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the mental side of the game

11/15/2023

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What a player does with their mind, both on and off of the field, is at least as important, if not more, than what they do with their body.  There are several great books discussing the mental side of the game, but I thought I would discuss a few principles here not discussed in those books that my players have found most helpful throughout my coaching career.     
 
Within a sport and during the game, a player’s challenge is to clearly and intently focus their mind on the game without letting the game take over their mind.  They must have the ability to calmly and instinctively recognize what needs to be done to execute the task at hand.  The key is to be able to realize what needs to be done and doing it without having it enter their mind what would happen if they did not.

But what allows some players to be able to do this while others cannot?  Why can some players flush the past and stay in the moment while others let the time between opportunities during the game, and the time between games, consume them with frustration and doubt?  What allows some players to have a Growth Mindset to accept failure as a necessary part of progress and development while others are defeated by it?

The first thing I emphasize to my players is you cannot become on the field or court what you are not in life.  If you pay attention to the details and the process to achieve success in school and in your personal life, you will have the best chance to do so in your sport.  If you master life skills such as organization, time management and goal setting, and have an unwavering positive attitude and perseverance outside of your sport, you will have an easier time applying those essential traits in your sport.

Second, I think a player must know that no matter the outcome, they are loved and supported by their family, friends, coaches, and teammates.  It is also extremely important that youth realize very early in their lives that while they may not have been able to choose their family, they will benefit immensely by choosing friends with high character and integrity.  These emotional components will provide a foundation for inner peace from which excellence in execution can be achieved.

Next, a player must believe their success and happiness in life is not governed by the outcome of a game.  The measure of them as a person and of their team is not whether they won the game or championship; it is determined by how they reacted to winning them.

A player must also believe their talents, skills, academic study, hobbies, and life experience will prepare them for rewarding opportunities outside of their sport.  In this regard, it is critical they choose a college first as if they were not an athlete.

During a game, a player does not perform to the level of their talent; they perform to the level of their training.  Again, these habits begin outside of their sport.  Good grades, for example, are not a true indication of a student’s achievement unless they were obtained from high standards, against elite competition, and through consistent hard work.  The same can be said for the benchmarks of success in the player’s sport.

A player’s teammates must be held accountable to meet these same standards of excellence so that during the game a player can trust their preparation too.  All parts and aspects of practice must include competitions so players can learn the critical lessons of learning to control what they can control and being comfortable being uncomfortable.

A player will know they are winning the mental side of the game when, regardless of whether they are playing well or not, they are excited to come back tomorrow to do it again.  In other words, they are playing the game for the same reason they played it originally – because it is fun. 
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what is fun?

11/1/2023

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If there is one concept that almost all youth coaches and players agree upon about their sport is that it should be fun.  At the end of the day, probably the best measure of whether a practice was successful is whether the players are excited to come back again.  

But what is fun?

Many coaches would say that practices are fun when they lead to winning games and championships.  But if this is the priority, given the fact that every game has a loser and almost every league has as many or more teams with losing records as winning records, participation in the sport would surely decrease every year. And if the players, who played on a team with a winning record one year, played on a team with a losing record the next, the sport would soon not exist.

Fun is achieved when the primary objective of youth sports is the development of the person, the athlete, and the player.  

At every practice and game, coaches should mentor the person by proactively role modeling and teaching life lessons within the game for beyond the game.  Coaches should put as much time and effort into training athleticism, e.g., in dynamic movement routines and the bio-mechanics of the sport skills, as they do the drills and strategies to play the game.  If we are encouraging players to play multiple sports, we should train them specifically to be better athletes in every sport.

All players should be coached and be allowed to participate equally in practices.  They should be allowed to play in games proportionately to the time and effort they invested during practice and in off-season training.   
During practice, watching other players being coached while you are being ignored is not fun.  Being coached to learn new skills and to improve existing skills to be a better athlete and player during practice is fun. Being on the sidelines during most of the game is not fun.  Win or lose, participating in games long enough to demonstrate improvement is fun. 

I watched a 5th/6th grade youth football game last weekend.  The visiting team had 19 players.  Eleven players played both on offense and on defense.  The other eight players played one series in the first half, i.e., four plays, and one “series” in the second half, i.e., one play.  And the team lost by 22 points!  Even the second string players on the winning team played less than 25% of the game and that team only had 21 players. 

My prediction is the players who played the most in the game and their parents had fun.  The players who were not allowed to participate much in the game and their parents did not.  If this pattern continues for the entire season, many of those players who were not allowed to participate much, and their parents, will find another alternative in that sport or in another sport next season.  

For these reasons, participation in many youth sports in our country is declining.
 
When evaluating “fun” at a youth sport practice, coaches should ask themselves these things:
  1. Did you mentor all of the members of your team to be better people?
  2. Did you train all of the members of your team to be better athletes and did you individually assess and periodically objectively verify the improvement?
  3. Did you teach all of the members of your team to be better players?
  4. Did you see all of the members of your team and their coaches smile and laugh? Did they see you do the same?
  5. Did everyone act excited to come back tomorrow?
When evaluating a game, coaches should ask themselves these questions:
  1. Was the playing time for every player decided by their time and effort at practice and not solely by what would give the team the best chance to win?
  2. Did you evaluate the team and player deficiencies in performance first as failures in coaching methodology?
 If you can answer yes to each of these questions every day, you not only have a fun program, you have a program that will survive and prosper – one that has the potential to mentor Champions for Life.
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    Author

    Adam Sarancik is the owner of Elevate Sports Academy which mentors student-athletes in physical conditioning, nutrition, career and college counseling, and sport skills.  He has spent most of his adult life coaching youth ages 8-22 in baseball, soccer, and basketball.  He is a favorite speaker at and director of coaches' and players' clinics. 

    In baseball, Adam’s teams have consistently won championships at every youth league and high school level.  In administration, he has served as league founder, board member and coaches’ and players’ clinic director many times in his 40+ year coaching career.
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    Adam is a frequently published contributor to the ABCA publication Inside Pitch, Collegiate Baseball News, and the Coaches Insider, Coach Deck and Sports Engine websites.  He is also a favorite guest on national podcasts for coaching sports. 
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    Adam is known for his comprehensive and innovative practice plans and for consistently developing championship teams and players who excel at the next level. 

    He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from San Diego State University, his J.D. degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and his Masters of Arts in Teaching from Western Oregon University.


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