Travel ball coach: Understand the unique power of failure

Learning to deal with failure is an important part of baseball. (Kyle Prudhomme/NEBJ)

As we welcome the spring, travel baseball hits full speed for many of us in New England.

We’re due for weekends of doubleheaders in freezing temperatures, filled with players, parents and siblings longing for warmer weather.

I say this to my program parents every year around this time: “Everyone thinks they are a .400 hitter in the winter cages.” 

Very few end up performing as such on the fields. That cold reality hits the first week of April.

As many of us are pulled into a youth baseball era with an increased focused on stats, rankings and player profiles, remember that there isn’t a stat for how well a player handles failure.

In my opinion, there is no better indicator of if your child will be successful on or off the field in their future.

Baseball is one of the few sports that presents a forum for repeatable failure that kids need to handle on both an individual and team level … and it’s the greatest part of the sport.

We all understand that no one wants to fail in the moment, but we can all agree that the failures your child experiences allow them to navigate the waters better in the future.

My favorite story to share with my players is the origin of the golf ball. For those who don’t know it, back in the earlier days, golfers started to discover that their old beat-up golf balls went farther than the new smoother ones.

Golf balls used to be smooth back in the day, but the beat-up balls were reacting differently while flying through the air. The golfers soon found out that there was magic in the dimples on the golf ball. The balls were traveling greater distances, and golfers had greater control.

The same can be said about a youth baseball player.

Each failure experienced is a dimple on his own golf ball and should be embraced as an opportunity. They can be working toward becoming a player with more control, experience and ability to stay the course when the failure hits.

There are plenty of dimples to be formed, and April can bring them on quickly. It’s all part of the journey. Enjoy the fields, and bring on the good weather!