I used to play little-league baseball. Overzealous parents
and coaches were too often the norm, and made it be so much
about winning-vs-losing that it sucked a lot of the fun and
learning/improving right out of it.
Then one year I played for a team that had a manager that was
different. He abhorred all that other stuff. He was big on
strategy and using data. [...] He used a lot of that to help him come up with
the batting line-up, which people were best at fielding which
positions, pinch-hitting and relief-pitching.
He shared the info with the assistant coaches. The info was
not shared with us kids. For starters, we were possibly a bit
young to try and make sense of it, but he also didn't want to
see it used to try and rank people as better/worse than one
another.
[...]
Anyway, with all that data-gathering going on, and the way it
was shared, it was NEVER used as reward/incentive. We all knew
what our win/loss record was. After each game (win or lose)
the very next practice the manager led a discussion about things
that we did well, and then areas for improvement - which usually
became our "drills" for the rest of that practice session.
Whenever we played a particularly significant game, at the
very beginning, the manager would tell us we were going
out for ice-cream afterward REGARDLESS of whether we won or
lost. Other teams and managers never did that. They only went
out to the ice-cream parlor if they won. [...]
I was never before on a little-league team that was so motivated,
and enjoyed playing so much, and that so actively encouraged
other team members (especially the weaker players, who needed it
much more than our "all-stars"). All in all it was a great season,
and the best I recall in my own little-league "career". We lost
only one game all season. [...]
I have a feeling we wouldn't have done as well if rewards
like "ice-cream" had been conditional upon winning. I know
we certainly wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. [...]
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