Tourney #2 in the books

[Slappers]

With not much better results on Saturday unfortunately. We got demolished again and again, and one more time for good measure. I studied the book, which didn't take long as anyone with a miniscule amount of common sense saw what happened. In those three games we had 26 walks, 9 scored errors and two hit batsmen. Out of those 37 free passes, 33 of them scored. Yeah.... Hell, in between games two and three while we were warming up, one of my pitchers trips over a stump and hurts her foot to the point she can't walk. I only have 1 actual pitcher and she got hurt. We had a team heart to heart after game two so I was feeling better going into game three. Obviously things didn't go so well again.

Come today....I fully expected to not have a team show up. I sent out an email to the parents last night expressing my frustration in how we play at tournaments. We practice so well. I know it's only practice but damn, a ground ball is a ground ball. Actually on Saturday, we had a ground ball that went thru the first basemans legs and then proceed past the right fielder to the fence. It was well hit but not that well hit. I was ready to throw in the towel at that point. Anyway, the team shows up and is in decent spirits and even the umpire said he was surprised they were as cheerful as they were but I should take that as a complement. I guess. We warmed up well while the first game was being played but as soon as that game was over and we went out to the outfield for pop ups etc, we looked like we had never been on a field before, again. I was ready for another shelacking when we jumped on them early for 4 runs in our half of the first. They got two back but not because of walks or errors just solid hitting. Didn't score in the second but had some base runners on and a few good knocks. Actually no one scored for the next inning or two. Well, one by the other team I guess. The umpires were doing a lot of talking and wasting a lot of time and I think we only got through 4 innings in the hour and 20 minutes. Going into the bottom of the inning (I have yet to win a coin toss in 8 games....) we were up 6-3. Things moderately fell apart again. Had a girl 0-2 and she gets plunked. Next girl grounds out to 1. Third batter batter strikes out. Passed ball so lead off batter goes to third. Fourth batter hits a line drive that draws lead runner back to third that pops out of SS's glove. I think it was more of defensive move than an attempt to catch it. It was a rocket. So we have runners on 1 and 3 with 2 down. Next batter walks. Bases loaded, 2 down. Batter hits a shallow pop up to right. Right fielder comes barreling into make the catch. Ball goes into the glove and when her plant foot lands, it goes into an unlevel sprinkler hole and she stumbles and the ball pops out. 2 runs score. Luckily, RF is ok and didn't get injured. We walked the field before the game to look for all these spots but not sure it matters. Made me feel better though. So we have 6-5 runners on 2 and 3. Another fly ball to right. Thinking we were finally gonna get a win. Nope. RF just straight up dropped it. Two runs score, timer goes off, home team up to bat with a lead, game over.

While I was disappointed that we lost and the girls were too, I think this might be the game that gets us over the mental hurdle that we seem to have been stuck behind. Of course I won't know for two weeks and we will finally get to play C teams. Other than one or two plays, we played really well today. At least on par with other teams we have played. Even playing as well as we did today defensively, we wouldn't have won our previous games due to lack of offense but they wouldn't have been the blowouts we've been accustomed too.

I'll be the first to admit that I was ready to pull the plug after our next and last tournament in two weeks last night. I was mad, angry, confused, frustrated, sad and all sorts of other feelings. But come today, I can honestly say that I have never been prouder of any team or group of girls that I have ever coached or had my DD's play for than this team. The character of the team to not give up was an amazing up lift to everybody. Even had a coach from a team that beat us yesterday come up afterwards to congratulate the team on their performance and how they came back from yesterdays play. While it was a little embarrassing, my ego isn't hurt because of it.

Looking forward to the next step.....a WIN!! lol

 

[CJ D]

What age group?

 

[ArkFastpitch]

All I can say is, "If coaching was easy everybody would do it". Wins will come. Focus on development and sound fundamentals. Lastly, no matter how bad things get, always try to find some positives. Coaching girls is a delicate art but well worth the challenge. Best of luck to you and your team.

 

[cmustangsfp]

If you are focused on development, wins should not be the focus or measuring stick. Being competitive should be the measuring stick. Also what did you do with the information gained from tourney #1? For example, after tourney#1 with my new teams I only focus on what went wrong and keep that info among the coaching staff. Our next sets of practices will be working on what we didn't do correctly. We will work mainly on our flaws until the next tourney. Then do it all over again.
A few things I notice from your post:
1) A team with too few pitchers or too many pitchers will fall apart. Seen it happen time and again in the TB world. If you only have one P (at any age group) that is your main concern. Fix that first.
2) Sounds like I would be working a lot on pop ups at the next few practices.
3) If you have a lot of passed balls, then that is what I would be working on with your P/C at the next practices.

Don't try to fix everything at once. Fix several problems, then once those have been corrected, move on to several more. If your team has 6 problems, work on solving 3 of them. Once those are fixed, then move on to the next 3. By the time you have those 3 fixed you will probably have a few more.

 

[JAD]

26 walks in 3 games is @ 20 too many. I have no idea what age group or level you are playing, but you need to work with your pitchers on throwing strikes. Players in the field will be "lulled to sleep" if the pitcher is constantly walking batters, which leads to more errors in the field. Tell your pitchers to throw strikes and let your defense make plays. It will make your pitcher AND your fielders better players!

 

[Slappers]

You got that right. When this team was started, I knew going in that pitching was going to be rough as all the other teams had their tryouts already and the pitchers were already snatched up. The idea was to get things in line, insurance, field usage, all the administrative stuff done and actually form the team next August. But, I had enough people that wanted to get out there and play and the ability of the players was there (besides pitching) so I dove in.

I have one pitcher and two wannabe pitchers. My DD is the one pitcher. She had a rough first game yesterday and had 8 walks. She's twelve and gets a little overwhelmed playing 16U A teams. I get that but then yesterday she didn't walk anybody? Even with a bum a foot.

One of the other pitchers is the JV pitcher for a local high school. Her motion is a mess. I'll be working hard on her over the winter. If I could figure out how to get my coach's eye vids here I'd show you what I mean. If we played at 40', she would be great. But she has had two seasons at 43' and hasn't progressed....at all. I think she is starting to realize that pitching isn't really her thing.

The third pitcher I haven't pitched yet. She isn't any different from #2. She has only practiced at 43' and I wasn't shown enough to throw her in a game.

I realize that this game is built on pitching. After watching countless games as a spectator and now some as a coach, I have noticed that the regular teams (as in not gold level) basically have decent fielding but one damn good pitcher and a few other serviceable pitchers. I have one serviceable pitcher at this point. That is the hand that I decided to stick with.

My initial post was more a way to let my frustration out. If I don't know that having 26 walks over three games isn't ok, then I have no business being out there. I knew the challenges I faced, that doesn't make it any less frustrating though. At this point, I'm more disappointed in the fact that we are under performing. Had a parent say we were under achieving. I told them that was impossible because we haven't achieved anything yet. I think the team learned yesterday that one mistake doesn't have to decide the emotion of the game. Sure the RF felt terrible and said she lost the game for us. No she didn't. She happened to miss the fly ball that allowed the game winning runs score but that just happened to be the last play. No one remembers the two innings we had girls on 2 and 3 that we left stranded or the play on a ground ball that my second basemen made when she tagged the runner that was on first and made the play to first but the ump didn't see the tag....even the girl that was tagged was walking towards the dugout because she knew she was out. She ended up scoring on a double. One play doesn't make a game. Even if it is a walk off home run. That just shows the number of other missed opportunities through out the game.

So, what did we learn from tourney #1 thru pool play of tourney #2? Nothing. What did we learn in bracket play of tourney #2? Only time will tell but I have a feeling we turned a corner. We saw we can compete when we don't hurt ourselves. Sure we missed some plays but we made more than we missed by a large percentage.

The other thing is our bats our waking up. We only had 10 k's over the 4 games. Only 1 on Sunday which was a mental mistake. Thought I gave her the bunt sign on an 0-2 count. Instead of calling time, she rolled with it and bunted foul. We had a lot of ground outs and pop outs but I'll take it.

 

[InsidePitch]

I have one pitcher and two wannabe pitchers. My DD is the one pitcher. She had a rough first game yesterday and had 8 walks. She's twelve and gets a little overwhelmed playing 16U A teams.

Really? Sounds like Daddy ball.

 

[Slappers]

Disparage all you want. I don't care. I've been called a failure, a fraud and a bunch of other useless names for a long time and yet I'm still here and don't have as many failures when compared to successes in anything I do. Call it Daddy ball or by any other name you want to call it. I'm working my rear off trying to teach my TEAM the game of softball amongst other life lessons. We may end up being successful, we may not but we are going to give it hell. You can define success any way you want. I know what my definition is and I live by it.

I'm proud of my DD's and every other girl on that team. Are we the best? Not even close. Are we the worst? Not even close.

 

[softball88]

She's 12 pitching against 16u A teams? That could be your teams and pitchers problem. Why not play 12U opens or 13U opens?

 

[Slappers]

USSSA speaking she is 13. The team is comprised of 14-15 yo's with the exception of a 16 yo and then my 12 yo. She is the equivalent of a 16U teams 3rd pitcher from what I've seen as it relates to pitch speed and stuff but mentally she is a 12 yo. The JV pitcher is 15 and has only been pitching a few years but again, her mechanics are atrocious. I'm not even sure they can be fixed to be made even serviceable. I'll work on her all winter and see what happens.