Parents || Page 6 || Baseball Dudes LLC

Learn From Each Other

Jul

Everyday, we (my pitchers and I) start our day with a meeting. We will go over the plan for the day, maybe fill them in on some information about future travel or something and then we get into discussing the events that occurred in the game the day before. This meeting usually takes between 10-20 minutes and I honestly feel that this is the part of the day where these future big leaguers grow the most.

We discuss the good, the bad and the ugly. I will most often call out the players and force them to participate. One, they need to learn to be comfortable speaking in front of others and two, the lessons we can learn from each others successes and downfalls can be great. If you were to sit in on our meetings, you would most likely hear the same things day after day, but that’s ok. If it takes one needing to hear something 100 times before they really start to understand it, then I’m going to say the same thing 100 times.

For these players to get to this level is a great success in their lives. They are the select few who have the god given talent and have worked hard enough to make it here. But often, it is a humbling experience once they start facing the competition in professional baseball. They can’t just sit back and throw the ball as hard as they can anymore because that guy in the batters box will turn around a belt high 95 mph fastball like you are throwing batting practice up there. You can’t throw an 0-2 breaking ball in the dirt every single time because these hitters are taught to look for those type of patterns.

Daily, we will discuss things like that. We also discuss others routines, and how it may be affecting their game in a good or bad way. We will discuss mistakes on the field that we all need to learn from for instance, I have a pitcher who developed a so called “Balk move” in college and he has used it successfully but got caught with it the other day and ended up balking in a run. The lesson here was that if you have one of these moves, don’t ever use it with a runner on third because you are risking giving them a free run.

From my end, having gone through what all these players are going through right now, is fun to watch. It would be very easy for me to get frustrated with them, but with my own personal experiences in this game, I understand how hard what they are doing really is. This game is very humbling. One day these kids heard their name called by a professional organization and they are on top of the world and the next day they are having missiles hit off them left and right. Only the mentally strong will survive and the more we can learn and take in, the mentally stronger we will get.

Be observant, go into it with a open mind and don’t get caught thinking that you have it figured out. Learn everyday.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Founder of Baseball Dudes. Blessed with three beautiful children and an amazing wife. Baseball is my life, after my family, and I love sharing what I have learned from it. Thanks for taking the time to view what we offer here at Baseball Dudes.

Categories : Chris Gissell, Coaching, Dudes Blog, Parents

Teachable Moments

Apr

One of the biggest things I have learned since becoming a coach a few years ago is to NEVER let a “Teachable Moment” pass. If, and when, coaches do, they are doing that player a disservice and quite frankly, not living up to their name…”COACH”.

I got to watch my 10 year old son play last night which was a special moment. With all the traveling I do, I don’t get to watch him play much in person. He started the third inning on the mound. Here’s a summary of how it went…

He fell behind in the count often which made the hitters comfortable, so when he did put the ball over the plate, there were a few hard hit balls. Added a walk in there and unfortunately his defense had a tough inning too.

Here are the negatives we talked about after the game. First, we talked about hitter’s counts and what they are (whenever there are more balls than strikes). Second, when there were runners on base and the ball was hit to the outfield, he just stood on the mound. We talked about how he should always be moving to either cover an unoccupied base or backing one up incase of an overthrow.

Here are the positives we talked about. His mound presence was great. He didn’t hang his head or show emotion when things weren’t going his way (giving up hard hit balls or his defense making errors behind him). He covered home perfectly on a wild pitch, though the catcher didn’t throw him the ball and tried to tag the runner himself who ended up scoring (hope the catcher was talked to about that). He was able to self adjust a mechanical issue half way through the inning which helped him get his FB back in the strike zone. The thing I think he did best was that he didn’t give up. Even with nothing going his way, he kept competing. As a coach, that is all we can ask.

In every game, win or lose, there is always something to learn from it. As a coach, it is our job not to let a single “Teachable Moment” pass. These are the little things that can make or break a team/player. Help the players understand that we need to learn from the negatives and focus on the positives.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Chris Gissell, Coaching, Parents, Pitching

Think Before You Speak

Feb

This applies to everyone, not just baseball players and coaches. We all have heard at some point that our words can hurt. Not only can our words hurt someone, they can affect how we are perceived by others. Our students who work through our “Life & Leadership” workbooks hear about this often. This also is a topic often spoken about in my own household.

My boys were at the park one day with a couple buddies playing football when my younger one came to me saying one of the boys made a comment about his catching ability. The kid who said it is a very nice kid and my younger boy (8) is still pretty sensitive. When we talked about it later, I tried to get him to understand that the buddy wasn’t trying to be mean, he was just stating what he was seeing. I’m sure how the buddy worded his comment didn’t come across the way an adult would have said it, but that’s to be expected from a 10 year old. The point I was trying to get across was that whenever we are thinking about saying or doing something, we need have better control of ourselves and think about how our words or actions will affect the people around us and how it might make us appear to others. He needed to recognize that his buddy wasn’t being mean, but in the moment, he made the wrong choice in saying the words he did. He obviously didn’t think about how his words would affect my boy.

As an adult, it still amazes me when I come across other adults that still don’t have what I call a “Filter” in their head between their brain and their mouth. This is the place where an idea stops and for a second and your brain decides whether it’s a good idea or bad idea to do or say whatever it just came up with.

I am very fortunate to spend a lot of time around some of the best baseball minds in the world. Guys who had great MLB careers. Unfortunately, with that kind of success, you often find big egos and with that you come across people who love to her themselves speak and feel that everyone wants to hear what they have to say at all times.

The best and most influential people I have been around are the ones who only speak when spoken to and only voice their opinion when it will have an impact on what’s in front of them.

Early in my professional life, I was one of these people with no filter. I would just say or ask whatever came to mind. I look back now and realize how ignorant and immature I was making myself look. My “Filter” was non existent. Fortunately, I have learned from my mistakes and am excited to be able to teach my students from my own experiences. It can be a tough lesson to learn but the sooner in life we learn/teach this life lesson, the easier we can make things for our ourselves, and our Dudes, later in life.

ALWAYS, “Think Before You Speak”

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : All Articles, Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Dudes Blog, Parents

I Play Clean

Sep

68981_160819980608472_3792825_n For those of you who may not have heard yet, we have partnered up with “I Play Clean”. Their mission is to educate and encourage high school students to make the right choice of playing clean – that is, training hard, eating well and playing with attitude, instead of resorting to illegal and dangerous steroids and performance enhancing products.

They are a Non-Profit organization and the partnership couldn’t be more perfect. This topic is something I feel very strongly about. I was raised in a house where when you had a goal, the way you would reach it would be through hard work and dedication. I take pride in knowing that everything I achieved in my playing days was a direct result of me working my butt off to get everything I could out of my talent.

I played in a generation where the use of performance enhancing drugs was at it’s peak. I sat in locker rooms knowing that the guy next to me was using steroids. It didn’t bother me. I truly believe that it didn’t because of the mindset I was brought up with. I learned through this game that, yes it is a team sport, but for my team to be great, it took each of my teammates to know what it took for them to be good as often as possible. I couldn’t control what they did or didn’t do. Once I realized this in my career, things got better for me. I found a routine that I did daily which helped me to be the best I could be for my team every day my name was called. The best in this game are better more often. To be better more often comes from a mindset and desire to be as consistent as you can be.

These guys I played with and against that used steroids are the type of people who are looking for the easy way. Yes, many of them reached the big leagues only because they used steroids but now these guys will have to live with remorse and hopefully regret knowing that the reason they had the success they did was because they were cheaters. Now I’m not stupid, I have spent my life around guys and have a good feel for how everyone of them has different mindsets, and realize that many will never feel these emotions. Many will sit at home in their huge house and never think twice about how they got it. That’s just the way it is.

The point of all this is, live a life of integrity and honesty. Be a strong enough person to make your own choices. If your buddies are doing something that you don’t think is right, be the bigger person and follow what your heart is telling you. You WILL feel better about yourself, and have more confidence, when you live a life by these standards.

Chris Gissell (172 Posts)

Categories : Baseball Life, Chris Gissell, Coaching, Dudes Blog, Parents

Archive for Parents – Page 6

Learn From Each Other

Teachable Moments

Think Before You Speak

I Play Clean