Ken Krause post and collegiate level coaching

[fastpitch91]

I totally agree with Kens blog post. But.... it is not what I have heard and observed in the collegiate coaching ranks at competitive programs. Its win at all costs. Players are in constant competition with each other to get on the field. Perform or sit. take a called third strike... pinch hitter takes your slot. batting slump, out of the lineup. Make an error in practice... team runs. teams carry 16 - 24 players, they only need 9 on any given day.

Confidence building, not really, fear, survival of the fittest. What have others seen. This is not all coaches but a general trend I have observed, including ironically from some proteges of the quoted Coach Candrea.

 

[sluggers]

survival of the fittest

Absolutely...college coaches have mortgages and car payments, just like the rest of us. If they lose, they get fired.

So, they demand performance from their athletes.

 

[Ken Krause]

Competing for spots is one thing. That's a natural part of the process. In individual sports such as tennis, swimming, wrestling etc. it's easy to decide who plays. Two competitors go head to head, and the one that wins gets the sport. In teams sports it's a little tougher, which means more bias and opinion sneaks in.

That being said, berating players for failing or making physical errors is something different entirely. From what I have observed, the coaches who do that get compliance, but they don't get excellence. And that's at any level.

One of my former students is finishing her senior year at a D3 college. For three years she had a coach whose idea of getting more performance at the plate was to make the team run when they didn't hit well. (I never got that, by the way. Seems to me if you're not hitting well you should work on hitting, not waste time running.) The team was always a bottom feeder in an otherwise tough conference.

This year, with a new coach who is constantly encouraging and promoting her players, they are performing much better. Their record has improved, they're hanging tough with tough teams, and even beating some they haven't beaten in a long time. The girls are having more fun too.

Think of what it would be like to work for a boss who screamed at you for every little mistake, and made the whole company run if you misspelled a word or dropped a tool or whatever. It would be a miserable place to work, and odds are they wouldn't keep employees for very long. It's one thing to be tough. It's another to be a jerk. Good coaches at any level know the difference. That's how they get the best players.

 

[sluggers]

I never could understand why a coach berates kids or makes them run for mistakes.

IMHO, the only thing that players really fear is being taken out of the game. But, many coaches won't do the one thing that will get their players attention--reducing playing time.

So, instead, the coach yells and screams at the kids and then make them run. My kids were so mentally tough and physically in such good condition that they were almost immune to it.

 

[chinamigarden]

I totally agree with Kens blog post. But.... it is not what I have heard and observed in the collegiate coaching ranks at competitive programs. Its win at all costs. Players are in constant competition with each other to get on the field. Perform or sit. take a called third strike... pinch hitter takes your slot. batting slump, out of the lineup. Make an error in practice... team runs. teams carry 16 - 24 players, they only need 9 on any given day.

Confidence building, not really, fear, survival of the fittest. What have others seen. This is not all coaches but a general trend I have observed, including ironically from some proteges of the quoted Coach Candrea.

I think there is a huge difference between being help accountable for your performance and being embarrassed or humiliated. If a kid gets benched its one thing. If the coach screams at her in front of the team and tells her to take her deserved spot on the bench is another.

 

[fastpitch91]

I never could understand why a coach berates kids or makes them run for mistakes.

IMHO, the only thing that players really fear is being taken out of the game. But, many coaches won't do the one thing that will get their players attention--reducing playing time.

You are right, they "live for time on the field".... but does fear of losing your spot make you play loose with confidence and in the zone? I read a lot about the mental game, finding a place of comfort, and gettnig in the zone, playing big, banishing fear, focusing on process, all terms used by sports psychologists and "promoting fear" does not appear in any of the literature. PARTICULARY I beleive with female athletes.

Why do all the things that are promoted for younger players all of a sudden not apply when they hit the collegiate ranks? Softabll is not college football with millions of dollars of TV revenue on the table. Most of the teams are thrilled if they can get a few free bats!

 

[starsnuffer]

You are right, they "live for time on the field".... but does fear of losing your spot make you play loose with confidence and in the zone? I read a lot about the mental game, finding a place of comfort, and gettnig in the zone, playing big, banishing fear, focusing on process, all terms used by sports psychologists and "promoting fear" does not appear in any of the literature. PARTICULARY I beleive with female athletes.

Why do all the things that are promoted for younger players all of a sudden not apply when they hit the collegiate ranks? Softabll is not college football with millions of dollars of TV revenue on the table. Most of the teams are thrilled if they can get a few free bats!

Probably because the AD's that the collegiate coaches report to mostly still have the "good-ole-boy" mentality, especially in the midwest and southeast. It's in the culture.

I agree with everything about the mental aspects you mentioned, but it seems that the athletes need to find a way to do that in spite of their coaching, not because of it. I'm guessing that by the time athletes get to this level of play, they're no stranger to meeting challenges and overcoming them.

-W

 

[bobbyb]

IMHO, the only thing that players really fear is being taken out of the game. But, many coaches won't do the one thing that will get their players attention--reducing playing time.

.

We had a basketball coach at our country school that was a screamer. She would yell so loud that the whole gym would get quiet while she laided into them. What i noticed is that it was really...one person...most of the time. Yet she seldom benched her...and she wasn't that good. I never understood it... till I saw the politics in sports at that school.