Weird couple of weeks for Aiden and I hope it’s just the throes of old into something new.
Friday night for JV he was defeated before he even batted against a 10th grade submariner. Aiden was a mess and completely defeated. The old Aiden.
So I texted him some harsh stuff:
“You think I dad you and don’t tell you the truth?
Fine
You were miles off of the plate again
They saw it, so they set up outside and pitched you there. Were they all strikes? No but you had set yourself up in a way that you had zero chance to get a hit and 100% chance of losing all of your confidence.
So again, not physical stuff
Mental
YOU NEED TO WANT TO FIGHT AGAINST YOUR FEARS AND SCORES SO YOU HAVE A REMOTE CHANCE OF
SUCCESS
or
Don’t
If you enjoy feeling like this, keep doing the same thing
No changes absolutely equals same results”
And
“The longer you refuse to get on the plate and swing hard the longer you’re going to suffer without actually giving yourself a chance.
No one can make you do it except yourself. Or just do that
Get on the plate and swing hard
You won’t have to reach anymore
Therefore you’ll have a faster tighter swing
Literally that
Get on the plate
When you do, factually, you hit well
When you don’t you don’t
And then you get to sit in the feelings both good or bad
You seem to like a category of feeling that is odd to me”
He answered with “I try.”
And I responded with:
“I’m sorry
You are lying to yourself when say you try when you just have to put your toes on the line (or just an inch or two off) by literally looking down before every pitch?
You get fearful and stand too far away and therefore while you minimize your chances of getting hit you minimize your chances of getting a hit.
Just look down and get closer closer closer
Give yourself a chance
You’re upset saying you suck when you literally aren’t doing the mental set up
No need to respond to me. I don’t want to go back and forth. You can watch your ABs if you want.
It’s up to you to fight for your goals and happiness.
That night I ended with:
“My piece of advice for tomorrow:
Get your f’n toes on the line
The hinge can’t fix anything when you’re 10” off of the line which means your 16” from the edge of the plate and 33” from the outside of the plate
AND open the front gate
So just get the funk on the line and give yourself a chance no matter how scared you are
Or don’t and continue to slump and have regret and beat yourself up cuz that feels good”
I don’t know what the variables are any more but then this weekend he was on fire. Batted .600 culminating in him hitting a 76mph fastball back through a pitchers face (not literally) for a hit instead being scared he did exactly what I said he needed to do for himself. Maybe it’ll stick maybe it won’t. I dunno but if he would just fight for himself maybe there’d be a chance to reach his potential but if not then he won’t obviously.
He pitched well as well. No earned runs.
This travel ball team is not a good team though and I’m thankful that school ball has replaced the drama of travel ball. The school team is where he needs to grind and earn it and he’ll get that education if he never plays baseball being high school. The travel ball circuit isn’t for us beyond this local stuff and to be fair Aiden’s not good enough for that mercenary type of elite national baseball anyways.
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