Winning and Losing Are Great Teachers

By Dick Smith
Head Coach - University of St. Francis (Ill.)

All coaches want to win. There’s no two ways about it. We feel wonderful when we win and badly when we lose. There are times that we feel awfully lucky when we win, but still that good feeling is there. Winning “ugly” happens when we do everything wrong, but still come out on top. Losing is never good in the eyes of most and this is the way of things.

There are many reasons for losing. The opposing pitcher might have been very good. Our bats just didn’t come around even thought the pitcher we faced was not that good. Our fielding might not have been all that good, and we might have made mental mistakes , especially on the bases. Our outfield might have forgotten their fundamentals and allowed balls to fall that would normally have been caught.

There are a couple of points that used to be raised. One concerns Lady Luck. She may be with us or not. We have no choice in the matter and it’s certain the deity does not stay up nights wondering who should be favored in athletic contests, although some feel that prayer helps. Be that as it may, we will either get the breaks or we won’t. Yes, the wind may blow at the wrong time causing our potential double to drift foul or the routine groundball decides to happily jump over our shortstops shoulder into left field for a game-winning hit. We can complain all we want to about this, but there’s not much that can be done about it. Changing churches will not help. Of course, working harder on fundamentals might. But on to other reasons……

Old “Mo” left us at the wrong time. What is this thing called momentum? It changes like the wind. One minute it’s with us, but because our batter strikes out with the bases loaded, it suddenly shifts to the other team. Smitty believes this facet of the game was invented by sportscasters to fill in time and explain the unexplainable in sports. It is Smitty’s Law that momentum is a figment of someone’s imagination and should not e a subject dwelt upon by coaches and/or players. Let the game announcers play with the concept and we’ll go back to fundamentals.

Then there’s the “we played down to their level” concept. This is an excuse used by many coaches to explain a defeat or a near loss. Somehow our team decided the other team wasn’t very good and thus did not have the incentive to play hard. How our team decided this is a mystery, but it allegedly happened. Perhaps we had seen this lousy team play before or their reputation for poor play was known to all. Perhaps we were looking forward to the big game with the Ballbusteronies from New Zealand and forgot about Little Nuns of the Poorhouse. Perhaps knowing the poor play of our opponents, our coach started the bench and they messed up royally. Of all the reasons, this latter one could certainly hold water.

Of course, we can blame it on the umpires. Yes, the blue blew a call at the plate allowing the winning run to score in our 1 - 0 game. Or the base ump forgot that when a fielder tags a runner with the ball, the runner is out.

But can we really blame the umpires when the score is 1 - 0 or 15 - 12? In the former case, it looks like we need a new batting coach and in the latter instance, our fielding needs work and the pitching coach needs some fine tuning. In any case, it is Smitty’s Law that the umpires do not win or lose games for teams; they merely affect the outcome, unless they are cheating. Cheating may be too strong a word. We should use home cookin’ instead. To be sure, this type of cuisine preparation certainly smells badly and tastes worse. And it does exist to some degree in many areas of the country where the home team is playing or where the umpires are hoping to score points with a high level college team by favoring them. Such would be good reasons for losses. However, whether here are ribs on the grill is often a matter of perception and whose steer is being barbequed. In any case, blaming the umps is not cool in Smitty’s eyes.

There are many other reasons for losses, among which are lack of conditioning, fatigue, being on the road, illness, key injuries and the like. But assuming there is some depth to take care of ills and hurts, the chief reason somehow always comes back to fundamentals and preparation.

It is amazing that teams prepare for certain teams. They scout and scout and then prepare for those games. Yeah, that Yellsalot Team from Canada is a running team, or they bunt lots, or they slap lots, or they can just plain hit. Zounds! These things are revelations? Our opponents actually do these things?

Wouldn’t it be prudent to prepare for all teams? Aren’t the fundamentals the same for all? Aren’t the bases 60 feet apart and don’t we have to cover them no matter what? When we see a rabbit standing in the rear of the batter’s box hitting lefty is there some sort of mystery as to what might happen?

Preparation is the key and our loss column should be telling us what to prepare for. Yes, losses, though loathsome, can be beneficial. They should be looked upon as favors granted by the softball deity and should alert us to the weaknesses in our teams.

If we aren’t hitting, it should be obvious that we need work in this regard. Now the question becomes, what are we having trouble hitting? Is it the fast stuff or the slow braking curves or just plain slow pitching? This can be determined from the game we just played. It is obvious. It is so obvious we don’t work on the problem.

If we are having trouble with slow pitching, crank down the machine and work on keeping the weight back. If you have a pitcher that can consistently throw good breaking stuff, let her pitch those to your hitters until they learn to adjust to the ball movement.

It is an amazing thing about hitters. Make up two teams for a whiffle ball game. Lob the ball in as best as you can. Watch the hitters come forward off their back legs and try to pull pitches. Rarely, if ever, will you see a ball go to the opposite field. This should send some kind of message, and that is that we have poor plate discipline. Needs work coach.

Same goes for fielding. If the shortstop is having reaction problems, take a few whiffle balls, and hit them hard right at her. Do it often. Make her grovel for them and work hard to contain the little devils. Move on to the softball size rubber balls and then to the real thing. Don’t settle for anything less than perfection

Most of the time, the reasons for losses are pretty evident. It should not take a rocket scientist to figure out the problems. Yet, we continue to return to our strengths and forget the weaknesses. For example, we continue to feed our dinger hitter fast balls down the pipe in practice. We know she can hit fastballs, but has trouble with off-speed stuff. This is terrible coaching. Why work on the things she does well? It doesn’t make sense, but it occurs all the time. If we work her hard on the slow, breaking stuff, she may just learn to hit it. Then, we truly have a fine hitter.

The learning process is not just for players. It is for coaches, as well. Winning teaches us little. Losing will do the same if we ignore it. But work on the weaknesses, including the weaker players on the team and you may develop a tiger. Though they generally are poor softball players, tigers have big teeth and claws and heart and ability and stamina and have worked at being proficient at winning a contest. We can learn from them.