Guest Post by Don McKay, Softball Editor for Bellaonline

I’ve seen polar opposites this season when it comes to Softball schedules. My older daughter’s team has purposely scheduled the very easiest tournaments they could find leading up to their end-of-season tourney. In contrast, my younger daughter’s team has played the toughest competition at friendlies and qualifying tournaments possible in preparation for their end-of-season tourney. Both teams’ scheduling philosophies were so different that it begs the question:

“Is it better to play a Soft Schedule or Hard Schedule to prepare for post-season play and/or the ‘Big tournament’?”

I see definite advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.

I’ve observed that the team with the soft schedule has become very confident because they have had a lot of success, albeit against weaker competition (though I don’t think that the girls realize how soft the schedule has been). Additionally, they’ve been rewarded because in most of the tournaments they’ve played, they’ve ended up in the championship game and so they have taken home a lot of trophies (most for 2nd place, but I don’t think that matters for a 12 year-old girl). Even if their season ended today, I think each player would think that it was a successful season and that they had a lot of fun.

Though they have had success thus far by being more talented than their competition, there are still glaring holes in the team’s play that has not been exposed yet, but will likely be when they face the better teams. There is a complacency that has set in both with the players and the coaches where improvement, more advanced drills, and softball-specific training is not really pursued. In short, because of the soft schedule, there is not only no real urgency to get better (“Look how good we already are!”), but there has been no competition where other teams did things better or exploited our weaknesses to show us better ways to play. The opposition has provided no whetting stone to sharpen our team to prepare us for tougher games ahead.

In contrast, our team with the difficult schedule has had plenty of opportunities to be sharpened against superior competition. The players on this team have gotten noticeably better since the beginning of the season as coaches introduce new skills and drills during practice to rise to the next level to be competitive within their schedule. I believe the coaching itself has also improved as they by necessity throw out what doesn’t work and try to grow along with their players. If skills development alone were the standard by which to judge a season, this team has had a very successful season even though this is not reflected by their record.

However, losing takes its toll on even the strongest wills, and this team seemingly has not figured out how to win, even though they have raised their skill level to be on par with their tougher opponents. Most games are now close, but typically our team has that “one bad inning” that makes all the difference. Though they have improved as players, their confidence has taken a hit because they have lost a lot of games. The players don’t see that, while at the beginning of the season they were being mercy-ruled, they are now losing close games by a couple of runs and have therefore improved. All they seem to see is that they don’t win that often, and that that may not change. With the mental part of the game being so important, these players may be defeated before they step onto the diamond no matter how much they’ve improved skill-wise.

My preference as a coach is to schedule on the hard side. First, I want to earn the accolades we win and if I feel like winning was too easy, then I’m likely to feel that whatever championship we won is tainted because we should have played in a higher division. Second, I tend to take a long-term view of the season and my players’ careers, figuring that whatever we do schedule-wise should be to prepare for the “Big Tournament” and should advance the skills of my players. However, I have to admit that I’ve now seen the advantages of playing a too-easy schedule and may have to consider them when scheduling next season’s games. I’m not sure if there is a happy middle-ground given how short most seasons are, so if I schedule an easy schedule, I’ll have to have my assistant coaches periodically whisper in my ear that “All glory is fleeting.”

Please post your thoughts below...

View Original Post at softballperformance.com

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• Softball, Sports, Family/Parenting, Youth, Student-Athlete