really bad loss..advice please

[Anthony Vertuccio]

My team had a bad loss on Wednesday! We hit the heck out of the ball...made only two errors and some great plays. Now I am not one to complain about umpires but when it was so bad that they had all the girls crying ( and there are some who don't cry but did). Literally they umpires took the game out of their hands ( 4 girls called out for leaving early and 3 I saw did not, a safe call and an out call when even the other coach at the end said we got robbed and so on). What can I say to the girls today at practice? They played their hearts out and even down in the 7th inning they kept on battling against the odds

 

[abbygale]

Somedays you're the windshield and somedays you're the bug. Today you were the bug. Onto the next game.

 

[Cannonball]

Life is about Peaks and Valleys. The trick is to try to say even keeled. You have to impress upon these young ladies that they hit a valley. A peak is coming. A loss is only truly a loss if a player allows it to have an exaggerated influence upon their love of the game.

 

[sluggers]

The kids will reflect your attitude. If you whine and cry about it, they will as well. If you say, "That sucked. Too bad, too bad. Let's get ready for the next game," then so will they.

 

[knightsb]

You can only control what you can control. You can't control the calls that don't go your way, but you can control how you respond to them and how you let them effect you. Tell your players you are proud of them as long as they give 100% effort, have a great attitude, and have high energy. As Tony Horton says, "Do your best, and forget the rest".

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I wonder if the girls even remember the loss? Maybe not.

 

[3'sDad]

The good thing about softball is there's almost always another game. Amy is spot on, most of them won't even remember what happened (except the pitcher, who was hosed - they remember).

 

[RichK]

Why is that a bad loss? Sounds like a great game and something your team should be proud of, even if they didn't win the game.

I know that's just semantics, but the way you view things and position them to your team as a coach makes all the difference.

When I read the header "bad loss" I assume you got skunked and needed to recover from that. Not sure you need to recover from "playing their hearts out."

As for what to say at practice, don't mention the ump -- who cares, you can't control that -- and instead talk about what they did right (sounds like a lot) and what they need to work on, and then get after it...

Good luck...

 

[Anthony Vertuccio]

Thanks all!

 

[Anthony Vertuccio]

Sent them a text saying "You played your hearts out and I couldn't be more prouder than any team I have coached"