“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 couple weeks ago, I asked the boys a simple question; “what’s going to happen tomorrow?” I immediately heard a chorus of responses ranging “we’re going to win 10-0!” to “we’re going strike out the side like 5 times!” to “we’re going to hit 4 homeruns!” to “We’re going to dominate!”

I let them finish and told them how much I loved their optimism! Of course that’s what I wanted their hearts to believe. No team can win if they think they’re going to lose before the first pitch is even thrown.

But the honest answer to that question was “we have no idea” and the best way to prepare mentally (meaning, in our brains, not our hearts) was to visualize and prepare for how we were going to react when things didn’t go the way we expected because…and here’s the baseball version of Heraclitus…The Only Certainty is Uncertainty.”

How will we react if they score first?

How will we react if we score first?

How will we react if they go ahead by a lot?

How will we react if we go ahead by a lot?

How will we, as individuals, react after a strikeout?

Or after we hit a homerun?

How will we react if we’re not in the starting lineup defensively?

Or if we’re batting towards the bottom of the order?

The purpose of the exercise wasn’t to be pessimistic, but rather to prepare for the only certainty…which is uncertainty.

We never know what’s going to happen during a game, so we better be ready mentally for everything. Some at bats will go our way, others won’t. Some calls will go our way, others won’t. Some innings will go our way, others won’t.

It’s easy to have a healthy reaction when everything’s going great. But what about when it’s not?

We worked on this during practices.

We focused on this mental approach during our scrimmages.

We talk about it during post-practice chats.

Bottom line is that we spent a lot of time preparing for the mental side of competing in high pressure and unpredictable situations, because as soon as the 1st pitch was thrown on Tuesday, nobody knew what was going to happen. And we needed to be as prepared for that as we were for how to defend 1st and 3rd situations or relay throws from the outfield.

Here’s another great quote from a lesser-known philosopher; “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” – Mike Tyson.

As group, how were we going to respond if the other team scored first?

As individuals, how were we going to respond if we struck out in our first at-bat?

What would we do if we were winning 10-0?

We prepared for everything.

So how did the game actually go?

In the top of 2nd inning, they scored on a bloop hit and then their 10th hitter jacked a 3-run homerun over the CF fence; we came into the dugout down 4-0.

But we didn’t have an emergency meeting. We didn’t start elevating the tension with “IT’S ONLY 4 RUNS!” or “THERE’S A LOT OF GAME LEFT!”

In fact, the meeting I did have outside the dugout was to remind them that we weren’t going to have a meeting!

The kids put their gloves down, got their helmets on, and got ready to battle every pitch at the plate with absolutely zero mention of the score or the situation.

Why didn’t the boys freak out or get nervous or start pressing at the plate or put more pressure on themselves?

Because we were mentally prepared for the possibility that we would have to come from behind and had a mental game plan in place for those types of situations; we were going to ignore the scoreboard, make absolutely zero changes to our routine or attitude, and just keep playing our game.

The result?

We scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 2nd to immediately tie it up!

After that quick comeback, we still didn’t have a big team meeting or pump-up talk, the boys got their gloves, ran to their positions, and got ready to make plays.

We scored another run in the 4th to go up 5-4, gave up a run in the 5th to make it 5-5, tacked one on in the bottom of the 5th to take the lead 6-5 and then got a game ending double play with 2 runners on in the top of the 6th. Game over. We win.

I couldn’t have been prouder of their mental approach and toughness to go down big early and then mount an immediate comeback, but it wasn’t luck; we were prepared for that possibility because the only thing we absolutely knew before the game started was that we knew nothing about how the game would go. We practiced how we would respond to adversity and we practiced how we respond if everything seemed to be going our way.

And that took work! We spent a lot of time over the last 3 weeks on this. Confidence and coolness under pressure doesn’t just appear out of thin air; it takes consistent commitment and buy-in from everyone…just like everything else in sports.

We play again tomorrow and our strategy will be the same; throw strikes, make plays, be fearless at the plate, and most importantly, keep an even keeled attitude mentally, no matter what happens.

We could be winning 5-0 after 1, losing 5-0 after 4, tied 9-9 in the 5th…who knows?!?! Maybe we win, maybe we lose. No telling. But I do know we’ll be prepared for whatever the game throws at us because…

The Only Certainty is Uncertainty.

Play Hard, Have Fun!