Blog #6: Numbers May Be Deceiving Part 2

       Finally, after my leg healed, I had about three months to get into shape. Fortunately, it was the first time I was on a team with a structured training program. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we had either swimming or running at 630 in the morning, followed by weights. I was getting where I needed to be physically pretty quickly, however my studies were falling off the map, never going to class because I was either too depressed or too tired from early morning training. Before this semester of college, I never had below a 3.5 GPA, but this semester I had earned a poor 1.6. Fortunately for me, grades don’t affect your eligibility until your sophomore year.

      I ended up gaining almost 20 lbs in three months, as I hit my first natural weight gain going from 195 to 215. I would later hit my final weight gain when I was about 23. As a boy becomes a man, they have their first big growth spurt around 12-14. Then again when they are 16-18. By this time you are pretty much as tall as you will be, but you have two major weight gains again when you hit 19-20, and again at 22-25. A man will fully reach his potential at this age so if you don’t got it by then, you might want to find another career! So with this weight gain with the use of some questionable supplements, I was throwing at the speed that I needed to be to have a chance to make an impact as a freshman. By questionable, I mean that JC ball does not drug test and at the time, these supplements were legal to purchase. Some might still be legal and not banned by the NCAA, but I’m sure my youthful stupidity misled me down a dubious path. I will have a whole blog dedicated to the topic of supplements and my experience with them, which ones to take and stay away from, at a later time. In any event, no one should experiment with any supplements until they hit this initial weight gain of around 19 or 20 years of age. I later learned that most supplements are almost meaningless if not combined with the proper workout routine, as you can easily injure yourself by overbuilding certain muscles and neglecting others. It may be devious to get “big and strong” having some initial results, but I assure you that the injuries will come later as your body will eventually break down with such an asymmetrical motion of a swing and pitch.

      So the results came, becoming one of the two horses on our team which rode us all the way to a conference championship. As a freshman, I went a dominating 7-1 with 73 K’s in 73 innings, 3 complete game including 1 shutout, and halfway through the season I started every other game, going every 5 days, sometimes 4. I made First Team All Western State Conference and got drafted in the 29^th round by the Texas Rangers. However numbers may be very deceiving. My ERA was well above 4 and I had just about the worst mental game conceivable. I had 3 starts that year in which I didn’t get out of the first inning.  But if I got past the first inning, you could count on at least a solid 7. I had five games in which I pitched into the 9^th. I was all or nothing. But at the Junior College level, my 87-91 mph fastball and slider combo was devastating to hitters. My success freshman year was based almost purely on skill and luck. But my luck would eventually run out…

Blog #6: Numbers May Be Deceiving Part 1

      This is the official starting point of this blog, as I begin the story of my college career up until the present.  I signed in the winter of my senior year with the University of Pacific, a small D-1 school in the Big West Conference. Even though the town of Stockon is one of the worst crime- ridden cities in the country, the campus was beautiful and they were offering me almost a full scholarship between athletic and academic. I also really liked the pitching coach Tim Dixon, who was actually a Fullerton Alumni.  Unfortunately, right towards the end of the season, I found out that the Pacific coach got fired. At this point, I started seeking some other viable options. After what had happened to a family friend on the USC football team., I started to reconsider playing for a coach that didn’t recruit me. My friend was recruited before Pete Carroll became coach, so Carroll recruited Palmer and he became his boy.  Deciding to wait for Palmer to get drafted and salvage a few years instead of transferring, my friend again got screwed as Leinart came in and ruined any chance for him to play. Things tend to work out if they are meant to be, as now this guy I am talking about, who patiently waited for his opportunity, just signed a 6 year 60 million dollar extension with the Kansas City Chiefs. As you will see with my story, things tend to work themselves out with hard work and the right opportunity. That’s all that luck is; being prepared for the right opportunity. This sensation waited patiently in the weeds for 5 years, working hard and biding his time. Then, at the biggest NFL combine (Workout/tryout), his preparation paid off as he was one of the best quarterbacks in the entire camp. The rest just fell into place. My friend could have felt sorry for himself and quit, but he knew he would have regretted giving up for the rest of his life.

      After my senior season ended, I received a phone call from a friend’s dad, asking about my interest of maybe going to a junior college and either transferring to a more desirable D-1 school or even getting drafted.  Four of my buddies from my team were already interested in going to Cuesta. This JC was very attractive because of their success and the fact that is in a great college town with the best weather in the world. So we all took a trip up to San Luis Obispo to check it out, and it all seemed too good to be true. This small town right off the central coast of California had way more to offer than the crime- ridden city of Stockton. And to top it off, I was going to being playing college ball with some of my best friends. It was an easy decision. Life was good until the day came that changed my life forever. The day before we all to leave to start our college journey, one of our friends died in a fluke car accident coming home from a dentist appointment. It devastated all of us. This catastrophe hit me pretty hard; as it was definitely not the way I pictured leaving the house for the first time. This guy was like an older brother to all of our friends and will be remembered in our hearts for eternity. So to make matters worse, three weeks later while walking on our way to one of our first college parties, we were bombarded by water balloons, one of them hitting my buddy’s girlfriend. At this point, my buddy was all riled up and confronts the three jerks sitting on their porch nailing random people as they walk by. The whole time I was just standing on the sidewalk just waiting for what was to come. The next thing I know, 10 other hooligans come storming out of the house, outnumbering us two to one. It was pretty ugly, resulting in me being out with a quadriceps pull for over two months. We later found out that these guys happened to be on the Cal Poly wrestling team and were trained by the Ultimate Fighting Champion Chuck Liddell. It was over before it even started!! For the next two months I just laid out on a futon in the middle of my living room, depressed and on muscle relaxers. It was the first of many battles that I would face in the coming years. 

Blog #5: My Credibility In Question Part 2

      In this person’s comment, they also stated that “there are different ways to be a successful coach” and that I “don’t have the right to post that he (My high school coach) did things the wrong way”. They then follow later by stating “I wouldn’t publicly criticize anyone because you have no credibility”.  Okay, with that being said, I have been playing this game for 20 years now, having been coached by the best and the worst, and everywhere in between. So I would like to think I have a lot of credibility seeing that I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to be coached by scores of coaches. It could be argued that my high school coach be placed in the upper 50 percentile of all the coaches in the land, but is that why you are reading my blog, to learn about mediocre coaching at best? No. You are reading because I played for one of the best college baseball programs ever. You are reading because I have something to offer that is a rarity in the baseball and blog world. And probably the biggest reason you are reading my blog is because you have realized that something is missing in the equation to making your kid the ultimate ballplayer.

      Lets go into more detail about there being “different ways to be a successful coach and dealing with situations differently”. Indeed there are different ways to relatively succeed in the game of baseball. However, throughout my 20- year career, there was only one way that I found to be the most successful. So this person says there are different ways, but why wouldn’t any sane person strive to find the ultimate way?? I recently read the book “The Yankee Years”, the story of Joe Torre’s coaching career with the Yankees. I will be the first to tell you that I am not a Yankees fan, however EVERYONE should read this book!! It tells the great story about an underdog manager coaching a young, committed team to 3 out of 4 World Series, and how over time, the front office destroyed the dynasty that Torre and Steinbrenner built by continuously signing the top players in the league, never allowing for the same chemistry to form as they had the first 4 years of Torre’s career with the Yankees. Unfortunately, the second half of Torres 12- year stint with the Yankees consisted of a team with too many colliding egos, and too much negative attention and energy when steroids became the main focus in baseball. However, while I am reading this amazing tale, I can’t help but notice how similar Torre ran his team to that of Fullerton. And then it hit me!! There is something that all great coaches have in common. Then remembering back to when I read one of the many John Wooden books on coaching, all these legendary coaches had the same hard- nosed philosophy and structure to guarantee success. For all who don’t know who this hero is, John Wooden won 10 of 12 NCAA Basketball Championships with UCLA throughout the 60’s and 70’s and is the greatest basketball coach of all time. All of these greats had similar principles and morals and stuck with them even through the toughest of scenarios. They all gave consequences to players for breaking rules. The main difference in why Torre took longer to show his true coaching ability than John Wooden, Auggie Garrido, or George Horton is because he was at the professional level. It is much more difficult to take this kind of philosophy to men who get paid millions of dollars. It is much easier at the collegiate level to succeed because you are dealing with kids whom you are molding into men. You have the rare opportunity to take a raw athlete and transform them into a man, who will succeed at the next level. It is easier to rid a team of any egos with teenagers than with men who have already naturally developed an ego. However, with the right opportunity, Torre has proven that this sort of structure can succeed with flying colors even at the professional level.                 

      Why do you think it is that when I spoke with Auggie Garrido about a coaching job a week before playoffs, he A. even gave me the time of day to speak with him and B. said he would definitely consider me for the volunteer assistant job if it becomes open??? (At this point it doesn’t look promising, as the current volunteer has still not found a job.) Here’s kind of how the conversation went… I introduced myself and he makes a comment on the Fullerton polo I was wearing, asking if “Fullerton gave you guys those shirts (world series polos) or if they were too cheap to get em for you?” He was referring to how compared to Fullerton, Texas has a lot more money. The proof was that I was standing in the one of the nicest locker rooms I have ever seen. I replied “they gave ‘em to us in Omaha”. He laughed and said, “that’s typical”. I then proceeded to ask about the volunteer position and he said to call him a few weeks after the season. Finishing up our short but sweet conversation, he told me something to the extent that “at least he doesn’t have to inquire as to if I know the game of baseball”.  He didn’t even need to find out about my qualifications to even be considered for the job. All he knew is that I played for Fullerton, and that simple fact was good enough for him!!! And if it was good enough to be considered a coaching job under the all- time winning D1 college head coach, then I am pretty sure it is credible enough to write this blog.    

Blog #5: My Credibility In Question Part 1

      "Justin, I was forwarded this site for your blogs and I am glad that I got to read this because I have been familiar with southern california high school baseball for almost 20 years now and it would be an honor for me to stand up for your high school head coach.
From what I remember, as a head coach, he won over 200 games (200 more than you have ever won in your career). This includes a period of time in the mid 90's when he went three straight seasons without losing a game. Doesn't seem to bad to me. There are different ways to be a successful coach. No matter what anyone says about how he coached the team, he was a successful coach. Just because he did not follow the guidelines of the way you were taught in recent years does not give you the right to post that he did things the wrong way. There are different ways to coach, different strategies, and different ways to handle situations as well as players. But you wouldnt know that because you have never been the skipper. And until you are, I wouldn't publically criticize anyone because you have no credibility. What gives you the right to say what is a good conditioning amount or what is a good practice structure?? What makes you think that you know everything about coaching already??"

 

      This was a recent comment I received from an anonymous writer expressing his feelings about my high school coach and that I shouldn’t publicly criticize anyone because I have “no credibility”. In my reply I told him that he brought up some great points and that I was going to write my next blog to address his concerns. I might have been a little bold and going out on a limb by saying the things I said, but I stand by them. That being said, I am not saying at all that I know everything about coaching by any means. The whole point of this blog is to make everyone aware of how important the mental game is in baseball and in life in general, and how it changed the way I played the game, learning how to be more competitive and consistent. Not even Big League Organizations have figured out the secret to being more consistent. The only organization that I know that have sports psyches working with players is the Cleveland Indians, and that just started happening within the last few years, so the results have yet to be seen. I am simply here, writing the story of my career and how learning the mental game has affected it. So if I use an example of what my experience has been during high school, I hope no one takes it personally when I tell it as it is. Indeed my coach was very knowledgeable about the game and had some success, but let me ask this question: How many CIF Championship rings does my coach possess in his long career??  Just because one’s winning percentage is favorable does not necessarily make that person a successful coach. I am not saying that my high school coach wasn’t a successful coach because he did have a great career, but there was definitely room to improve. 

      Now, this person says I have no credibility. Since I have written this blog, I have received a few critical comments on my credibility because I have never technically coached my own team. But this simple fact does not in any way discredit my ability to dissect the knowledge I have received over the years from some of the greatest players and coaches ever in the game. Here are just some of the players and coaches I’ve had the grand privilege of being able to soak up what they’ve had to offer: I started private lessons at the age of 10 with Nez Balelo (former Big Leaguer with Mariners and scout for Braves, and now a successful sports agent) and continued with their academy (West Coast Baseball) until college; John Jackson (father of Big Leaguer Conor Jackson) and Mike Boyd (former minor leaguer and father of minor leaguer Chad boyd) played significant roles in my success as they coached me at various times throughout Pony League; throughout high school I was also coached by former Big League greats Bret Saberhagen and Marc Gubicza. These two great Major League players had 14 and 16 year careers respectively. If you are not familiar with these players I suggest you take an opportunity to look them up; Rick Allen (former minor leaguer and now scout for the Pittsburg Pirates) was my assistant high school coach; Jon Bushart (cousin of Big Leaguer Jon Garland and former minor leaguer who now is one of the most noted and successful private pitching coaches in the San Fernando Valley) helped me the fall before I went to Fullerton; D.J. Carrasco (Current Big League reliever for the White Sox) became my mentor for about a month while we were both rehabbing in Tuscon, teaching me everything there is to the physics of a baseball; and finally the Fullerton Coaching Staff, including Ted Silva ( legendary All- American Fullerton pitcher who played for the USA team in ’94 and posted an amazing nation leading 18-1 record with 6 saves to lead his team to our 3^rd National Championship. Unfortunately his career was ended short due to injury. He is now currently the pitching coach for UC Irvine.), Bill Kernan (Former head coach for Cal St Northridge and now the current head coach for Cal St. Bakersfield. Coach Kernan taught me how to become the most competitive SOB out on the mound.), Jason Gil (Former Titan player on the ’95 Championship team who is now the head coach for Loyola Marymount. Gilly gave me a second chance and kept me at Fullerton for a second year, something that I will be forever grateful.), Rick Vanderhook (Assistant coach for over 20 years under Auggie Garrido and George Horton. He is a big reason for my success, as I eventually learned that if you could deal with the “wrath of Hookie”, you could pretty much deal with anything that came my way out on the mound. We might not have seen eye to eye all of the times, but is a damn fine coach and I love him.) As I am sitting here writing about my coaches, tears are rolling down my face reminiscing about the greatest memories I’ve ever had and would give anything to be able to do it again!!! George Horton (One of the greatest coaches to ever coach college baseball. The back- to- back National Coach of the Year won his first championship in 2004, and I can almost guarantee there will be more to come. Coach Horton is the reason why I aspire to be a head coach at the D1 level. He simply inspires when he speaks. And I’ll tell you something else… I did not just sit there and twiddle my thumbs while Coach Horton would have his 45 minute speeches. I soaked up every piece of knowledge that this legend had to offer, which is why I feel I have the qualifications to be writing this blog.). And finally, maybe the single reason why I was able to pitch with a broken shin successfully for two months, legendary sports psychologist Ken Ravizza. Ravizza transformed the way I ticked, changing the way I prepared for games and practices. This man for all who don’t know is the founding father of the mental game. He began in the 60’s working with NFL football players, soon moving on to U.S. Olympians, followed by some time working exclusively with the Angels, and now is so famous in his industry that he works when he chooses to with various top professional athletes all over the world. Ravizza has also begun teaching at Cal St. Fullerton after working with the Angels, and soon became a significant part of the Titans success. In the fall of ’07, I took his Sports Psych class, which took my game to a whole new level. This is why I feel I am qualified to teach these skills. With this class, along with reading his book several times and his exclusive tutelage with our team for the year and half I was there, I have been able to use this knowledge in my private lessons for the past 2 years. The results speak for themselves. One of my most consistent clients magically made his first all- star team this year solely as a pitcher!!! Not many kids accomplish this at his age. He is only 10 years old and batted last on his team, but he somehow made the team. He was their team’s starter and one of the only games he pitched poorly was when I was umpiring. Naturally he got a little nervous trying to impress his pitching coach. The point is that all this kid needed to take his game to the next level was a mental adjustment. Before I started working with him, he was shy and didn’t know how to put 100% of his energy into every pitch and swing. Granted his mechanics needed a little work, but they are still nowhere near perfect. The difference in his equation for success was simply upstairs. This kid is not the hardest thrower in the league by any means, but now his average fastball is a plus pitch because nearly every time he delivers, there is 100% effort behind it. When you look at his demeanor now, his face says, “don’t mess with meeeee!!!!!”  

Just Wanted To Say...

     I just received a disturbing phone call from my former high school teammate who thought I went a little overboard on the third post about my head coach from high school. It even got to me emotionally as I pretty much broke down in tears. He felt it was a complete bashing, when all I was trying to do was give an example of how a coach can lose control of his team. Again, I want to reiterate that I love my high school coach more than he probably knows. He had my back during a difficult period of time when most people would have just left me in the dumpster to rot. I will never forget what he did for me and the whole world will soon know how wonderful a person that he is. I want to apologize personally to my coach if he took what I wrote personally. He does know the game of baseball and has had a very successful coaching career in which I hope he continues his career for a long time. All in all, he always had the best interests of the players, even if, looking back now at the age of 25, I thought that the practice structure and work out schedule could have been a little more demanding. My teammate made me realize that most high school programs are run this way and that is why I want to change it. I have had hundreds of coaches throughout my career and my high school coach was definitely NOT anywhere near the bottom. I just feel that we had a very talented team in which our full potential was not met. Whether it was my coaches fault or the fault of the individual players on the team who did not work hard enough to reach their full potential, we had a team that could have won CIF. I may have gone a little overboard and touched a very sensitive line, but that was simply the way I feel and I will never retract my personal feelings. Today just made me realize that there are going to be a lot of people out there who enjoy my openness, but there will be those who take it personally. The bigger message is that there needs to be a revamping of the way things are run on the baseball field and life in general. Please take my example for what it is and not a personal vendetta to my coach. 

Blog #4: The Cream of the Crop Still Needs Help!!!

        I apologize to everyone for the late post this week but I was in Vegas this weekend for my sister’s birthday and didn’t have an opportunity until today. Enjoy…

       (About a month ago) I was watching the ESPN Wednesday game of the week between Detroit and Boston, and in the first inning, pitcher Armando Galarraga, a second year big leaguer for Detroit, gives up a 3-2 bomb to the 2^nd batter J D Drew, with Pedroia on first. He left a fat, hanging slider with a full count because he was too worried about the runner at first. After it was hit, the camera went to the pitcher who was cursing himself and showing emotion big time! The announcers at this point were talking about how he had such a great rookie year, but that this year “he hasn’t quite figured it out yet”. Well I figured it out in about 3 seconds. All I needed to figure out what was wrong was that three second clip of the inexperienced pitcher moping and whoa is me. I see it constantly even at the big league level.  And you wonder why he hasn’t been consistent this year??? So many of these young big leaguers lack the true skill of possessing a sound mental game. They are where they’re at based mostly on skill. When the announcers say that a player is in the process of figuring “it” out. They never really explain the “it”. This “it” we are talking about is obviously the mental game.  Now this of course is not true for a lot of these young stud players in the bigs, but the point is that you still see players lacking a strong mental game even at the highest level. Every organization should have at least one (if not more) specialist in teaching the mental game and constantly working with players even at the big league level. There are always going to be issues with even the best players. This would basically be a psychologist, constantly dealing with the pressures and failures of the game, but all aimed at baseball. It is sad that a lot of coaches are too stubborn to have a psych guy. They think it is compromising their authority or their ego is shot because they are unable to teach it at the level of an expert. Well, Fullerton’s coaches weren’t ashamed one bit. They embraced Ken Ravissa (our expert psych guy) and worked at the same time with us, constantly learning from him. And you wonder why we are so successful?

      Anyway…pitching is one thing when it comes to the mental game, but hitting?? That’s a whole other story. Pitchers are paid to succeed the majority of the time or else they don’t have a job. Hitters can fail 70% of the time and still be an all star. I know you’ve heard this before, but what you probably don’t think about when you do hear it is the simple fact that hitting is the hardest thing to do in all of sports. Besides having to hit a 90 mph fastball with movement, you could also get a variety of other pitches that move in various directions. If you explained this to someone who has never heard of the game of baseball, they would think you were crazy!!! “They gotta hit what…???  Are you kidding me!!! These guys are hitting balls that are flying at them at all different directions at random speeds as high as 100 mph!!!! No thank you, I’ll pass on playing this dangerous game!!!!”  However this game has been the American pastime for the last 150 years.  It is a beautifully intricate game which ends when you get all 27 outs, not based off a clock like most other major sports. It is also the most challenging game, which is probably why it has taken over my life for the past 20 years. So, back to the dealing with the failure of hitting. Why is it that a lot of players will either get 2 or 3 hits in one game or none at all?? Because the success of a lot of players’ games are determined in the first or second at bat. Some players can handle getting out the first time and come back and have a good at bat his second, but after failing twice in a row, most cannot handle that failure the next two at bats of the game.  Players constantly take previous failed at bats into their next ones without even realizing it. Subconsciously, or even consciously, 99% of players have some kind of negative thought or emotion carried from a previous at bat into their current one. And I am here to stop this today. Have you ever asked a single player, let alone your entire team, what they are thinking or feeling during an at bat or before a pitch is delivered?? Most coaches don’t make their players aware of this type of thinking and are thus unable to fix it.  Once aware of a problem, you can always fix it with the right knowledge and tools. However, if you are never conscious about what kind of attitude you have or the thoughts that run though your head during an at bat, well then simply… you will never fix the problem.  Simple as that!! Now that we are aware of this problem, we can deal with the feelings of failure. Talk about these feelings with your team. Have them express their concerns about hitting, even at the earliest age. Your responses will obviously be different based on the age and skill of your players, but the basic concept is applicable to all ages, just make it your own. Now that we are aware of the problem, the solution will come in time. Do not expect amazing results (especially the younger your players are) within a few days of opening this door. You are dealing with young kids and certain players, depending on their learning capability and how good of a teacher you are, will pick up on this positive way of thinking faster than others. But you will start to notice signs of improvement within the first few weeks. This is all a part of their development as players and as human beings. I will continue to deal with how to teach these tools to your players in the coming weeks so keep reading and re-reading. The first step is to make your players aware of their emotions and thoughts. Some players might respond, “I dunno”. Don’t stop there. Dig deeper into the fears and negative thinking, that I know and you should know, your players are feeling. It is completely natural, which makes it that much more difficult to fix. You need to become the psychologist and teacher. That’s what coaching is, teaching. If your not a good teacher than I don’t know why you are coaching. And if your not a good teacher but still desire to coach your kid, then I suggest you starting engraining yourself with knowledge and lots of it!!  At first, I would suggest taking little Johnny aside and having a one on one instead of trying to head shrink your whole team at once. Once you become more comfortable with this type of training, you can have team discussions in which your players are sharing their fears and emotions with one another. You are the director of this discussion so start off slowly by having individual sessions. Start with your pitchers during bullpens. Allow a bit more time than usual because most of the time spent should be talking. Get inside the heads of your players, bring the feelings and emotions to the surface, and then transform their way of thinking to that of a competitive nature. But it all starts with YOU, the coach. If you are not thinking this way, then it is impossible to achieve it with your players. Become aware and then transform…

      By the way, for all who don’t know, Detroit lost that game at home to Boston 10- 5 (because of an 8^th inning with 3 consecutive errors by Red Sox infielders). Beckett threw a no hitter into the 7^th, giving up no earned runs in 8 innings against a first place team. Now, it took Beckett a few years to figure “it” out and now he is one of the games best with the ultimate proof being performing under the highest pressure in all of baseball, winning 2 World Series rings. If you don’t really remember his starts against the Yankees in ’03, he was sitting at 99 mph throughout the whole game, hitting 100 many times. Now Beckett usually works at 95- 97, but this start, he came to compete his ass off!!! 1000% of all his energy was expended for each and every pitch, resulting in a completely dominating series. Besides his beautifully smooth and simple mechanics, he finally learned what it meant to compete each and every pitch. And now, he rarely shows emotion of any kind. A “mistake” pitch is nothing more than a pitch in which the pitcher lost his focus.  Every pitch or swing or play should have a definitive purpose. Visualize success, have positive thoughts, take a good deep breath in the nose and out the mouth, and execute. 

Blog #3: Taking Control of Your Team

      Let’s go back to my high school days. I would first off like to say that no matter what is said about my head coach, he is an upstanding guy with honor and a huge heart and I love him. That being said, he was a big pushover! For example… one day during practice in the dugout, a can of chewing tobacco fell out of a jacket of one of my teammates. It rolled right into the back of the heal of our coach. He turned around and picked it up and snapped, “Kevin, what the hell is this??” He replied, “uhhh…uhh…its back- off. Ya know, the stuff that helps you quite dip.” Coach took one more look at it and then gives it back to him saying, “ whatever Kevin. Don’t let it happen again.” He knew it wasn’t back- off and everyone saw what had happened. This is a perfect example of how the head coach had little control of his team. He let his player get away with breaking the rules in front of half the team, which eventually turned into the whole team. A complete act of insubordination!!! This cannot happen. I could sit here and tell countless stories of this occurring throughout my high school career, which sadly resulted in the loss of control of a very talented team. We had three D1 players, which were all drafted at least once in their careers, and 7 players playing various levels of college ball. We had the talent, but lacked the discipline and structure to continually get better each and every day. Our practice structure wasted a lot of valuable time as our team pretty much did what we wanted during off- season practices. During the off- season of my junior year, I remember most of practice just working on the bullpen with another pitcher. We spent more time that off season making the field nicer than actually practicing. And to boot, there were a lot worse looking fields in our league at the time. I felt our team was more concerned about the quality of our field and uniforms than actually getting better.  As a team, we did minimal conditioning, batting practice was an utter mess, and overall, we did not have a decent practice structure to maximize our time spent on the field getting better each and every day.  The worse part was that our coach allowed this kind of nonsense to occur. However, I will be the first to admit that I had just as much to do with any insubordination as anyone on the team. It wasn’t until after my junior year that my pitching ability gave way to the interest of D1 scouts. Even then, my level of seriousness exponentially rose, but looking back now, it was a joke compared to that of later in my career. But just know this… our coach’s complete loss of control ended in a negative result my junior and senior year, ultimately achieving his demise a few years later.     

      This is easily a good percentage of the way coaches run their team by letting their players control the flow of practice. The other percentage are control freaks and come across to their players as having a power trip and are missing the communication needed for a successful ball club.  There is a fine line between taking complete control of your team and still having a line open for communication between the coach and his players. (This pertains mostly to high school and older, but still pertinent to all ages.) If players feel that their voice cannot be heard, then a piece of them shuts down. A lot of you coaches out there are really tough on their players, which is good. However, if you do not relay to them that the day you stop getting on them is the day they need to worry, they will forever be in constant fear without knowing there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As a coach, the players that you like best and are always on their case are the ones you are pushing to get better. If this player can handle your wrath, then they can pretty much handle any hardship they face throughout the game and throughout life. But if they do not understand that you are pushing them to become better, them I am afraid you will just be pushing them away. Be strict with your players, but at the same time communicate with them. Yelling can easily be taken as being mad. Children need to understand that you aren’t yelling at them because you are angry, even if you are a little angry with them. You are leading your men into battle for however many games played in a season.  They need someone strong and in control.  They need a leader who shows no fear and shows no emotion. Once you as a coach show emotion, your players will soon follow suit. The other team shouldn’t know if your team just won or lost the World Series. And this will eventually strike fear in your opponent.  Just imagine taking a near perfect pregame and you and your players walking off the field as if what you just accomplished was as easy as you made it look. You should act like this is just another day at the ballpark. This scenario, no matter if you think it is crazy talk, is very attainable and should be practiced daily. It is only a matter of time before you attain all of the tools necessary to be able to transform your kids into real ballplayers. Taking control of your team with good communication is the first tool you must master before becoming a complete coach.  

      One last food for thought… I was watching the Fullerton/ Long Beach St. game on ESPNU earlier in May and I learned that our starting center fielder was benched for the Friday night game on national television against our long time conference rival for breaking a team rule. I could find out what he did but that’s not important. It could have been anything from being 5 minutes late to not going to class. But national head coach of the year (’07) David Serrano benched him on a big night with scouts in the stands, because no one, not even their star US National team center fielder, is above the rules. Take control of your team. Set a standard and no one breaks it, not even your own son or star player!!! 

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