fighting thru the losers bracket

[Coach JV]

Any ideas on the best way to keep the team 'up' when dropped to the
loser bracket in double elimination? Last week, we lost our first elimination game,
got dropped to loser bracket where we went 1-1. The team that came out of the loser bracket
had to play 5 games back to back to make the championship game (which they lost 4-2)

They showed a great deal of character and stamina in playing so many games in a row.
How can you get 10 girls to dig deep enough to play so well for an entire day? They were tired but played almost as well in game 5 as in game 1

 

[PAcoach]

Everyday is a different day……..

As far as I’m concerned, it’s done on the practice field. How well prepared are the players, mentally and physically. If they mentally think they can’t do it, it doesn’t matter if their physically capable and vice versa.

 

[Dusty]

My '97 dd's team last year used to have combined practices with another '98 team in the same org who's coach had a reputation for fielding mentally tough teams. The think he liked to do is to have conditioning and drills early in practice that are designed to get the girls tired and then set up scrimmage and game situations throught the rest of practice so they are used to playing mentally sharp ball while physically tired.

 

[sru]

Wow Coach JV, my DD's 12U team did just that in a qualifying tournament this summer. The tourney was a double knock-out; lose 2 and you're done. They lost Friday's night's game, so were dropped into the losers bracket. Won their first game Saturday morning, then the rain started. They started their second game Saturday afternoon but got rained out. Finished the second game with a win at 8 am Sunday morning. They kept winning until they lost the final game by one run. 5 games back to back that day, the longest rest they had between games was 1 hour between games 3-4.

The weather was brutally hot, the girls were absolutely spent by the time they got to the championship game. On the way home, I asked my DD how they manged to keep going, she said they really didn't talk much about it, just took each game as it came. Once they had made the final game, there was some excitement in the air, and I think they fed off of that. Other teams that had been beaten out stayed to cheer them on, as did two adult slow-pitch teams who had the diamond after us.

I think digging deep happens on the sub-conscious level, meaning the girls are doing it without knowing they are doing it. A combination of going through adversity as a group, facing and conquering challenges as a group, having each other's backs and keeping your outlook positive and your emotions in check are all elements of digging deep. It's pretty amazing to see a group of 12 and 13 year olds act like this after playing 7 hours of ball in 10 hours, we were certainly more proud of them for this accomplishment than we have been for any medal they bring home.

 

[sluggers]

Everyone talks about leadership, so now you get to lead.

You and your coaches should:

(1) Admit that you lost. ("I hate losing, but they beat us.")
(2) Find a reason for "why" you lost without blaming your team or someone on your team. Saying the other team got lucky is perfectly acceptable. Do not talk about how great their pitcher was or how great their hitting was. Do not make your team the victim of an umpire. Saying something like, "They got a couple of lucky bounces. It happens. Too bad, too bad."
(3) Say that your team can beat the team you lost to if you had one more chance. ("Give us another shot at them, and we'll take kill them.")
(4) Express that you look forward to playing some more softball. After all, doesn't everyone love to play the game? "We came here to play softball. It is a beautiful day. The fields are great. We've got umpires. We've got teams to play. We can play softball all day! Let's have some more fun."
(5) Express confidence that you are going to win the rest of the games. ("We can win it all!")
(6) Leave them alone as a team be for a few minutes. The real team leaders show up now...they are the ones that start saying stuff like, "That was BS!. We can play a lot better than that!"

 

[Who's on first]

I find it best to make sure that the girls are having fun. After warm ups and before each game, we "play a game". We play games such as "Pepper", "Circle game", "Qwick hands game", etc... I'm sure that each of you have played these games at one point or another, just under a different name. Keep it fun and your players will play at a higher level!

 

[rockerdad21]

Coming out of the loser's bracket can be a great way for players to develop mental toughness. This happened to our 12u team twice right before we went to the ASA National tournament, and we were better for it.

In both cases, it was really, really hot, we played at least 4 games on Saturday and another on Sunday. We got to the championship games both times. The girls knew they could come out of the losers bracket to get to the final game and it gave them a lot of confidence.

I think it can be a great confidence builder.