A question for coaches and parents

I knew I could count on Coach to have a great reply. I would like to focus on this comment. Can't the mental toughness be taught?

 

Yes it can!

To me mental toughness is the difference between winning and loosing. It is the difference in wanting the ball and not wanting the ball. It is the difference between the kid that wants to be up with two outs and the kid that does. To me I look at the kid that is 0-3 with three k's and he gets up late in the game with a chance to deliver. The mentally tough kid believes he is going to deliver and has no idea that he is 0-3 or could careless or sees it as heck Im due. The other kid says Im 0-3 and Im going to fail again. Mentally tough kids will find a way to get it done some way some how. If Im not hitting today Im going to make a play. Im going to do something to help my team win. If they are on the bench they pull for their team and they wait for their opportunity on the field that day and work their butt off in practice to prove the coach wrong. Mentally weak kids use excuses and blame others for their failure. Now on to the topic of can it be taught. Yes it can be taught. Physical exercise or conditioning is a great way to build mental toughness. The human nature is to quit when things get tough. When the coach says were going to run five miles in under 40 minutes. And the kid starts running and when he gets tired his mind tells him to quit. You have to be there to push him and teach him that the mind is weak but the heart is strong. Kids have to learn that quitting is not an option and they must learn to conquer the human nature to quit when things get tough. The fear of failure must be stronger than the fear of pain. Once kids learn that they can controll their fear and they can controll their weak mind and make it strong they can conquer it. When I played no one quit a run! No one! All we had was our pride and our manhood. The worse thing anyone could ever say about you in the day was you didnt hustle or you were a quitter. I might strike out but Im going down like a man. When you have spent every day of the summer in the heat priming tobacco going to football practice was cake. I tell guys all the time the most important thing you can earn from being a part of our baseball team is the respect of your teamates and coaches. That will last you the rest of your life. No one is going to remember or care who had the best batting average 20 years from now. But they will remember who laid it on the line every day out and never quit and was always there to be counted on. Kids will give you what you demand from them. Kids that are mentally tough have been pushed and tried by the fire. And they learn to have great pride in the fact that YOU COULDNT BEAT THEM! To me I want players that will look me in the eye and tell me "Coach I dont care what you got for us today we are not going to let you beat us". Those are the kids I want to put on that bus and go to war with. Hell, velocity speed etc dont mean crap if you got a bunch of kids on the bus that will fold when the going gets tough. I want guys that hate to fail, hate to loose, and want the ball. There is a tremendous amount of pride in a young man that has learned that he is in controll of his fear and he has learned to conquer it. Coaches in my opinion are killing kids when they dont challenge them to be the best they can be. I make no bones about it the off season works out I run are brutal. They challenge you to decide if you really want to be a part of this. They challenge you to step up or go home. But one things for sure. They come back every day for more. And we might not be the most talented group year in and year out , but they will battle you to the end. And they might not get that big hit or make that play but it aint because they are scared. Mental Toughness. Thats what makes a man a man. And thats what allows a person to persavere through the tough times and come out on the other end an even better person for it. I know this is a long post but let me end it with a story from my HS football days. My HS coach was Monte Davis at Southern Durham. He was a mean sob that I hated with a passion. I also would run through a brick wall for him today if he called me and told me to. And I love him like a father as well. After a tough loss the next practice on Monday he decided to see who wanted to play. He ran us for quite awhile to see if anyone would quit. No one did. When I got home I started to cramp up. My dad said whats wrong with you boy. I said Coach Davis ran the mess out of us and just as I was starting to let out some more words my dad said "Boy don't come in here complaining about your coach. If you aint tough enough to play games then quit. I never got a chance to play games I had to work to support my family. Dont you ever let me hear you say another thing about your coach." I shut the heck up and I never opened my mouth again. Lesson learned.

 

What he said......

 

It ain't just in baseball.....

I really wanted to be a chemist when I went to college. After about 3 semesters, I wasn't doing as well in my chemistry classes as I had hoped. In my heart, I knew that it wasn't quite the right career for me. I changed and moved on.

God Bless all the chemists in the world....glad I'm NOT one of them!
My wife and kids still love me.....how's that for a happy ending?
Great thread!