And so I finished my last practice with the 13U team I was helping this summer and the fall hasn’t started yet.
So it’s time to reflect — in the old days I’d go through all the equipment and put it all away but I just donated a bunch of stuff to a charity that collects for the Dominican Republic — I’ll have to get all their information in case readers of this blog want to help.
So what to think about for the fall? What to think about for the last year. I like to take a moment between seasons and ask what worked, what can be improved.
I will say in the “majors” this year, our 12 year old league our head coach paid a LOT of attention to music at practice and had a big outdoor speaker blasting the whole time. It worked — it picked up the energy on the field and we could always turn it down if we had to really talk to players. That’s a thing I hadn’t thought of.
After games our team when they won all spontaneously did the SEA LION dance in left field. It was priceless — we never told them to do it, but we didn’t stop them. Chalk up a good thing that happens when players don’t feel overly beaten down.
When I think about bad moments from the last year I want to really work with kids on dealing with a bad outcome. Usually a ball/strike call. If they are pitchers they get upset when they are sure they hit the corner and when they are batters they hate getting rung up on a pitch they are sure is outside. I saw an MLB game a couple of days ago where a batter was so incensed he immediately asked for ABS review — it showed the ball clearly in the strike zone and everyone could see it was in the strike zone. So even an MLB guy can get so upset on a called strike three.
I really want to work with players on not taking called strike three and I want to drill it. I want them to start a plate appearance with an 0-2 count and tell them if they foul a ball off or hit it they stay at the plate. If they take a pitch that’s close they are done and we have to work immediately on their reaction. The reaction is all part of the MENTAL GAME, not the physical game. I can’t recommend enough two books — MENTAL GAME OF PITCHING and MENTAL GAME OF HITTING. Both written by H. A. Dorfman.
If the mental game is something you want to dig into with your players this fall, sign up for the newsletter or grab the free Quick Start Guide — there’s a lot more where this came from.
