I played golf this week for the fifth time in my life. My wife Kelli and I were guests of Zach and Rachel Blend at the Goshen Valley Classic at the Cherokee Golf Club. I’m not much of a golfer but I love it for another reason. Golf keeps me grounded so that I can be an effective baseball coach; it gives me a reality check that I still need development in areas of my life just like the Leaders in L.E.A.D.
Several of the Leaders in the Legacy League program are very raw, meaning that they haven’t been coached or developed professionally as a baseball player. In order to be effective as a coach for them, you have to be patient.
Some times as coaches, we forget that we were once raw too. We’ve played at the high school level and beyond and have accomplished our goals. Now we think we have all of the answers and expect to introduce a skill one time to our players and expect them to get it.
Whenever I begin to lose patience with my Leaders in regards to their baseball development, I simply play golf. It reminds me that we all start somewhere and no matter what a person’s athletic ability is, they have to learn how to do something and practice it to get it right consistently. We teachers, mentors and coaches need a reality check sometimes in order to properly help our youth. If you aren’t helping them, you are hurting them.