Winning at Youth Baseball and Softball
Today is for coaches and parents of youth baseball and little league players. It includes a gift….
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Failure.
How do you feel when your kid strikes out?
Walks in another run?
Boots an easy play?
Hangs his head in defeat or shame?
Cries about something that happened in the game or practice?
Baseball and softball are emotional games. They turn up the intensity of life experience.
Yes, school churns up emotions big time. But in baseball/softball you can’t hide in the back row.
When you are up, YOU are up. Everyone watches you. Everyone sees what you do. Your performance is totally public.
(If Johnny is having trouble in school it is kept hush
hush.)
If a ground ball comes to you, it comes to YOU. Not to your team; you.
Add the fact that failure is built into the game — the game is extremely difficult — and you’ve got a recipe for emotional disaster.
Yes, for wonderful things as well
It isn’t the striking out that is so critical, it is how it is “framed.” How the child sees it.
Much of how he/she sees it will but culturally determined.
Kids know the difference between success and failure.
But also much of how he/she sees it will be contextually determined — by the context the coach and parents have created around the experience.
Coaches and parents, your top job is to create an emotional context that maximizes the likelihood of each child making empowering interpretations of their experiences.
You might want to read that again while I think of how to say it simpler…
If the team and league emotional context (prevailing mood, attitude, energy, focus,) is fear (kids get yelled at when they screw up), that will lead a player to very different interpretations about themselves than if the prevailing emotional context is love (kids are supported unconditionally).
(Now unconditional support doesn’t mean you let them do whatever they want, it means
No time is that more important than tourney time. June is a big youth league tournament time as you likely know.
In honor of this season I’m offering you a $20 discount coupon, good today, Saturday and Sunday, for my program:
“Winning the Mental Game of Youth Baseball: How to Coach, Parent, and Play with Confidence, Focus, Consistency, and Emotional Control.”
You get a 80 minute DVD of me coaching a 12-year-old team on the fundamentals of mental game success at the youth level.
Here’s what one coach said about just one part of the
program:
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Tom, Our 10/11/12
year-old team won a game last night that we should have lost. We were without our 2 best pitchers, one injured, one sick (who we expected to start the game). There were a few innings in the game where the 3 different guys pitching found themselves with the bases loaded and one or even no outs.
They managed to get out of these jams by doing the ABC routine!! We practice it with our pitchers every practice and last night, it was great to see the boys on the mound with their chin up, taking deep breaths, and connecting with the mitt. It was amazing to watch the ABC’s work so well! Thanks, Dan
btw, the team is at the top of the standings in our league, and your mental prep has played a big part to put us there.
(And we haven’t instituted the ABC’s yet for hitting or
defense.)
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(It’s the same stuff I teach older kids, like Major League “kids,” but it’s put in a way young players relate to well).
You’ll be able to guide your child or team through the labyrinth of emotions and mental challenges
I give you two “golden threads” to hold as you make your way through the maze of complex situations and obstacles…
* overcoming failure
* being confident regardless of recent
results
* staying motivated
* staying focused
* playing one pitch at a time
* getting the team on the perverbial “same page.”
You get a system for doing that. All success is the result of following a proven system.
Take the guesswork out of it.
Know what to say in those tough moments (first inning jitters, last inning chokes, silent car rides home).
You get the DVD, a 45 minute recording of a call where I review the key concepts with the coach in the video, spelling out step-by-step how to implement the two basic techniques of the program.
You get a big workbook with simple simple forms for you and players to fill out. And a transcript of the DVD so you can take the program with you anywhere.
Simply click the link below, then enter the word “youth” in the box that asks for a coupon code. That will knock $20 off the normal price of $67.
Through Sunday only. Get it now and it will go out tomorrow.
If you aren’t thrilled with it, send it back for a full refund.
Go get’em,
Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
p.s. As you saw in the quote from coach Dan, focusing on what I coach you to focus on not only creates a much more helpful, humanistic, and empowering emotional context — it also is the best way to win!
http://www.baseballconfidence.com/youth.html
ENTER COUPON CODE: youth
Please forward this email to everyone you know that cares about youth baseball or softball.
Thank you.
Comments
2 Responses to “Winning at Youth Baseball and Softball”
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Always good to read about baseball and its players, I’ve played since a kid..
Can I ask though – how did you get this picked up and into google news?
Very impressive, is it something that is just up to Google or you actively created?
Obviously this is a popular blog with great data so well done on your seo success..
Awesome! I love it! What you are saying about the game being a life experience. My son sums it up a little differently. He says, if you mess up, it’s not like you huddle up and go back out for the next play – a chance to make everything alright. You have to deal with what happened and figure out how to make it better/different before the next game or the next time you are at bat.