Day 42: My Head Is Down On The Ball

It's no secret that Calen loves baseball. 

It is a bit of a secret that Calen really, really, hates going up to bat. 

Truly, his least favorite part of the game. He's a total head-case, no confidence, afraid of being hit by the ball or striking out. It's built up and built up into this monster that he believes he can't defeat. And so, he stands up there, puts up a minimal effort, and either draws a walk (and is elated) or gets called strike three (and gets very down on himself). If he does get a hit, it's usually just a dribbler to short or third, and unless the infielders bobble it, a sure out. 

I talked to a couple baseball mom-friends about this. How do you convince a kid that they are capable? One mom, who's been with us from the beginning since Calen was drafted onto his first team here with her son (and is now once again on the same team as him), sang the praises of this hitting coach that apparently works specifically with getting kids out of their heads. 

She sang his praises so much, in fact, she paid for Calen to have a hitting lesson with him this weekend. 

I take back what I said before about hockey moms being better than baseball moms (that one's for you, Tanja). 

This evening we headed up the road to the hitting lesson. It was literally in a big hangar type shed, with just some astro-turf and painted batters box, a tee, a pitching screen and a few bats. And this guy Dan. 

This guy Dan only worked with Calen for 30 minutes. And wow, I gotta say, those 30 minutes were so helpful. It was all about changing your mindset when you're up to bat, chanting almost a cadence of what your body is going to do (since "Focus", he says, is the brain telling the body to move, and until you can focus without thinking, you need to say it outloud to train your brain). Within 10 minutes, Calen was hitting complete rockets off the tee, all while saying outloud "My head is down on the ball and I'm on my big toe" (no more "squashing the bug, you guys. It's all about pivoting on your big toe). 

The mechanics are great. But the big takeaway? The confidence. Calen was relaxed, laughing, and then would focus and say his cadence, and when he hit a bomb off the tee, the look of joy on his face and the praises of coach Dan made the entire lesson. Calen walked away bouncing up and down, saying how much he loved it, and "did you see me Mom? Did you see the ROCKETS I HIT?! Can we come back?"

We will be back, oh yes we will. 

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