How Parents Should Navigate the Cloudy Youth Sport Map

Quote Of The Week

The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and 3 run homers. - Early Weaver

Newsletter Of The Week

Today’s excerpt will be on the importance of mechanics/movement training and what Blake Trahan would have done different through out his career as a baseball player.

After much thought about my career and what I would do differently, many thoughts come to my mind. I grew up just like everyone else seeking to find the best coaches and best advice around. Many things my parents did with me was great and others were not. Just like many parents of today who seek to give their kid the very best opportunity to succeed in sport, my parents had to guess many times on whether or not this coach, this team, and this advice was the best. My parents did a great job making these decisions and obviously these decisions came with tons of sacrifice! I am forever indebted to paying them back for all their unselfishness and love they showed to me and my siblings. There are many things that I would do the exact same way, but there a few things that come to mind that I believe can help someone else make the best decision for their children. At the end of the day, if we do something, we should seek to be the very best at it. Why pursue something and work hard at something, only to be average and climb half way up the mountain.

So what would I do different? What do I feel like I could have changed that would have created a different result in my athletic career?

1. I would have worked with a hitting coach who had a high level of understanding of elite swing patterns and mechanics from an early age.

   • 20 years ago, finding a coach that knows the information that is currently out there now would have been next to impossible.

   • Most coaches, or all coaches taught off of information based on “feels” that elite players talked about. This is dangerous way to coach because not everyone has the same feel or perceives movement the same.

   • Today, we have much more data and technology to learn about the anatomy and movement of the human body. Finding an elite “movement coach” is still very rare to find, but they are out there.

   • What makes a movement coach special? He or she understands how the body is “supposed” to move naturally. These coaches have an eye that sees body movement deficiencies and understands why or how they happen. With a rode map this simple and detailed it is easy to coach athletes with a customized approach and not a “cookie cutter” method.

2. I would have pin pointed movement flaws and instabilities in my body at an early age, which would have guided my weight lifting and training.

   • I started lifting at young age and got a head start on most kids my age. It helped tremendously; however, at some point lifting only exaggerated my movement flaws. I was strong and explosive, but unable to get into deep loads that the best in the game do.

   • My training should have shifted to creating a symmetrical balance, a symmetrical mobility and fascial directed work and should have gotten away from the method of getting “bigger, stronger, and faster.”

3. I would have approached the game with much more freedom by understanding that my “identity” should not be tied to a sport.

   • Because baseball was so important to me since a young age, I worked very hard at it. This is a positive, but over time baseball became my identity as a human being.

   • Overtime, this identity of a baseball player weighed heavy on performance. Freeing myself up from this identity could have helped me approach the game in a different way and also perform with more freedom. Performance is one of the most studied subjects out there. What can you do mentally to help you succeed in performance on daily basis is a question many sports performance physiologist are constantly trying to answer. Performance is heavily affected by two things: Fear and Freedom. These “emotions” or “feelings” are opposite. They are also both heavily tied to “identity”.

As we parents continue to sacrifice and do everything we can to help our children succeed, I believe it is important to take these 3 things into consideration. Parents are faced with much confusion surrounding youth sports and especially youth baseball. I hope my perspectives and “what ifs” will help others as they continue to navigate the cloudy rode map that lies in front! Please know that I am here to help!

Coach Blake

Tip Of The Week

Do not be scarred to doubt information and people. Do not be scarred to ask “why”. Elite individuals are hoping you ask “why”, and fakers are offended by the question “why”.

“The U“ Updates

The U will be changing apps very soon. Please look out for an update and do your best not to panic! We are here to help with any questions. We are hoping it all goes smoothly.

We will be also releasing a fall offseason program for all ages. This will be released as soon as the new app is ready. Please be on the look out for this as well.