Look back at your coaching journey and think: have you ever had a game you lost because of the “little things?” If we’re being honest, I think we have all had games like this. We lost because we got picked off first. We lost because we waved a runner around third and they got thrown out. We lost because a passed ball allowed a runner to score. We lost because a routine pop fly was dropped. We lost because we misplayed the bunt defense.
It is also possible that you might have won because the little things went your way or the opponent simply didn’t execute down the stretch. Regardless of which way it swings for you, it leads me to this question:
If these “little things” affect the outcome of the game, are they really little things?
I am sure that every coach out there would agree with me that—no, these are not little things. I would even argue that little things do not exist in baseball, or in sports, for that matter. Competition is all about striving to win every aspect of the game. Yes, you need to be able to hit, run, catch and throw. Yes, you need to be able to execute first and third defenses. Yes, you need to be able to play clean situational baseball. All of those things, when done well, do not ever cross our mind as being little things because they are routine. But when those things go wrong, we are back at square one!
As coaches, I think we need to eliminate the term “little things” from our vocabulary. When we talk about them as being “little,” there is an inherent viewpoint that we do not need to focus on them as much. I remember when I was coaching a middle school baseball team that consisted of boys who regularly played club ball and others who have never picked up a baseball bat before. One game, a player in the latter category got caught not knowing what to do on the basepaths and was the third out of the inning. As we walked back to the dugout, the player at bat (who is in the club ball category) told his teammate that baserunning was so easy to do because it was a little thing.
The next day at practice, we were working on baserunning. The player who made that out the previous day asked me why we were practicing baserunning, saying, “this is so easy, we don’t need to practice it.”
Here’s what happened: he was told baserunning was a little thing and therefore his mind decided he did not need to focus on it anymore. This entire situation turned into a great teaching moment for these middle school boys, and it taught me a valuable lesson as well—little things always matter.
Since then, I stopped labeling different aspects of the game as “little” things. Instead, I preach how winning culture is in everything we do. Winning culture comes from doing everything well—the little things and the big things. This does not mean you will always do things successfully, but it does mean you can do all these things the right way. There are no “little” things—everything matters.