One more kid's career...ruined?

I met with some coaches recently to discuss BALL for some older (13-14 year old) kids in baseball.  Because the kids were older than the typical BALL youth league demographic of 6 to 12 year olds, I decided to include the physiology units that we use the in high school program as a part of this league's older kid lesson plan. The logic goes like this:  With all the misinformation out there about how a body reacts under stress, and all the guys that peddle the latest and greatest to eager parents about how to get that magical 90 mph fastball over the internet, I figured the coaches would appreciate learning what their high school and college counterparts already know.

Sometimes I figure wrong.

I made the mistake of presenting a lesson titled "Preventing Throwing Injuries and The Elbow", written by the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America.  For those that don't know, let's just say that this group is made up of the finest doctors in their field.  Period.

In the article, it tells about safeguards to prevent long term injuries to the young arm - injuries that might not surface until years after the kid actually starts hurting himself.

It was interesting to see how a few of the parent/coaches reacted when the doctors (who are specialists in this area) were advocating coaches to limit pitch counts and focus on proper conditioning, stretching, rest, etc.  It seems that there is an opinion with a few well-meaning but (in my opinion) overly-aggressive youth coaches that a 13 year old kid can handle the same kind of stressors that a high school kid can handle.

I was baffled.  And then I understood why.  Apparently, guys that sell pitching performance on youtube to these well-meaning parents know more about 13 year old kids' arms than these doctors.  Or maybe the parents just want to believe them more.  Or maybe...just maybe...the information is good, but the audience is misapplying a solid message.  Maybe a malleable 13 year old kid's body needs to be treated differently than a 17 or 18 year old prospect (with good mechanics) who is targeting a college career.

But I could be wrong...

High school presentation

Got a call out of the blue...seems that a local high school heard about BALL through the grapevine and wants me to talk to the students...FOR 4 HOURS.  Alone on a stage.

Actually, it's four different periods in the auditorium.  Maybe we'll look at some videos and discuss...

Basketball and soccer referees getting attacked by parents for "bad" calls...

Football parents going ballistic for "bad" coaching decisions...

Baseball moms berating umpires for "blown" calls...

Or maybe it will be of my all-time sports hero, Nolan Ryan, getting the best of Robin Ventura after Ventura was unsuccessful at controlling his emotions...It's a shame that Ventura's above-average career will be remembered for charging the mound after getting hit by a 46 year old legend (completely by accident).

On the other hand, it merely added more mystique to Ryan's legacy.  Sometimes, you have to defend yourself. 

Points to ponder...

Fatigue makes cowards of us all. 

- George S. Patton, Jr., Letter of Instruction Number 1, Third Army

When life gets hard...

When we're hurting and weary...

We must remember what's at stake.

- Kerry Shook, One Month To Live

Teacher's Day

So I met with a group of coaches last night to set up their league's BALL program.  Paul Escobar, one of the coaches, came up to me afterwards.  He coaches 11 and 12 year olds.

Paul: "I really like this BALL concept.  It fits in with the way I coach."
Me:  "Really?  I'm glad you think so. How is that?"
Paul: "Teachers never seem to get the credit they deserve.  Last year I got the idea to have the kids write a short essay on their favorite teacher.  Then, I personally invited the teachers to one of the games so our team could honor them.  Everyone loved it!"
Me:  "That's AWESOME! Can I steal that idea?"
Paul: "Of course!"

HOW COOL IS THAT?

I feel like I've found a kindred spirit.  Here's a guy who gets it.

Sports can be used for so much more than simply learning the skills necessary to play the game.  Here's a guy who's using it to teach the kids the game of life!  I'm anxious to see how BALL helps him continue this.

In the coming weeks, I'm going to formally introduce this concept (in modified form) in a BALL lesson.  And he's going to be an honorary BALL Storyteller.  Watch for it!

Make each day your masterpiece!

Ted

New Coaches: Be bold and unafraid...

A quick story...


Everyone has memorable coaches or teachers that, at one point in their lives, truly inspired them.  Mine was my high school wrestling coach by the name of Dr. John Dahlem, who taught history and social science at Loara High School in Anaheim, CA.  When Loara needed a wrestling coach in 1970, he stepped on the mat and jumped right in.   


What happened over the next several years was simply astounding.


In an era before the "Masters" was a fixture in California wrestling, winning league championships was a benchmark of how solid of a program a school had developed. Between 1974 and 1984 (when he retired), his wrestlers won league titles in '74, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80. '81, '82, '83, and '84.  10 championships in 11 years!  


When I analyze his coaching career, Dahlem was an interesting parallel to Wooden in many ways:

• Like Wooden, his early teams weren't immediately dominating.  But once he figured out his coaching style and learned the sport, his teams won more matches and league championships than any other team of the era.  
• Like Wooden, he had an uncanny ability to teach and inspire kids.  For example, he used short, memorable maxims that triggered a desired action.  He then linked it to examples of how to apply them to other aspects of an athlete's post-wrestling life.  
• Like Wooden, he also had a knack for making each player, no matter the skill level, feel like an important part of the team.  To this day, many of his players still contact him on a regular basis.
• Like Wooden, he promoted a cohesive, "team" concept.  This is unique in a sport that to a casual observer is a sport of individuals (after all, when you wrestle an opponent, it's just you and him on the mat). 
• Like Wooden had developed Swen Nader, Dahlem focused on making everyone, even the "spare parts", be the best they could be.  A testimony to this is that, while there were several very good wrestlers that went through Dahlem's program, only one in 14 years was a state champion.  

Dahlem's accomplishments were so profound that he was named the Orange County Coach of the Decade (chosen by the Orange County Register, which considered every school and every sport played in Orange County).  He was the first inductee into the Orange County Wrestling Hall of Fame.  He was eventually inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. 


Not bad for a coach in a so-called "minor" sport like wrestling.  He then went on to become a well-respected high school principal, and retired in 2004.    


But the "amazing" hook to the story?


He never wrestled a day in his life.

So how does this relate to you, a potential coach or parent volunteer? 

Sometimes, a parent makes the unfortunate mistake of believing that a new coach's ability to coach can be judged by the previous playing experience he or she brings to the table.  In fact, I've even heard about youth league board members fawning over new youth coaches simply because they played college or pro ball.  


I wince when I hear this.  

Just as the performance of pre-adolecent kids has no bearing on how well athletes turn out in high school, previous playing experience has no bearing on how successful someone will be as a youth coach.  Put another way: lack of experience doesn't make you, as a new coach, any less valuable to these kids.  

My advice?  

Don't let the challenge of coaching intimidate you.  Instead, jump in with both feet!  

Make each day your masterpiece!

Ted

Bitter-sweet day today...

 Resonate:  To have an effect or impact beyond that which is immediately apparent.

This might be a little too personal, so forgive me if this post doesn't immediately resonate.

Sometimes life sneaks up on you.  That happened to our family today.

We had just pulled into the gas station to fill up the truck with gas to take the kids to the snow when my wife, Heather, got the call:  Fred (her father) had just died. I recognized the relief in her voice when she told me.  I had the same feeling when my grandma died after a long bout with cancer.

You see, I've known Fred for nearly 20 years.  Fred was nearly 93 years old.  He was blind.  He couldn't hear very well.  He was too weak to walk.  But for the last 7 years or so, he seemed to realize his mortality and had actively tried to present a positive spin on his fate, his relationships, and his new-found dedication to his faith.  And, for the most part, he lived it well.  He always seemed happy to "see" friends and family, and loved talking about his life and times.  Sometimes, he forgot who his audience was (7 and 8 year old grandkids) and maybe disclosed "too much information" for their parents' comfort.  But you could never fault his honesty and enthusiasm to tell a wild story about "the good ol' days".  He was even the answer my then-7 year old son gave to one of our original life lessons on disabilities.  Under the "Know What's Important" section, Mac put Fred down as someone he personally admired for fighting through disabilities and making the folks around him better for simply being around him.  As an adult, I had almost missed out on this 7 year old's insight.  It changed the way I looked at Fred's disposition.

Over the last few months, Fred went downhill quickly.  He started suffering from dimentia, had completely lost he appetite, and was losing more than his fair share of weight.  He became reclusive.  Heather and my daughter had just visited him this last Friday, and she reported that his condition had really started to free fall.  He didn't know his own daughter, and was in many ways just seemed to be waiting to die.  Heather confessed that it would be a blessing if he was "taken home".

So today, it happened.

God bless you, Fred Maecherlein.

You resonate.

High School Coaching and BALL

So I was asked to help out a local high school pitching staff at the beginning of the school year by the Boy's AD and head baseball coach. I really like this guy's spirit and style of coaching.  Firm but gentle in how he corrects the kids.  Plus, he's really well-respected and liked by the kids outside of baseball, too (always a good sign).

Anyway, he simply wanted me to spend a month or so with him and step in and help the younger pitchers (freshmen) get a good handle on what would be expected of them...and maybe teach them a few tricks of the trade on the bump.  Nothing spectacular, just helping out a good guy who was short staffed and in a tough situation.  But he had a problem - the school had essentially no returning varsity pitchers from last year's team, and THAT team didn't exactly set the world on fire.

So after about a month, I was asked to help out all the pitchers and act as the team's pitching coach.  After I negotiated my $100,000 signing bonus (riiiiiight) and got my wife's permission to go back into coaching, I accepted with the condition that the coach allow me to implement BALL with the pitchers.  My quandry: would high schoolers respond to the same lessons taught to 7 and 8 year olds?  Good news - it turns out that they eat it up, as long as you treat them like adults and modify the questions to reflect a deeper understanding of the underlying messages.

In other words, kids like to learn as long as they see the point.  Maybe there's a message there somewhere...

Soon, some of the non-pitchers were asking me to do the lessons.  So the program expanded.  Now, all the ballplayers are using the system, and we started adding new units to the mix (like physiology, differences in chemical makeup of medications used to treat injury, danger of Performance Enhancing Drugs, etc.).  It's been pretty nice to see the light bulb go on in some (not all) of the kids' heads.

And to cap it off, last night the coach asked me if I wouldn't mind reviewing and signing a coaching morals/ethics contract (all the coaches sign them for this particular program - more on this later).

NICE!

I knew I had a good feeling about this guy...

Make each day your masterpiece!

Ted