One persons view. Is this Texas Softball?

[Ifubuildit]

This struck a cord when I read it. Thought I would share since its a pretty good description of many teams here in Tx now.

There's a sickness going on in our game right now, and it seems to have reached
epidemic proportions. I'm not talking about Swine Flu. It's more like softball
game fever. And as with a regular fever, it seems to be clouding the judgment of
otherwise rational people.

Coaches in our sport seem to be obsessed with playing as many games as they
possibly can. It's sort of a mentality of if some is good, more is even better.
While that's true to a point, there definitely is a point where it becomes
counter-productive, especially now that we're in the off-season. Here's why.

When you play a game, what's the object? To win of course. That's why you keep
score, so you know who won.

Americans in particular love to win, and hate to lose. It's in our DNA,
apparently. So when we are coaching a game, we coach to win.

While that has its positives, especially in the feelgood department, it can also
slow player development. After all, if your main goal is to win, the decisions
you make are going to reflect that goal. If someone can't produce today, you'll
put in another kid who can.

So what happens? A pitcher who's further down the list skips doing what she
needs to do for long-term success; instead, she plays it safe and does what it
takes to win. The same goes with hitters and position players. Everyone focuses
on the result and forgets all about the process.

The off-season should be a time when a player can be "bad." Sometimes to make
forward progress you need to take a step or two backward first. But with the
pressure of games every week all year, there's no time to be bad. Again, you
have to produce now. So players wind up missing out on a very valuable part of
the learning process.

There's also the missed opportunity to become a more well-rounded athlete by
playing other sports, or a more well-rounded human being by participating in
other activities. These days it seems like teams are trying to maintain their
summer schedule 52 weeks a year, give or take a week. They get mad if one of
their players decides to play a different sport in school, or be in the band, or
work at a homeless shelter (unless the last one is a team-sanctioned "give back
to the community" activity).

What's interesting is that those teams may be hurting themselves. The
cross-training multi-sport athletes receive can be extremely valuable to all
their activities, including fastpitch softball. After all, pitchers who play
basketball get a lot of work on both their cardio endurance and their
explosiveness. That can come in awfully handy on a long summer's day.

But if the softball schedule calls for two practices a week plus tournaments
every weekend, none of that happens. An elite athlete might develop based on
sheer talent. But they're about 10% of what most teams have. The 80% who are
willing to work hard but lack the natural talent get short-shrifted, and don't
become all they can be.

Coaches, dial down the schedule and give your players some time to get outside
their comfort zones. Give them a window in which to be bad so they can be better
than ever later on. Everyone will benefit -- even you.

Anyway, that's the way I see it.

Ken Krause

[6th Sense]

So true!

[pbj2000]

Where'd you find it?

[Ifubuildit]

PBJ I got it as part of a newsletter I am subscribed to from Softballperformance.com

[3Bsnag]

I enjoy reading Ken's articles.

I've said this a bazillion times before, they have one shot at being a kid and a lifetime to look back. If there's a conflict from Nov-Feb, the event opposite softball wins. She already knows the answer Apr-Aug.

To me, it's the same mindset as "hard focus" and "soft focus" in mental training. Our kids can't be in hard focus mode 11 months out of the year.

Well said, Ken.

[cornerpainter]

This topic is so funny. There are those that think you must play every week to get better and then there those who put there efforts into practice. Many professional athletes write or speak about this all the time. The Practice time is where skills are developed. The games are where skills are used. Game time is a great learning time, don’t get me wrong here. It’s just not the time to develop new skills that haven’t been worked and drilled. Teams that Play every weekend are not only taking child hood time away from the girls but hey are also taking away the valuable time to develop the skills needed to compete. I love listening to the coaches that brag about how many games they played in a season. The worst thing is that most of these tourney addicts have done nothing more than making the tournaments a social event. Kids learn to be OK with going out to a ball park for few pool games and a few bracket games. Maybe pick up a t-shirt and have a friend spend the night. Coaches need to learn to teach kids to win not just be a player. The games will become more important and the winning will actually mean more when it happens.

[pbj2000]

This topic is so funny. There are those that think you must play every week to get better and then there those who put there efforts into practice. Many professional athletes write or speak about this all the time. The Practice time is where skills are developed. The games are where skills are used. Game time is a great learning time, don’t get me wrong here. It’s just not the time to develop new skills that haven’t been worked and drilled. Teams that Play every weekend are not only taking child hood time away from the girls but hey are also taking away the valuable time to develop the skills needed to compete. I love listening to the coaches that brag about how many games they played in a season. The worst thing is that most of these tourney addicts have done nothing more than making the tournaments a social event. Kids learn to be OK with going out to a ball park for few pool games and a few bracket games. Maybe pick up a t-shirt and have a friend spend the night. Coaches need to learn to teach kids to win not just be a player. The games will become more important and the winning will actually mean more when it happens.

Good post above...our team played 386 games this season... and that was during the off season hehe

[Ifubuildit]

PBJ,
So the question begs to be asked. Do you think she became a better skilled player for playing all those games and 3 years from now with that kind of schedule will she still be playing?

[cornerpainter]

So are you saying you agree? or are you saying DD's team got to be an awsome A level team. One must remember that life and Softball are never Black and White. There is grey in all we do. It may have worked for your team. My DD's plays is one of those, we need to play all the time teams. It's so hard to watch these kids, that haven't learned new skills and need help, get frustrated when the games get tough. Likewise the coach expects them to get better all the while they have to hear him yelling from the dug out about what they should have done. They would probably be able to make the plays if they had been put in the situation in practice.

[pbj2000]

I was joking...no way would we play 386 games...that's a game a day.