What's your preferred message to your team after a game?

[TheSoftballZone]

What's is your preferred message to your softball team once your game is over.

I'm sure this depends on a lot of factors and there way to many to bring up so I'll cover just a few.

Post Game Discussions and how you as coaches handle the difference scenarios.

After a stuff lost?
After a close win?
When you made to many errors?
When a obvious bad call cost you the game?
When you lost a player due to injuries?
When played a team way below your level and mercy than badly?

Them are just a few I came up with, feel free to add to ones I missed.

 

[DynastyFastpitch]

I'll share what I started to do years ago with my varsity high school team. This was something I learned from Cindy Bristow and it has worked wonders for us. We stopped having post-game meetings after a loss. Emotions are high, coaches and players are often frustrated. Why relive all the bad things that just took place minutes before? We were all there, we saw what happened. Cindy had even said she was already thinking of the things to yell about after the game and it was still in the 5th inning. She said that took her mind off the game at hand. I was thinking the same thing. So after a loss, we wait until the next day and address anything that needs to be discussed. Sometimes you just get beat so we don't discuss anything from the day before. When we win, we meet! The girls are usually super excited and we often give away a game ball. It works as almost an incentive to win. The talk is a very positive one. Now in travel it's different because you usually play 2-3 games a day but I did notice something a few years ago. My travel team was in the semi's and we knocked a team out of the tournament and went on to the championship game. About an hour into this game I looked out behind the left field fence and the coach was still reaming the team! Let the girls go home, talk about it the next practice. Like I said, this has worked for us! Try it sometime and see if it works for you.

 

[HITTER23]

Mostly, it was a matter of fact, where the next game is, where to meet for warm ups, and what time. Then briefly tell them what the situation is tourney wise. A couple atta boys here or there and never criticism during the day.

 

[yocoach]

For me, it depends on the age group. If it's 12U, these were the positive things that happened in the game. These were the mistakes we made. Learn from those mistakes, limit them and turn them into positives. Overall, we're continuing to develop as both players and a team. Keep up the good work!

 

[ALLPH0]

I love to hear my DD come out saying the talk was positive but honest and straight forward!