Focus on "Controllables"

By coachgallion on

Teenage boys have a lot going on in their lives — school, sports,church,friends, girls… the list is long. Just look at their chaotic Facebook pages. Sometimes it seems like too much going on at once.

In a baseball game there is so much information to process — before literally every pitch. Players are expected to react in fractions of a second to a specific game situation, a specific pitch or a specific play. How can they can possibly process all this information?

Clearly, it takes strong mental skills to play baseball. Not, necessarily book smarts (but the two are related). It takes the ability to process information quickly, and to make decisions/take action instantaneously. Baseball players process this information faster than the latest Intel chip.

With so much information coming at you, an important skill is to focus only on the things that you can control RIGHT NOW. Don’t waste CPU time or emotion on things outside of your control.

How do you do this?

Action takes place RIGHT NOW, not in the past or in the future. If you focus your attention on things that happened in the past (like your last at bat), it takes your focus away from the present. All action takes place RIGHT NOW. The past is over with and not in your control.

Similarly, you will become paralyzed if you focus your attention on the future. The future is important. But, what happens RIGHT NOW dictates the future. Most Gamers want to play college baseball. But, if they just focus on that future dream, at the expense of doing things RIGHT NOW, their dreams will not be realized. Hard work, getter stronger/faster, improving skills, getting good grades, etc.. RIGHT NOW will dictate the opportunity to play college baseball.

When players put pressure on themselves, it is largely because they are re-living past mistakes and fear repeating them in the future. Fear of failure is the opposite of focusing on RIGHT NOW. It is the single biggest barrier to success in baseball.

So, one secret is to focus your attention on the present, RIGHT NOW.

Another secret is to learn to focus only on things that are 100% within your control. This requires that you recognize what is NOT within your control.

The opposing players, the umpires, field conditions, etc.. are all things that are not within your control. Nothing gets under my skin more than players that constantly talk about opposing players during pre-game drills. You have no control over them! And, any time you spend focusing on the opposing team takes away from what you should be doing — which is focusing on things you can control. Same thing for umpires. I cannot stand it when players waste time talking about umpires. It is a distraction that results in poor performance.

So what are things within your control RIGHT NOW?

What goes on in your own head is 100% within your control. What you are thinking, your self-talk, your relaxation — these are all within your control.

Repeating your swing, pitching, fielding and throwing mechanics is 100% within your control. A lot of players have great mechanics in drills or in practice, but the mechanics fall apart during games. This is because they lose focus during games. Too much information to process, their reaction time slows down. They forget to focus on things they can control — like repeating solid mechanics.

Your effort level is 100% within your control. The Gamers style of play and our infamous pole system is totally focused on things that are within your control on how you play the game.

Similarly, being a good teammate is within your control. If you choose to support, encourage, push and genuinely care for your teammates, you will have a lot more success (and have more fun). This is a choice that is 100% within your control.

So, there are a lot of things within your control RIGHT NOW. But there are more things that are not. You need to learn the difference.

This is a really important lesson to learn — your success in life will be determined largely by how effective you are in focusing on controllables and taking personal responsibility for how you perform on those controllables.

Three big concepts here:
1. Focusing on the present — RIGHT NOW — where action takes place
2. Focusing only on things that you have control over
3. Taking personal responsibility for both

A prior sentence is worth repeating, “your success in life will be determined largely by how effective you are in focusing on controllables and taking personal responsibility for how you perform on those controllables”.

This is as true in all aspects of your life, not just in baseball.

Posted in: Uncategorized

Why Play Fall Baseball …

By coachgallion on

Fall baseball is an important part of the Gamers program. But, it is not a REQUIRED part of the program. So, why play fall baseball?

Although the 2010 Fall Season in more that halfway through, I wanted to share my thoughts on Fall baseball. This is geared more for high school age Gamers, but is true at lower ages too.

First, if you are going to succeed at something at a high level (like playing college baseball), it requires a lot of commitment and passion. You need to truly love the sport — not many things would stand in the way of you and the baseball field.
So, at the most basic level, Fall baseball is an opportunity to do more of something you love. Why would you not do it?
Second, we live in the Midwest and the Spring/Summer baseball season is TOO SHORT. High school baseball does not start until March and games don’t start until April. In the mid-South (just 4-8 hours away), high school baseball starts 6-8 weeks earlier. And, in those areas they have lights on the fields and play doubleheaders. A 40+ game high school schedule is the norm. In Missouri, 20 games is the norm.

Our high school age players simply do not play enough baseball to effectively compete against players from the mid-South. Stretching the season into September and October is a way to level the playing field. Players can get a lot of reps and improve a lot during September and October. The weather is usually nice, and we can play 20+ games or more.
At 16u and beyond, the competition is on the regional and national stage, not the local stage. You need to close the gap versus Mid-South players — Fall baseball provides that opportunity.
Third, Fall baseball at 16u and 17u is intensely recruited by college baseball. Plus, there are a lot of national and regional showcase events and college camps in the Fall. You can’t just show up at a showcase in October and expect do well if you have not been playing during August and September. If you fill August-November with tournaments, showcases and camps, you can greatly enhance exposure opportunities. Fall baseball is a great fit with the college recruiting calendar.
So, three reasons why high school age players should play Fall baseball:
1. Baseball is something that you are committed to and love.
2. Opportunity to extend the season, and close the gap versus Mid-South players.
3. Recruiting/exposure opportunities in the Fall
We know that some high school age players play football and soccer at the varsity level. We do not want to take that away from them. There is nothing like playing a varsity sport under the lights on Friday night.
But, you need to recognize what you are giving up by skipping Fall baseball. If you skip Fall baseball during your high school years, you will get fewer opportunities to play college baseball. That is a cold reality. I can point to 2-3 2010 Gamers that would have had better college opportunities if they has played Fall baseball instead of football after their junior year.
For some players, that is a tradeoff they are willing to make. For other players, they are making the tradeoff without knowing it.
Also, we know that some families try to save money by skipping Fall baseball. We tailor the Gamers fall programs to be very affordable — a lot of baseball for not much extra cost. For the reasons listed above, trying to save money by not playing Fall baseball is NOT the recipe for success. Penny wise, pound foolish.
Posted in: Uncategorized

Commitment

By coachgallion on

It is hard to succeed at a high level (in anything) without commitment.

Commitment is at the intersection of Passion, Hard Work and Sacrifice. It means that that you care about something so deeply, that you are willing to put in the hours of sweat and set aside lower priority things. Baseball players that are committed to the sport, and to their future in the sport, separate themselves from other players that “just play”.
If you are truly Committed, this process is fun and there is nothing else you would rather do. If it becomes a grind, or if you find it easy to make excuses for not working hard or not making sacrifices, then your Commitment is questionable.
Excuses are the enemy of Commitment.
To truly succeed in something takes Commitment. This is true in baseball, academics (especially in college), and everything else you will do in the future.
For young athletes, it is often hard to separate player commitment from parent commitment. That is why the select baseball process is so difficult. It takes commitment from both to emerge from the process as a success. A committed player, without parent support, will not be allowed to do the things he needs to succeed. Parent commitment includes:
– Driving to practice and arriving early
– Getting to all the practices and games in a long 9 month baseball season
– Providing the money to pay for coaching, instruction, equipment, fees, travel, etc..
– Provide the money and support for strength and speed training
– Traveling to out of town tournaments, and dealing with rainouts in hotel rooms
– The list goes on and on
That kind of commitment is not required to play high school sports and “local” baseball. Kids can just ride the bus to school and stay after school. That is definitely an easier path. But, it does not separate committed players from the kids that “just play”. That is one reason that less than 7% of high school baseball players go on to play college baseball.
A couple of weeks ago, a young man named Koda Glover from Oklahoma was selected to play with the Midwest Team at the USA Baseball NTIS event in Cary, NC. On the morning of the event, his flight was cancelled. He would have missed the early part of the event if he waited until the next available flight. So, Koda and his parents drove 20 hours to Cary, NC. No second thoughts, just something that he cared about so deeply that it was a no-brainer. Just get in the car and drive 20 hours (40 hour roundtrip!).
Passion, Hard Work and Sacrifice came together. Koda made it to the event on time, pitched 2 times during the weekend, and was one of 8 players (out of 200) selected for the 18u National Team Trials. This level of Commitment translates directly to success.
This is true in baseball and all other aspects of life.
Over the years, a handful of players have left the Gamers program because “it was too hard”, the “expectations are too high“, “they want to do other things“, etc… That is a perfectly normal process of separation. Those young men made the right decision and we wish them the best of luck.
We want young men to succeed and to learn how to succeed. An important lesson is that — commitment is a pre-cursor to true success.
Commitment is where Passion, Hard Work and Sacrifice come together. True commitment takes all three.
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Select Baseball and Academics

By coachgallion on

For 98% of baseball players, you cannot separate baseball from academics. To play baseball in college, good grades and test scores are incredibly important. At the same time, the lessons learned on the baseball field translate directly into the classroom. Good mental skills for baseball are the same mental skills required to perform academically.

Several years ago, I interviewed Brendan Sullivan on the subject. Brendan is the leader of Headfirst, the premier provider of academic showcase events and college advisory services for student athletes. To listen to the interview, visit
Posted in: Uncategorized

Select Baseball

By coachgallion on

Back in 2006, I was coaching a great group of young men (now in college). This team sent 11 players to college baseball, one to college basketball, and two to very academic colleges.

With that team, I did a coach’s blog with my thoughts during the season. Below are some postings about what it means to coach and play select level baseball.

http://tinyurl.com/2asxlgh
http://tinyurl.com/2coqpx5
http://tinyurl.com/2c2ujo5
http://tinyurl.com/2fzo6l8
http://tinyurl.com/2bzvgvh

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