you wouldn't want a coach who wasn't emotionally invested in the team's success. That said, perspective needs to be maintained, and that emotion controlled. Adults are in charge, and they need to act responsibly. Personally, I'd have a talk with the coach about all these concerns, and if I didn't hear ALL the right things, and then see those words promptly acted upon, I'd be on my way elsewhere.
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