What’s Wrong with Teaching Competition?
The Minor Divisions
Everyone knows that the major divisions of Little League are competitive. But what about the Minor League Divisions? The rule book identifies them as instructional, but does not reference competitive. How is a local board of directors supposed to interpret that? It says instructional, not non-competitive.
Teaching Competition is Instructional
My opinion is that teaching competition IS being instructional. That said, this should be VERY carefully monitored by the local leagues. The way our league set the season up this year is we had a 2 game round robin end of the season seeding for a minor league tournament.
It was our opinion we were taking 9 and 10 year olds with NO competitive experience and throwing them into the highly competitive 9/10 Little League International Tournament. They were getting creamed! So we decided to start the season instructional, make the last 2 games against each team count ONLY for seeding our end of year tournament, and then play a double elimination tournament in which ALL teams competed.
The Board’s Creation
In our opinion, this created the best of both worlds. We played games early in the year that didn’t count at all. We also play other leagues in our district, those games don’t count towards the standings either. Some of those intersperse with the round robin as well, so this gives the teams a minor respite.
Then we play games that count, but only towards seeding in the end of year tournament. So, while they count, they really don’t. Then, just before all-stars, we are holding a double elimination tournament between all the teams that is intended to be competitive.
We have successfully melded instruction and competition and taught both.
How do you run your minor league program? What suggestions do you have? Please let us know!
Not as Good as We Thought We Were
Image by Paul-W via FlickrSmall League
Our league is very small. Because of this, we have to inter-league w/ other leagues in our district. Up to this point, we had been performing very well. Our minor league team was undefeated and our softball team had lost only one, to our league’s other team. Likewise, our other teams had done well too.
Screeching Halt
That all came to a screeching halt this weekend. It started last night when we lost our softball game 19-9. Our other softball team was beaten 25-9 today and a major baseball team lost 18-4. Followed up by our minors team that lost to a team we expected to beat, a juniors loss, and another minor team’s loss. I know of no team that won in our league this weekend.
Not as Good as We Thought
I think our coach said it best, "I guess we are not as good as we thought we were" is how he put it. Perfect. You never know who will show up, any team can beat any team, at any time. This is so true. Just when you think you are good, you realize how easy it is to stumble. This is one of the best life lessons sports teaches. Hopefully our entire league learned it this weekend.
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