Episode 3
Stick With It!
Coaches, are you actually coaching or are you just being a manager? Players, are you aware of how your self talk is affecting your game? Let's talk softball with Coach B
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Transcript
I want to welcome everyone to talking softball with Coach B.
Speaker:This has been an exciting time.
Speaker:The fall is always exciting because we're getting back
Speaker:out on the field teams are practicing teams are playing.
Speaker:And I today I want to talk about a couple of different topics.
Speaker:The first that I really want to get into in staying
Speaker:with our idea of player development is
Speaker:I want players and coaches to listen closely today.
Speaker:And I'm talking to coaches and players
Speaker:at all age levels, 10u through 18u.
Speaker:Because I think I think there's some important things that we need
Speaker:to really concentrate on during this time of the season.
Speaker:And and I'm getting feedback from players, coaches, parents,
Speaker:and I think we're missing
Speaker:what the real purpose behind this fall season is.
Speaker:And I think that we all have to understand that player development
Speaker:should always be our number one priority. And
Speaker:when we talk player
Speaker:development, we're not just talking about physical skills.
Speaker:And we've mentioned that before.
Speaker:We're not just talking about how do I field a ground ball?
Speaker:How do I hit, you know, how do I throw my curveball or my rise ball?
Speaker:But we're talking about the total player development,
Speaker:developing the mental game, developing the emotional game
Speaker:that we want our players to have as they grow through the game
Speaker:and through their
Speaker:their experiences and playing at whatever level they're at.
Speaker:I think that we have to look at the entire development of a player
Speaker:and not spend all of our time just concerned on their physical skills.
Speaker:So I want to talk to each of those areas just a little bit
Speaker:if we start out talking about mental development.
Speaker:I ask everybody to understand that it depends a lot on what stage
Speaker:your player is in the game,
Speaker:what their mental development of the game is going to be.
Speaker:You know, when we talk about 8u and 10u and 12u teams,
Speaker:we want them understanding the game, understanding
Speaker:the rules of the game, understanding
Speaker:basic concepts of the game. OK.
Speaker:And as we age through to 14 and then into 16 and 18,
Speaker:obviously we want to go through an advanced stage in each of those areas.
Speaker:And we want to really concentrate
Speaker:more on the idiosyncrasies of the mental game of softball.
Speaker:So if we look at it at a young age and I had a conversation yesterday
Speaker:with a very good friend of mine
Speaker:that's been involved in the game a long time, and he expressed
Speaker:the same concerns that that I'm seeing right now.
Speaker:And that is we're overemphasizing
Speaker:the result on the game rather than taking the time
Speaker:to truly teach and develop the process of the game.
Speaker:And coaches, I'm speaking to you first on this.
Speaker:I think we have to decide
Speaker:what our role is going to be as a coach.
Speaker:Are we truly a coach or are we a manager?
Speaker:Because I believe if we're a coach, then we understand that
Speaker:we have to have the ability to teach every aspect of the game.
Speaker:And it's critical that we can teach the mental
Speaker:aspect of the game to our players,
Speaker:just by definition a coach is an instructor. Right.
Speaker:They're a teacher.
Speaker:There's someone that goes out and teaches all the basic fundamentals
Speaker:and is able to put those together
Speaker:into creating the best individual players,
Speaker:but also the best team concept for their team to be successful.
Speaker:Whereas we talk about managers and I'm seeing a whole lot
Speaker:of managers in the game right now and too many at the young levels,
Speaker:a manager is is very similar to a to a major league baseball manager, OK?
Speaker:They get the opportunity to go out and recruit top talent
Speaker:and they are going to spend their time
Speaker:working with finished products
Speaker:or those players that are closer to being finished products.
Speaker:And I think that we have to understand
Speaker:the difference between the two roles.
Speaker:You know, a coach is going to go out
Speaker:and spend their time on development and spend their time on really
Speaker:making their players better and making their team better. A manager.
Speaker:They look at the talent they have.
Speaker:They write a lineup card and they manage some during the game.
Speaker:But for the most part.
Speaker:They're just out there playing with
Speaker:finished products or very talented players.
Speaker:And there's not a lot of coaching that goes on. And
Speaker:my buddy and I were talking and we say we see a lot of that.
Speaker:At 10u, 12u, and 14u
Speaker:where our coaches are expecting to be managers.
Speaker:Number one, they're expecting that they have 12
Speaker:talented players on their team
Speaker:and they're just going to play games every weekend.
Speaker:They're not putting a lot of time into practice
Speaker:or not putting a lot of time into individual player development.
Speaker:They're just playing every weekend.
Speaker:You know, in those situations, you pretty much get what you put into it.
Speaker:You know, your team's going to perform
Speaker:well at times and they may not perform well at times, you know, whereas
Speaker:I think that our coaches at those younger age levels need to have
Speaker:more of a mindset of a coach where they're actually going out.
Speaker:They have a plan. Right?
Speaker:We've developed a plan.
Speaker:there's a plan for individual player development.
Speaker:And there's also a plan for developing your team concepts.
Speaker:And along with that plan, you have a timeline.
Speaker:When do you want to see
Speaker:the benefits or reap the benefits of your work?
Speaker:What is your timeline?
Speaker:You know, do you expect to go out the first weekend
Speaker:when you play and be the best team you're going to be all year long?
Speaker:Well, I don't. And I hope that
Speaker:I hope that we don't play our best softball
Speaker:the first weekend
Speaker:because there's a whole lot of softball left to be played,
Speaker:and I don't want our young players
Speaker:to be finished products
Speaker:at 13 and 14 years old, because, yes,
Speaker:they may be excelling at the level they're at,
Speaker:but as they grow and get older and get into high school
Speaker:and have an opportunity to move on to college,
Speaker:the players around them are going to get better.
Speaker:And, you know, There will be players that get better and pass them by.
Speaker:And I think we can all look back at our experiences and say,
Speaker:yeah, I remember a player like that.
Speaker:Boy, that player was a stud when they were 13 years old.
Speaker:But they kind of fizzled out.
Speaker:They didn't have a great high school career
Speaker:and they didn't go out and play in college.
Speaker:And I think we have to be careful
Speaker:not to encourage that or even develop that type of player
Speaker:within our teams
Speaker:and within our organizations, because we want our kids to continue
Speaker:to grow, continue to work toward their talents ceiling
Speaker:and really develop into the best player they can be.
Speaker:So my challenge to our coaches is.
Speaker:Are you a coach or are you a manager?
Speaker:And what role which of those roles is best for your team?
Speaker:You know, because if you're going to be a coach,
Speaker:then you've got to make sure that you're willing to put the work in
Speaker:in the time in to develop a good solid plan.
Speaker:You're going to be able to adapt that plan.
Speaker:You're going to see peaks and valleys in performance.
Speaker:And you have to be able to to adapt to that and adjust.
Speaker:And you're also going to see a timeline for development
Speaker:in your players and your team.
Speaker:So I'm I'm hoping that this fall
Speaker:our coaches are truly coaching
Speaker:the game and teaching the mental side of the game.
Speaker:Are they teaching the concepts?
Speaker:Are they teaching the ability to react to different situations?
Speaker:Our game is full of situations on every pitch.
Speaker:And are we mentally ready to handle that?
Speaker:OK, players talking about your mental development.
Speaker:It's really no different than your mental development in the classroom.
Speaker:You know, you have to study.
Speaker:You have to take time to really study the concepts
Speaker:and study the information that's being provided to you
Speaker:so that you're not just memorizing it and going in and taking a test
Speaker:to give the answers and then forget it.
Speaker:But are you remembering the concepts and using those concepts
Speaker:on a regular basis so that they become a part of your mental makeup?
Speaker:And I think that's important for our players.
Speaker:And I see players, they come out on the practice field or
Speaker:on the game field, and they are just mentally scattered.
Speaker:Right? We all know the phrase "squirrel".
Speaker:And I see a lot of players
Speaker:that are mentally everywhere When they come out on the field.
Speaker:They see everything.
Speaker:They're involved in five or six conversations,
Speaker:but they're not focused on what they're doing on the field.
Speaker:They're not understanding that there's a concept
Speaker:that needs to be learned to be a shortstop.
Speaker:It's more than just fielding a ground ball,
Speaker:you know, how are you setting up in between pitches?
Speaker:If the pitcher's going to
Speaker:if the pitch is going to be on the inside
Speaker:part of the plate to the right hander, then I have to anticipate
Speaker:that the ball is probably going to be pulled to my right.
Speaker:So how am I positioning myself to set up for that?
Speaker:Am I looking at the conditions or what are the field conditions?
Speaker:Was the wind blowing?
Speaker:How are all of those things going to affect the game?
Speaker:And I have to mentally go through a checklist
Speaker:Throughout the game
Speaker:to be mentally prepared.
Speaker:And I don't think that that our players come to practice
Speaker:or come to games ready mentally to perform.
Speaker:And I see that a lot on the hitting side.
Speaker:And and I talk to our hitting my hitting students a lot
Speaker:and our players a lot about what is your mental approach at the plate?
Speaker:What's your what's your plan?
Speaker:You know, how are you?
Speaker:How are you mentally prepared for the situation you're in?
Speaker:And, you know, on the flip side of that, we got to be careful
Speaker:that we don't mentally lock up because we're thinking
Speaker:about too many things when we should be prepared to react.
Speaker:I had a very smart coach tell me one time that it's it's
Speaker:all about playing in the circle.
Speaker:You know, pitchers have
Speaker:that big wide circle around them, so they're always in the circle.
Speaker:But he talked about every player on the field has a circle around them.
Speaker:And when they're in that circle, they need to be relaxed
Speaker:and ready to react to whatever happens when the ball is put in play.
Speaker:But when they step outside of that circle,
Speaker:that's when they're going through their mental checklist
Speaker:of what they should what they should be prepared to do.
Speaker:So if I'm a shortstop, again, I'll use that position.
Speaker:And there's a runner on first, OK?
Speaker:My mental checklist needs to include what am I going to be prepared
Speaker:for with that runner?
Speaker:Do I have an opportunity to turn a double play?
Speaker:If there's a line drive hit at me and I catch it in the air.
Speaker:That runner may break
Speaker:and I have a play that I can make it first to double or up there.
Speaker:Am I mentally ready for a slow roll or a ball hit over my head?
Speaker:The ball hit to my left. The ball hit to my right.
Speaker:If a ball gets hit to the outfield, am I prepared to put myself
Speaker:in a position to be a relay person or do I have bag coverage?
Speaker:There's so much that goes into
Speaker:the mental side of the game and it has to happen quickly.
Speaker:So I step out of my circle, I take a deep breath,
Speaker:I go through all of my mental checklist,
Speaker:and then when I step back in the circle, I'm ready to play.
Speaker:I'm ready for what's going to happen and react to the ball
Speaker:being put in play.
Speaker:But I did my mental work in between pitches, and
Speaker:I think at practice we have to learn that and emphasize that.
Speaker:Players, Are you going through a checklist at practice?
Speaker:Coaches, Are we teaching players how to go through
Speaker:that checklist in practice?
Speaker:So I think the development of the mental game
Speaker:is so critically important and there's so much that goes into it.
Speaker:It just can't be done in one practice.
Speaker:And then we go out and play the next nine weekends in a row
Speaker:and expect our players or expect as a player
Speaker:to be the best I can be, or the team to be the best it can be.
Speaker:So that that's and I can talk about mental training
Speaker:and mental development a lot, but there's so much that goes into it.
Speaker:The next component I want to talk about is our emotional makeup.
Speaker:You know, as as a player, I have to understand that.
Speaker:I'm playing a game of
Speaker:failure, and I have to be prepared
Speaker:to deal with failure on a consistent basis.
Speaker:You know, if I go one for three as a hitter, I hit three thirty three.
Speaker:I had a good day. I hit over 300.
Speaker:But if I get one out of three questions right on an exam
Speaker:in school, thirty three percent is failure.
Speaker:So we have to understand that
Speaker:this game is based around a lot of failure.
Speaker:I could have a great day and go four for four.
Speaker:I might go the next three weekends and go o for 12.
Speaker:I got to know how to recover from that, and that's that's mental.
Speaker:But it's also emotional, and I'm going to tell you,
Speaker:our kids have been through a lot in the last year and a half.
Speaker:And they have a lot of emotions right now.
Speaker:And players, we've got to come to grips with our emotions.
Speaker:And when I step out on that
Speaker:field to play and I understand I'm playing a game of failure,
Speaker:I have to stay on on a on a on a level emotional state.
Speaker:I cannot ride an emotional roller coaster.
Speaker:I don't want to get too high.
Speaker:And I definitely don't want to drop too low
Speaker:in my emotions because it's going to have a major effect on my game.
Speaker:But I have to have them in check.
Speaker:And I think our players deal with so many issues right now
Speaker:on confidence and, you know, self-awareness and self value
Speaker:that they are very emotional about those topics.
Speaker:I hit with a young lady last night for the first time,
Speaker:and I said, tell me about your swing.
Speaker:She said, Coach, it's terrible.
Speaker:I'm like, oh, my, this is going to be a challenge.
Speaker:So we stepped in the cage and she took a couple of swings and there was
Speaker:there were some things to work on, but she was making contact.
Speaker:And as we worked into her, into her workout, it got better.
Speaker:And, you know, I told her, I said, you know, your swing's not terrible.
Speaker:But if she's telling herself that swing is terrible
Speaker:in her mind, it's terrible.
Speaker:And I think that that's you know, that weighs on her emotions
Speaker:and it weighs on her confidence and It weighs on her self-worth. And,
Speaker:you know, that's that's a tough situation to be in.
Speaker:So I think players, we have to to be aware of who we are.
Speaker:Where we are in our game know that, hey, I'm 11 years old.
Speaker:I'm not expected to be perfect.
Speaker:I'm going to make mistakes, but I'm going to learn from my mistakes.
Speaker:But I'm also not going to emotionally collapse
Speaker:because I made that mistake, OK?
Speaker:And and coaches and parents.
Speaker:We play a major role
Speaker:in that player's confidence, in that player's
Speaker:emotional development, because they want to do well,
Speaker:because they want us to be proud of them.
Speaker:They want us to give them acceptance that they're performing well.
Speaker:And if we beat them up
Speaker:and emotionally beat them up, you know, don't don't ever
Speaker:give them a pat on the back or don't ever say, hey, nice job,
Speaker:they don't have very much confidence
Speaker:and their self-worth is going to be very low.
Speaker:Now, we don't want to provide false responses,
Speaker:but I think we have to understand that it's not a matter of always
Speaker:beating our players up or our daughters
Speaker:because they don't perform well on the field.
Speaker:And and I see that a lot right now.
Speaker:I go out and watch games and I talk to people that have been at games and
Speaker:You know, they talk about
Speaker:coaches are always yelling at their players and, you know, telling
Speaker:their players are not good enough and cursing at them and,
Speaker:you know, using using hard language on these 12 and 13 year old players,
Speaker:11 year old players that are in such an early developmental stage
Speaker:that we're we're taking their love of the game away from them
Speaker:and we're taking
Speaker:their ability to go out and perform because they're afraid to fail,
Speaker:because they don't want to get yelled at
Speaker:and they don't want to get told
Speaker:that they're not good and they don't want to let anybody down.
Speaker:They don't want to let down mom and dad.
Speaker:They don't want to let down the coach, their teammates.
Speaker:So they kind of bring themselves into a shell
Speaker:and don't really challenge themselves to get better
Speaker:because they're afraid to fail.
Speaker:And that's a big part of the emotional development of our players, is
Speaker:we want to challenge them to go out and take a chance,
Speaker:see what you can do to try to be the best you can be.
Speaker:And when when they fail, we pick them up.
Speaker:We dust them off and say.
Speaker:Hey, we're going to get it.
Speaker:We'll get it the next time
Speaker:you'll you'll be better the next time we're going to work on it.
Speaker:You know, I want you to continue
Speaker:to try to work on your skills and work on your mindset.
Speaker:And we're going to get better.
Speaker:And again, for our coaches, I think that falls into our time line.
Speaker:You know, do you want to be an A team?
Speaker:Everybody wants to be an A team.
Speaker:Everybody wants to play at the high level.
Speaker:Everybody wants to win every game. Absolutely.
Speaker:But what do you need
Speaker:to do to take that B level team
Speaker:and develop them to potentially be an A level team?
Speaker:What are you doing for that player that might be a C level player
Speaker:in developing her to be a B level player
Speaker:and then eventually one day hopefully being an A level player.
Speaker:So I think that when we talk about development, non skill development,
Speaker:when we talk about mental and emotional development,
Speaker:we really have to be aware of what we're doing.
Speaker:What's our plan?
Speaker:What are we Are we putting them in the right direction to to achieve that?
Speaker:Are we motivating them to want to do it on their own.
Speaker:and players, Ultimately, it's on you.
Speaker:You're going to make yourself the the best player you're going to be.
Speaker:you're going to have assistance from coaches,
Speaker:but then ultimately it's your responsibility.
Speaker:And then parents, how are we encouraging that plan or that process
Speaker:without having too high of expectations too early,
Speaker:and forcing our daughters
Speaker:or our players into situations where they're afraid to fail.
Speaker:So that's the off the field side of it, the skill development side of it.
Speaker:You know, we can talk all day about what we should be doing,
Speaker:what what are we doing to develop our defensive skills,
Speaker:our athletic skills, our hitting skills and
Speaker:our offensive skills, bunting and
Speaker:and baserunning and developing
Speaker:our mental approach at the plate and mental approach on the field.
Speaker:But, you know, I think that
Speaker:the thing we have to remember about skill development is.
Speaker:Again, it's dependent on the level the player is at today,
Speaker:and what potential do we see?
Speaker:Again, I had a conversation with a buddy of mine
Speaker:that we were talking about Man you know, we're 18u coaches. And and,
Speaker:you know, we got like we play against a lot of players
Speaker:that were in our organizations when they were 12 and 13 and 14.
Speaker:But coach just kind of gave up on them and didn't
Speaker:think they were really going to be the player they needed them to be.
Speaker:And now at 17 and 18, there's some of the best players in our area.
Speaker:And that's that's frustrating.
Speaker:I think that that we have to
Speaker:we have to understand that development happens in stages.
Speaker:And, yeah, a lot of it has to depend on their athletic ability.
Speaker:What kind of body control, body awareness
Speaker:do they have and and what's their potential
Speaker:for development.
Speaker:And I challenge coaches to stick with those players early
Speaker:and allow them an opportunity to continue to develop and move forward.
Speaker:So, you know, like I said,
Speaker:we can talk about development in all different areas.
Speaker:I feel like we can really get deep into some of those areas
Speaker:if we want to. But I kind of wanted to just touch on all three today.
Speaker:And, you know, I just I just want to see
Speaker:the best opportunity for our players and our coaches and our teams
Speaker:when they take the field
Speaker:and understand that all of that is part of the process.
Speaker:It's part of the timeline.
Speaker:And, you know, we're going to have good weekends.
Speaker:And we're going to have bad weekends.
Speaker:Players are going to have good games and bad games.
Speaker:But for the emotional and mental development of them
Speaker:throughout the process, we have to make sure that we are
Speaker:prepared to work both sides, both success and failure.
Speaker:And how are we going to motivate?
Speaker:And how are we going to continue to move forward
Speaker:as coaches and as players and as parents
Speaker:so that we can have the best opportunity possible?
Speaker:Well, that's it for today. I want to thank everyone for listening.
Speaker:And I hope you're enjoying talking softball with Coach B.
Speaker:Ask you to subscribe through your local podcast provider.
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Speaker:gives you an opportunity to provide feedback and also provide
Speaker:any questions that you might want us to answer on an upcoming episode.
Speaker:This has been talking
Speaker:softball with Coach B, and I want to thank you for listening.
