Who’s Sitting the Bench today?

Objective evaluation of performance

How do you make your line up? Most coaches anticipate who can contribute to the team based on their talent. Then they eliminate the one kid who couldn’t hit the ball today at practice. Then you think about the player who kept talking and wasn’t paying attention during the 30 minutes of infield drills, and tell yourself, “She is obviously sitting on the bench, she didn’t work as hard as the others.” Is this really how coaches should decide who “earns” more playing time than the others? Reputation and anecdotal behavior? I don’t think it should be this way in youth sports at all. It’s extremely selfish and shortsighted.

Let me be clear, I was guilty of this on a regular basis early in my coaching career. It’s very difficult for coaches who want to be competitive all the time to keep things in perspective. Are you coaching for wins or looking to make these kids better athletes?

Parent goals

My softball coaching career started, right out of high school. I told myself I wasn’t going to be “that coach”. Yet, I fell into a rut the first season and put the same kids at the same positions, and kept the same order in the lineup. Of course that meant the same couple of girls had to be the substitutes. As I neared the end of the season, I realized I had fallen into this pattern. The pattern I told myself I wasn’t going to repeat. I had turned into “one of those coaches”.

Immediately, I decided to switch it up the last few games, and boy did I hear about it. Most of it was just from a few dads, they were upset that their daughter didn’t play the whole game. “How could you take her out? She’s your best hitter.”

I simply agreed,  “Yes, your daughter has had a great season, and  a lot of playing time. Now it’s time for another girl to get her chance”.

I wanted to yell, and argue with him. Where would that have gotten us? It would have embarrassed him, his daughter, me and the entire program. I needed him to see what I saw. There were other players on the team who could contribute, and I needed to give them a chance.

That was practically 20 years ago and it taught me a lot, not about the game, but how to deal with parents. (And that you can’t please them all, or can you?)

Bigger goals

How you decide to make your line up is the managers choice. There are a lot of things to consider, you want the athletes to perform well and be successful. You want these kids to go out with their heads held high and confident that they can make the play, hit the ball or pitch an inning. We stress so much about winning the game, is it the result that’s the most important? Does that really measure how good we are as a team? If the same kids sit the bench, and don’t get to play more than one or two innings then what are we teaching them? Why aren’t they getting a chance to play like the others? Isn’t it still just a game?

Coaches have to remember that this is a learning experience. If we want them to succeed, we have to give them opportunities to learn. If the same player strikes out at every at bat they could get discouraged. While it might happen, it means coaches need to work a little harder on those skills at practice.

Mistakes can be a good thing sometimes, as long as we can learn from them!

We have to get out of the mind set that errors force coaches to take them out of the game. Instead of doing that, let’s keep them in and encourage them to try again. Mistakes can be a good thing sometimes, as long as we can learn from them!

Good Teammates

Sitting the bench should be something that every teammate has a chance to do. It shouldn’t be looked at like its a punishment, it’s part of being on a team with multiple players. Everyone has a turn to play and a turn to sit.

So how and when do you explain that to the parents? If you start off the season with a team meeting this is a great place to start, informing the parents of your playing time rules. How you will handle playing time and your beliefs.  Being upfront with your parents will start the season off on the right foot, keeping your word and following through the whole season will end on a high note! Sometimes you really have to think as you are making up the line up, are you coaching to win? Or are you coaching to produce better athletes?

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