The Girls the Coach and the ZEN

The “Girls”, the Coach, and the Zen

This is a story about a coach and his team. If you have followed my blogs you know that the sport being played is not of real importance to me. When something is really true, it applies to all situations, games, activities, and academics.

 Teaching children applicable life skills in ALL environments, in as many situations as possible is more important than any single victory. That long term sightedness has been lost to a great extent in the "me now" mentality pervasive in our society. Modeling of that “community” behavior is crucial to our children’s long term growth and well being.

 Back to the story. They were playing a game on a very hot muggy night. They were up by 8 runs going into the last inning. The coach had substituted freely with his players as he always did. Unlike many coaches he put the girls into different positions constantly. If they made a mistake, he kept them in the same position. He asked them if they would like to try different positions. If they did not want to play a certain position at that time, he STILL left open the possibility that they could try that position later on in the season. Sometimes, when children see others doing something and having fun, they forget their fear and trepidation, and want to join in and try something new.

When they see a friend try something, make a mistake and try again and not get yelled at or reprimanded, but instead get encouragement from adults and teammates, it makes them feel safe.  That safe feeling transfers into trying and reaching for something a little bit out of their comfort zone. At Frozen Shorts we see this as the most important part of youth sports development.

This coach would take his best players and put them on the bench, rotating the girls into different positions regardless of the score or inning, in a true team concept.  He didn’t just play his two best girls at shortstop and pitcher. He played the children in all positions, keeping a mental note on who played where and for how long.   (And if you don’t see how this benefits the children over the coach’s ego, you should take a hard look at why you coach children.)

Well, on this particular sultry night the other team came back. They made the game really close: 10-9. He gathered the girls around him on the mound and then did a very remarkable thing. He told them to concentrate on getting just one more out. No speeches on how close the games had gotten. No moving his best players to certain positions. No scouting report on this hitter and what kind of pitch to throw. He didn’t remove one single girl from their position they were playing at the time. There was no wringing of the hands because the other team had scored a lot of runs to tighten up the game. OUTSTANDING.

You see at this point, although the girls were not aware of it, all the playing of different positions, the team chemistry, and all the moves he had made for team development, instead of managing the game to win, were  about to pay off.

Think of how much more these girls learned about trust and the journey from this coach. If they had won the game 10-2 a huge learning moment would have passed without anyone noticing. But, as you know, I believe in the Zen and the journey attached to life.

These kids may not remember this game when they are older, but they will certainly have planted in their brains the model this wonderful coach set for them that day and every day they played for him.

Way to go Mark!

P.S. You are right if you noticed I did not mention the final score on purpose.