My only advice is you play as a team you win as a team so the question is do all the boys play as a team because one child can ruin a team ! I know we had it happen ! we held open tryouts replaced the player and have an awsome team that they play as a team and win as a team !

the only way to learn how to win is to win some ways to help them learn to win is to like scrimage ecah other and then -the competion is good and after doing that yu will eventully learn how to win

This happened to me 2 years ago. We kept on playing our games and tournaments and took our lumps. We kept practiceing and working on fundamentals.We had girls from several towns.At districts the girls lost there first game and came back from the losers bracket to play for the championship. Make sure they are having fun and let them give input winning will come.

I'm curious about this. Do you think it means that you could be winning a game and then get too confident, or that you fall apart in a later inning? Have you ever won a game?

Perhaps the coach thinks winning is the only reason to play a game?
pHave you all taken into consideration that Perhaps the coach shouldn't be the coach?????

There is a responsibility that goes along with coaching: leadership. Perhaps the coaches are looking at the game in one way and choosing to look negatively at learning how to play a game. Conquering adversity and learning to do that together as a team is winning in one aspect of any game and you sure don't do that by beating an only a win counts attitude into a player. That is something your coaches should allow to happen and in a positive way. If they are not able to figure out what exactly is missing then they really cannot begin to change the outcome.

If winning is the only goal then I'm going out on a limb and saying perhaps, someone with a more positive and open minded outlook on things should take over your team and see if perhaps your coaches were the ones who did not know how to guide their players to a win...

Believe me, my heart goes out to your team.

Talk to your team ask them all to agree to keep your chins up, do your very best every day, work on your fundamentals and help the ones who need it then see if maybe a winning attitude and positive outlook helps you in the win column.

you have to have a positive attitude or you wont win the game and you need to make sure that you are being positive as well as your team. Your team is only as good as your worst player, and if your team is negative, then you have alot of bad players

WELL THATS NOT NICE AT ALL!!!! the only way you win games is being confident and believing you can win. If you and your team know you stuff, USE IT, be a leader and cheer you team on, eventually your team will be there for each other and you WILL win games. Like Lisa said, maybe he shouldn't be a coach, but really? people say things, don't take it personally, maybe you coach just get really frustrated when you loose. My coach says the same exact things, but after , when he cools down, he knew he was wrong and appoligizes. SHOW him you can win! it'll all work out. GOOD LUCK GIRL!

You have to believe you can win and have fun at the same time.if you dont believe you can do it then there is no way you will.

I recently saw this quote that was really really cool..."You will see it when you believe it - not the other way around." So many people say, "I'll believe it when I see it" and this sounds like the approach your team is taking...they'll believe they can win when it happens. But "You'll see it when you believe it" tells them that they will start seeing themselves win games, it will actually happen when they believe it.

It starts small, sometimes believing in something that BIG is hard to do. Get them to believe they CAN make routine plays. Encourage them to make just one at a time. Good teams will make a routine play, then do it again, and do it again. Next thing you know, one inning is over....then they do that again and again and the game is done and they've played it well. Then they do that game after game and next thing you know the season is coming to and end and you've played each game well because you focused on just one play - THIS play, the one that's happening right NOW.

In sports you can't worry about what's already happened or what will happen later IF you don't make this play. That's too much to think about. The more you think about the less focus you have on what's going on right now.

If you were focused 100% on a play that you missed then the next play comes your way and 10% of your brain is still "worried" or "thinking" about the last play, then only 90% of your brain can be focused on the play that you're trying to make right now.

If you can make a mistake on a play you were 100% focused on (it happens, we're human), then you most definitely just hurt your chances of being successful by only giving yourself a 90% focus on the next ball.

The coach I work with always talks about "being ready." Mistakes happen when you're not ready....I didn't know how true this was until I went out on the field to help the girls shag balls the other day.

I don't take grounders regularly anymore, so I'm a little rusty. When I was set and ready for the ball, not too bad. But if I was even just a little off - not quite in position or not quite ready for the hit, then I'd often miss by just a fraction. The ball would go off the end of my glove instead of into it. Or I was one step away because I was a fraction late getting READY for that ball to come.

The effect on my I believe was more pronounced because of my rust, but if being even a fraction less than 100% ready causes a ball to glance off your glove instead of go into it, or causes you to be a half step late in getting there, or causes your bat to be a fraction of an inch behind or below where it would have been if you had been ready, the END result is big difference. Not getting the out vs getting the out. Stopping the ball and keeping the single to a single vs letting it get by and giving the runner extra bases. An easy pop up vs a smoking ground ball. A foul ball instead of a hit down the baseline. etc, etc, etc

So being READY is super important.

Also - more on "playing scared" - I recently did a little podcast on it at http://fastpitchtalkradio.com/2009/03/fastpitch-talk-radio-episode-29-playing-scared/ Seems to be quite a popular episode.

if you lack skills but enjoy coaching, read, go to a clinic or learn anyway you can. if parents blame you, recruit them to help. your biggest problems come from people who do not play with their children and practice with them. some teams, the children are just there for socialization or free babysitting. they are hard to do anything with. talk to your group and tell them you are making an effort to be there and coach them, and you expect the same effort out of them. if you teach them sportsmanship, everything else should fall into place. teams are made up of individuals that need nurturing to develop. give them your best, and expect to get the same back

Hi Kiesha, depending on your age winning can be achieved by more than just a score. I think you are a winner if you had fun, connected with friends, learned improved skills.
If your definition of winning is merely scoring more than your opponent, I think your coache made a mistake here. I think coaches need to bring a calming influence to there team, just as Joe Torre did with the Yankees during their great champship years. A Coach need to provide an envirnment to promote success. Your Coach seems to miss the calming influence thing! Simply enjoy the game and your teamates, don't let the presure of outscoring your opponent overcome you!
Baseball and Softball are games of redemption. Everyone loves a great comeback. You and your team have a great opportunity to achieve a great comeback!
Also remember, a bad day on the ball field beats a good day at work or school. Great players have good days and bad days, but they all have one thing in common: they are always ready to play. Good Luck with the rest of your season! Mark

My fellow coach and I were always so close to having good years. This year we are blessed to have a good team. A lot of what I see is chemistry among team mates and age. 8U's dont know how to win; we don't keep score. In 10U and 12U, as the girls get better and are the more committed, they start to care. As a coach, I think you learn to win by working on your own knowledge base, observing winning teams and building team spirit. Not just chants but comraderie. If you in a Rec League with different girls each year, that gets hard. Ultimately, set expectations. When we practice, we practice. When we fool around, we have. When we play a game, we play the game. If they dont want to win, you cannot change the minds of young girls overnight.

du

Have them work as a team, hangout more so that they are friends on and off the field, have them tell you what THEY think they need to work on, and give them practicing assignments that they can work on at home or at a friends house or a park or something, simple easy ones, like, throwing the ball back and forth, and the better they get at it have them back up some.

Thats my opinion :)

you cant learn to "win". if there is such a thing i think you have to learn as a team.

Yes. You must score more than the other team. When you do this, you have learned how to win.