Blog – Spring Training Sports

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“Win at all costs”

This is a term that has become a catch-all for lots of different types of unhealthy coaching attitudes at the youth levels and a recent situation that happened to a buddy of mine's club team perfectly exemplified the most common version of "win at all costs" and this inspired today’s blog. When you hear “win-at-all-costs” […]

Different Sport, Same Message

I’m once again coaching Maddux’s flag football team and while I’ve been extremely fortunate to play second fiddle to several head coaches who really know the game in ways that I never will, I can provide lots of value on the mental side of being a developing athlete. With just a couple practices under our […]

Embrace The Struggle!

My daughter recently expressed an interest in acting so we signed her up for a beginning improv class. During the first class, she was extremely shy (which is definitely her personality in new settings), barely spoke above a whisper when it was her turn to participate, and then whenever she was asked to add something […]

Outfield Matters!

Let's just be honest; playing outfield during games in Tee Ball, Farm, and most of the time in Minors, can be pretty boring. Rarely does the ball get hit out there and most leagues (correctly) have rules in place against taking extra bases on overthrows so there aren't opportunities for back-up bases either. But as […]

Independence (from your parents) Day!

This blog might have the single most important piece of advice I've ever given out to parents...and it has nothing to do with playing ball. I have the best Summer Camp coaching staff in the world; they are passionate, energetic, fun, and truly care about the kids on the field. This is largely because 99% […]

We Got Smoked!

My 11U All Star team was feeling confident coming off a super-exciting win in Game 1 as we faced off against a strong team from PVLL on Saturday. We battled through 2 innings and entered the 3rd inning tied 0-0; it was shaping up to be a good game. And then everything that could go […]

“The Only Constant Is Change”

I've always loved that quote from the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus (yes I'm giant nerd, but I did have to look up who said that 😁) and I've been using a version of that concept in how I've worked to mentally prepare my 11U All Star team for their tournament. Before our first scrimmage a […]

Fans First? We’re FUN First!

You’ve probably heard of the Savana Banana’s motto by now: “FANS FIRST.” And I hope you know that Spring Training’s motto is “Play Hard, Have Fun.” It took me a long time to come up with a short phrase that captured everything Spring Training is about (and I love it), but if I was ever […]

If The Scoreboard Was Broken…

My favorite body language / attitude challenge to issue to the teams I coach is this: If someone arrived in the middle of the game and the scoreboard was turned off, they should not be able to tell if our team was winning or losing, or who was personally having a good game or bad […]