The Essential Building Blocks for Success
How to Know if You’re Wasting Time, Energy and Money on You (or your kid’s) Baseball/Softball Development
If you’ve been following along you know that this blog started off with weekly posts and then there was a sudden stop. I have been busy doing what I love to do, training and coaching players in the weight room and on the field. I had some downtime this weekend, as well as an experience that I thought would be worth sharing with you all. As always I appreciate you following along and hope you gain some perspective from this post.
This past Saturday I was filling in as a coach for a fall high school JV game. I hadn’t spent much time around these players so I came into it with a more of an observational attitude. It’s mostly freshman on the field, I knew mental miscues and physical errors were to be expected and it was my job to coach up who I could. But the mistakes started before the game even started. The stretching was sloppy and unorganized, the same could be said about the warm up catch play. So you could probably imagine that we lost, but we didn’t just lose, we got embarrassed, 18-6. Walks+Passed Balls+Errors = a loss for most teams.
But Walks + Passed Balls + Errors - Passion for the Game = embarrassment.
As I stated previously, I did my best to take an observational approach to coaching this game, which became harder with every pitch, but what I did observe was that the majority of these players were missing the three prerequisites for playing baseball at a competitive level, 1. Passion/Love for the Game 2. A Solid Foundation of Fundamental Skills 3. Having a High Personal Standard. I’m going to dive into each one of these individually, giving you a brief description of each one. As you go along, whether you are a player, parent of a player or a coach, ask yourself if you or your player currently possess these prerequisites to compete in competitive baseball or softball, or really any competitive athletics.
1. Passion for The Game
You could argue that this is the only prerequisite for success in competitive baseball or softball (that’s why it’s #1 in this list). If you or your player don’t possess this, please save yourself some time, leave this page, take whatever baseball equipment you have and donate it to a goodwill or little league. Ok, maybe you don’t need to do that quite yet, but it’s important understand that playing this game is should not be a chore, on the contrary it should be enjoyable as a player (parents I know those week long summer tournaments in Fort Myers are NOT always enjoyable).
Passion is hard to put into words, but you know it when you see it. If you’re passionate it about something, you look forward to doing it. Now I know as a player, that the preparation it takes to continue to development is not always enjoyable, the games however, should be. That’s why you prepare, to be at your best to play the game. You should have some level of excitement when you get to the yard, an excitement beyond just getting to be around your friends.
2. Mastery of Basic Skills
Exceptional baseball players are built on a solid foundation of fundamental skills. Whether it’s making routine plays, consistently throwing strikes, or making solid contact with the ball, mastering the basics is essential. I’m not saying that errors, strikeouts and walks don’t happen. What I am saying is that, if you’re warming up before a game and you can’t consistently hit your partner in the chest or you can’t catch balls thrown within a catchable vicinity of your body, than it might be time to explore other ways to spend your free time.
This can be taken a step further, for example, if you call yourself a pitcher and you can’t get on the mound and throw strikes consistently it might be time to find another position (or another sport). As my college pitching coach used to say “It takes zero talent to throw strikes”. If you call yourself a catcher and you can’t consistently catch the ball (especially strikes), that’s a major problem.
You might be reading this and thinking “Does this really need to be said?” But the truth is, it does. I’ll close this section out with a quote “You don’t practice until you get it right…you practice until you can’t get it wrong”.
3. Sticking to a High Standard
Players that have success in competitive baseball typically hold themselves to a high standard. Now, standards are going to vary from player to player, person to person, especially at the high school age. But at the very least there should be consistently high attitude and effort that they give in a game setting (at the least). This can be boiled down to just being competitive, having a drive to win. Some players don’t develop a consistent work ethic until they realize that talent can no longer carry them alone, but if they have a genuine competitive drive, that high standard will carry over to their personal development time. Just keep in mind, that at the high school age, if you don’t have a mastery of the basic skills (#2) by high school, there’s a high chance competing baseball isn’t for you.
Summing It Up
If you read this far, just know I appreciate you taking the time to do so. Baseball is a beautiful game and I’ve had plenty of great relationships and experiences come out of it. I coach it to provide the next generation an even better experience than I had. With that being said, PLAYING competitive baseball is not for everyone.
Keep it Gritty,
Brad