Intensity and Defense

I'm thrilled to blog today that yesterday, my U12 team won the town championship by beating a really great team 11-4 in the finals.

We almost didn't make it, barely beating our semi-final opponents by scoring 3 runs on passed balls in the bottom of the 6th. Last night though, we played stellar defense and kept up an insane amount of intensity to simply overwhelm the other team.

After jumping out to a 4-2 lead, we got a huge hit from my daughter (Happy Father's Day!) to put us up for good 6-2. Even missing our best player and 3rd basemen, we locked down on defense overcoming a few silly errors (catch first, then tag!) and ran away with the trophy.

I learned (and was reminded of) a few lessons this year:

• Some kids respond to pressure, while others just lock up
• Practice, practice, practice - but enjoy it and play lots of games and competitions
• Girls are WOW, different than boys. Don't forget to adjust your expectations (i.e. don't expect a lot of diving after balls)
• Pick one or two kids as a special project and watch them bloom. One kid I've coached for 2 years now came alive in the final getting 2 hits and reaching a 3rd time on an error. She had previously had 1 hit through 11 games!
• Team chemistry really matters, especially for girls. Find ways to foster it by creating situations where they simply have to respond as a team, together.
• Intensity and focus are 2 terrific skills to develop on a softball field that will translate into life
  

It felt great to see these girls come together after so much hard work all season. I couldn't be happier or more proud of these kids.