Goal: Win or Learn?

Fungo

Actually, that sounds pretty healthy to me. The coach must teach and instruct the players if they are to win and the parents goal should always be for their player to learn and grow. The parents goal should never be to win first.

If their respective goals are achieved then it is a win/win for the coach and the parent. And it is also a win/win for the player, because he receives additional knowledge and understanding of the game and is also afforded the achievement and success of victory.

R.

That situation could be OK or it could be bad. If the coach teaches the players, in an effort to improve their performance so they can win, everything is fine. If the coach is one, like my son played for once, that runs off the worse 3-4 players every year and goes recruiting players from other teams in an effort to improve, it will be a problem. My son quit that team as soon as it was evident that the "so called coach" was nothing more than a "recruiter" and switched teams. We were more careful in our evaluation of the coach this time. I recommend that you go watch a few practices and a couple of games before you join a team, and ask around for some opinions on the coach.

BTW, that first AAU coach is still out there and the team is still an "also ran". He has two or three of the original players left, including his son, but they haven't improved in a couple of years other than the natural progression of getting stronger. An he's having a harder time every year of replacing the players he loses.

Teaching is much more important than winning at that age. Kids need to learn to win, and behave appropriately, and they need to learn how to handle disappointment and defeat. Those are important baseball skills. The only person who thinks it is that important to win tournaments, etc., for kids that age are the coaches whose egos grow because of it. Most of the time they really win at that age because of the talent of the players rather than the coaching. If they are winning because of talent alone and aren't learning and improving skills, knowledge of the game and execution of those skills the wins are pretty useless in the big picture.

grateful

I believe that the quality of coaching does make a difference and has in the USSSA/AAU level tournament games that my son has been involved in. At that level most of the kids are very talented and it really does come down to coaching.

I have seen the coach "ego" issue that you describe though, but more in the Rec teams that my son has been a part of then the travel teams. And yes on those teams there was usually only a player or two that were "all star" level and they certainly could influence the outcome of a game.

R.

Isn't that really up to the coach to make sure that the teams goals are understood.

The problem lies in the fact that some coaches will pay lip service to development and when it gets to games be all about winning. That is a recipe for trouble.

Coaches need to be clear. Either is fine as long as it is clear. jmo

the Florida Bombers
"I love the HSBBW"

Winning is also a learned behavior.

Both learning the game and winning should be parts of the equation.

Herzog's Rules
1. Be on time.
2. Bust your butt.
3. Play smart.
4. Have some laughs while you're at it!

If the coach is not teaching and his players not learning then his winning won't last long

TRhit

Too many coaches are not teaching the game..They are depending on the players learning on their own..American legion and Travel Ball are full of these coaches..

Coaches that only care to win, never win. At any level of play always will be a weak field that need to be improved. So if the coach is not capable to teach will be very hard to win, and the good players will move to other teams looking to learn or looking for wins. When a coach don't teach is not because he doesnt wants to, it is bacause he is not capable of it. And when this kind of "coach" have the lucky to get a group of good players, they don't last in the team, because soom or later, players know more than coach about the game, and respect goes away.

"Peace is, the respect for the other people's rights".
Benito Juarez

The goal should always be to learn how to win and be successful. The biggest win can be a team loss or a team win. Players getting better is what winning is all about.

We have a slightly different goal for our 11U team - and its a very good team.

Yes, we teach the heck out of baseball.

Yes, we try hard to win tournament games.

Yes, we play everyone evenly in non-tournament games and move them around.

BUT, we also try very hard to teach them as much about the game as we can - to love the game. We encourage them to go or take them to college and HS games. We talk about MLB players and teams. We talk about the history of the game. We talk about how to act like a ballplayer.

We NEVER run trick plays - just sound fundamental catch, hit and throw.

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"The only people I ever felt intimdated by in my whole life were Bob Gibson and my daddy," Dusty Baker.