Overcoming intimidation

[grcsftbll]

This weekend our first game is against one of these teams that just seems to have attracted a lot of really big kids. Oddly enough our team seems to do well in early games, who knows why. It's at 8am so maybe they'll have a good game and it'll help them get past it. I talked to my DD about some of what was mentioned here today. I suggested she be encouraging with her teammates if they seem nervous.

 

[grcsftbll]

Well, I have to post an update now. Our first game this weekend was against one of those bigger 05 teams. *we won* I still kind of can't believe it. There were extenuating circumstances that helped us (they were short players) but they still played really well, and the same team finished 1st in our pool and is still in it right now so they're not doing badly.

Then in our bracket game we ended up playing THE team that made me post this thread. 05 team, big girls. Last 2 times we played them we got killed, 12 to 0 both times with their #2 or 3 pitcher. Today they got beaten earlier in the day twice, by 06 teams. Now, they were the Vipers and the Fury, but whatever. I told the girls, hey! These guys already got beaten twice by 06 teams. DO NOT go into this game thinking they're unbeatable! I could really see something shift in how they approached the game, and they did GREAT. A few errors but nothing like they usually do. Of the 12 runs in the last couple of games I think there were maybe 1-2 that weren't due to errors. Normally they just fall apart. They did NOT fall apart, and THEY HIT. Final score was 7 to 3, we still lost. But I don't even care. They looked like a different team today.