I have been really fortunate to do and see some incredible things as a coach. I have seen some of the best coaches in the world speak to thousands of people at the ABCA convention. I was with a team that was a hit away from winning the College World Series. Every once in a while, I experience something that really sticks with me. That was the case when we were invited to spend the day with Coach Jerry Weinstein and the Colorado Rockies during instructs.
Warm Day in the Rockies
Instructs, for those who don’t know, takes freshly signed draft picks and gives them a taste of what spring training will be like. Breakfast, meeting, morning work, lift, training table, lunch, meeting, game, home, repeat. This way, the players can really get a feel for how the organization works, and the coaches can begin to mold the players into what they want them to be. Mental skills development meetings are always a big part of instructs, and when we visited, we were able to sit in the back and be a part of one.
The room was filled with about 50 players and 15 coaches, of all different ages and cultural backgrounds. Everything was said in English first, then followed by a bilingual coach who would translate. After the initial announcements about the schedule for the next day, they brought up a stocky man they called Doug. Doug, or Dr. Douglas Chadwick, is the director of mental skills development for the Colorado Rockies. Doug had a smile that was warming but he commanded the room, likely due to the 20 years of service in the Army.
Phones on Loud
This was the first thing Doug said when he walked to the front of the room. “Please turn your phones off of vibrate and on to the loudest setting. When a text or call comes through, don’t silence it, just let it keep”—RIIIIINNNNGGGGGGGGGG. Before he could even finish someone was getting a phone call. The slightly embarrassed player stopped the call immediately, but Doug reiterated, “really don’t worry about it, this is an exercise on focus. Allow the phones to go off”.
The slide show he presented after was all about external stimuli and how it can get in the way of concentration. At least that’s what I think it was about. It was hard to concentrate with a text message “DING” going off every thirty seconds. Things happen that are completely out of our control. It is up to us to recognize that they are happening and breathe through them—RIIIIINGGGGG.
Towards the end of the presentation, Doug wanted us to all experience what it was like to try and get in the box and control yourself with all of these stressors. We were instructed to sit back and relax, control our breathing. Just like any other meditation exercise. Every time a phone went off, we would just return our attention to our breath.
Then a BANG
It sounded like an explosion. My heart was pounding in my chest and nearly everyone was sitting up, startled, at this point. Doug was holding a bat he had just smashed into the podium. He continued as if nothing happened, “continue to focus on the breath and slow your heart rate down. Get back to a calm state”. The only thing calm about my state at that time was my throbbing foot from kicking the back of the chair in front of me.
He asked us to raise our hands if we found it hard to relax after the loud bang. Every hand in the room went up. He concluded, “this is what it is like when we have a bad call go our way or take a pitch we should have crushed. External stimuli can come out of nowhere. It is important to recognize them then find a way to move forward.
The Rockies are lucky to have guys like Coach Weinstein and Dr. Chadwick on staff. If that kind of presentation left a lasting presentation on me, I can’t imagine what a full instructs camp can do for a guy. I want to give a special thanks to Coach Weinstein for allowing me to be a part of the day!
