mental ball
one of the kids on b's baseball team is extraordinarily skilled. his technique is amazingly good for a 9 year old kid. inexplicably he stopped hitting the ball early in the season. then he stopped even swinging at it. baseball is a mental game. you think it's all about skill. but that's the easy part. it's a mind game. so i thought i had this kid figured out. he obviously learned this stuff from his dad. and maybe his dad was pushing him too hard. and he was more afraid of succeeding and being pushed harder than he was of failure. so i played it that way. he confided in me that he didn't want to play baseball this year. oh. swing batter. so next game i thanked him. some kids on the team whine and complain about everything. they don't try. and they drag the team down into the dumps. but not him. he always gave me his best. with very little resistance. he is after all, only 9. i told him how much i appreciated that. and how much that means to the team. it seemed to work. he went 3 for 3 that game. including two hits off the opposing pitcher. i hope it carries over into the all star tournament.