Shakespeare might have been a frustrated softball coach.
“To be or not to be?” is the most rhetorical question in history. Unfortunately, many teams are facing a similar quandary.
I have already railed against the trend of “all-star” travel teams where players come from all over the country and just assemble at the tournaments to play their games. I wrote about Team Parking Lot in an earlier blog.
Why bring it back up?
Well, one of the players I currently work with is on just such a team. With the possibility of softball returning, at least here in Georgia, her team is starting to prepare for the return to action. She and I had an interesting discussion during her last lesson. She made several interesting observations.
Now, before you make a blanket assumption about her, she readily admits that she knew this was the type of team she was joining, and she knew that many of her teammates would never or almost never be at a practice.
Now that they are not at practice she is wondering if she made the right choice. Knowing the quarantine means that most players have not been able to train like they normally would is creating doubt for her about how prepared her team will be when they do play again.
She feels good about the five players who come to practice, yes that’s right I said five, but can’t help but wonder about the other nine players, yes that’s right I said nine, who can’t.
The good news is that they have a very talented group of players. The bad news is that because the majority of their team comes from all over the country, they can’t practice as a team.
Is this a good way to build a team? I would say no, but what do I know?
