Watch Your Language!!!!!

Hello again readers! I hope this entry finds that many of you have started to embark on your 2020 baseball seasons. High school baseball here in the state of Georgia tried to get started late last week but rains and even a Saturday snow storm prevented many teams from kicking things off. Many MLB teams have pitchers and catchers reporting this week as early as Wednesday. College baseball is back starting this coming Friday and it couldn't be a more perfect day to ramp things up than Valentine's Day as baseball is a "true love". Finally, travel baseball season is kicking off for many teams. Our team (Dingers Athletics 11u) travels to Orange Beach, Alabama this weekend for example, while other teams are playing elsewhere or practicing for their season openers here in the next couple of weeks. To say the least it's an exciting time of the year for baseball fans.

The topic today that I want to discuss is your language. As I mentioned in my first ever blog, I'm a P.E. teacher and coach. I am not an English major so no I won't be making my writings perfect and I'm certainly not here to lecture anyone on that type of language. What I'm talking about is the type of language we as coaches use with our players, our parents, the media (for those of you who 'get' to deal with that aspect) and with our other coaches. What I do want to talk about is how we talk about our teams, our expectations, our mistakes, our accomplishments etc. As a matter of fact, the previous sentence is an example of what I mean.

More and more what I'm hearing out of coaches and especially players mouths is, in my opinion, the wrong language to be conveying to everyone else. There is a lot of selfish talk out there. Players and coaches alike are saying things like "I need you guys to focus and play good defense here" or something like "in between innings I told the guys they needed to step up and take better at bats". Those things very well could be true and that might be exactly what needs to be done, but it comes across a lot better and builds team unity and trust if we say it more like "we need to focus here on what we are doing and clean up our defense" or "if we can get it together and start taking better at bats then we have a chance to win this game".

To some of you it may not seem like a big deal. Especially with our younger generation of folks who have grown up more in this culture, but it does matter. We know what you say matters. The message you convey as a coach when you say "we" all the time or "our staff" matters. It matters to your other coaches and it matters to your players. It builds team unity, it builds trust, it builds community ownership, and it makes everyone feel included. On the other had the constant use of "my" and "I" only serves to exclude others it also divides by either accepting all the credit or placing all the blame.

For example, I have heard coaches say things like "you need to work, I can write out the line-up card but you are the one's playing the game". While that is very logical and a true statement, what did you really just say to your players? What you just conveyed to your players was "if they don't produce and they don't win then that's on them". You as the coach aren't accepting any blame. What a coach could say is "we need to be working throughout the week if we want to play the way we want to". It's the same statement without building in a excuse for the coach in case the team loses. Fact is - yes the players have to take swings on their own and extra grounders, but the coaching staff should also be meeting, planning, preparing etc for the game throughout the week to put the team in a position to win as well. The responsibility is on both - it's on the TEAM not just the players.

It's often a topic of baseball fan pages and forums about how to find the right team for your player. One sure fire way to figure out if your coach is about development or about winning and him/her self is to listen to how they speak about their team and their role. If you hear a bunch of "I like to do things this way or that way" or "I've produced this or that many college athletes" etc etc then it's probably time to turn tail and run away. Fact is that person only cares about himself because I can't remember the last time I saw a team ran by just one coach and I don't remember a single coach that sent a kid on to play at the next level without some help and oh yeah without the player being really good as well. So "I didn't send anyone to play in college". We (our staff) along with the hard work and dedication of the player helped them get to the next level. "We like to divide our kids into stations for the first hour of practice to get group work done". Words matter because they become our actions!!

So as we walk into another season of baseball and we look to have team chemistry, hold everyone accountable, and to cut the drama out in our programs I encourage you to "watch your lips" and have those around you watch them as well. Good luck to everyone as they kick of their spring seasons. I look forward to watching many great coaches, teams, and players over the next few months. As always please let me know if I can be of any help.