Addendum on Confidence and Coaches

Regular readers of the blog may remember me discussing how lucky I am to be part of a great staff at the high school where I coach.  Well, yesterday was a great example of why.  I have gotten some really interesting feedback since posting the latest blog entry on Confidence and the Role of Coaches Sunday night.  While several comments have stood out, the blog led to a great conversation with the head coach and other members of the staff where I coach baseball.

Let me preface this with saying that our head coach is someone I have known since I was 12 years old.  I played for him in high school and then returned to the area to have an opportunity to coach with him.  He has been coaching for almost thirty years and is someone I have as much respect for in baseball as anyone in the sport at any level.  Although on the surface level we may seem very different to some people, our core values of how you are successful in baseball and interest in finding the best way to do things is something that makes us about as alike as you can get.

That may have seemed a little off topic, but I feel like it is necessary to the story.  Our head coach brought up the blog yesterday, and it led to a conversation with our staff about what I meant and how different people reading the entry may perceive what I wrote.  We talked about how a parent may read it and say, "Coach Ehrlich says you are supposed to give my son confidence.  You are why my kid isn't confident!"  This is definitely not what I meant for the message to be.  Confidence is something that has many sources, and I don't think any one source can take sole responsibility.  What I wanted to get across is that players do think coaches can help develop confidence.  Not attempting to do so, in a purposeful way, is a missed opportunity to help players develop.  How coaches are able to help can take a variety of forms, and I just gave three examples of ways to aid in the development of confidence.  When it comes down to it, we as coaches cannot go up and hit for a player or make a pitch for him.  Our job is to put players in the best position to be successful, but it is ultimately up to the player to execute.  

One of the great things about sport psychology is there are many possible perspectives to take.  Something that has always intrigued me about life is that different people can have the same experience and have completely different reactions.  I enjoy that and enjoy hearing from viewpoints different than my own.  What I think is important about this addendum is the conversation it led to on our coaching staff.  We may have never had that discussion if it were not for the blog, and I am glad we did.  While I think it would be naive to think that by reading a few hundred words that you are suddenly going to become a completely different player or coach, having conversation is a major part of development.  That is somewhere we see growth as players, coaches, and people.  

Keep the feedback coming please!

Confidence and the Role of Coaches in Its Development

So it has been a while since my last post.  I have decided to move away from the list of "What Mentally Tough Baseball Players Do" for now in lieu of a subject I think may be the most important in all of sport psychology- Confidence.  Confidence is so important, in my opinion, that I am dedicating a second post to it.  Regular readers of the blog may remember a post I wrote in mid-July on the importance of confidence and how players can work to create confidence on a more consistent basis.  I also wrote about how confidence is ultimately the athlete's responsibility.  Well, although I do think confidence is up to the athlete and most coaches agree, sometimes we need a reminder that our opinion does not always matter!

What I mean is if the athletes are the ones who are performing and good/bad games can be separated by how confident the athletes feel, then what they think about confidence is what really matters.  I read two different studies for a class I am taking that made me think.  Both studies were about the development of confidence in athletes and addressed where confidence comes from.  One of the studies was about an assortment of lower level, amateur athletes of different ages.  A major theme was these athletes thought coaches were largely responsible for the development of confidence.  What a bunch of weak minded individuals, right?  The second study was about elite level athletes.  Do you know who they accredited with the development of confidence?  COACHES!  So, what is the moral of these studies then?  Regardless of what level you coach, your athletes are looking to you for confidence.  Ignoring this is to ignore an opportunity to get better.  Would you accept that from your players?

To help drive home just how universal this is, I call on Jake Peavy.  Peavy has over eleven years of service time and139 Major League victories.  He started the season with the Red Sox and went 1-9 with a 4.72 ERA with them.  Then, Peavy was traded to the Giants and reunited with his old manager Bruce Bochy.  Peavy then went 6-4 with a 2.17 ERA.  What does Jake say is the difference?  Well, the three-time All Star pitcher and former Cy Young Award winner says his manager has a lot to do with his turnaround.  Peavy made a quote I heard on the radio about how Bochy instills a belief in his players that is unlike anyone else he has played for.  A Major League manager making his players more confident?  Well if they do then the least us amateur coaches can do is to try to do the same.  So what can we do?  Here are a couple of starting points:

1. Focus on what players do well.  I know you want them to be as good as possible, and I am all for working on weaknesses as a player.  If he has struggled for years with pitches on the outer half of the plate, however, he probably is not going to start magically mashing them ten minutes before a game.  Once competition is upon you, why not celebrate the strengths of the player?  Help him understand his strengths so he can better utilize them rather than creating doubt in everything he cannot do.

2. Create an environment where mistakes are okay.  For me, this means physical mistakes.  I have never been around a player who has said, "Man, I am going to try to go 0-4 today with 3 errors!" or "I hope I bounce all of my breaking balls today!"  Physical mistakes are going to happen.  If you demand perfection in physical execution, you are setting up your team to be a bunch of tense robots.  Tension does not feel good or translate well.  Understand that mistakes are going to happen, and stress that players learn from theirs (both physical and mental).

3. Prepare your players.  Create as many game-like situations as possible so they are ready.  People say there is no substitute for experience.  Everyone, at one point or another, has encountered a situation that was no big deal because they had been there before.  Well, what if we can help to create that feeling of being experienced?  You can with purposeful practice.

This list is by no means exhaustive.  Coaches, do you have something you do to purposely help players be confident?  Players, do you have a story or coach who has helped you feel more confident as a player?  I would love to hear about them.  Tweet them to me @Coach_Ehrlich, or email me at ehrlichb1@gmail.com.  If I like it, I will absolutely give you credit.  Thanks again for reading, and challenge yourself to help someone else be just a little more confident in themselves this week.

What Mentally Tough Baseball Players Do #9

#9 Mentally tough baseball players embrace the big moment.

Mentally tough baseball players embrace the big moment.  They want the ball in their hands, to be at the plate, or the ball to be hit to them with the game on the line.  Late in the summer I contacted approximately twenty well-respected coaches in both high school and college baseball to get their thoughts on mental toughness.  Although I am still working on how to incorporate the great insights I got from those coaches into something bigger, embracing the big moment was what came up the most.  Coaches want players who are able to perform in "clutch" situations.

This is certainly relevant with playoff baseball now in full swing.  There have been some great games already, and some very high pressure situations have presented themselves.  Last night, while many of you were watching college football, I stuck with the Nationals/Giants game for all eighteen innings.  What stood out to me was a lot of HUGE swings and overaggressive approaches in the extra inning frames.  I had the thought sometime around the eleventh inning that the only way someone was going to score was to run into a ball and hit a bomb.  The lack of offensive execution could be credited to a number of factors.  First, you have to give credit to pitchers.  There was some good stuff being thrown every inning.  Second, however, would be a lot of guys trying to do a little too much.  Anytime we try to do a little too much, instead of letting what we are able to do happen, we run into problems.  Our swing gets a little long, we expand the zone too much, we leave fastballs up, etc.

Mentally tough baseball players embrace the big moment and perform.  In my opinion, they do this by doing the same thing they always do.  We often throw around the phrase, "Who's going to step up?" when adversity or a big situation presents itself.  I don't like it because for me it implies elevating your game and going outside of what you are capable of.  I prefer "step forward" instead because of the imagery it creates of a player stepping into a situation and being himself.  Stepping forward into this high tension, big moment as YOU gives yourself the best shot of succeeding.  Being a little more than you are implies that "you" isn't good enough the other 99% of the time.

If you are someone who seems to perform better in the big moment than normal, however, my question for you would be "Why do you think that is?"  My next question would be, "Well how can we get you to do that all of the time?  Imagine how good you could be then."

In closing, take a closer look these next couple of days at who embraces the big moment.  Take note of the demeanor of the players who perform and those who do not.  Tweet who stands out to you, or send me an email!

Side Note: How about the Royals?  I've loved watching them play, and I've loved the analysis of how they have decided to play the same way they have played all year long.  It's working out just fine for them so far!