Playing poorly in Championship tournament games

[linedrivehitter]

My daughter's 16U team has made the championship game in 2 out of 4 tournaments this Summer. In both cases they played their worst game of the tournament and gave the championship game away by making multiple mental and physical errors.
FWIW both times, they played back to back games with about a 20 minute break, while to opponents rested one game before.

What advice does the forum have to help improve play when it counts most in the final game?

I should mention that practices revolve around reps for infield, outfield and hitting. They rarely involve game situations, which I think is a mistake.

 

[Bucketrider]

Just my guess, but the practices seem to be doing well enough to get them into the finals. What may be missing is stamina or mental toughness. If the practices were lacking in "game situation practice", they would be more likely to be one and done on Sunday.

 

[joemcq51]

Sounds like they are doing great. Now they have to learn to win. That takes time. The Championship game adds a little pressure to the team. Could just be that the teams you lost to, were a little more experienced or talented. They put some pressure on your team and scored a few more runs. Rather than focus on what your team is doing wrong, look at what the other teams did to create the mistakes. Learn from it and use it the next time you are in the situation.

 

[sru]

My kids' been down this road before. Pressure coming from all angles......from the other team, from the parents, from within and from the coaches. Attitiude is everything. Pressure is a negative and emphasises weakness's, positive energy wins championships.

I've seen coaches yelling corrections at his players while they are playing, ussually emphasising what they should've done or should do next time. I've seen less talented teams go farther when players get a pat on the back after striking out instead of being told their hands where in the wrong position.

Positivity is a team concept, everyone (coaches, players and parents) need to buy in.

 

[Greenmonsters]

You need to learn to win, which means you have to lose first. How, well its a little like whether the chicken or the egg came first? The team seems to be on the right track in getting to the finals, but until they actually do it, there's always a question of whether they can actually do it. Once they do it, they know they can do it, and expect to do it in the future. If you keep plugging and learn from your failures, success is possible.

 

[WinThemAll]

Practices should contain drills or "games" which cause pressure situations. The players need to learn to deal with these situations.

 

[CoogansBluff]

It might be that you played your worst game because you were finally playing opponents good enough to find your weaknesses and put pressure on you.

Not saying that nerves, fatigue, etc., couldn't be the answer, too. Who knows. But as a general rule, I believe that people tend to underestimate the role that the opponent plays in how we perform. Better teams put the ball in play more, they hit the ball a little harder, making it more difficult to field; they're more skilled and aggressive on the bases, they don't walk as many batters and don't throw fat pitches, and they get ahead in the count. The cumulative effect of all that forces mistakes. I'm sure there are some teams that you beat to get to the final who are claiming that was their worst game of the tournament, when perhaps they just met their match.

And I'll add that it might also be experience in the big games. The more you play them, and win them, the better you get.

 

[sluggers]

But as a general rule, I believe that people tend to underestimate the role that the opponent plays in how we perform.

LMAO. Absolutely true. The trick in softball is not beating the average teams. The trick is beating the good teams.

When you play the good teams, execution is everything. Little mistakes that don't matter in most games lose games against the good teams.

Most likely, your coach is not teaching the right stuff. E.g., does he teach the correct way to do a relay? Does he teach proper mechanics in catching flyballs? Does he insist on a 1B using the proper footwork?

 

[linedrivehitter]

A little more info

This was our second game against the opponents. Beat them 4-2 in opening game of tourney. We outhit and out pitched them in both games but we made 4 physical errors in final game and they made one. They made no mental errors we made six. I think we would beat them 7 out of 10. I think we were the exhausted team.

Mental mistakes we made were...

LF (HS varsity player) slow to move in on a weak pop fly then stopped and let the ball fall at her feet. Everyone agreed she could and should have caught the ball but the effort was missing. Looked uninterested. Should have been the third out of first inning. Cost us 2 runs.

Catcher flubbed a spinning bunt that was obviously going foul. Cost a base and that runner scored.

Runner on second thrown out at third on GB hit in front of her. (no force)
This was not addressed to the team, by the coaches during the game.

Then it happened again 2 innings later. Last one ended the game.

Both SS and 2B covered second on steal attempt.

Both were late and perfect throw went into center. Cost a run.

Final was 6-4 with only one of the six runs earned.

Seems to me that practicing game situations and playing scrimmage games against other local teams would be more beneficial than taking infield and outfield over and over. That could be done at least one of the three days of practice.

 

[joemcq51]

You can "practice" some of those mistakes all day long. Until it actually happens in a game, the girls won't learn it. Letting the spinning ball go foul. How do you duplicate a perfect bunt right on the line consistently in practice? Runner on 2 getting nabbed at 3. Gotta tell you, I have run a ton of drills for baserunning in practices. Never matches the game speed, no matter how hard we try. I bet those runners understand it now though. Fly balls falling at a tired girls feet. Ok, you can work on that one. The reality is the other team played a better game. Forced some errors and put some pressure your kids have never seen before. As long as they are not making same mistakes next weekend, you are a better team for it. I may be reading into your post a bit, but it sounds like you are thinking the coaches should have had your team better prepared. I would ease up a bit on the coaches and let em work. Sounds like they have the team headed in the right direction.