Last Friday, my daughter's softball team, which I coach, and another team that was in the bottom of the standings of our league held a "Garbage" softball game. We invited all the families from both teams. The girls were told it was for fun and they should wear a "fun" outfit - not their team uniforms. They showed up with colored hair, backwards shirts and even two different shoes.
To make the game fun, we started with water balloon hitting practice. This turned into a water balloon catching contest before we actually started the game.
For the first inning, runners on base had to put on Clown shoes to run to second. In order to be safe at third, they had to pop a balloon by sitting on it. All catchers wore boas around their neck and the girls waiting to hit had the opportunity to get their nails painted or get a stick-on tattoo.
By the end of the night, the parents, siblings and the girls were all playing ball. It was a blast!!
Perhaps the best thing about it for me, is that when the girls think back about their season in softball, it won't be the coach who ran the score up to 21-0 or the argument a parent had with one of our refs. Their memory will be about learning the skills of the game during the season and how much fun we had ending it. Even with a losing record.
I only wish that more of the coaches could remember that kids (these were nine and ten year old girls) are motivated by their experience not just winning. At this age, don't we just want to teach them the game and keep them playing long enough to find out if they will be any good? Too many organized sports are losing young players because they have a negative experience before anyone even knows if they will have great skills.
So feel free to steal the Garbage Game idea, get out and play, and inspire your next team to have fun. Then they will keep playing the sport long enough to determine where their skills and natural talent can take them.
Marlene Byrne
Author, Project Play
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