@JRudd_Scout
@FlatgroundApp
I couldn’t disagree more.
The Bruins are not looking for guys that lie to their coach and skip out on their High School team.
There other ways to be ready for them summer.
This is not the one I would suggest.
Advice to young players:
Hitters - sometimes the best way to have more power is to have more birthdays.
Pitchers - sometimes the best way to have more velocity is to have more birthdays.
Hot take after weekend 1:
College Baseball is hard.
There are a lot of good players, a lot of good coaches & a lot of good teams.
The margins are small.
Thought for High School Players:
With the season approaching, commit 100% to your High School team.
It's true that college coaches like player rankings, metrics and all other personal accolades.
But we also like Winning players from Winning teams that perform inside the game!
Young players - today is the 1st day D1 Coaches are allowed back on the recruiting trail.
Don’t start trying to perform for the people in the stands.
Instead, compete for the people in your dugout.
High School to D1 Baseball is often times the biggest jump a player makes in his entire career!
You skip 4 levels (JC, NAIA, D3 and D2)
It’s hard to skip 4 levels in anything!
Failure is a part of it & the Failure is usually Nobody’s fault.
Embrace it - get better NOT bitter
“Optimism is at the center of mental toughness”
I’m all in on this concept from
@michaelgervais
Train your mind to fundamentally believe that amazing is right on the other side of adversity.
It is a difficult but worthwhile skill.
Healthy reminder for all players.
Avoid trying to “maintain” strength and size during the season!… Grow during the season!
You aren’t a grown man playing 162 games in 6 months all over the country, so don’t train like it.
I'm so thankful that I had a coach that wasn't afraid to coach me.
Boy, did I need it!
At 18-22 years old, like many others, I knew everything about nothing.
I'm so grateful for Keith LeClair and the standard he held me to during the most impressionable years of my life!
God put the best things in life on the other side of fear.
Not sure about you, but it’s true for me…
Some level of fear has stood between me & all of the most beautiful things in my life.
Lesson I learned: Run towards fear! It’s uncomfortable but it’s worth it!
- Worth Considering -
Often times, the people around us can see our strengths and potential better than we can.
It’s much harder to see the picture when you are inside the frame!
Find coaches / mentors that you trust and TRUST them.
For young players, or any player, who has a desire to be the best...
Consider this:
- instead of trying to be the best, be the best at getting better!
- getting better is both an art and a science that is worth learning.
"Get better at getting better" as I like to say.
Negativity:
- According to the National Science Foundation, 80% of our thoughts are negative
- a negative thought is 4-7x more powerful than a positive thought
- vocalizing a thought is 10x more powerful than thinking it
⬇
With the season opener just 2 days away…
A healthy reminder for myself and all other coaches with family’s of their own.
Keep the most important thing the most important thing!
Opening weekend in the books! A lot of lessons to be learned about myself, our players & our team.
Creating a self-evaluation template is a healthy exercise for both players & coaches.
I’ve been doing it after games since 2018.
I wish I would have started earlier!
If a player/person can’t tell you their weaknesses, they have the most dangerous weakness of them all; a lack of Self Awareness
Know yourself ➡️ So you can improve yourself ➡️ and most importantly so you can be yourself.
“Be IMPATIENT with your actions & PATIENT with your results.”
This seems to be a good approach towards improvement.
I’ve done it both ways… I know for a fact the other way around doesn’t work!
Talked Body Language with the Bruins yesterday...
Here are just 3 of the many takeaways:
- 55% of human communication is thru body lang.
- It is often times unconscious & contagious
- Positive body language ⬆'s testosterone by 20% & ⬇'s cortisol by 25%
Healthy perspective for players:
Most High School and College players are on the back end of their playing career.
Make every day count and squeeze as much out of the experience as humanly possible!
Every moment of life is brand new, aside from whatever baggage you’re still dragging with you.
Same can be said for every at-bat.
Same can be said for every pitch.
It’s ok to work on your deficiencies, but PLAY to your strengths ALWAYS!
“Well rounded” is overrated and often leads to being average at everything… A "Jack of all trades, master of none.”
Be great at what YOU have a chance to be great at!
Your behavior is WAY ahead of your results.
In many cases, you can achieve what you want to achieve if you are willing to get behind the behaviors that drive that success.
What you do now is going to determine who you are in the future.
Do Simple Better
I heard this for the 1st time from the late great Ken Ravizza in 2005.
The longer I coach and the longer I live, the more I realize just how important this is.
My favorite definition of Leadership:
1. Know the way
2. Show the way
3. Go the way
- Most people know the way
- Everyone loves telling others how they should do it / showing them the way
- The difficult one is going the way. Practicing what you preach
Its simple but NOT EASY
Goin thru some old video. Here is
@mattmclain_
in a November scrimmage with nothing on the line running out a routine GB to SS…. Lesson to young players: play hard - not cool.
- Worth Considering -
I seem to be a better coach when I remind myself what I was like in college
I seem to be a better dad when I remind myself what I was like as a kid
Not losing sight of who you were is a healthy practice
It prevents judgement & encourages curiosity
I often hear the phrase "get 1% better every day."
Something to keep in mind:
- the better you are at something the more difficult it is to get 1% better than you were the day before.
- at some point, you cant just do what you have always done
Example ⬇
- Worth considering -
I once heard someone say, "if your son struggles in History but excels in Science - instead of hiring a history tutor, send him to Science camp."
Shifted my perspective as a Parent and as a Coach...
Identify strengths then Triple Down on them!!!
“It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life.”
- Mickey Mantle
I often feel the same way…
The more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to learn.
No one is a finished product.
No one has all the answers.
Anyone looking to improve must compete to win the daily battle between You & human default behavior.
My experience tells me that you won’t go undefeated - and that’s OK!!
Strive to have as high of a winning % as possible & never lose 2 days in a row.
Young players:
It’s important to understand the difference between mechanics and fundamentals.
Fundamentals enhance your athleticism inside the game.
Mechanics shackle your athleticism.
Be fundamentally sound - Not mechanical.
- Worth Considering -
Develop a desire for feedback. Not just a desire for the feedback that you want.
It’s ok to diversify your inner circle, but be sure to leave room for truth-tellers!!
In baseball and in life - you don’t have to be sick to get better.
Humble yourself to the fact that there will always be more to learn.
You’re either growing or you’re dying.
No one stays the same.
Just watched my oldest son’s rec. league basketball game.
What a great sport for kids - physical fitness, agility, mobility, teamwork, physicality, fast paced, etc…
Advice to all young Baseball players:
- play basketball for as long as you can!
Andy Reid and other 13 year olds at the Punt, Pass & Kick 👀
Lesson I just shared with my son & a lesson to all young athletes.
On one hand - Don’t be discouraged by or measure yourself against kids that mature early.
Keep grinding on your skill & ur strength will catch up!
Taylor Ward extends his American League-leading hitting streak to 14 games, Mickey Moniak hit the longest home run of his career (437ft), and Griffin Canning strikes out 7 in 6.2IP as the Angels beat the Dodgers, 10-1.
#RepTheHalo
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#SoCalMcD
On the other hand, naive optimism is very dangerous.
You must be doing the work!
Working to figure out how to get Through the adversity and get To the amazing.
I have found it very helpful & healthy to continuously edit my life.
I started this practice 12 years ago when I had my 1st child... I wish I would have started earlier!
Based on my profession, I audit and edit my life 3 times per year. I have become better at it over time.
⬇
Awesome picture of Martin Luther King Jr. at the base of Janss Steps on the UCLA campus in 1965.
He gave a speech entitled “Segregation Must Die” to a crowd of 5,000+ students and faculty.
Only months later, President LBJ would sign the Voting Rights Act into law!
As a coach I’ve always heard and subscribed to the concept that leadership is CAUGHT more than it is TAUGHT… I’m seeing that parenting is the same way.
Harps coming down for a workout on her own!! 🤙🏼
@USFBaseball
@JesuitBaseball
Damn. This hits hard. Loved Dex! Memories of him are flooding back.
Hard to believe.
Such a likable spirit. One of a kind.
May God Bless his family.
RIP Hendawg
Annual Rant / Confirmed Suspicion:
Todays adults are as, if not MORE addicted to technology than todays youth!
Kids at least have adults telling them when to get off their devices. Although a lot of the time the adult telling them is doing so while on their own device.🤔