10 Keys to a Winning Season

Too often when we glance over our schedule we look for those really BIG games, or the really cool trips, but there’s some important things you should be looking for that can mean a winning or a losing season.

Of course if I could guarantee winning seasons I’d be writing this newsletter from some glorious villa on my own personal tropical island, so this is not a guarantee. But you knew that going in since that’s the fantastic thing about sports – there’s never a guarantee that the favorite will win or the underdog will lose. And that brings me to the topic of this article which is what I believe to be the 10 things you can do to have a winning season. Notice I said “you” can do as you will have to actually do them, simply knowing them, or writing them in my case, isn’t enough for the wins to come. Just as you tell your players, you’ll have to actually execute.

When I write these articles I try to do as much research as I can to support any points I’m trying to make. Whether that means finding pictures to back up technical issues or stats to back up points like this one I try to avoid simply throwing out a comment without some form of support.

Since this article is about winning I explored the 3 teams that won their respective divisions in the 2009 NCAA Softball National Championships; The University of Washington in Division I, Lock Haven University in Division II and Messiah College in Division III. I was particularly interested to find out how many 1 Run games they won over the course of last year’s championship season as that was initially my only point.

In addition to finding out how each of these three championship teams did in 1 run games I started seeing other really interesting patterns that I thought were important and they have resulted in the following 10 Keys to Having a Winning Season:

1. Win the Games You Should Win – While I can’t look through your schedule and know which games you should win, you sure can. I’m not talking about “should win” in the sense that all the stars have to line up and your team has to play perfect, that to me describes something closer to shouldn’t or might. I’m talking about those games where you are the better team, where you make and get more breaks, and where you “should” win. Winning those games will really make a difference in the overall success of your season, and yet, those games can be fairly easy to lose. Why’s that? Because we tend to overlook or underestimate them. We look beyond those games to the ones we think are “really big”, meanwhile losing the ones we should win. So what if we win the BIG games, how many of those do you have? And when was the last time you got rings for winning a really BIG game and finishing last in your conference? Focus on winning the games you should win and you’ll be amazed at how different your season turns out!
2. Win the 1 Run Games – A cousin to winning the games you should win is winning the 1 run games. This is where it gets real interesting and where my research really paid off. In looking at all three division NCAA Softball National Champions here’s what I found in regards to their records in 1 Run Games:
   1. University of Washington: 6-3 (will discuss more on this farther down)
   2. Lock Haven University: 10-3
   3. Messiah College: 10-0

      All three of these championship teams had winning records in their 1 run ballgames! I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think when the going got tough, as it does in close games, these teams got going, and that’s what championship teams do!

      Now, let’s look closer at the University of Washington in its 1 run games. While they were 6-3 in 1 run games overall, during the Women’s College World Series, with their entire season on the line, they were 2-1, beating ASU 1-0, losing to Georgia 9-8 and finally winning the most important 1 run game in the history of University of Washington Softball beating the University of Florida 3-2 in the Championship Game! Winning 1 run games matters for a winning season.

3. Bounce Back – All of these championship teams followed big loses by wins. I’m not talking losses in BIG games; I’m talking BIG losses where they got blown out! Winning teams lose and they’ll even lose BIG; they just don’t let losses pile up. It’s rare that you’ll find a winning team that puts together a big string of losses, but they will string together wins! What all winning teams do is leave a loss behind them (no matter how big) and bounce back. In looking at our three Championship teams and their schedules from 2009 I looked for either huge losses where they got smeared, or else big losses in the case of timing during championship play and here’s what I found in regards to their ability to bounce back:
   1. University of Washington – believe it or not the Women’s College World Series Champion had 5 HUGE losses where the opposing team scored at least 6 runs on them:
      1. 0-6 (followed by 2 straight wins)
      2. 0-10 (followed by 3 straight wins)
      3. 2-9 (followed by 1 win)
      4. 0-11 (followed by 5 straight wins
      5. 8-9 (followed by 3 straight wins at the WCWS)
   2. Lock Haven University – had only 1 big loss and that actually came during championship play
      1. 1-3 (followed by 4 straight wins and the National Championship)
   3. Messiah College – had only 1 huge loss followed by an amazing response:
      1. 0-4 (followed by 23 straight wins and the National Championship!)

         Each of these teams lost games but they never let the losses kill them. Instead of sulking around and letting the losses pile up they bounced back right way and followed every single big loss by a string of wins. That’s what winners do!

4. Make the WIN Matter Most – How you win doesn’t matter as long as you win. Winning a game is far more important than perfect execution. Winning teams know they aren’t always going to play fantastic softball they just have to play good enough to win. Lou Holtz has a great quote that fits this perfectly. He says “you don’t have to be the best team in the country; you just need to be the best team in the stadium”. If we translate this for softball instead of football we end up with this – you don’t have to be the best team in the country, you simply have to be the best team on the field. Even if you are playing what the polls say is the nation’s best team, as long as you are the best team on the field in that game you have a chance to win! How you win is never more important than THAT you won! It doesn’t have to be a perfectly played game, just figure out a way to win it.
5. Everybody’s Gonna Have to Contribute – Softball’s a long season and people get hurt. Championship teams win with starters on the bench and bench players on the field. You’ve got to prepare everyone to get their shot, give it to them early in the season and trust they’ll do it when the going gets tough. The game doesn’t know that now isn’t a good time for your #1 pitcher to get hurt so “hoping it doesn’t happen” isn’t a very good plan. Let everyone improve their skills and their confidence, let them all get some playing time because you never know when that one kid you never even look at at the far end of your bench could be the difference between triumph and tragedy.
6. Early Losses Aren’t The End – All 3 of these national championship teams lost early in their season but built on those losses, learned from them and made themselves stronger as the season went on. Losses early in the season aren’t the end of the world unless you act like they are. When you lose – and you will in most cases – simply learn from it. A loss is nothing more than a fantastic opportunity to explore your weaknesses courtesy of your opponent. Instead of coming unglued and having your head blow off in rage, take a step back, remember that your opponent was actually trying to win as much as you were and then learn how the lose will in fact, make your team stronger.When it comes to making your schedule, if possible try to schedule stronger teams early in the year so that your team knows what to build toward. For those of you that missed it, I wrote an article on Keys to Planning a Winning Schedule and in it the following points were made:
   1. Schedule tournaments in your preseason to get in a large volume of games to allow you to learn about your team.
   2. In mid-week games try to stay local to allow you to reach the maximum number of games allowed and to stay on top of your academic schedule.
   3. Try to attend competitive tournaments with top-ranked teams to build your strength of schedule and get tested early.
   4. If possible, take some time off during season to allow your players time to focus on their classes.
   5. Schedule some competitive games to prepare for the opening of conference.
   6. If your conference games require travel and missed classes then don’t play mid-week games so your team can recover from travel and missed class.

   Whether all or some of these tips apply to you try to use your schedule to your advantage and take control of the parts you are able to control in order to benefit your team instead of letting the schedule run your team down, destroy their confidence and take them away from class so they’re ineligible.

7. Make it to Championship Play – You just have to qualify to have a chance to win the whole thing, you don’t have to be your league champion. Just ask Washington. They finished 2^nd in their conference (The Pac-10) with a 14-7 record behind Pac-10 Champion UCLA, and yet they won the Women’s College World Series! Don’t freak out if you aren’t your league champion as long as your team is somehow qualifying for championship play! Players sense panic and when you enter the post-season what your team needs is confidence and focus not panic and complaining. Treat the post-season as your second season so just get to it and start fresh.
8. Don’t Whine, Just Compete – Who cares that your field doesn’t have lights so you’ve got to be the home team all the way across the country for 2 weekends in a row…who cares. Win anyway…in fact; compete so hard you win the whole thing! Quit whining, complaining and pointing out all the things that are wrong work harder to compete! What you stand a really good chance of doing when you compete is winning but good luck with your chances when you whine!
9. Everybody Matters – While every team has a few players that will naturally play bigger roles, every championship team values every single member of that team no matter how large or how small their role. Teams are just that – teams of people who join together for the greater good. That doesn’t mean that every member of that team will be equal as there should be a difference of skills and strengths within the group. But, there should never be a difference of value as every member has a role and a value to the team, whether it’s simply catching pitchers in the bullpen so they can practice, being the backup shortstop and working hard to push the starter to be even better, or staying lose and ready so you can go in to pinch run, steal 2^nd and then score the winning run. Everybody matters on a championship team!
10. Enjoy the Wins – And finally, make sure you take time to enjoy the wins. Instead of just glazing over them in your post-game talk as if you had to give the win back if anyone was caught smiling, let your team enjoy their victory. Not in a way that rubs it in the face of your opponents but in such a way that your players build confidence from the win and work hard to enjoy that feeling the next time they play.

For more help on having a winning season check out the following:

• Book: The Ultimate Softball Practice Guide
• Book: Coach’s Guide to Creating Team Chemistry
• Book: Softball Strategies, Coverages, Signals & Charts
• ePractices