The Best Teammates Never...
1. Quit
2. Blame
3. Complain
4. Bring Drama
5. Point Fingers
6. Show Up Late
7. Make Excuses
8. Make Poor Choices
9. Run From a Challenge
10. Bring Negative Energy
11. Badmouth Teammates
Be a Great Teammate.
Most teams want the trophy. But what does the trophy cost?
Brent Venables nailed it. đĽ
Respect the jersey.
Respect the routine.
Respect the process.
Nobody wins alone.
Mike Tyson on discipline: "The best way to receive discipline is to do what you hate to do, but do it like you love it. You do that, that's discipline."
What sport humbles you more than baseball?
You go 3-for-3 on MondayâŚ
then 0-for-3 with 3 punchouts the next day.
Thatâs the game.
The real question is:
How do you handle failure?
Do you quit when it gets hard?
Or do you work harder than ever?
Thatâs what separates people.
1 unselfish AB
can win a game
1 high baseball IQ play
can win a game
1 hustle play
can win a game
1 great base running read
can win a game
âŚ.And it could be early in the game!
If you REALLY want to win, dominating the âminorâ details leads to âmajorâ Wâs!
#BaseballTruth
The #1 skill missing from todayâs athlete is mental toughness. Refusing to hold oneself accountable to individual and team goals. Blaming others for circumstances. Not fighting through adversity. Pouting and poor body language. Physical skill can only take you so far. Get tough! #DoingDirtWork
3rd base coach:
âLetâs go! Get a good pitch to hit!â
1st base coach:
âLet the ball travel!â
Dad:
âRemember to keep your weight back!â
Grandpa:
âGet that runner over!â
Little bro:
âHit a bomb!â
Dugout:
âDonât lunge!â
âStay thru the baseball!â
âStay short to the ball!â
âWatch for the 1st pitch curveball!â
âSit fastball!â
Hitter thoughts:
You gotta block out the noise, have extreme focus, control the pressure and anxiety, have your plan and compete.
Just writing this gave me anxiety, imagine what that young ballplayer is going through in the moment the next time you want to start barking out instructions on how to hit! đ¤
#BaseballTruth
Talent is a gift. Excellence is a choice.
God gave you the gift. The excellence is on you.
Every day you decide what to do with what you were given.
The question isn't whether you're talented.
The question is whether you're choosing excellence with what you've been given.
HS Baseball Players âžď¸
Iâve been around this game a long time, and somethingâs changed...
Weâre losing respect for the game.
�� Chirping after every pitch.
⢠Celebrating routine plays like itâs Game 7
⢠Trying to embarrass opponents instead of beating them.
Thatâs not toughness. Thatâs insecurity. đŻ
Somewhere along the way, being loud became more important than being good.
And the worst part? Itâs being allowed.
When I came upâŚ
⢠You showed up early.
⢠You handled your business.
⢠You played hard.
⢠You shut your mouth.
⢠If you had something to sayâŚ
you said it with performance.
⢠And if lines were ever crossed, the players took care of it.
The truth: đ
⢠Baseball is hard.
⢠Youâre going to fail.
⢠Youâre going to struggle.
⢠The game doesnât need more noiseâŚ
⢠It needs more respect.
⢠Nobody remembers who chirped.
⢠They remember who showed up.
⢠Who competed.
⢠Who handled adversity.
⢠Who left the game better than they found it.
Want to separate yourself?
Stop talking. Start working.
Respect the game.
đŻâžď¸
The Sound of a Losing Culture.
I hear it in the dugout during games. A player strikes out looking on a borderline pitch. He walks back to the bench tosses his bat and starts the script:
"Blue has a flight to catch," or "The sun was right in my eyes."
The coach nods just to stop the noise. The teammates shrug because they do it too.
But the standard of the program just dropped another inch.
You think youâre just "venting." Everyone else sees a player who is too soft to own his failure.
The 3 Lefts Mental Audit:
⢠The Excuse Subsidy: Every time you blame the umpire, the sun, or the mound you are paying a tax on your own development. If itâs someone elseâs fault you don't have to fix anything. And if you don't fix anything you stay exactly where you are Average.
⢠The "Main Character" Delusion: The sun is hitting the pitcherâs eyes too. The umpire is missing calls for both sides. The game isn't out to get you it just doesn't care about you. Stop acting like the world is conspiring against your batting average.
⢠The Respect Gap: You want your teammates to trust you in the 7th inning. Then stop acting like a victim in the 2nd. Real leaders don't look for someone to blame they look for a way to adjust.
The game doesn't reward the player with the best reason It rewards the player who makes the most adjustments.
If you want to be treated like an elite ballplayer, start acting like one when things go wrong. High-level players don't have bad luck they have short memories and a plan for the next pitch.
Average players want the world to be fair.
Ballplayers realize the dirt is dirty and they keep digging anyway.
Stop auditioning for the victim role. Nobody is buying tickets to that show.
#3LeftsBaseball #BaseballIQ
The majority of high school baseball coaches arenât in it for the paycheck.
The hours donât match. The stress doesnât match. The pay doesnât match.
They do it for the love of the game, most people donât realize that.
Luke Falk shared a Mike Leach story that stopped me cold:
Two kids. One rich. One poor.
Every training camp, Coach Leach told his team about these 2 kids.
The rich kid has two choices.
Get soft. Get entitled. Expect everything handed to him because he was handed more.
Or take the resources, the coaching, the opportunities, and compound them into something greater.
The poor kid has two choices too.
Say nobody gave him anything. Blame the world. Make his circumstances the reason he never became what he could have been.
Or outwork everyone in the room.
Luke said the locker room had both. Kids from wealth. Kids from nothing. Kids with every advantage. Kids who scraped for every inch.
Same choice for all of them.
Ownership or victimhood.
Fuel or excuse.
The rich kid can waste the head start or build on it.
The poor kid can drown in the deficit or weaponize it.
Greatness doesn't come from where you start.
It comes from which kid you choose to feed.
Credit to @coachlukefalk for continuing to share golden nuggets about Coachâs legacy
Parents, I promise you this:
Whatever gossip, drama and opinions youâre living in right now with other parents about your kids, the coaches or the team, itâs so unimportant in the long run and the grand scheme of things.
Change your attitude
Change your outlook
Change your negativity
Because youâll look back when itâs all over and regret that you didnât just sit back and enjoy watching them grow up and mature while âžď¸ taught them solid life lessons!
#BaseballTruth