The Grind
Regardless of the sport or the level, every parent, player, and coach finds themselves battling the grind at some point during the season. The excitement over tryouts and the start of the season is over but the postseason or the big tournaments are still a few weeks away. For some players the season is going well, but for others it has been disappointing and is reaching the crossroads. Parents are dreading the constant cycle of picking kids up from practices and games. Coaches are getting run down by the constant creation of practice plans, film, research, emails, and trying to find creative ways to engage their players.
Players have it easy right? Show up and hang out with their friends and play a game that they love. What could be better than that? Yet, at some point in the season you'll notice your player just doesn't seem to have the same spark when it's time to get ready for practice. You may be taking them to a game and notice that they seem to have the same demeanor as if they were going to math class. It happens. Players get sick of hearing the same things from their coaches. Cliques can form on teams that cause players to dread being around certain kids. Players are dealing with slumps or with not getting as much playing time as they like. They start to realize that no matter how hard they work, they're not going to be able to push themselves much higher into the rotation. That drive that they showed to prove themselves during tryouts or the beginning of the season has now been eroded over the past couple months. The excitement of the state tournament or the big rivalry game is still a couple weeks away. Homework might be piling up. The last thing that players want to do is sit in class all day and then spend two hours after school at practice, lifting, or/and watching film.
As a parent, you hit that point where you can't remember the last time you did something with a family or friend that wasn't part of the team. Your life constantly revolves around making arrangements for getting kids to and from practices and games. Your friends who don't have a kid that plays a travel sport think that you're crazy or a snob. The most common answer given to those people is, "I'd love to, but we got practice/a game." As a travel baseball parent, people don't understand that the only nights you're free are Monday's or Tuesday's, but those night are usually occupied with laundry, yard-work, or just relaxing. Basketball has a constant series of late night pick-ups from practices or games that there is no escaping.
As a coach, the grind is especially tricky. Coaches must find a way to balance the emotions of not just themselves, but those of the players and parents too. Travel baseball can be especially grinding because of the length of the season. Most teams will typically start with winter workouts in January and conclude in late July. By this time in the season you're typically just trying to fine tune little things. Practice plans become more challenging to write because you are looking for ways to balance burn out with fun. You know that the players are sick of doing the same things, but as a coach it is your job to continue pushing them. You know that the parents are sick of hauling their kid around and are still tired from the weekend before. Deep down they're hoping that rain will wash out practice or that you'll decide to give the kids some time off. As a coach you're thinking about the same things, but you're fearful that a week off will result in poor performance the next weekend. You'll spend hours wondering if taking a week of was the right thing to do, or if you practice are you just wearing the kids down even more.
During the grind of a basketball season things can become even trickier. Kids are physically tired. Chances are nobody on the team has seen daylight during the week unless it's through a classroom window because you're going to school in the dark and leaving after the sun has gone down. You can sense at practice that drills don't have the same zip or the level of competitiveness that they did a few weeks ago. It's essential that your players understand the opposing team's offense and set plays, but you look and see that they are mentally checked out. Your practices become shorter to preserve the bodies, but you need the minds to be that much sharper at this point in the season.
Despite all of these feelings and emotions from players and parents, there remains one constant, the expectation of winning. This is the part of the season where winning can become routine and ordinary, or losses can add to the drudgery of the season. As a coach your emotions are right at the surface. You have already invested so much time and energy, but you've got to be the one who is the leader and can push the players and parents through this point. You might get off of that bus after nine o'clock and get home to a stack of papers that need to be graded. Plus, you need to write that practice plan for tomorrow while everything from the game tonight is still fresh in your mind. In travel baseball you may have just coached 5 games in less than 36 hours, but now you're onto the next practice plan, analyzing the schedule for the upcoming weekend, lining up the pitching. You've got emails to send out organizing team practices and events and questions to answer from parties involved. Take a day off and it might result in losses on the field next weekend, or not having your best pitchers available for the biggest moments.
Being a coach during the grind is the loneliest time of the season. Not only are you tired, but your circle of friends has shrunk as well. Your spouse is tired of listening to you talk about your season or your team. The only people who understand what you're going through are your fellow coaches, but they're also consumed by their teams and seasons. Some of them are having seasons far better or worse than yours, so you try to confide in the those that you can trust or relate to the most. While these are the people that can relate to you the most, these are also the people who have their own issues to deal with. Finding time to get together with them or talk with them is invaluable, but at the same time it takes away from even more time you're gone from your own family.
All of this sounds pretty miserable, but in reality it's just a small part of the season and reality of sports. Coaches must find a way to push through without letting their emotions get the best of them. If things are going great, you cannot relax and let up. If your team is struggling, you cannot vent your frustrations to them. The grind is a delicate part of every season, and how you as a coach navigate through it can make or break your season. Find a way for your players to find joy in coming to practice or being around each other if things aren't going well. Push them mentally if things are going well. Sometimes when the team seems most important, it is vital for parents and coaches to find time for an early or mid-week date with their spouse. Their is no escaping the grind, every season and every sport has one. However, as a coach or as a parent we can't let it control us or our emotions or outlook on things.
