Play The Game!!!

[slaphitter]

Fred, again this is just my opinion. I would rather win it or lose it the right way. Killing the clock to me is just saying we do not have the team to win this game. I do not trust my pitching or defense, etc., etc. I would not want my daughter being taught that. If we lose it then we deserve to lose it. What, to win another trophy? Might as well sign up for the week tournaments and beat up on everybody to collect more hardware. I would rather see my daughter play another inning and have a chance to hit again or play defense. The parents that don't see the big picture are the ones that hold their daughters back and usually if not happy start their own team. Those parents that second guess a call like that usually leave the team anyway, probably start another team, and the cycle continues.....

You also have to take into account what your decision (play or kill the clock) does to the morale and mental attitude of your girls. They are the ones to think about. Not going down in a blaze of glory because "you" feel it is the right thing to do. Robbing your team of a victory and either moving on in a tournment or winning it is important to the team. You can worry about 7 inning games when they come along.

As it was said earlier in a time game managing the clock is part of the game.

[DonnieS]

In a competitve game, you play to win by whatever rules are imposed on you. And the object of a competitive tournament is to come home with the plastic or the berth or the Schlitterbahn tickets or whatever we were playing for. The rules are usually posted - so if you dont like those rules - go play somewhere else. But all things aside, when I have had a good team, I always wanted 7 innings.

[JCates]

If you are going to play in fundraising tournaments, this is something you will have to deal with whether you like it or not. The games are timed and the coaches responsibility, if he or she wnats to keep the team together, is to win and advance. I personally hate the timed games, but also understand why they exist and understand that stalling is something that will have to be dealt with when playing in these types of tournaments. That is one reason why the teams that are focused on playing well at nationals, etc. will play in smaller round-robins that are longer "finish the inning" games. At some point the plastic becomes unimportant except at the Qualifier and National level. By playing the RR, finish the inning style tourney you can develop your team to work out of situations without the coach having to stall.

[18'sdad]

team at craig ranch this past weekend run out 14 minutes and was laughing about it

This may have been a little excessive, but as long as the clock is in play you will have coaches use it to their advantage. Your going to have people of both sides of the fence on this one (as you can tell). Some are going to see it as "good coaching" some are going to see it as "chicken $%#t" just depends on what side of the W or L you are on.

We play in an organization that does not play the clock (or has not since the 4 years we have been there) We have won games with time expired and lost them with time expired. If we come up to bat with 6 minutes left in an inning we expect our girls to be able to hit for 6 minutes. If they don't we expect our pitchers/defense to go get 3 outs. This is not the standard for all teams. It does not make us better or worse than a team who uses a different tatic.

The previous post is correct if you dont want to lose by the clock take it out of play and put the game out of reach early. As long as the clock is ticking coaches will use it to there advantage. It does not make them poor coaches or "cheaters". They are doing what most of the parents who pay all the dues and drive all the miles to tournaments yell about. They are winning.