Here is an optimistic quote for your weekend:

​"Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you."— Walt Whitman

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We found this quote and loved it. Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone!

​"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." — Michael Altshuler

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By John Ellsworth
More and more athletes I work with on the mental game come to me with focus and concentration issues. Lack of focus or losing focus at critical times can be a constant source of stress anxiety and poor performance. What is a distraction? In sports most athletes lose focus from time to time, but what separates the good ones from the great ones is their ability to regain focus and composure and get right back to the task at hand.

When an athlete loses their touch; a baseball pitcher who can’t find the strike zone, a golfer who three-putts from 15 feet, or a basketball player who throws up an air ball for no apparent reason, you have to look to the athlete’s mental game. Why would a competitor lose their touch in the final two minutes of a basketball game? Fear of losing? Are they afraid of letting teammates down? Could they be too tense to make the shot because the entire arena is watching?

There is no one or thing to blame for your loss of focus. The distraction could be external (something outside of you) or internal (thought or image) to drag you away from being focused. Let’s focus on external distractions – the stuff that happens around you – or any distraction that is triggered externally and not all on your own.

Coping with External Distractions
Coping with distraction is a part of sports athletes must learn. Basketball and baseball players have to deal with hecklers all the time when shooting a free throw, or trying to execute at the plate for example. How do you deal with external distractions?

TIP #1
Top athletes use pre-shot routines to help them stay tuned into the right performance cues.
For a basketball player, a free-throw routine shields your mind when the pressure is on to make the shot. As a baseball hitter the pre-at-bat routine helps clear the mind for better focus on what’s relevant. Total absorption in the steps of the routine helps to occupy your mind and thus deflect distractions that may come into your mind, such as crowd noise. Your mission is to focus on your performance cues within the routine, which also serve to keep you focused in the process and not worry about missing the shot.

Performance Cues of a Pre-shot Routine
Pre-shot routines help you stay focused on execution and deflect distractions. Mostly used by sports with self-paced tasks, such as a serve in tennis, putt in golf, or a free-throw in basketball, pre-shot routines spell out what you need to focus on prior to execution of a skill, also called performance cues.

The starting point in a good pre-shot routine for a free throws is to release the last play and don’t waste energy on what just happened. Take a deep breath and feel balanced on the foul line.
Your mind should be clear and ready to focus on the target. Set up to the line as you always do in your foul shot routine. Bounce, twirl or hold the ball in a way that feels good to you (or do what you usually do here). Feel the weight of the ball and center yourself on the line.

TIP #2
Next, create a good mental picture of the ball’s trajectory and visualize it go in, or just “sense” the ball going in the basket. The key here is to create a positive picture or feeling in your mind to boost confidence. See it, hear it, feel it, or think about it going in, and know it is going in. If you get a bad picture or thought here, STOP immediately and restart your routine from the beginning.

I worked with a college basketball player that is now playing in the WNBA who had a very challenging time centering her mind when on the free-throw line. The crowd shouting during her shots was a major challenge for her focus. She was unable to recognize that her mind was drifting. Focused athletes won’t hear a gun go off if they are into their performance. But if you give the distraction energy or attention, you’re no longer focused on your routine. You want to recognize distractions quickly as they come into your mind.

Only then can you refocus on the task at hand and not let the distraction cause a critical miss.

Tip #3
One more tip: If there’s a potential for external distraction in your sport, prepare yourself mentally for what’s to come. Practice in conditions (or distractions) that match what you will face in competition. I know it’s hard to simulate the pressure of the Olympics, but prepare yourself for distractions present in competition that you wouldn’t usually experience in practice.

Conclusion:
Distractions can be a major challenge with execution success. The most important factor is to know the difference between internal and external distractions and what to do to eliminate them from derailing your success. With the right strategy and pre-execution routine its quite easy, with practice, to eliminate the ones that keep you stuck. You can take a proactive step on your own to boost your focus and concentration.

For more information about this article contact or for information on mental game coaching contact John R. Ellsworth – Mental Game Coach at Protex Sports, LLC. www.protexsports.com. You can also send your questions to Ask Coach John.

By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports
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Is there anything that gets us more nuts than our kids’ sports? As a coach and a parent, I’ve been on both sides of the fence. I’m sure many parents on teams I’ve coached believed their kids should have been getting more playing time or opportunities at different positions. And I’ve watched my own children being coached by others and felt they were being treated unfairly. The following comments were found on a blog about unfair coaches. You be the judge as to whether these parents are over-the-top, or have legitimate gripes. (Parent comments in italics and my responses follow):

My son is in baseball 10 year-old division. He is a pretty good player and was pretty much recruited by this team however now he is being played mostly in the outfield while the 3 coaches kids are always in the key positions. I would like to know how to deal with coaches that are all out for their own kids and who give other kids very little playing time in key positions. We have also experienced this situation with football. My son was in tears today because he played the whole game in the outfield and never gets to pitch and this is why they asked him to play on this team based on his pitching skills. We have tried making comments and subtle hints but it all goes ignored. Also, one of the coaches is VP of the league. I would love to hear from other parents who have experienced this and how they have handled the situation. Thanks!

Baseball is such a subjective game. Is it possible the 10 year-old isn’t as good as the coaches’ sons? I’m sure the parent who wrote this doesn’t think so. But who knows unless an impartial observer evaluates all of the kids on the team. And even then, two different impartial observers may come to two different conclusions about who should play and where. One thing I offer as evidence in cases such as these however is that it is likely the coaches do want to win. And wouldn’t the child in question be pitching if he were really a “difference-maker” who would help?

My daughter is 11 years old and has been playing on competitive basketball travel teams for 3 years. Her coach for the past two years has been getting more and more unfair. Once the frustrating travel season was over she wanted to try out for an AAU club team. She makes the team and we find out at the first practice that her travel coach is coaching the team. I should have opted for her not to play. But she loves the game. There is not a moment she doesn’t have a basketball in her hand. Now I give all coaches the benefit of the doubt, but in this case I am done!! She has been in a starting position all season, but the minute she makes ONE mistake he pulls her immediately and puts in someone who makes continuous mistakes. He puts her back in and does the same thing again. Meanwhile all other starters make mistakes, including his daughter and he leaves them in! I have had other parents come up to me and ask why he is picking on my daughter.

The “I have other parents coming to me and asking why my child is getting treated unfairly” card is common. (Folks seem to offer this as incontrovertible evidence that an injustice is occurring.  Because if a parent whose own kid is competing with mine for playing time feels my child is getting cheated, it must be real, right?). In this case, I would only say two things: Could it be you are looking harder for mistakes in others than in your daughter? Is there a chance that I might watch the same game as you and see far more mistakes made by your child than you do? And again, I’m guessing this coach wants to win. If your daughter could make a significant difference in this regard, wouldn’t he play her more?

Our high school soccer coach is ridiculous. He loads up the team with 20 to 24 players, has 3 assistants, and then ignores most of his bench. I could understand if the starting rotation was really strong, but there are many players who are no better than anyone on the bench. I find it unbearable to sit thru games when my child is just sitting on the bench. This child is a good athlete who plays on a top club team.. I just don’t understand why these coaches can’t be honest with the players. They expect respect from the players; why can’t they show respect to the players?

As you know, teams carry more players than they can play at one time. Yes, in a perfect world, all kids get an equal opportunity to play in the game. However, the higher our kids go in sports, the less the emphasis is on fairly distributing playing time and the more it is on winning. You say that there are many players who are no better than anyone on the bench. What is the basis for that comment? Are you at every practice to evaluate this? Are you a professional soccer coach? I understand it is “unbearable to watch” your child sitting on the bench, but that doesn’t mean she deserves to play. The coach did keep her on the team. Would you have preferred she was one of the players who was cut?

I have been crazy with stress, anxiety and anger over the coaching situation at our high school. My son is a junior on the Varsity baseball team. We are 5 games into the season and he has not seen the field. He is a far superior player than the SENIOR that is playing in front of him. Several parents and other coaches have asked why our son is not on the field – all while the player playing has error after error. I want to go “have it out” with the coach – but fear retaliation by the coach toward my son. He is an excellent player with a 4.0 GPA – not to mention a great kid!

I’ll bet they’re all great kids. We all think our kids are the greatest. Baseball, soccer and other team sports are extremely subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My children all played or play baseball, soccer and football and often they were starters and the stars of their teams. But there have been times they’ve been part-time players or even been cut. Guess what? When they were the stars of the team, I thought the coach knew exactly what he was doing. When they weren’t, I believed the coach had political motives and/or was an idiot. I may have been right in both cases, but I also may have been wrong. I joke that if I was doing it all again, my kids would run track or swim – something where results are not an opinion but a fact. If my child came home complaining that she wasn’t in the meet tomorrow I’d ask her, “Was the other girl faster than you? OK then, if you can go faster than her, you’ll be in the next meet.” No way for politics or nepotism to enter the discussion. Just a stopwatch.
The bottom line is that sure, there are politics, there is “daddy-ball” there is unfairness and even coaching stupidity. Yet as you can see from the comments here, there is also a lot of emotion that might cloud our objectivity as parents. If you really feel your child is in a bad situation, you can always go somewhere else – even in high school or college. If we’re talking about volunteer coaches, you can  step up and take the helm next season. Sometimes change is what’s needed. But there’s no guarantee that the grass will be any greener on the other side.
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Brian Gotta is a former professional recreational youth baseball coach and volunteer Little League coach and board member. He is President of Help Kids Play, a collection of companies whose mission is to further the development and enjoyment of youth sports.

By Dave Hudgens
The fireworks blasted from center field. No, it was not the fourth of July – the lead off hitter had just hit a rocket first pitch of the game for a home run. Second batter, first pitch, another home run, another brilliant fireworks display. Third batter, two pitches later, home run, off go the fireworks. The pitching coach takes a long, slow walk to the mound, looking like he has some words of wisdom to give his shell-shocked pitcher. The pitcher, irate and cursing at his coach, lets him know that he isn’t going to tell him something he doesn’t already know. The coach replies, “I don’t intend to tell you anything, I just wanted to give the guy shooting off the fireworks more time so he can reload.” The pitcher smiles, relaxes, and retires the side. Cues – they can be life or death to the success of an athlete.
Practice
I am constantly asked the following questions concerning keys or cues for hitters: what should an instructor look for in a hitter? What cues should an instructor convey to a hitter? In order to give justice to the answer to those questions, you must first think backwards – the instructor must not only be prepared himself but he must also have his hitter prepared for each at bat before the game even begins. The purpose of practice is to perfect the swing so that at game time the hitter shouldn’t “think” about his mechanics. Once the game begins, the hitter should be so prepared to play the game that his reactions take over and he has a solid, repeatable swing. If he is thinking mechanics, his attention will be divided. His total attention during the game has to be on seeing the ball.
What to look for in hitters
What should an instructor look for in a hitter? As a hitting instructor, I always start from the ground up when evaluating a hitter’s mechanics. What is the position of his feet? Does he have good balance? Where is his stride direction? What is his head position? Once you have established where he is in these areas, you can work on cues: key words or key instructions to help him. You want to keep the keys simple, remembering that during the game the main goal is for the hitter to get a good pitch to hit. There are four main areas to look for in a hitter to help him make adjustments.
1. Seeing the ball
2. Staying balanced
3. Having an easy effort level
4. Maintaining a good head position
Seeing the ball
You can’t hit the ball if you can’t see it and it is difficult to see the ball if your head is in the wrong position. I remind my hitters to have their heads down throughout their swing. This is extremely critical especially since head position and head discipline isn’t taught at the youth level. Not only is head position important for seeing the ball, it is also important for swing path. If the head lifts too soon, the hitter will have more of a tendency to pull off the ball, inhibiting the proper swing path. Therefore, a cue I tell hitters is very simple, “Keep your head down.” But again this goes back to practice and it is in practice that you have to make sure your hitters understand what that means. You can’t tell them in a game situation to keep their head down if they don’t understand what it means and how to do it. Once the knowledge of head position is established, they will see that if their head is down, their swing path will stay on-line, they will see the ball better and they will stay on the ball better.
Dave Hudgens has been involved with the best of baseball for over 40 years. He was the hitting coach for the New York Mets, Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays. Prior to that he was a longtime hitting coach in the Oakland Athletics’ organization.