During your coaching career, especially on the younger levels, you
may find yourself with an over-emotional player. This is the player
that cries after every loss, or cries after every strikeout, error,
missed catch, missed shot, etc. How do you deal with such player?
Should you deal with the player or simply chalk it up to immaturity
and hope the situation goes away on its own?
We feel that the situation and player should be addressed. The situation
is distracting to the player and can also be a distraction to the
rest of the team. Take the player aside and explain to the player
that they and the rest of the team are all there to learn and improve.
Everyone makes mistakes, and learning from a mistake is first step
towards improvement. If the player is worried about what they did
in the past, there is no way they concentrate on what they need to
do in the future.
Give the player examples of their heroes making mistakes and how
their hero reacts. Explain to the player that in Major League Baseball,
a player (insert any MLB player's name) fails about 70% of the time
up at bat. These players walk back to the dug-out, do not get worked
up over situation and refocus themselves on what they need to do next
(play the field, pitch, etc).
Explain that while the player may feel it's the end of the world,
it's not. The sun will still rise tomorrow and they will still need
to go to school in the morning.
