Crime and Punishment in Softball

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}

Over the weekend I heard about something that just made me shake my head. It came from the parent of a 12U player. Apparently, after her daughter's team lost their game, the coaches decided that what was called for was a little punishment. They lined up all the girls and made the entire team run a sprint for every error and every called third strike in the last game. Essentially they meted out punishment to the girls for losing the game. After the next loss they did it again. Maybe I'm just soft but I don't understand what good that could possibly do. Research has shown that making mistakes is an essential part of the learning process. Child development experts concur — children must be allowed to make mistakes in order to discover how things work and who they are.

Yet in spite of all of that, our society is so winning-focused that an otherwise reasonable adult believes that corporal punishment for losing a softball game is a good idea and perfectly acceptable. The belief is that the sprints will act as some sort of aversion therapy, making sure the players don't make the same mistakes again. Actually, it almost guarantees they will. No one performs well with a gun to their head. When you're in that situation, you don't really focus on doing your best. Instead, you do whatever it takes to avoid getting shot, even if it's the wrong thing. Take the hitters and called third strikes for example. The punishment is supposed to get them to get the bats off their shoulders and swing. It will, too, because once those kids have two strikes on them they're going to swing at anything — a ball over their heads, a ball in the dirt, a ball pretty much anywhere.

The opposing pitcher could throw the ball at the third base coach (not a bad idea in this case) and the kid will still swing. Why not? As long as she swings the team doesn't have to run. So instead of teaching her to open up her strike zone a little, or foul off pitches she doesn't like in order to get one she does, the coach has taught her to swing at any pitch. And then she'll wonder why she's swinging at ball four with a 3-2 count. The same with errors. No kid goes onto the field thinking "I think I'll drop an easy fly ball today" or "I think I'll boot a ground ball." Those things just happen. Yeah it sucks — I don't like it any more than anyone else — but making the girls run sprints after the game for it doesn't really address the problem. Make them work on fly balls or ground balls for an hour instead.

To me it's especially bad at the 10U/12U level because that's the age where they're supposed to be developing their skills and their love for the game. Punishing them like they just screwed up in boot camp isn't going to do either. Instead, it's going to send yet another group of kids toward volleyball, soccer, basketball or some other sport. In reality, though, this "running as punishment" is a bad idea at any age. One of my former students once told me that after her college team had struggled hitting for a couple of games her coach made them run foul pole to foul pole, over and over. That made no sense to me whatsoever. If they're struggling hitting, wouldn't you think the better solution would be to have them work on hitting? After all, they're not going to catch the pitch and run it into the field! If you want to punish them say we're going to hit until our hands bleed. That's still uncalled for but at least it makes sense.

There are reasons to have players run — conditioning, to practice them when they're fatigued, to help them build their endurance for long tournament weekends, and the list goes on. Running as punishment for mistakes — especially for players who skills are just developing — is not one of them. Instead of punishing your players, try actually developing their skills — mental as well as physical. You just may find it works out a whole lot better for everyone in the long run.

Anyway, that's the way I see it.

Want to use more effective coaching methods? The Softball Coaches Toolkit will help you with…

• Running The Team
• Communication, Development, Motivation
• Assessments and Evaluations
• Practice Plans
• and more…

…so you can help your team reach it's full potential this season!