Jason Garrett: One Way to Play

        Monday night the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Detroit Lions 42-21 and moved to 13-2 on the season.  With home-field advantage already in place, the focus over the last week of reporters inevitably shifted to questions for Dallas head coach Jason Garrett about resting players.  After the Cowboy victory, in which Dak Prescott played the whole game, Garrett had the quote below to say.

        For me, this is one of the greatest separators for pretty good and great coaches, players, and teams.  Great teams hold themselves to a standard that ignores the opponent.  Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney, both coaching teams in the College Football Playoff, make this a constant focus of their teams.  That's not irrelevant to their success.  Kyle Hendricks, who has been getting Greg Maddux comparisons, sent the message consistently throughout the playoffs that he would prepare for the next start the same way he had every single start throughout the year.  Jason Garrett is sending the same message to his team.  Every time you play is an opportunity to compete.  

        Sports, or life in general, are a battle for consistency.  The more consistent our behaviors, the more consistent our results.  Both sports and life are filled with things we can't control or have great influence over, but our approach is one we can.  When we place varied importance on different games, we open the door for inconsistency.  In reality, there are differences in games.  Playing in the World Series is going to feel different than a mid-may afternoon start in Milwaukee.  Having a consistent approach and playing to a standard isn't ignoring that.  The expectation of consistent preparation and approach is to be better equipped to handle the differences in situations like a heated rivalry with our season "on the line" or a non-FCS school with no chance of beating us (Both situations bring their own challenges to the approach).  It's what Garrett is demanding from his team as the regular season ends and they head into the playoffs.  I'm not saying it will translate into that elusive Super Bowl run the Cowboys want, but it's a great approach and one we can all benefit from regardless of what we do.

Miguel Montero: Negative Thoughts Are Normal

       The playoffs have been great so far.  They have been filled with some really big, high pressure moments (all of them or none of them, I'd argue).  Something of particular interest to me is every single team who made the playoffs has some sort of sport psychology professional as part of the organization.  What they do, how much they're there, whether it's one or a team of them, etc. varies, but no teams without SOMEBODY made the playoffs.  This is great because baseball, as much as we preach process, is ultimately a very results-driven industry.  Hopefully the ten or so organizations without anyone will do what's best for its players and follow suit.  Anyway, I bring that up because there is a noticeable mental influence present in both the actions during games and the post-game comments of players and managers.  "Slowing the game down," "being in the moment," and "executing regardless of the situation" have been three of the major themes I've seen.  They're great concepts that are empty words unless the How and Why are taught along with them.  With the players and managers discussing the concepts, there is little doubt they have.  Although they're principles of performance I very much believe in,  I found myself particularly fascinated by Miguel Montero's comments about his game-winning grand slam last night for the Cubs.  There is a message behind what he says that is important for all coaches and athletes interested in the mental side of the game to hear and understand.

        "You've got to be positive!"  No you don't.  You want to be positive.  Being positive about your abilities is preferable to being negative.  Over an extended period of time, if you don't believe you are good you probably won't be.  But in a particular moment, it's okay to have a negative thought.  In fact, it's normal.  The average person's daily thoughts are 77% negative!  We can't expect that number to magically be 0% when they are playing their sport!  Understanding this is important.  It's particularly important to the athletes who are their own greatest critics and are "perfectionists."  If they don't understand, then they'll punish for the thought.  The punishment leads to more and more negativity.  That is when the at-bat speeds up and likely results in the turn back to the dugout.  Miguel Montero was down 0-2 and had missed a great pitch to hit already.  He thought about how he should have crushed the pitch before and had trouble letting it go.  What is important is he didn't allow those negative thoughts to speed him up or make him mail in the at-bat.  Of equal importance to mention is how the negative thoughts are more observational than judgmental.  There is a big difference between, "I should have hit that pitch" and "I suck for missing that.  Now I'll never get a hit."  Montero mentions stepping out and in a longer quote how he was just trying to put a ball in play.  He was able to refocus and come through for his team.  The swing he takes isn't defensive at all or indicative of a fear of failing.  This swing probably doesn't happen if he has been told the only way to perform is to be positive 100% of the time.  To have negative thoughts is to be human.  To act in spite of them, similar to acting in spite of fear, is true courage.  It's true focus.  It's true mental game.  Understand this, and give yourself the freedom of the best chance for you to be successful.

Before He Was Thor

        If you're like me, you're excited for the NL Wild Card game tonight.  The pitching matchup of Madison Bumgarner and Noah Syndergaard.  The two both have reputations as being tough and competitive on the mound.  Bumgarner's postseason resume speaks for itself as in the debate for the greatest of all time.  Syndergaard won two games last year at the age of 22 and is well known for the first pitch behind Alcides Escobar in the World Series.  Although there is a lot to be written about Bumgarner, the focus of the blog today is going to be Noah "Thor" Syndergaard.  More specifically, it's going to be about how Thor wasn't always Thor.  There has been a lot of time and effort put into becoming the guy who had this to say about pitching in the winner-take-all Wild Card Game Wednesday night:  "It's like every little kid's dream come true to pitch in a real high-stakes game.  So, I'll embrace it.  I look forward to it.  It should be a lot of fun."

        Before Noah Syndergaard was the guy looking forward to pitching in the Wild Card game, his physical stuff was ahead of his mental "stuff."  I remembered people talking about his mental challenges, and a simple Google search yielded some solid quotes from 2014 while Syndergaard was in the Minor Leagues.  They're addressed below:

"I feel like my stuff is there from the physical part of the game.  It's just all about the mental aspect."

The acknowledgement is there that Syndergaard had work to do on the mental side.  Understanding the mental side is something to work on is important to getting anything out of it.  If you ignore its importance, you likely will be an inconsistent player.

"I think I improved pretty drastically....But more the mental side of the game.  It was my first season I really struggled for a certain span of time.  I really had to adapt and really learned a lot."

This quote is from the end of 2014.  Your athletic career, and life for that matter, are a constant adaptation.  Struggles are tough to go through, but you can learn from them if you allow yourself.  Understanding why things happen, rationally, is a major step in the right direction for any athlete or coach.

"I feel like if it was earlier in the season, with where my mindset was at, I would have probably been done after three innings.  I would have been beaten out there....That's just the way things were going and I didn't know how to handle it all that well."

One of the most difficult things for a pitcher is being able to get past a bad inning.  Many times things snowball for any number of reasons.  Thoughts of how the result of the total outing isn't going to be there no matter what after a crooked number, discomfort with your stuff, and just wondering if you are going to be out of the game any pitch now are only a few.  Being able to value every pitch, every hitter, and every inning properly can help with this.  Every pitch is important, but no pitch is ever worth two.  Your job as a pitcher is to compete and throw with conviction for however long you are on the mound regardless of circumstance.  As a position player, it's to compete offensively and defensively and to do so regardless of a bad at-bat or a rough play in the field.

"It's just being more consistent."
Consistent behavior gets consistent results.  You want to be consistent?  Do what it takes to consistently execute pitches.  I can't tell you what that means from a preparation standpoint because it's different for different pitchers.  Ultimately, it takes what it takes.  What it takes, once the game starts, is conviction and skill.


Those are just a few quotes from a young(er) Noah Syndergaard on the mental side of his game.  I think they're important to consider for several reasons.  The first is there is a tendency to accredit mental toughness to just the way an athlete is.  I'd be willing to bet a year's salary there will be a tweet come across my timeline tonight implying as much about Syndergaard and/or Bumgarner (shoot me a message if you want to take the bet!).  In reality, genetics can help, but mental toughness, whatever it is, develops over time.  There has been a clear evolution of Syndergaard over the years.  After all, we have seen that high school yearbook picture!  The development is the second key reason for the piece today.  A strong mental game takes time.  Nobody can make you a "master of the mental game" in one easy session or one book.  If they promise you as much, I'd encourage you to run as fast as you can in another direction.  It takes time to improve your skills whether they are physical or mental.  Be patient, and stay with it.  Thor, like Rome, wasn't built in a day.  Neither are you.

Coach What You Have

        When we think about "keeping up with the Joneses," we tend to think about having all the shiny new toys.  We think of the big house, the newest BMW, or the latest clothes.  Well, it happens in sports too.  As coaches, we're guilty of seeing other teams and wishing we had a couple of pitchers like they have or hitters with the kind of power they've got.  Have you seen their facilities?  Wow what I could do with those.  It's normal to think this way.  The alternative is to focus on what you do have as a coach.  Maybe your best pitcher doesn't throw 92, but he can spin a breaking ball in any count.  You may not have guys banging balls over the lights, but you've got guys who can work the count and run a little bit.  You may not have a huge weight room with the latest gadgets, but you've got enough to do what you need.  Speaking of focusing on what you have, I'm currently reading Bill Walsh's The Score Takes Care of Itself."  To say Coach Walsh was a man ahead of his times would be an understatement.  The book is peppered with lessons on leadership that could be learned from regardless of your field, but it's fantastic for coaches.  I'm about a third of the way through, but it's been great so far.  One of my favorite stories so discusses this concept of working with what you have or "making lemonade out of lemons." It's a story I think we can all learn from and one I'd like to share.

        Before Bill Walsh led the 49er's organization, he was an assistant coach with the Cincinatti Bengals.  One year, he had a quarterback named Virgil Carter.  Carter could move around well and was accurate with his passes, but he did not have a strong arm.  Many coaches try to fit players into a system instead of emphasizing the strengths of the athlete.  Rather than focusing on everything Carter couldn't do and pining away for another QB, Bill Walsh designed an offense that would emphasize the strengths of Carter.  The system was centered around moving the quarterback around and using a lot of short passes.  It would later be known as the West Coast Offense and come to be used all over the league and in colleges across the country.  Walsh didn't create the offense with the intention of it catching on all over.  He was just trying to figure out a way to take advantage of his player's strengths.

        The message behind today's blog should be clear:  "Coach what you have."  Rather than spending your time focused on all of the things your team doesn't have and all of the weaknesses of the players on it, figure out your lemonade.  Find ways to help the players you coach be successful with the skillsets they do have while still emphasizing development of other skills.  This is one of the most difficult balancing acts there is at the high school level, but it's something we have to do if we are serious about helping kids as much as possible.  We've got to do it in order to help the lemons become lemonade.  Start squeezing today.

Gary Sanchez: The Yankee Phenom Who Couldn't Play for your HS/CollegeTeam

        If you're a fan of baseball, you've likely heard about the tear Gary Sanchez has been on since he debuted with the Yankees about three weeks ago.  Sanchez has hit .403 with ten home runs in only 77 at-bats.  That's a pace of 80 home runs in a season.  Not bad.  Unfortunately, while he's good enough as a player and person to be a part of the most fabled clubhouse in baseball history, he wouldn't be good enough for many of the high school and college teams of the coaches reading this.  "What am I talking about" you ask?  What I'm talking about is the toxic atmosphere of coaching Twitter and how the environment not only accepts, but celebrates the constant writing off of kids who make a mistake.  It's the environment where coaches talk about how if a player slams a helmet or doesn't run one ball out the coach certainly has no place for him on the team of perfect people he must have somehow assembled.  How could that kid not be at his peak physical and mental state in the one at-bat that you see him?  Well, it's because he's a kid, and he's not perfect.  None of them are, and none of us are either.

        So what does any of this have to do with Gary Sanchez and how he couldn't get a scholarship from you?  I read a great article about him a week or so ago on ESPN.  The article detailed how he and Aaron Judge are talented, high character guys who have a chance to set the tone for the Yankees for quite some time.  The article also mentions how when Sanchez was 18 years old he refused to enter a game as a sub and declined warming up a pitcher.  Why didn't the Yankees cut him then and there?  How could they possibly keep someone of such low moral fiber?  Yes, I know the financial investment has something to do with it.  Professional baseball is a business.  I'd venture to say that isn't the only reason though.  My thought is they also know that 18-year-old's aren't perfect.  They make mistakes.  They're not finished products by any means, and they have some growing up to do.  The Yankees probably thought they could help too.  My question is, "Why don't more coaches on Twitter think the same?"  We preach how we are helping players become young men and preparing them for the real world.  In what real world do you have to be perfect?  How many of these same coaches would want to be held to the standard they are holding the players they are recruiting?  Curse at an umpire?  Not at your best for 1 minute of practice?  Put up the dreaded chopping signal for a fastball down the middle because you get so frustrated with a pitcher's command?  You're fired.  No, of course not.

        In reality, I know many of the coaches tweeting this stuff are probably really good baseball guys.  They love the game and want to see it played the right way.  We all do.  All I'd challenge you to do is pause the next time you go to write a kid off because of 5 seconds of poor competitive judgment.  Maybe don't cross them off the list until you've had a chance to see him play again or to ask his coach for a little more about his character.  Maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't trust our rushing to judgment on these kids.  There is a chance you're writing off the next "Gary Sanchez" in your program's future.

Be Where Your Feet Are

        Alex Bregman has had a monster first full season in professional baseball.  He's hit a combined .310 with 19 HR, 20 2B, and an OPS of over 1.000.  Bregamn was also a home run short of hitting for the cycle in the Futures Game during All Star Weekend in San Diego.  There are rumblings of Bregman being called up any day now to help the Astros make a second half playoff run, and he's gotten more and more attention as a result.  Bregman checked in with a great quote in an article written about him on ESPN recently. 

        Bregman's quote struck me for multiple reasons.  For starters, my philosophy on mental toughness centers around the principle of "Win Now."  It means being fully invested in what you are doing and prepared to perform as well as possible at the task at hand regardless of circumstances.  "Win Now" goes well beyond actual performance within the game, and I think it connects well to what Bregman is saying.  Secondly, a couple of colleagues of at IMG used the phrase "Be where your feet are," just the other day.  Although I'd heard similar phrases, I really liked the way they described it and the great visual it provided to young athletes about proper focus.  One connected the phrase  as a possible reminder to reset during a tough tennis match, and the athletes seemed to really like the concept as well (that's who matters, after all).  The "Technically Police" may say something like, "Well, you can only be where your feet are."  Yes, but we all know there is a canyon of difference between being there and being fully present and engaged.  Skill development depends on it.  In-game performance does as well.  Every pitch, at-bat, game, etc. has a value of one unless you allow it to take greater value.

        Bregman's use of "Be where your feet are," is part of his goal to just play and not worry about when he is called up.  The decision, after all, is not one for him to make (insert required, "Control what you can control" reference here).  It's another great reminder for young athletes all over across all sports.  We know you have goals of playing in college and/or professionally.  Those are great to have.  The challenge for you is to have those long-term goals without them being at the expense of your head not being where your feet are.  Remember the daily effort it takes to get where you are going, sure.  Those who are able to lock in on, rather than glaze over, reps will be at a competitive advantage.  But also make sure you take the time to enjoy the experience along the way.  For one, enjoyment is a major part of why most of us participate in sports.  It's far too often lost at some point in an athlete's career.  A second reason is the joy of being good at something is a major part of what leads to the strong work ethic required to continue to develop and succeed as you move up different levels.  Enjoy now, over and over again.  Then, see where your feet lead you.

The two colleagues referenced in the blog are Taylor Stutzman and Zach Brandon.  Taylor is part of the full-time staff at IMG.  He works with baseball and tennis and can be followed on Twitter @tdstutzman.  Zach is finishing up his Master's at Cal State Fullerton and has worked with the legendary Dr. Ken Ravizza.  Zach is in his second summer working at IMG and can be followed on Twitter @MVPSportPsych.  Both are great people who are in sport psychology to make a difference.  I'd challenge you to look beyond the number of followers of both and understand there is a wealth of quality sport psychology information beyond the Twittersphere(ironic, I know!).

Great Competition is Great

           Right now I'm in the middle of a summer position at IMG Academy in Florida.  The position is as part of the Summer Mental Conditioning Staff, and I'm very fortunate for the opportunity.  Originally, I wasn't planning on writing about it at all.  Those who know me well know I'm very anti-self-promotion (can you double hyphenate?).  This blog is meant to inform not to brag about my work.  Sport psychology is about the athletes, coaches, and parents...not me.  Although I understand the perspective of those who tweet about their work with this team or that athlete, it's not one I share.  That said, I feel like I'm learning so much that it would be a shame not to share some of it with others in some capacity.  Writing allows that platform so I'll try to write here and there.  My hope is it will help You.

         One of the great challenges of the summer is working outside of our sports of experience.  Thus far, I've worked with tennis, golf, soccer, football, and basketball...in addition to baseball.  I wasn't sure what to expect at first, but I've actually enjoyed it a lot.  Tennis and soccer, probably my two least favorite sports of the group, have actually been my two favorite groups to work with.  The kids have been a lot of fun, and I've enjoyed learning from their experience.  Something working with the variety of sports demands is a base level of knowledge of the sports themselves.  This has led me to make an effort to actually watch a little tennis.  The effort has coincided with Wimbledon so that has helped.  This morning I had breakfast at Wimbledon with Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber.  Serena was playing to try to match Steffi Graf's 22 Major Titles, and Kerber had beaten her at the Australian Open earlier this year.  The match was well-played, back and forth, and Serena came out on top.  

         Something very unique to tennis finals is what happens after the match is finished.  Not five minutes after losing the tournament and two weeks of hard-fought matches, the loser has to give an interview in front of the entire crowd.  Could you imagine Mitch Williams giving an interview in front of all the Blue Jay fans fresh off of giving up the walkoff home run to Joe Carter?  Tennis players seem to have a different perspective though, and Kerber was incredibly gracious and articulate in her defeat.  Then, the champ gets interviewed.  Serena also showed a tremendous amount of class.  I loved several of her comments, and the one below in particular spoke to me.  Williams talked about how she loved playing Kerber because of the quality of competition she brought and her "bringing out great tennis" in Williams.  There is a message there for all of us no matter whether we are athletes, coaches, teachers, business professionals, etc.  Great athletes want to be pushed.  They want the challenge.  They aren't satisfied with just beating up on lesser competition.  Defeats against quality opponents can actually often bring greater satisfaction than a lopsided win.  

        With that, my challenge to you is to find people who are good at what you do.  Seek others who are even better than  you in whatever it is that you do.  Learn from them and their successes.  I'm not telling you to not be yourself.  I want you to be the best version of You possible though, but others can help you with that.  It's silly to think you have all of the answers.  Hopefully others will seek you out as well, and you'll be able to offer ways to help them become a better "them" too.  Pushing one another to grow continually makes ourselves and whatever fields we are a part of better.  It's been one of my favorite parts of the summer so far, and it's something I look forward to doing a lot more over the coming weeks.  

        

Body Language by Beckwith

        "That kid wants it!"  "He's such a competitor!"  "Playing with some emotion...I love it!  Take that guy on my team any day of the week!"  Have you heard these before?  Probably.  Most of the time this Coach Speak comes when we see something like a pitcher yell and go nuts after a big strikeout or a hitter comes up with a run-scoring hit in the clutch.  While I'm not saying I wouldn't take those guys on my team and love a well-timed genuine display of emotion, it's dangerous for an athlete to feel like they have to be emotional to perform.  Roller-coaster emotional athletes are rarely the most consistent over the long haul.  It's not so much because of the emotional outbursts but the struggle to get past them and move on.  Anyway, I'd challenge you to base your judgments about a player's competitive spirit on more than these outward displays.  A great example has taken over the last week and a half at the College World Series.  I'm still brain storming a more complete tribute to the performance of Andrew Beckwith and the great example he has set for young players everywhere, but I wanted to share some brief video clips from his complete game, dominant, Maddux-like efficient performance against Florida.  I'll also include some thoughts on what I see.

        The above clips are after giving up hits in the middle to later innings of what was a close game.  There is no sign of panic at all.  If' I'd have told you Beckwith just completed his warm-up tosses before a 9 AM, Saturday morning travel game or that he just read a really interesting article on knitting socks, you'd probably believe me.  There is no visible "bearing down" or "pumping himself up" to get through it.  It's more, "Okay, that guy just got a hit.  It's time to make the next pitch."

        Our next clip is right after making a great play to cover first base on a tweener ground ball between first and second.  The second baseman ended up fielding it, and Beckwith made a really athletic play to cover and catch the ball at the same time.  Again, this was a "big" play.  Or is it enjoying a casual stroll with his dog on a quiet Saturday morning?  Tea and bridge with the ladies next door?  On to the next hitter.

        The next clip is after getting a strikeout for the third out somewhere around the seventh or eighth inning.  Why isn't he running off the field yelling and screaming?  Doesn't he want to psyc out the opponent?  Isn't he happy he just got that "big" out?  Doesn't he want it more than them?  Just guesses here, but I'd say he doesn't need to, doesn't care, is happy, and just wants it how much he wants it.  There is more to be done, and he expects to do it.

        The clip above is one of Beckwith after giving up a hit in the latter stages of the game again.  I took this one though to show his breathing and make a point.  This is not a big breath, but it's an efficient breath.  The use of a breath has become huge in baseball and with great biological reasoning.  Something to consider though is to be a consistent breather rather than a big breather.  Being in control of your breathing rather than being controlled by it.  Using breathing instead of being dependent on it as another thing to remember to do.  Also, you don't breathe with your shoulders.  This breath by Beckwith is more efficient and useful than those huge shoulder shrugs we see all too often.

        The final clip is just after the final out in Beckwith's masterpiece.  It was the first time I saw a smile from him the entire game and a display of excitement for what his team had just accomplished.  There's a hug with his catcher too because of the joy for what they'd just done.  All of the emotions are genuine.  There's nobody who has told him, "Hey, you hug your catcher after the end of the game.  That's big body language"  It's just what he does.  It's "Andrew Beckwith being Andrew Beckwith."  He's playing baseball freely.

        So, what is the overall point of these video clips?  My hope was to show you a couple of things.  The first is what a pitcher who is in control of the game can look like.  Beckwith's high school head coach tweeted something mid-game about the situation not being too big for him.  That is visible in the clips above.  There is never a hint of panic.  This is a guy with a job to do and who is confident in his ability to do it.  He doesn't have to make sure everybody else knows.  Second, Beckwith is one of the most competitive, hard-working athletes I have ever been around.  He really does want it more than most.  That want doesn't take place in the nine innings of the game, and it isn't through the display of eyewash moves.  The want is in his meticulous work ethic and efforts to prepare for the games he has thrown in the World Series.  Before you attribute wins or individual game performances to "wanting it more" in the future, challenge yourself to consider everything that goes into preparing for a game.  Chances are, regardless of your sport, the time outside of competition far exceeds that of the actual competition.  This time, and what you do with it, is the great separator.  Everyone wants to win come game time.  Who is willing to do what it take to do so?  Andrew Beckwith is more than willing.  He's who his teammates, coaches, and everyone else who watches him pitch want on the mound with the game on the line.  Are you?

Ryan Howard: Present Moment Focus

        Ryan Howard was once one of the most feared power hitters in the big leagues.  He won an MVP award and finished Top-10 in voting five other times while compiling home run totals of 58, 47, 48, 45. 31. and 33.  Those are some monster years.  Unfortunately, father time has not been kind to Howard.  His performance has dropped significantly over the last several years since he had the horrible Achilles injury late in 2011.  Howard's hit some home runs since then, but he hasn't been able to put together a year anywhere near where he was prior to the injury.  His career provides us yet another reminder of how no matter how much we look down the road at what could be, things rarely seem to play out exactly how we thought they would over the long haul.  Lately, Howard has been relegated to the bench more and more as the Phillies try to figure out what to do with a player who has given them so much but has a questionable amount left in the tank.  From what I've read, it's been tough for everyone involved, but Howard seems to be handling it with class.  He got an opportunity to start for the first time in a few days Tuesday and hit a home run that helped the Phillies beat the Cubs 3-2.  Additionally, Howard provided a learning moment with what he had to say after the game about the homer.

        Howard's comments touch on something that is easier said than done.  The easy thing to do in his situation would be to think about how if he didn't play well he'd probably be on the bench for even longer.  His opportunities would likely continue to dwindle.  "I've GOT to prove to everyone I shouldn't be on the bench."  While those are natural thoughts to have, they won't help him within his at-bat.  They won't help him hit a hanging breaking pitch.  When we allow the past or future to pile up in our heads during competition, we do so at the expense of the present moment.  We do so at the expense of the task at hand...being ready for a good pitch to hit.  Howard's ability to not allow all of the tough factors to get in the way of what he was trying to do last night was impressive and something to learn for young athletes out there.  Rather than dwelling in past struggles or what's to come in the future, challenge yourself to focus on the task at hand in games.  "Get a good pitch to hit."  "Stay down on a ground ball hit to me."  "Make a pitch right here."  Great careers are the accumulation of good games.  Good games are the accumulation of good moments.  Good moments stem from action.  Take action now.

A Lesson in Concrete Reflection- Seeing Beyond the Box Score

        You may have noticed I like to read through post-game stories from Major League Baseball.  It's part of my morning routine.  In a way, it connects me back to my childhood and sitting with my Dad reading through the newspaper on a Sunday morning.  I'd always want to start with the sports but would impatiently read through the comics until Dad was done.  When I finally got the sports section, I would study the box scores and see how many hits my favorite players got.  This was prior to the internet and the instant access to that information in real time.  You had no choice but to see the next morning (we did have Sportscenter, of course, but I couldn't stay up that late).  My obsession with the numbers likely played a part in my being very results-driven as a hitter.  If I could go back in time, I'd tell a young me not to look to those numbers but rather to how the numbers happen.  What are these hitters specifically doing to have their performances?  Enough looking to the past though because I'm happy to be able to share that lesson with many others today.  Now, my favorite part of looking at results from the night before isn't the box score.  I love looking through the recaps and seeing how players and managers go about explaining the game that has just ended.  How they react to both the good and bad games is just as interesting to me.  Do they take responsibility?  Attribute it to luck?  Tip the cap to the other team?  Just part of the game?  At a loss for an explanation?  All of those reactions are just part of what I find fascinating in reading the recaps.  In going through them on a morning by morning basis, I start to notice patterns either with teams or with them all in general.  One such pattern has stood out to me, and I think it's something we can all learn a lesson from regardless of your sport or level of play.

        The word concrete, as an adjective, means "existing in a material or physical form; real or solid; not abstract."  More broadly applied, if something is concrete, it's there.  Perhaps more importantly, it can be worked on.  As teachers, we look for concrete reasoning in what our students write.  If it isn't there, we're able to specifically tell them what needs to be added.  As a coach, we should look for the same.  What actually happened?  How can we make it happen again, or what can we do to make it work out differently next time?  This may be surprising because some think of psychology as this abstract way of explaining how the mind works.  In my opinion, it's the opposite.  Sport psychology helps to provide reasoning for performance and looks to explain the "why" rationally.  It's not to frustrate athletes and coaches with what isn't there but to help them best handle what is.  In my morning reads of MLB recaps, I see over and over again performance explained by what actually happened- what was visible.  To provide a look at what I'm talking about, below is a "case study" of comments from the Cardinals-Nationals game last night.  I'll give you a setup, quote and quick comment on what was said:

Mike Matheny on Jaime Garcia's performance: "You can tell when his (sinker) is there.  He had very good movement and used his changeup and slider, but the sinker was a great pitch for him tonight."  Movement = concrete, used his changeup and slider = concrete, sinker being great = I could see an argument for this not being quite concrete, but I'd argue you the movement and type of contact make it pretty concrete

Dusty Baker on Max Scherzer's struggles in a 5-run inning: "It wasn't the home run pitch.  It was the walks before the home run.  That's what really hurt." Walks led to more runs, magnification of the home run = concrete?

Stephen Piscotty on Scherzer pattern: "Including the (previous) at-bat he threw me four straight sliders.  Luckily I got that one." Four straight sliders = concrete (Piscotty is a Stanford guy so of course he noticed the pattern!), Luckily = not concrete; I'd argue he's being humble and doesn't really think he was lucky.

Scherzer on the bomb: "I know I've been giving up a ton of home runs, but that one, that's just an execution thing.  That's just me not throwing the right pitch at the right time and with poor execution." Ton of home runs =  15 so far is indeed a ton and concrete, Poor execution = concrete, middle to inner third, thigh high on 0-1 count

Jaime Garcia on his performance: "I made some adjustments I needed to make.  That's part of baseball, that's part of pitching." Only he knows for sure, but I'd say it's concrete again.

        Although I think it's certainly possible to argue against the concrete nature of some of the quote, I think the real key is the messages in the quotes can be taken and used to work on and improve performance.  The movement of pitches Matheny talked about can be physically worked on in bullpens, flat grounds, drills, and just playing catch.  Scherzer's walks were likely a combination of things that can be broken down further and worked on.  Recognizing patterns of the opposing pitcher, as Piscotty did, can be worked on.  Executing an 0-1 slider can be worked on.  Making adjustments and understanding when they are necessary, as Garcia did, can be worked on.  In sum, everything in the quotes is behavioral and can be worked on.  What the quotes aren't are judgments of character made by a singular pitch, at-bat, or performance.  When we tell players or teams they failed because they were scared, weren't tough, or some other judgement, the likely resultant is a feeling of confusion about what they can do moving forward.  Likewise, when we attribute good performances to talent or luck, we are also missing on an opportunity to learn.  I'm not saying those judgments aren't sometimes true, but they are more difficult to take in and use moving forward than behavioral observations.  Understanding the why behind performance is critical to being able to repeat performance consistently.  It's equally critical in being able to avoid, as often as possible, the feeling of helplessness that comes with not understanding why things are going so poorly.  Staying as concrete as possible in reflection allows us to more easily take what has happened and use it to move forward.  The big leaguers are doing it, and you should too.

Kershaw on His Historic Month

        You may have heard Clayton Kershaw is pretty good at throwing baseballs.  He's won 120 games, 3 Cy Young Awards, and has led the league in a seemingly endless number of stats.  What's hard to believe is I think, despite all he has done, he get's overlooked at times because of his "boring" consistency.  Dave Roberts said after last night's game, "I think every time he takes the mound, you're looking at penciling in 10-12 strikeouts, eight innings....It's something that we don't take for granted around here.  We appreciate Clayton."  The Dodgers may not take Kershaw for granted, but I think baseball as a whole does at times.  Except when he has a month like he just did.  Kershaw went 5-0 with a 0.91 ERA and 65/2 strikeout to walk ratio in May.  "Just throw strikes," right?!  Naturally, when athletes have months like Kershaw has had, we want to know what they think about it.  Kershaw keeps it simple, and here's what stands out to me about what he had to say when asked what he thought about the month he'd just completed.

1. "Uh, not much."  This says to me Kershaw doesn't get too caught up in thinking too much about what he has done.  The numbers are the numbers, and to reflect too much about the past is to do so at the expense of what is now.

2. "We beat the Mets."  I love this, and I think it's far from the exception in baseball.  Whenever I read the recaps and players are asked about their performance, there are two basic answers:  1. "I'm just glad I could help our team win."  2. "It would have been a lot better if we had won."  Those are it, and I don't think players are just saying that.  They play to help their teams win.  It's not to say they don't take personal pride in individual performance, but it's a distant second to the team.

3. "Come back again the next time I'm pitching, figure out who we're playing and get ready for them."  For starters, Kershaw doesn't know who he will be pitching against next.  As he doesn't stay reflecting on the past for too long, likewise he doesn't look to what is coming too quickly either.  The quote also speaks to the process nature Kershaw has to prepare for his starts.  "I shove, enjoy it with my team, see who's next, and prepare to do it all over again."

        As you can tell from my Twitter feed, I really love the quotes from players and managers after games.  What I really love is what we can attempt to infer about who the players are and what they do.  Kershaw says so much about who he is as an athlete in a simple, four sentence answer.  I'd encourage you, whether you're a player or coach, to pay attention to what athletes say.  There is a lot of free advice being given every single day.  It's just a matter of taking the advice and applying it to what you do.

Kids Today are...Givers?

        Stop me if you've heard it before.  "Kids today just don't get it."  "They're so entitled."  "They just don't care."  "Kids today have a 'Me First' Attitude, with their Snapchats, Instagrams, and Twitters."  Chances are, if you work in any sort of field that includes young people of any age, you've heard some variation of those statements before.  You've probably heard them more than once.  As an educator and coach, it bothers me.  Sometimes it bothers me because it can be true.  More often than not, however, it bothers me because the people saying these things are so incredibly negative about the very kids they are supposed to be working to help.  Oh yeah, and also the statements aren't factual.  So there is that too.  The view I'm talking about is incredibly pessimistic.  What I see, and have been guilty of in the past, is people making generalizations based on exceptions rather than the rule.  A couple students misbehaving somehow turns into, "Kids today just have no respect."  Ignored in this statement are the overwhelming majority of students who do what they are supposed to do on a daily basis.  This can create a very negative outlook and is a tough way to go about your days working with young people.  What's to come in this blog will hopefully provide a dose of objective optimism about "Kids today" and their attitudes towards others.

        A few months back, I read a book called Give and Take:  Why Helping Others Drives our Success by Adam Grant.  The book is outstanding.  If you're a regular reader of the blog, you have already read another piece where I relate the book to coaching.  Because this entry is targeted toward a broader audience, I'll run through the basics of the book again.  Give and Take is a book about how we treat others.  Grant splits people into three categories: Givers, Takers, and Matchers.  Givers are people who do things for others for the sake of helping them.  Think of people who may donate anonymously, do nice things without having to post them on their social media accounts, etc.  There is no expectation of anything in return.  Takers do the opposite.  They constantly look for what they can get from other people.  Every time they get in touch it is to ask if you can do something for them.  They look to advance themselves regardless of the cost to others.  Think Veruca Salt.  Matchers look to "match" in their interactions.  Doing something nice for another person comes with the expectation of a favor in the future.  Getting something done for them leads to a feeling of having to make up for it.  I'm reminded of an episode of The Office where Dwight tries to get Andy to owe him something, but Andy is too much of a Matcher to allow that to happen.  The book goes into much greater detail about the three categories of people and even breaks them into sub-categories, otherish behaviors, fakers, and much more.  Grant does a great job of providing plenty of examples that somehow left me feeling like I was clueless at some points before putting it all together by the end of the book.

         The book also points the reader to Adam Grant's website.  On the website is a fifteen question quiz where you read through scenarios and pick what you would do in the given scenario.  At the end of the quiz, you're shown a pie chart with what percentages your answers fit into the Giver, Taker, and Matcher categories.  A high school psychology class I teach went through the basics of the book and took the quiz as part of our unit on Personality recently.  Although the quiz had it's benefits, it was clearly targeted towards adults.  There is no teenager version.  Because of this, we decided to create one.  Students were paired up and assigned a question on the quiz to redesign.  They took the scenarios from Grant's quiz and created similar scenarios targeted at high schoolers.  A reference letter became a letter of recommendation, tasks at work involving others became group projects in class, and ideas for business slogans became ideas for Grandpa's 80th birthday gift.  Each pair presented the question to the class and discussed their thought process in changing the question.  Other students gave feedback, made adjustments until they felt comfortable with the result, and we had one student type up the new questions.  In the end, the class generated their own Give and Take Quiz for Teenagers.

        Upon completion of the quiz, we sent it out through Twitter and email to students and teachers from our school.  We got 144 responses.  The results were a bit surprising and speak towards the topic of this blog entry.  The representative "Kids Today" were overwhelmingly Givers.  In fact, 69% of those who took the quiz were majority Givers.  In comparison, only 15% were Matchers, and 5% were classified as Takers.  Thirteen of the students who took the quiz scored some combination where multiple categories were equal (11%).  The results surprised me a little bit, but should they?  Kids today are much more aware of what goes on in the world today than those of us who spent either all or the large majority of our childhood without the internet.  The same technology we moan and groan about for its negative effects has allowed students the opportunity to "see" the world and understand how lucky they may be to grow up where they have.  They also haven't become pessimistic adults yet full of regret and scorn for opportunities squandered.  In their mind, and rightfully so, they still have an opportunity to make a difference in the world.  I'm not sure if those are the reasons for our results, but I think both could be a factor.  Regardless, the data says "Kids Today" are Givers.

        Was our assessment flawless?  Certainly not.  Nobody was there to administer the quiz or to ensure students didn't just click random answers.  Only about 7% of our school's population took it so it can hardly be considered representative of the entire teenage population.  144 students is probably more than the number of negative exemplars you could give though.  The pessimists may point to how teenagers aren't self-aware or honest enough to score themselves accurately.  There is probably some truth to that viewpoint.  The adolescent experience is one of great transition and self-searching.  What we would like to be versus what we are may leave a disconnect.  That is really no difference from the adults who take Grant's assessment though.  Something we plan on doing is having students fill out the assessment for other people, as Grant also does in the official quiz, and compare the results.  Maybe that will yield different answers, or maybe it won't.  Maybe, just maybe, kids today are a little better off than we want to give them credit for.  Maybe they care for others and are selfless in their actions.  Maybe if we stop preaching to them on our digital soap boxes about how horrible they are and start listening they might have something to offer.  Maybe the world will actually be a better place when they're running things instead of this Apocalyptic-world the naysayers see in their crystal balls.  Maybe.

Like You Belong

        The quote above came from Joe Maddon after Matt Szczur had a big game for the Cubs about a week and a half ago.  Szczur came into the year with about 130 AB's at the Major League level and a batting average around .220.  While Szczur unfortunately went on the disabled list shortly after his big game, his numbers to start this year are markedly better.  Granted it is a small sample size, he has hit .367 with 2 HR and 10 RBI in only 30 at-bats.

        One of the great challenges in sports is the transition from one level to another.  Nowhere is that more present than in professional baseball.  In the NBA and NFL, athletes make the jump from college to the top level professionally.  In baseball, the process works differently.  Players drafted or signed as free agents, with very few exceptions, spend several years climbing the minor league ladder prior to getting a chance at the Major League level.  While we generally think of the A, AA, and AAA levels, there is a Dominican Summer League, a Rookie Level in three different regions of the US, short-season, and even the A classification is split into low-A and high-A.  The point is there are a lot of steps that are played out over a period of time.  As players move up, others watch with anticipation to see if they can make the adjustments necessary to succeed at that next level.  There is always such great focus on the differences.  Pitchers throw more of their secondary pitches for more strikes, hitters don't miss mistakes, and the speed of the game are three I hear often.  While the differences are certainly a part of the overall picture, they are only a part.  There are similarities in the game of baseball that far outnumber the differences at every level possible.  In my opinion, the players who are able to make the transitions the smoothest are the ones who acknowledge the differences as areas to grow while remaining confident in what has gotten them there.  In other words, "They act like they belong."

        Geoff Miller, who I've written about often in the blog, discusses his work with a pitcher who has been on the verge of breaking in with a Major League club in his book Intangibles.  In sum, the player has struggled in big league camp not just with his performance but with being who he is on a daily basis.  The player tells G something to the effect that he is trying to prove himself and know his place.  G asks the player how this is different than how he'd act if he had several years of service time at the big league level.  The player then explains how he'd probably be much more relaxed and comfortable, and G challenges the player to act that way now because of its effect on his performance.

        Dr. Jonathan Fader has a great quote related to the topic in his new book Life as Sport.  He says. "If you're constantly asking  yourself whether you're good enough to be there, it's hard to actually be there."  If you're questioning your ability and/or how others perceive your ability, then your focus isn't in the present moment.  It's certainly not on the task at hand either.  Your focus is in this alternate universe of judgement rather than playing the game you've played for so long.  Getting back to Maddon's quote, he says realizing he belongs is the last step for Szczur.  What if it were the first step instead?  What if as you moved up each level of play, JV to Varsity, HS to College, etc. you did so with the realization that you belong at that level?  How would it influence your day to day behaviors and performance?  You'd probably have a better chance of succeeding and better yet of enjoying yourself along the way.  That's Win Now.

Consistency and Correa

        Carlos Correa is part of a group of young shortstops that is going to be fun to watch for quite a while.  ESPN had a great article about he and Xander Bogaerts the other day, and they talked with Red Sox third base coach about Correa.  Butterfield had the opportunity to coach Correa in the Futures Game a couple of years back and had the quote below to say about him.

        Repeating performance is the difference between a pretty good and really good player.  If you read the blog often at all, you've seen me use the quote, "Consistent behavior gets consistent results," from Harvey Dorfman often.  There's a reason for the quote's use.  It's true.  If you combine two parts hydrogen with one part oxygen, you get water.  A major difference between the creation of water and performance is the lack of other variables in the process.  There is no opposing team trying to intrude with other elements while hydrogen and oxygen mix.  In baseball you can technically have the same behaviors and not be successful every time.  Consistency gives you the best chance of being successful though.  Understanding your influence on performance is critical to developing the perspective necessary for an approach.  Butterfield's quote bares something important to keep in mind in understanding who he is talking about- Major League Baseball players.  It's hard for them to be consistent, and they are the best in the world!  The words serve as a good reminder to all of us working with athletes at a younger level.  There's plenty of reasons why they are rarely consistent.  Rather than dwell on those reasons, however, I think we can help them.  Understanding what makes them successful is one way.  If you don't know what makes you good, you're trying to make water without a chemical equation.  Consistent players are able to explain clearly and simply their approach to an at-bat or pitching.  Can you do that?  If so, you're ahead of many in the game.  If not, you need to be able to.  A second way to help players is to make sure they understand the purpose of what they are doing.  Empty swings, for example, don't help create consistency.  Purposeful ones do.  Understanding what makes you successful and the purpose of different drills and movements won't guarantee the results you are looking for, but they will increase your chances.

It's a Function of Making Pitches

         Chris Young is one of the more interesting players in baseball.  For starters, he is 6' 10".  Young played both baseball and basketball at Princeton.  Both an incredible athlete and regarded as one of the brighter minds in the game, Young has had a really good, long career despite a fastball that rarely hits 90 on the gun.  In an era where we are all amazed by guys lighting up the radar gun, Young's style is as interesting as he is.  While his stuff may impact his thoughts below, Young's words have meaning regardless of what you bring to the mound.

        The specific part of Young's quote that I'd like to focus on is, "It's a function of making good pitches."  Young says he doesn't try to strike guys out.  While that may be the case, there are guys who do.  They do so by making good pitches.  One philosophy I've heard a good bit is trying to get a groundball in the first three pitches.  How do you accomplish that?  By making good pitches.  Do you sense a theme here?  When you're on the mound, your job is to make quality pitches.  Everything else, as Young suggests, is a byproduct.  Getting out of jams, having a good first inning, keeping your team in the game, winning, etc. are all results made possible by making good pitches.  It's a great reminder as high school teams get geared up for playoff runs.  Making that playoff run as deep as possible will happen for the teams who are able to make good pitches like they have all year long.

Learn What Nolan Arenado Has Learned

        Nolan Arenado is pretty good at this baseball thing.  In his age-24 season, he was an All Star, a Silver Slugger winner, and led the NL in both home runs and RBI.  As good a hitter as he is, he's known probably even more for his phenomenal glove work at third base.  He has already won three Gold Gloves and makes freakish plays on a seemingly nightly basis.  Young kids all over the country are undoubtedly pretending to be him making plays at third.  Nolan Arenado has a lesson for those kids. "Don't do it.  Be yourself instead."

        Arenado's quote stands out because understanding who you are and being comfortable with that person is, in my opinion, one of the most crucial attributes in being a successful athlete.  Where this is tough as a young player is you are working to figure out who you are, and it can change by the season.  You're maturing, both physically and mentally, at such a high rate that you have to constantly reassess.  You may go from a singles and doubles guy to a someone with serious juice within a year's time.  In a sense, it seems like you've become someone else.  In reality, you're still you.  You're just a newer, hopefully better version.  If you're lucky enough to play the game for a long time, you'll go through the opposite process.  Your body will slow down along with your fastball, and you'll reinvent yourself again.    Again, you're still you though.  Figuring that out, and carving your own path to being a successful player can be tough.  It's something I never truly got in my experience as a player.  Hopefully you won't say the same when your playing days are done.  Maybe young kids all over the world will pretend they are you making barehand pickups on a field instead.

Chris Archer Facing Adversity

        Chris Archer is one of the best pitchers in baseball, but his results have been really bad to start the season.  Archer is 0-4 with a 7.32 ERA.  Opposing players are hitting .345 against him (sorry QUAB enthusiasts), and he's allowing over two baserunners an inning.  In other words, Archer is facing some adversity.  If you play baseball for any extended period of time, you'll face adversity too.  I love to see how players and teams respond to these situations.  Will they freak out, panic, and allow things to snowball?  Will they act like nothing is wrong at the sake of Albert Einstein's definition of insanity?  Will they work to improve?  Will they move on?  What will they do?  Sometimes we like quotes that measure our value as human beings based on these reactions.  I've been guilty of them myself.  "Who we are in adversity is who we really are."  Who are we in all the other times then?  I'm pretty sure we're still ourselves.  So far SABR hasn't accepted these quotes as valuable metrics.  That being said, our reaction to adversity does impact what happens next.  Let's look at what Archer said.

1. "nobody said this game was going to be easy."  This is something that easily translates to different areas of life.  It's okay for things to be difficult!  Some of our greatest moments of satisfaction in life stem from situations that were difficult to begin with.

2. "going to continue to work hard, get better every single day.."  Our work ethic is something we have great influence over.  Archer, if I had to guess, won't just work hard though.  He will work purposefully on something to help him improve.  There's no magic number of swings, groundballs, or pitches here.

3. "I really trust and believe that I'll get past this."  Archer is a confident guy.  Something that is okay to realize is your belief in yourself may waver at times.  That doesn't make you soft or mentally weak.  It makes you human.  That being said, our self-belief has a major influence on our performance over time.  Do you think you are good?

If I were a gambler, I'd bet Chris Archer will turn things around.  Regardless, his words and, more importantly, his actions behind his words give him as good a chance as anyone (not to mention his filthy stuff!).

Donaldson Quote From Scout

The quote in the graphic came from an article written about Josh Donaldson and his underdog approach.  The praise from an NL scout is about as high as it gets from an effort and focus perspective.  It also hints at Donaldson's ability to maximize his talents.

So why doesn't every player "never take one off?"  Why doesn't every player maximize his talents?  Well, for one it is incredibly difficult.  The discipline Donaldson has to be locked in every at bat takes, among other things, a tremendous amount of preparation and a developed ability to focus on each pitch.  Just venturing a guess, but I don't think Donaldson's college coach or high school coach would say Donaldson's ability to lock in every at-bat was always equal to what it is today.  It's no doubt something he has worked on just like you should be if you're a young player.  The ability to separate one at-bat or one pitch from the next can be the difference between an okay and really good game, a pretty good and great season, and an average to above average player.  Challenge yourself to figure out what has helped you and hurt you in the past from locking in every single time.  Then, work on it.  You won't turn into Donaldson overnight, but the great news is he didn't either.

Being Great is a Continuous Path

        If you like finality, greatness probably isn't for you.  There is no foreseeable finish line because the path doesn't have a neat and tidy ending.  Greatness's path is riddled with peaks and valleys.  There are times when you feel like you're on a steep incline burning the legs of your efforts.  This is like when you're making those mechanical adjustments to your swing and they just won't seem to click in competition no matter how many swings you take.  On the flip side, there are the times where all is coming easily like cruising downhill on your bike as a kid (or your hoverboard today).  It's the ten game winning streak your team goes on where you just continue to find ways to win.  The book Legacy by James Kerr tells the story of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team through a series of themes all connected both New Zealand culture and the team.  My Highlights section may as well be the entire book because there is so much I love about the story and concepts.  One quote, among the many others, really stood out to me.  The words were from a section discussing the cyclical process of culture.  Here is the quote:  "The key, of course, is when we're on top of our game, to change the game; to exit relationships, recruit new talent, alter tactics, reassess strategy."

        I love it, and I think it's something coaches, teams, and organizations who want to create long-term, sustainable success do.  They don't allow things to get stale.  Think about Nick Saban.  He has been ridiculously successful over a long period of time at multiple places.  Coach Saban is someone who is constantly on the cutting edge of what is next and how the University of Alabama can best help its student-athletes.  It's impossible to ignore the obvious advantages the school has over many others, but they're in place largely because of Saban's continual stressing of improvement.  Major League Baseball organizations are always on the lookout for the next great thing that could provide a competitive advantage.  You may have seen the recent article about the Toronto Blue Jays and the holistic, individualized approach they are taking with their players.  They just had their best season in quite some time last year, but they're looking for ways to do things even better.  They've altered and reassessed.  From the perspective of the individual athlete, great ones are constantly making improvements to their games.  Steph Curry, the basketball darling of the  NBA right now, made comments midyear about ways he could improve his game.  He was already playing at a historic level!

        So how can you go about moving forward consistently on this path to greatness?  Reflect, reflect, reflect.  If reflection seems like a common theme in my writing, there's a reason for that feeling.  Reflection's a great way to create a plan for improvement.  You have to know who you are currently as a team or organization in order to know how you can improve.  What are you already doing well?  What aren't you doing well?  What can you do moving forward to do things better?  Great ones reflect, and they do so rationally and specifically.  They have enough trust among themselves to be able to think critically about the job being done.  In my opinion, this is a difference between short-lived and long-term success.  It's easy to find places for improvement when things are bad.  When you've just won a championship, however, it's hard to think of ways to improve.  That's because if you're only about winning championships then there is no way to do things better.  If you're about continuous improvement, you're able to move forward without the expense of enjoying the wins and championships.  I wonder when I see some of the legends of coaching making comments about the frustration of coaching today's athletes.  Is it really that different from the adjustments to new generations they've been making for years?  Or is  it, rather, that the coach who has been doing things for so long is finding it more difficult to continue to evolve and improve?  Something to think about and maybe expand upon at a later time.  In the meantime, I'd encourage you to enjoy the path to greatness if it's greatness you seek.  The "When" section on the Invitation to Greatness reads "Now-?" so you may as well enjoy the ride along the way.

Lessons in Sport Psychology for Educators

        Part of my love for sport psychology is rooted in its easy applications to everyday life.  Some of my favorite feedback I get about the blog is in a random Facebook message from a friend I haven't spoken with in some time or a comment from a respected colleague.  With that, I often think about how sport psyc relates to different fields.  Some of you know I do not work in sport psyc full time yet.  I am actually in my eighth year teaching high school social studies in South Carolina.  The eight years have been filled with ups and downs, but I really enjoy the great possibility involved in teaching high school students.  They're at a point in life where they are figuring out who they are, and the lifelong learner in me really relishes that.  Sport psychology has helped me to improve my role as a teacher far more than anything else I've done since entering a classroom.  Because of that, I thought I'd change things up for this blog post.  By far the most popularly viewed piece thus far has been the Lessons for Incoming Freshmen.  Well, here are my Lessons in Sport Psyc for Educators Today.  They're lessons I've learned along the way.  My hope is they help you in whatever it is you do.

1. Be You:  Entering your classroom for the first time is similar to the feeling you get as you coach for the first time as well.  You enter with preconceived ideas about how a teacher should and shouldn't be.  Some of the ideas stem from your college courses, and others come from your own experiences.  You want to be like some of the teachers you had and dread the idea of ever being like the ones you didn't.  Rather than either, just be yourself.  You'll find out what you think is the best way of doing things.  That way will be a product of experiences, research, conversations, and hopefully what your students tell you through their time in your class.  Your way of doing things will likely change here and there and continue to evolve.  Authenticity, in my opinion, trumps any silly book about how to behave on the first day of school (You were wrong, Harry).  Be yourself.  If we aren't ourselves, after all, how can we then tell our students they should be?  Be you.

2. Student behavior has to be handled rationally:  DON'T TAKE BEHAVIORS PERSONALLY!  Sometimes you and a student won't get along.  That is okay.  Every once in a while, it may be some sort of issue with you.  The overwhelming majority of the time there is some other kind of reason for a student to behave poorly.  I can't tell you how exactly to handle discipline, and I don't think I should.  Again, I think everyone finds what works best for them.  I would caution you from making discipline personal.  Focus on the behaviors themselves instead of the kid.  I've made a great effort to do that more and more and find students handle it much better overall when they are in trouble.  There are few grudges held and more students actually able to get in trouble and still have a productive day in the class.  Rational.

3. Don't assume:  This is one I still have difficulty with.  As people we all make assumptions about what we see and hear.  The really tough part about this one, for me, is my assumptions as a teacher are often right.  I've joked around with people that I feel like teaching high school has equipped me to interrogate suspects.  Most students are very easy to read.  What I have found though is that even being right is hardly worth it.  Even when I have been able to press a kid for an answer I am left with kind of an empty feeling like, "Okay..now what?"  Now, I am okay sometimes with knowing something without having to follow up on it.  In other words, I'm okay with not knowing everything as long as I don't feel like I am being taken advantage of.  I try not to assume.

4. Control what you can control:  This is old reliable in the sport psyc world.  It's a simple mantra but one not followed enough by teachers.  So much time is spent worrying about things ranging from perception, to administration, to what your neighbor is or isn't doing.  In other words, time is spent worrying about things we have no control of.  I've certainly had my struggles throughout the years with this, but I have improved in concerning myself with whats important: The Classes and Students I Teach.  My job is to teach and help those I encounter have a great experience at our school and beyond.  That's what I try to do to the best of my ability.

5. Don't give in to irrational thinking (HSL):  There is something I like to call High School Logic.  The way it works is an isolated event somehow becomes much more than that whether people were even there for the event or not.  For example:  Teacher A shows a film in class.  Student A is in the class and watches the film.  Student A then goes to another class and says, "All we do in Teacher A's class is watch movies."  Students B-Z and Teacher B for some reason accept this as fact and spread the information as such.  There we have High School Logic.  I can't tell you how many times, both good and bad, I've had teachers tell me something about what I do in the classroom.  Although it's nice to hear good things, it's odd when coming from someone who's never seen me teach.  High School Logic.

6. Judge less.  Observe more:  This is another one I really struggled with my first few years of teaching.  "That kid did this.  He/she is a bad kid."  "They aren't quiet when I am talking.  They are bad kids."  Who are we to label kids as good or bad?  The analogy I have used before is, "Labeling high school kids as bad kids is like calling a half cooked pizza gross.  They aren't finished products yet."  So many times, however, we label them in the classroom and on the field.  Whether consciously or not, it affects how we treat them.  It's hardly fair of us.  We are all humans who have undoubtedly made mistakes in our lives.  I'm not saying not to address issues.  Far from it.  What I'm saying is to address those issues directly without judging a kid as a result of choices they've made.  They aren't done...that's why they are there.

7. Choose Positivity:  High School can be a tough environment to be positive.  Just because it's easy doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't do it.  I'm not even going to tell you to stay out of the Teacher's Lounge.  You can if you want, but you can be positive in there as well.  Some say it comes down to making a choice.  I'd say it comes down to a never ending series of choices.  You don't always make the right ones, but choosing positivity as often as you can is the way to go.  School doesn't have to be a place where we wish away the days.  It shouldn't be.  You can be Positive and even enjoy it most of the time if you want.  Choose Positivity.

8. Consistency wins: Consistent behavior gets consistent results.  There are different ways of doing your thing in the classroom, but being You means doing so daily.  Every year the beginning of the school year brings great promise.  People are excited after a summer away.  I like to see what happens to that excitement as the school year progresses.  How long before the countdowns to vacations start?  All too early in my opinion.  The schools are kind of like a little kid eating a bunch of sugar, going wild for a short period of time, and then crashing into a sugar coma.  Rather than going all out for a couple of incredibly short time periods, how about a little bit of candy more often?  Consistency wins.

9. You're not going to be perfect, and that is okay:  In the classroom, as in sports and life in general, it's impossible to be perfect.  When teachers are just getting started especially, I think the tendency is to think everything has to go perfectly.  My lesson plans have to be airtight, and I have to make every single decision my college professors told me to make.  There are various reasons why this is not ideal.  An environment where you are afraid to make mistakes limits your growth so much.  Many teachers will tell you some of their best lessons have come from trying something different and failing.  You're able to see what went wrong and how it could go better next time.  It's also okay to tell your students you were wrong as well.  I think they appreciate the honest and authenticity that comes with the admittance.  They realize you're human too which is a good thing.  How can we expect them to take risks and try different things for the sake of becoming a better students if we don't do the same as a teacher?

10. Focus on a process, and the results will take care of themselves:  Statistics.  Education loves them.  Percentages of passing test scores, my GPA, visits with checklists to create more statistics based on five minutes of a certain number of teachers' classes.  While I'm not saying some of these statistics aren't important, I think we spend all too much time worrying about them at the expense of what matters or makes them happen.  The process is what makes the results happens.  As teachers, what can we do on a daily basis to help our students have the best experience possible?  I can actually remember being told multiple times about how some group would be coming to observe and how important it would be that the blinds were all on the same level.  How asinine is that?  Eyewash is the term we'd use in sports.  "Great teaching" has nothing to do with superficial environmental factors.  I cringe when I hear sophomores obsess about their GPA's and focus so much on what their grade is.  Build skills, learn content, and work hard.  Come up with your process as a student.  Learn what works for you when you study.  Understand how to adjust based on the inevitable differences in styles your teachers will have.  Learb your process.  LEARN.

11. Being a "good" student isn't a fixed trait:  Growth mindset is a concept that is "growing" more and more in popularity in sports and in the classroom.  If you haven't heard of it, the basic concept is that many of our traits previously thought of as fixed are actually be developed over time.  Among those is intelligence.  Rather than "just being smart" or "not good at math," you work over time to improve.  I've seen this work negatively with all sorts of levels of students.  Students who have had a bad educational experience can allow one tough year in math to ruin it for them for the next four.  It's sad to see.  Likewise, we are guilty of saying things like, "Wow.  You're so smart," when a student does well on a test.  Well, are they then dumb when they do poorly?  That is the message we are accidentally sending when we attribute performance to concepts like smart/dumb rather than preparation and effort.  It actually cheapens the rewarding experience for the kid.  There is a plethora of information out there, but at it's core Growth is why we are teaching in my opinion.  If we don't believe that students can improve and that we can help them, what is the point of it all?  Help them Grow.

Those are just a few of the lessons I've learned in sport psychology that I think transfer really well to the classroom.  This list could easily be 25 or more.  Hopefully you found something in the lessons that will help you improve the educational experience for your students and yourself.  Do you have others you'd like to share?  I'd love to hear from you.  Questions about how sport psychology could help your students?  I'd love to answer them.  If we are all looking for better ways to do things and applying what we learn, school can be a great place to be.  Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great rest of your school year.

"What's Next?" at the Expense of "What's Now"

        If you're like millions around the country, much of your last couple of weekends has been spent experiencing March Madness.  There have been some great games.  Many have come down to the wire and have ended with clutch game-winners.  One game that did not go that way at all was the big upset of Michigan State by MTSU.  MTSU won convincingly, but my greatest takeaway came from well beyond the box score.  It came from Tom Izzo's press conference and a "ridiculous question."  "Tom, how do you take a loss like this and turn it into something to motivate the guys moving forward next year?"  Izzo's response was priceless.  First, he let the reporter know very respectfully how ridiculous the question was.  He then gave a lesson I think we all could use.  Izzo talked about how a major problem in sports today is it's always, "What's next?"  What I love about the problem is it is very, very fixable.

        "What's next?" Where this problem started could be traced to any number of sources.  Maybe it's the ESPN culture that spends 90% of its time making predictions and breaking stories that may or may not have actually happened and only about 10% on what has actually happened.  Maybe it's the results-oriented society we are programmed to be a part of since the time we were very little.  "You need to learn this so you can go to college and have a good job someday," says the teacher to her group of 4th graders as they pick their noses.  Parents of kids playing middle school baseball are worried about their kids getting college scholarships rather than doing what they can to make sure they actually still like baseball by the time they go to college.  "What's next?"  is often asked at the sacrifice of, "What's NOW?"  Rather than just complain, what can we do about it?  We can change, and here are a couple ways how.

1. Focus on development and enjoyment.  Help athletes build skills and knowledge that will allow their best chance of being successful both now and in the future.  The best coaches are able to straddle the line between the two.  Allowing athletes to do what will make them successful now while helping them continually improve so they can be successful in the future is something that can only be achieved if it is worked on daily.  Doing so while also allowing athletes to enjoy themselves is important.  Notice I don't mention a level of play here.  This can be done from the youngest age groups all the way through the professional ranks.

2. Take time to celebrate successes of the now.  Parents, don't be hesitant to tell your kids how proud you are of them and how much you enjoyed watching them play.  Coaches, enjoy the successes too.  Wait for the next day of practice to tell your team all of the ways you need to get better.  Sure, it's important, but not enough to take away the enjoyment of all of their hard work to make NOW's game happen.  You spend way too much time preparing for the actual competition to not enjoy it.  While it's important not to dwell on one performance, good or bad, at the sake of preparation for the next one, it's okay to enjoy it for a little while!

3.  Reflect on the "just now."  What went well?  What didn't?  If we don't ask ourselves these questions, we are wasting so much of what the Now has to offer.  Rational reflection about performance teaches us so much as athletes and coaches that will help with the "What's next?" I know this seems contradictory to #2, but I'm talking about reflection after the fact.  I listened to a podcast the other day with Dr. Bernie Holliday who works with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  He discussed a "3-2-1" technique he uses with their guys.  The technique asks for three things that went well (with the processes that led to them), two that didn't (and processes), and one takeaway moving forward.  It allows for that rational reflection focused on what actually happened.

        Those are just a few ways to help focus on "What's NOW."  I know planning for the future is important.  Goals and long-term plans are largely about the future.  All I'm saying, or rather all that Coach Izzo is saying, is that we should take more time to appreciate what has already happened too.  If you're able to do so, a funny thing just may happen.  You may find yourself more prepared for "What's next?" along the way.

Here is the full MSU Press Conference.  There's plenty of great stuff, but the question I wrote about is at 3:17