So to start out, let me just say that sitting the bench sucks. There has always been a negative connotation with the word benchwarmer, and this is not without reason. The bench is easily the last place any player wants to find themselves. But being someone who started playing a sport at thirteen that most girls had started at four, I will openly admit I had my fair share of bench time. Of course, I am not talking about when you occasionally sit out an inning every few games because you need rest. I mean those repeated times that not everyone is actually familiar with when you really started to question if you wanted to continue playing the sport you loved or not. However, it has been almost two years now since I played in my last game and looking back on my career as a whole, I have come to realize just how important it was that I had that experience. So with that being said, here are 5 valuable lessons I learned during those times.
1. Your Coach Does Not Hate You. This one may seem a little silly, especially when I actually had my dad as a coach for my competitive team, but there were times when I remember thinking that clearly the only reason I had found myself in that spot was because I had done something to make my coach angry or mad at me. However, I realized that if I was sitting my coach knew that I was not understanding that I needed to reevaluate something that I was doing on or off the field.
2. You can never stop working hard. No matter how hard I thought I had been working during practice, if I was not one of the starting nine players almost every game, I usually was able to understand why once I got over myself. Generally, it could be chalked up to the fact that I got too comfortable. I would start to feel secure in my position and think I did not have to work as hard. But nothing ever helped remind me more like a nice long seat next to my coach as a I watched my teammates play the game I loved.
3. The importance of a good attitude. This is one that you learn playing, but for me, it did not really stick until I was in the dugout and the person with the attitude was not. I remember seeing girls who would get their chance to play and throw huge fits when things did not go their way and it made me extremely agitated that they were taking their playing time for granted. On the other hand, I realized that my own negative attitude over this teammate would have a domino effect on the team as a whole and focusing on it would not help me get back into the game.
4. How To Have Patience. Sometimes it is hard, especially when you think that it is happening continuously or that your time on the bench is outweighing your time playing, but usually if you take the time to step back and think about what got you there, you are able to overcome those obstacles and your coach will take notice and give you that playing time back.
5. You Are Still An Important Part of The Team. Sitting the bench makes you feel irrelevant. Whether it is for an inning or for an entire game, it is really easy to start to zone out of what is happening, especially when you start focusing on your own frustration. In spite of this, I realized that keeping your own spirit up when you are in the one spot that no one wants to be in can actually be pretty helpful when your teammates are feeling down on themselves.
So, if you find yourself in this position just remember it is not the end of the world. It may seem like it at the time but the best thing you can do is keep your head up and keep pushing forward. It is tough to realize any of this when it is happening but eventually, you will get your shot.
