Work While You Wait

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I sat down and added an entry into my blog. To be honest, I was kind of waiting until our spring season to get started to have some additional topics to discuss. Our spring season did start in mid-February where we went out an won our first tournament of the year and qualified for the Select 30 USSSA event to be held in Vera, Fl. in July. We won our second tournament of the spring in early March, but then suddenly, our team was shut down by the COVID-19 virus, like everyone else around the country.

Before I get started with the topic of this blog, first let me say, I hope this entry finds that you and your family are safe, healthy, and prospering as best you can in this absolutely crazy time that we are living in currently. Secondly, I want to wish everyone the very best in this trying time. Being a teacher and coach and a parent, I know how difficult things must be for you parents who are having to juggle working (maybe even working from home for the first time), being your kids teacher, and being a parent. Times are tough for sure, but what I will say is like any difficult challenge this will ultimately only make us stronger.

Alright, so on to the purpose of this entry. I, like almost everyone else, was frustrated, sad, mad, disappointed and just about everything else you could be when something you love was taken away. Before I knew much about the virus and how easily it spread, I thought it was insane to cancel schools and tournaments and then eventually even shut down practices and to a large extent even lessons. Over time my opinion on the need to do that has changed and I understand the shut down was necessary to save lives.

At that point, I as a coach, and a parent of a player who is fortunate enough to be on one of the top 10 teams in the entire country had some decisions to make around how we were going to handle this time off. Ultimately, after talking to Ryan about what he wanted to do we formed a plan of attack and have been executing that since then. The options he was given were 1. Take a break of baseball. He could let the body rest and just enjoy the down time and be a kid. This was a real option for me as a parent because since the child was 3 or 4 he's played anywhere from 50-100 games a year for about 7 straight years. 2. We could work out baseball 2-3 days a week just enough to keep his arm in shape so that when things start back up he wouldn't get sore and that his swing would mostly stay intact. 3. We could just flat get after in and workout daily and basically be where he could go play a game at any given point if things opened up.

What he decided was that he would "work while he waits". That means that six days a week we head to the local baseball diamond and do between a 60-90 minute individual workout where he gets in some throwing, fielding, and hitting each day. We based the six days a week off how college programs usually run their preseason and in season schedule. Most college teams either play or practice Tuesday through Sunday and then give their players Monday off completely. That schedule worked out well for us too. Ryan is a bracket pitcher who normally throws in games on Sunday, so we have kept his extended bullpens on Sunday's. That makes Monday a perfect day off for him so that he has a complete day off to rest his arm.

The term "work while you wait" is something I've heard many times in relationship to players who might be finding themselves on the bench and not getting as much playing as they would like. The idea behind it has been that instead of having a bad attitude and complaining that the coach isn't giving you the playing time you want or that you are better than the player who is playing in front of you that you just keep your mouth shut and work hard to get better. That way, when you get your turn in a game you have improved to the point where you can succeed and earn your playing time. Work - extra hitting, extra fielding, extra strength training - whatever that work you need to be done is then done while you wait on the chance to perform. The players that take this positive attitude and approach will be noticed by their coaches and their peers and they will have a far better chance to get what they want (playing time) when that day comes than those who just complain and do no extra work or half ass the work they are given.

This same mentality needs to be taken by every single player on your team now. They should take advantage of this time to get in extra work while we all wait for baseball to come back. One thing is for certain in these very uncertain times, baseball will come back. There will be games played at some point this spring or summer. It could be as early as May (our team is scheduled to play in Dallas, Tx on May 2 as of right now) or it may be June or even July, but there is going to be a point when things open back up and when they do there is going to be a VERY distinct line drawn between the players who have been working while they wait and those that have been spending all their time playing video games or sleeping half the day away.

Now don't get me wrong! I do NOT believe that your players need to be doing a six day a workout routine for 1-2 hours just because that's what my child is doing. No, I don't think he's any better or worse than anyone who is doing less, but I do believe that it would be a big mistake for you not to have some structured practice multiple times per week. Designated time to work on proper fielding, proper throwing, and the mechanics and timing of their swing. What that looks like for each player and each coach or family is completely up to you and your child. Personally, Ryan is a what I call a "field rat". I could give him a bucket of baseballs his glove and a bat and he'd entertain himself for a whole day at the baseball diamond. I was the same way as a kid when I was growing up. But I've also known extremely talented kids that went on to play college or professionally that was just not how they were wired. They would either reluctantly go to the field or gym and work or at times have to be drug there kicking and screaming and they wanted to just get it done and get out. That's fine too.

The other thing that I fully understand is not everyone has the same equipment and field access that we have the luxury of. We have even had to move fields due to the county we live in shutting down all of the local baseball fields so I know that can be a challenge as well. But let's be honest, no place to workout or not enough equipment is just a lame excuse. There are hundreds of drills on both the offensive and defensive side of the game that can be done at home in the backyard or the driveway. Heck, there are tons of things that you can even do inside the house that are safe and helpful. I remember one of the most athletic players I ever coached in softball, Courtney Lowe, was struggling with throwing off the run from third base and I showed her how she could practice it during the winter inside her home by throwing a rolled up set of tube socks into the back of a chair. She came back two months later and could do it perfectly! Again - "work while you wait"! She was working during the winter while she waited on better weather.

One of the greatest things that has come from this stoppage from a baseball or softball standpoint has been the amount of sharing I have seen on the internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Tons of coaches everywhere from youth coaches, to college coaches, to even pro coaches have put together video clips of drills that can be done at home with minimal equipment and space. There is no shortage of ideas and plans out there so that should not be an excuse either.

Personally, we started off filming some short video clips of our workouts with Ryan and posting them to my Facebook page and then over time we have graduated to broadcasting them on Facebook live. We have termed his workouts "Extended Spring Training" and yesterday he got in his 25th EST workout since the stoppage hit. We made the decision to move to the FB live videos after a few of my buddies gave me a hard time saying I was showing only the edited clips of the good plays or hits. So, we decided to give the full live version. Little did I know it would have a side benefit to me as a dad and coach. What I found out quickly was that it motivated Ryan to work harder and do a better job because he knew anyone could be watching. We know some college coaches that have watched his videos, other coaches on our Dingers staff, coaches from all around and even some of his college player buddies have watched. Talk about not wanting to make mistakes and wanting to work hard, that was a great motivator. To help other parents and coaches I have listed the "practice plan" for the day on each of the descriptions so people can have an idea of what we are doing. It's not perfect and it's nothing really special but it might give some parents or coaches some ideas. If you follow it daily, it looks very much the same. That is done on purpose because baseball is very much a routine game. We do the same thing over and over again to make things a habit and so that he can do it without thinking. But if you also follow each week closely you will see that we have been adding a little something in. Last week we added a drop step drill. This week we have added a "get up" drill. While routine is good, it also can get boring at times so adding a little twist here and there or a new drill helps add some flavor.

The last thing I want to touch base on is - this isn't just a good time for players to be working while they wait. It's a good time for coaches to be working while they wait as well. I have been extremely impressed and honestly a little surprised by the willingness for coaches and organizations to put on free virtual coaches clinics and broadcast them on systems like Zoom or on social media platforms. As a matter of fact, it was just last night that I spent over an hour watching a coaching discussion put on by the Bombers Fastpitch Organization out of Texas. While I'm not coaching softball right now it didn't matter because when I was watching they weren't talking specifically about softball. They were talking about how they train their kids to be competitive and how important it is for both coaches and players to pay attention to the small details because they are what matters in the end. It was just a treasure trove of information. It motivated me to reach out the the head of our organization about planning one for our staff. We are looking at broadcasting a virtual coaches clinic either next Monday or the following Monday - just as soon as we can get the details lined out. (I'll post on my page and my Coach Trout page the info. once we have it lined out). Point being, take this time to do something to increase your knowledge so that you can better serve your players when we do get our game back.

Finally, these are trying times for everyone. No one really knows when this will end or what the economic, social, or mental repercussions of this shutdown and social distancing will be, so my advice to you all is this...Even if you aren't worried about your child playing in high school or college you likely aren't reading this blog if you don't have kids either your own or on your team that play and love the game. Spend some time with them "working while you wait" so that for at least a few moments a day they can take their mind off everything else going on and can focus on something that feels 'normal' to them. I bet what you find is that it will be just as good or better for you as it is for them. I know for one, I'll look back on this time out of school and work as a difficult time, but also as a time that I was so blessed to have so much quality time with my son. It's truly been like a gift from god to me! As always, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns that you think I could be of help. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay positive, and most of all enjoy this time with your baseball players!

Extra: Check out this video about working while you wait:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154998204047967