May 09, 2008 at 10:17:39

Re: Mental Block while throwing

Bill T.,

The kid we had was a real cocky pain in the butt. He was a good player, however, and a real good hitter at leadoff He just rubbed some of the kids the wrong way with his attitude at times...as if the game revolved around him. At times, he'd run his mouth in the dugout too much (we took care of that issue real quick when the coach was out at 3B coaching). The throwing problem was strange, but serious, as he'd come in the dugout whining about this or that. The whining is probably what finally set the coach off.

The young man you describe doesn't sound like an attitude issue, just one of putting too much onto himself and thinking he has to be perfect. Can happen when there is competition for the starting position or when a kid doesn't have realistic expectations of himself or the coach's expectations. Or as a senior, he feels he has to be so good to always set a shining example to the underclassmen. Coaches ignoring the problem by not saying anything doesn't help...better for the coach to sit down with the kid privately (at first) and talk to him about what he expects of the kid in factual terms.

Basically," No son I don't like errors but at the same time I've been around long enough to know they happen to everyone....and no single error is going to cost us a game, because if we are in that position we haven't done enough to win the game anyway. That error in the last inning...how is it different than the errors your teammates made in the first few innings that allowed a couple runs to score? No difference at all. No, I'm not happy about it but I don't remember it the next game or even next inning. That throw isn't what cost us the game...it's the 3 times we didn't advance drive in runners with no outs earlier in the game. The team lost this game, no single player did. No player is that that important."

"Now son, that was the feel good part of my speech. Now, my advice to you is to grow some fuzz on those peaches and quit playing scared. We're better off with you on the field but only if you start to cowboy up. Quit thinking during the damn play...you're supposed to do that before the pitch. Just because you've got all day to make a play doesn't mean you should take all day. Now, get your butt outta of here."

I don't think the speech should be all feel good...show confidence in the kid but get the point across that playing scared or playing not to lose/making mistakes ain't going to cut it.

Public execution comes later. Can't be nice forever....HS seasons aren't that long. Hope the young man gets back on track quickly.