The Gamer Mentality

“Sometimes you just gotta be ready to throw down.”

When I was playing in Old Orchard Beach, especially my second summer in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL) I was fortunate to be rubbing elbows with some of the best players in the nation and I studied them.

This one kid in particular, we’ll call him Johnny, was a gangster. He came from a blue collar background, always wreaked havoc on weekends, and had a certain “energy” about him. He wasn’t the biggest player on the team. He didn’t have any tools that jumped out to you. He wasn’t really the kid that caught your eye when he stepped off the bus.

But he freaking RAKED.

Day in and day out. He kept getting knocks. Singles. Doubles.

Some sick bombs that went 450’ in Torrington, Connecticut.

He was ALWAYS ready to compete- he was a gamer. He could come to the field tired, grab a Gatorade and lace ‘em up and be ready to go. He didn’t care what the circumstance was, but he got after it and he was intentional with his work. He was a competitor.

He worked smart because he rarely was in the cage for an hour. He would just go in, give the cage his best 50 swings and then cut it. He swung at every ball in the cage as if it was a game swing. His cuts were high quality, and he practiced like he was competing.

That set off a lightbulb in my head: if we made practice hard and we practiced the way we played…and be able to compete at any given moment (not necessarily succeeding, but being able to ‘throw down’)…by the time game starts, it’s an easy game.

Now, how can we make it competitive? We need to take physical and mental reps. When we’re not in the cage, we shouldn’t be playing grab-ass.

We should be INTENTIONAL with what we’re doing, because we are operating on limited time. We can’t be at the cages all day long, but we can make our time COUNT.

Plan the work. Then work the plan.

You got this.

Skip