This fall I have been coaching a group of young aspiring baseball players in a wood-bat instructional league. As a group of eighth graders and high school freshman I wanted to give this team a sense of how big the jump to high school sports is from youth sports. There are many lessons and experiences for aspiring players to experience as they make this transition.
The biggest lesson I wanted my players to understand is that it will take greater levels of focus, dedication and discipline to experience success. With greater success and greater reward comes greater adversity though so how do we as players and young teenagers take adversity and learn from it so we can continue to experience positive growth.
The other lesson I wanted to drive home with these guys is to put things in perspective. Too many people get caught up in wins and losses but there is so much more than that. There are personal goals like mastering another pitch, or being able to paint the corners, hit the curve ball to name a few. Perspective is important because it helps players be able to move on with things and not get hung up on single episodes, positive or negative.
Positive episodes allow kids to develop confidence. Negative events give teens the motivation to make adjustments or work harder to reach goals. The last weekend of the regular season we experienced as a group a monumental collapse and lost the game big. The following practice we put ourselves back together and used that experience to motivate us to be better as we move into the tournament weekend.
As the coach of this team I knew our focus level and ability to deal with adversity would dictate how we finish this season. I knew this would be a challenge so as a coach I said that is a challenge I wanted because I have a great foundation in how to help young teens deal with these experiences as well it will help me to grow as a coach as well as adult.
