HOW THE BOMBERS MEASURE EARLY SEASON SUCCESS...
Many of the Bombers teams have been lucky enough to get as many as 8 games in before Spring break. For serious baseball players, these early season games are invaluable to their growth as ball players. The early season hits, and plays made in the field are an easy measure of players’ success. On the youth level, especially age 9 and 10, it is not always a positive play that measures growth. In these early season games, many times Bombers coaches may encourage a player who actual struck out or mishandled a play.
Our experienced coaches realize that a player that is striking out a lot, may make incremental growth between at bats. Not all at bats that in end strike out are the same. A player that may, in previous at bats, fall away from the pitch may start to attack the ball. Now, the player may still strike out, but our coaches will encourage the players when they have a different approach. These are what makes the early season at bats so valuable. Players who are struggling will get the encouragement needed to progress their approach to the point where success can be realized. These same players, who experience similar issues, who wait until late April to start training, may find they do not see incremental improvement until the season is almost over. While some of our players have struggled at the plate early, this is hopefully moving them closer to having extended success, with the meat of the season still ahead.
In the same vein, players may make early season errors in the field. Although, a player’s errors can be productive if done attempting to use the foot work, and arm angles taught in the off-season. It is these early season attempts, or sometimes failed attempts, that can lead to encouragement from our coaches. You can see players that are trying to implement new techniques make improvement, even in the face of errors. The Bombers promote a competitive environment, but also a safe place to fail. We do not ignore our players errors in the field but use them to encourage the ways in which the players did techniques correctly during the play. Then we teach them what went wrong during that play that lead to an error.
Bombers teams have played around 20 games so far this season. Almost every game has been decided by a few runs. While at this point, we have experienced a few close losses, we are excited about the growth from our players. After all that is what being a part of the Bombers is all about. We want kids to compete at the highest level of baseball that New England has to offer, and grow from both their success and failures.