Practice in the Rain

I'm nuts, I know it.

But I'm not going to let that stop me from practicing! While parents seem to complain if we don't practice enough or if we practice too much, I figured since we had a scheduled practice last Sunday, we'd keep the date even if it was raining.

We got lucky that it didn't pour, but while it was raining, I used the opportunity to teach the girls how to slide. Next time it rains, don't cancel practice - teach your team how to slide (and how to play in the mud!)

First Step in Becoming a Winner: Act Like One

I read this essay from the NYT called "First Step in Becoming a Winner: Act Like One" and fell in love with the message even before finishing it this weekend. I took some time and read it to my girls and discussed it a bit as well, taking some time to try to get some piece of it to sink in.

"Fake it until you make it" is perhaps one of the best pieces of advice we can give each other and to our teams. I absolutely love that Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith's routine included regular meditation sessions in the locker room where they "visualized bigger, stronger players in hostile arenas."

I remember being in art school and a teacher told me to simply start acting like I was a professional graphic artist and the rest would come. It worked seemingly overnight. My attitude changed and my career was launched with little else than the belief that I belonged and the hard work to make it happen.

While confidence is important at all levels of sports (and life!), I am starting to really believe that in youth sports in particular, kids can move mountains simply by believing in themselves and going from there.

It's something I will start to work on immediately with my teams!

Also in this weekend's paper, there was another feature article named "Allonzo Trier Is in the Game," which ultimately takes a \hard look at our culture and our obsession with "going pro" and cashing out in sports.

Look, I understand dedicating your life to something and putting the work in to get there. But at 12 or 13 years old, haven't we as parents and society learned our lessons yet? It's just too early. I worry less about Allonzo and more about the vast majority of those kids who have lots of talent, but come up just short. What will happen to them? Are they getting the right lessons as a child or are they being fed into a meat grinder only to be left on the outside if they can't make it in the pros?

Losing Builds Character

Does losing build character? I honestly have no idea, but I'll take any one of my girls over any one of the the team that beat us in the championship.

As for the game itself, they didn't just beat us, the demolished us. As for team character, my girls got frustrated sure, but never gave up. Down by more than 20, we actually "won" the last part of the game after going on a 6-0 run. We did the 2-4-6-8 cheer at the end and I had a blast giving out 2nd place trophies.

Days later, the loss feels like it happened in another life, my daughter has moved on but retains so many great memories from this past season. It was an absolute joy to coach these girls and I'm hopeful that every single one of them will be back next season.

At the start of the season, we laid out 3 goals for the team, and ultimately accomplished all of them:

1. Have fun
2. Learn the game (boy did we learn!)
3. Compete to win

The 3rd goal, I'm now convinced is the single most important thing at this age... it's not about winning, but it is about competing to win every time you step on the court. For my money, that's a lesson I hope really sinks in and sticks with them for the rest of their lives.

Softball Draft

Today is the draft for the "majors" softball league I'm coaching this spring (11/12 year old girls).

I went a tad overboard with my "draft card" giving each girl a ranking of 1-5 on 5 different categories. I can do this because I know most of the girls from coaching for so many years now! The categories are fielding, throwing, batting, pitching and catching. I assigned a score of 1-5 in each and added them up giving me an idea of who to try to draft. While that may give pitchers an unfair advantage in terms of numbers, I believe it is reflective of how you should think about building a team at this age level.

I've learned the hard way, but here are my keys to this season...

• I must have 2 pitchers who can throw strikes (speed does not matter, that will come with practice). At this level it's still possible to develop a girl, but it is not easy.
  
• You must have a catcher (or someone willing to learn fast!). I would guess that at least 50% of the runs scored will be on passed balls with no play at the plate!
  
• You must draft girls who have the "right" attitude. This means finding "good kids" who will work hard and allow you to develop and find their talents.
  

As for attitude, that is an intangible category during the draft that earns a girl 2 asterisks (**). For example, my #1 pick for 3 years running has been the shortest kid in the league. She's a natural leader and a great, great kid and happens to have a great bat and can pitch. Last year, I lost my temper during a game and she told me to chill out... while she was on the pitcher's mound! That's my kind of kid.

I typically try to draft for attitude and figure I can dramatically improve every kid on my team by the end of the season by providing a lot of one-on-one time during practices. It's a lot of work, but totally worth it. By the end of the season, I plan on having the best all-around team, even if we've sacrificed wins during the regular season to get there. It pays off in the playoffs.

I'd recommend that you carefully consider your draft picks with attitude in mind... if you are like me, you realize that having a good group of girls who are into the team will also come with great parents who share that same attitude.

One last tip... at younger levels, you don't have to worry about catchers as much, which is why last year I spent time cultivating and developing 2 girls who have potential at catcher... that's my little secret for you coaches who plan to coach for more than one season.

I'm already working on my seasons goals and a specific practice plan, which I will share over the next few weeks.

Game On...

We're officially on a run for the ages. We laced 'em up again tonight, this time against the #2 team, filled with solid players and a very aggressive attitude.

Our girls however, rode the momentum they gained from our first playoff win and absolutely shocked the other team. We jumped out to a 10-0 lead and never looked back, led by our now official star players who happen to be twins.

Ball movement: check
Good defense: check
Dribbling with eyes up: check
Making good shots: check

We played some of the best defense I've ever seen at this level and frankly, while I don't think we have any shot of winning the big championship game, I think it will be a lot closer than anyone thinks.

The excitement in the gym was really something special tonight, parents and friends all really going nuts. My only disappointment was the other team's bad attitude after the game - shaking hands with closed fists - it's a great opportunity for their coaches to do some character building and I hope they will take the chance.

Looking back at this season, I'm totally validated in my approach of teaching the fundamentals, focus on playing team basketball. Every kid has to be able to contribute on my teams, and I think we've accomplished that. Those dark days of losing (our regular season record was 1-7) is long gone and has been replaced with 8 very confident little girls.

Pretty cool.

Pure Joy

It's been a really interesting season with my 2 basketball teams and I've learned a lot. I think I continue to become a better and better coach with each season both technically (x's and o's) but more importantly in how I think about coaching young girls.

My 4th grade team has had a rough season as measured in wins and losses and as I think back to when my older girl played at that level I see a lot of similarities. 4th grade girls generally are unskilled at the basics and are typically not so interested in winning (like boys). The girls seem to want to make friends and to have fun.

When I started this season, I sent a note to the parents promising that we'd focus on fundamentals and teaching the girls the game. I set out to do that and quickly saw the lack of basic dribbling and shooting skills. As one of the only teams to practice every week (other teams apparently didn't bother), we had a chance to really work on those fundamentals and basics.

Each week, we played games where we were thrashed by opponents with 1 or 2 star players who were able to dominate us and shut down our scoring. About 3 weeks ago, we had a game that indicated better things to come - we won our first game and then played very tough defense against the 2nd best team in the league.

Last night, we had our first playoff game against the #3 team in the league and frankly, I didn't have high expectations. In fact, I have to admit that I wasn't really expecting much and was bracing myself for a good beating. I didn't want to end the season on a sour note for sure, but didn't expect what happened next.

Pure joy ensued.

The girls put it all together. The defensive footwork wasn't perfect, but the aggressiveness and winning attitude was there. We ran fast breaks with our fastest 2 girls and let them run, run, run. We didn't rush our shots and they went in. At the end of the 3rd quarter, we were tied at 12. The ref told me that if we were tied at the end of the game we' d play 1 extra quarter. I smiled at her and in front of my team I told her we wouldn't need overtime and that we were taking this one home.

I turned to look at my girls who were all looking at me as I said this. I put my hand out and said let's win this one girls... we did our 1-2-3 "Cyclones" yell and off they went to glory.

Winning certainly doesn't really matter in the end. But after a rough season of focusing on fundamentals and the basics, it's pure validation as a coach. Our next playoff game is this Wednesday and win or lose, we've already won.