Braveheart Baseball
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“FREEDOM!” said William Wallace at the end of Braveheart.
That’s what it was all about for him.
In my conversations with players these past few days we’ve talked a lot about freedom.
Although they wouldn’t say it this way, a prime reason Little League baseball players play is to experience freedom.
Research has shown this to be one of the prime reasons people play any sport.
Seems funny that to experience freedom you’d enter a realm where there are way more rules than regular life (athletes have to abide by our regular laws plus the rules of their game when they play).
But paradoxically, when you confine yourself to the rules of a game, you come alive.
The focus that the rules provide make more things black and white. Score or no score. In or out. Win or lose.
And that clarity brings an intensity.
Clarity is power.
One of the fundamental characteristics of being in the “zone” or “flow” is having a clear goal.
When your goal is clear you get freed of other concerns and can focus your energy more purely.
Much of my work is around helping players be free and just play.
And helping coaches create the environment where the players are free to play.
Aren’t they always free to play?
Yes, but…
Define too many rules and you lose freedom.
Keep players from having any say in the rules and you lose freedom (no more “ghost runners”).
Put too much focus on the outcome and you lose freedom.
Get tied up in thinking about your mechanics and the “right” way to do something and you lose freedom.
Associate your parents love for you with how you play and you lose freedom.
Link your self-worth with your performance and you lose freedom.
Bob Rotella, my Ph.D. advisor, has helped tons of athletes by helping them “free it up and let go.”
I paid UVA a lot of money to hear him say that over and over and over.
But when I really get it — when I “free it up and let go”
– it’s worth every penny.
All my programs help players win the “mental game” by giving them clarity about what to focus on.
In my “Winning the Mental Game of Youth Baseball” I provide two concrete “goals” for players and coaches to focus on.
(More accurately, I teach you how to help a young player create those two things for him/her self. It’s much more powerful to co-create the goals than for you to assign them. I give you a step-by-step system for it).
Doing so frees them up. The fun returns. The tension goes way down. The distractions disappear.
If you want to be happier, have more fun, and be freer, pick a clear goal and go after it.
It will give you a brave heart, too.
Sincerely,
Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
p.s. For sure closing the coupon at midnight: That link
again: http://www.baseballconfidence.com/youth.html
ENTER COUPON CODE: youth
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:
——————————
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.)
——————————-
(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.
Part 2: Winning at Youth Baseball and Softball
I got a great response to yesterday’s email (see www.BaseballConfidence.com/blog)
It’s exciting for me to see such commitment to providing youth baseball and youth softball players with the best possible experience.
I accidentally failed to complete a sentence yesterday (and got a lot of questions about it, so today I’ll fill it in…
I’ll start with quick review…
——-
[I miss "24" -- such a great show. So in your best Jack Bauer voice say to yourself...]
Previously on www.BaseballConfidence.com…
——-
“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 [and what happens to them] 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…
——————-
[new stuff now]
…you support them unconditionally.
Look at that one more closely: *you support them
unconditionally.*
That means the focus is on them and their development, not you and your ego.
Here’s a good one — it neatly solved a question for me when I heard Tim Gallwey say it.
Why are some “hard-a**” coaches loved, while others are hated?
When you were in school, looking back, weren’t your best teachers amongst your hardest?
Didn’t they challenge you a lot? Push you hard?
You had some cool ones that you liked at the time, but they didn’t really challenge you, so looking back you see that wasn’t the best route for them to take.
The tough but fair ones are the ones you’d go back to visit and thank.
But weren’t there tough ones you didn’t like then and still don’t respect now?
What is the difference between a “tough” one you love and a “tough” one you despise?
The answer (the thing I got from Gallwey): you love the ones that challenge you because you get that they really care about YOU.
That they are challenging you out of love for you.
The ones you despise (still) had something else going on.
They may push you because Bobby Knight yells and screams, as do many coaches they see on TV.
So that’s their role models for how to coach.
As a youth sport coach or parent they are covering their ego’s butt — “if they don’t win it won’t be because I didn’t work them hard.”
Or they get a buzz out of the control they have to make kids do stuff — like run or repeat a drill.
Or it feels good to yell.
Or the best way they have to feel good about themselves is to put someone else down.
It can be any number of things, all ego and fear based.
Force is the easiest way to go. It is the least complicated.
Power is something else (as I define it).
A great coach/parent is powerful, but not forceful. (More on that later, that’s one of my favorite distinctions.)
The key is supporting them unconditionally.
That doesn’t mean you never yell. It means when you do yell you are coming from care and contribution to them rather than your own self-interests.
It can be very hard to distinguish those two. The place to start is with the awareness of this distinction.
So anyway, that’s a long end to the sentence I forgot to finish yesterday.
My offer of $20 off is still good (but only through tomorrow — or if we sell out) my best selling program “Winning the Mental Game of Youth Baseball: How to Coach, Parent, and Play with COnfidence, Focus, Consistency and Emotional Control.”
You get a 1:20 minute DVD of me teaching fundamentals of the mental game to a 12 year old team, and step-by-step instructions on how to teach your team or child the same skills.
It’s really the same stuff I teach older players, just formatted for youth players.
(Simple wins at all levels.)
Parents, if you want to know that you are following an excellent system for “creating an emotional context that maximizes the likelihood of each child making empowering interpretations of their experiences,” this is the way to go.
Click here now to get it and claim your $20 (enter the coupon code “youth” as you check out).
http://www.baseballconfidence.com/youth.html
ENTER COUPON CODE: youth
If you aren’t happy with it, I’ll refund your money plus your return postage.
You’ll be surprised how the complexities of managing the minds and emotions of young players can be reduced to two simple ideas.
(and I’ll coach you step-by-step on how to implement those two ideas.)
You’ll have a simple idea for your whole team to focus on.
And a simple idea for each player to focus on each pitch.
Thank you,
Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
p.s. The clock is ticking on the offer — the coupon “youth” will expire at midnight Sunday — unless we sell out before then.
http://www.baseballconfidence.com/youth.html