Feb 25 – 26  Extreme Challenge – Northrup Park, Boerne, TX

Mar 10 – 11  Irish Slam II – Northrup Park, Boerne, TX

Mar 24 – 25  McAllister Park, San Antonio, TX

April 14 – 15  Take It Yard – Northrup Park, Boerne, TX

Apr 21 – 22   NC Direct – Ramon Park, San Marcos, TX

May 5 – 6  McAllister Park, San Antonio, TX

May 19 – 20  May Madness – San Marcos, TX

Jun 1 – 3 Super Series Minor State (11U), Round Rock, TX

Jun 8 – 10  Super Series AAA State (12U), Round Rock, TX

Jun 17 – 24  College World Series (12U), Omaha, NB

Jun 23 – 24 NC Direct Summer Bash (11U) NCFD Fields (if playable)

Jun 30 – Jul 1  USSSA State, Houston – OR – SS Qualifier, San Marcos, TX

All of these dates are reflected on our Calendar page as well.

Please note that the USSSA State Tournament and College World Series tournament are tentative. 

[This post is part of the Mental ABC's Of Pitching series. Check out the rest here.]

Have you ever left for school, only to realize you forgot to brush your teeth.

Gross, right! Habits are important, and missing them can have a huge impact.

Just like brushing your teeth is a habit you don’t want to forget, it’s important to develop great habits out on the field. Let’s talk about working on your routine, and what it mean to your game.

• Habits. There is power in habits. Habits are a form of mental and physical actions you take regularly. Not all habits are good, so it is important to structure a routine that helps strengthen both the mental and physical aspects of your game, and not fall into the pitfalls of bad routine. Often times it is harder to break a bad habit than it is to develop a good one.  When you have to make an out or throw strikes you have habits you can rely on to get you through tough spots.
• Hitting. Never see a hitter for more than they are. You are in control. They are at the whim of your next pitch. While on the mound you are a warrior, and the hitter a worrier. Impose your talents on the hitter, and do not get caught up in what you think they bring to the plate.

Pray nightly that God helps you remember and act on the good habits you are trying to build, and helps keep you from those habits you wish to not build. And remember in the heat of the game that regardless of how a hitter has performed thus far, that this is a new at bat, and you will be victorious over him.

Related articles

• Discipline Yourself, And Others Won’t Need To (badhop.com)

Great job boys!

Way to go boys! You represented the team well over the weekend. We are all proud of your hard work.

“You can’t beat someone who never gives up.”

- Babe Ruth

The pitcher’s mound… where you are player and coach.

[This post is part of the Mental ABC's Of Pitching series. Check out the rest here.]

If you Google the topic of Goal Setting you’ll quickly be exhausted with what the search turns up.

So, let’s just focus on proper Goal Setting in Baseball, and let the rest take care of itself!

As a pitcher it is very easy to get caught up in setting goals that you have no control over. Win-loss records or earned run average and such all direct a young pitchers mind to things he thinks he wants or can control, but take him away from what he should be doing.

• Goals. One of the biggest flaws I see in goal setting as a pitcher/player, other than focusing on things you can’t control, is the commitment to the goal “I’ll do my best.” The reason this goal is flawed is that it fails to have the pitcher/player actually commit to a measurable challenge, which impedes growth. Instead, goals worth setting, and tracking, are things like: being more aggressive early in the count, improving a specific fielding, batting or pitching technique or throwing inside , to the chest  more often and at appropriate times.

• Gathering. According to the Dictionary gathering means: to bring together. During a poor performance it is important for a pitcher to do just that, to gather himself, to bring himself together. It means to bring his thoughts, self-talk, attitude, focus together. To compose himself. It is important for the pitcher/player to step off the mound or in the dugout during this time. You need to move to an area that allows you to coach yourself.

Set goals for yourself, with the input of your coaches and base them on specific, individual skills and behaviors you want to improve. It’s important when setting goals to frame them in a positive light: “I want to attack the strike zone early and often” vs. “I don’t want to walk guys.”  I want to catch and throw it to the appropriate base.  See the difference? Keep diligent records of the progress of your goals to hold yourself accountable. Recognize you have two roles: you are a pitcher/player and you are a coach. Pitching/Player takes place on the rubber and mound or anywhere on the field, while coaching takes place away from them. Separate yourself from the mound/ field to your area of coaching to Gather yourself.

[This post is part of the Mental ABC's Of Pitching series. Check out the rest here.]

One of the greatest barriers to success is fear of failure.

There are are ways to combat fear though.

There are many times in your life that you’ll get the nervous feeling in your gut. That feeling that you aren’t ready, your scared, you didn’t prepare enough and many others.  You are prepared and we have as a team prepared.

It is important to understand that being nervous is a form of excitement, but not in a good way.

Nervousness is excitement that comes from a place of negativity. It is going to take discipline to handle the task of rising above a fear of failure.

• Fear of failure. We’ve discussed Anxiety before, and it’s important to note that not properly dealing with performance anxiety can result in fear. Just like we discussed under anxiety, its important to develop a plan (focus with intensity), and remember to play your game. So then, the fear of failure is the nervousness or anxiety someone has about failing to achieve a goal they’ve set for themselves.  To handle this you must understand three things: first, your human, so you must fail sometimes; second, the failure might be not accomplishing a desired outcome, not necessarily performing poorly; third, failing at a task, is not the same as “being a failure”.

• First Inning. It is important as a pitcher to come out swinging in the first inning. During my years in baseball I’ve often heard pitchers say after a tough first inning, “I wanted to feel the team out. I was waiting to see what would happen.” That is a passive style of baseball that will often result in getting behind in the count and possibly giving up runs. You should always, and especially at the beginning of a game, go out to the mound with the mentality of “What do I want to happen.” Play your game, not theirs’.

Whether it’s before a big game (which is every game you play in), or every time you step out on the field know that fear of failure is normal, but that you know how to conduct yourself, and rise above it. And remember to warm up with game intensity and focus, to bring a ton of energy to the first inning.

[This post is part of the Mental ABC's Of Pitching series. Check out the rest here.]

It’s an iconic scene, in an awesome movie about Baseball.

But is it true, is there really no crying in baseball?

Today we dive into this idea, and how emotions play a roll in your action on the field, and what to do about it.

Although, I doubt any of you have seen the movie, but in the film A League of Their Own Tom Hanks has a conversation in which he yells at one of the female baseball players, then she starts crying. He goes on to say:

Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball.

So this begs the question when playing at any level, with so much much emotion poured into your effort, how do you handle those emotions when the game is on the line, and how do you execute in spite of it.

• Emotions. As a pitcher you are going to get emotional feedback from three primary sources:

1. Your memory of past experience. Whether that is good or bad, and your assessment of the current situation, and how you performed in it last time.
2. External sources. Whether that is hostile, heckling fans, runners in scoring position, or the league’s number one slugger at the plate.
3. Internal sources. Things like tight muscles, sweaty palms and dry mouth fall under this category.

Your brain is going to interrupt these message differently. The resulting emotion can vary from self-doubt, tension, fear, confusion, panic or frustration, etc. To paraphrase Sun Tzu,”Know your enemies. Only then will you know how to combat them.” So, how to fight back? You fight back with awareness! You call time or get off the rubber/mound, gather yourself, take a few deep breaths, and redirect all that energy to the important task at hand – the next pitch.

• Execution. One of my favorite philosophies is the K.I.S.S. method. KISS stand for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” During my years of playing ball, whenever I got carried away with the environment, circumstances or emotions, I reminded myself of this method. The game of baseball is nothing but one pitch after the other, until one team has more points than the other in the time given. Execute the pitch, play or bat, at hand and let the rest take care of itself. Keep It Simple, just execute!

Sacrifice the body to make the play.

Since it’s the namesake of the site, it only stood to reason that we were eventually going to do a post on how to field a bad hop.

And in case your wondering we don’t recommend the use of your face if it is at all avoidable.

The very first thing to remember when playing any position on the baseball field is to prepare yourself before the pitch is thrown.  In other words make sure you know where you are going to throw the ball if it is hit to you before the pitch is thrown.  Second get yourself in baseball ready position and stay on the balls of your feet.

When the ball is hit in your direction make sure that you position yourself in front of the ball at all cost – see picture above.  Keep your bottom low to the ground and catch the ball as close to your face, not with it, keeping your left eye on the ball as it comes into your glove.  In order to catch or block that last hop you must anticipate what might happen when it bounces from your past experiences, but if the ball all of sudden darts left, right or bounces up, your body is then in position to block it.  Grab the ball with your bare hand and throw to the desired base that you prepared to before the play.

I hope this helps with your mental preparation to field that BAD HOP!

D is for Dedication, Discipline... and Delicious.

(photo: Hub)

[This post is part of the Mental ABC's Of Pitching series. Check out the rest here.]

When you approach becoming a better pitcher or ball player from only one angle you won’t get far. It is important to learn what it take to succeed, then do it.

We’ve gone through the first few letters of the ABC’s to the mental aspects of pitching, and a few of you don’t “get it.” Which is fine; however, it is important to understand that to continue to develop as a pitcher or player, you need to start working on your mental game as much as you do on your physical game. With that we come to two of the most important words we’ll have on this list:

• Dedication. Throughout your life you will hear “Bad habits are hard to break.” The important thing to know is that good habits are just as hard to break as bad ones. Dedication is developing an attitude that establishes an appreciation for whatever it takes to become more effective on and off the field. That means doing what it take in practice, in your eating habits, in school and in mental conditioning. Dedication is about appreciating the process of honing yourself to be better. Boys in short we play like we practice and prepare yourself before every pitch no matter what position you play or bat in.

• Discipline. Mental discipline is the umbrella that covers just about everything concerning your “mental game.” Courage on the field takes discipline; concentration takes discipline; preparation, positive self-couching, constituency, not breaking good habits, and so much more take discipline. Discipline requires constituency in preparation, systematic thought, controlled focus and behavior.

Ultimately, what I want you to get from all of this is that working on the mental aspects of your game and just as, if not more, important than working on the physical aspects. Be determined to hold yourself accountable on a daily basis for improvement of these mental skills. Remember you can make the most spectacular catch you have ever made and not throw the ball to the correct person on the field and lose your desired result.  Prepare before the play happens!