Topic: Resiliency

Activity:

• Point towards the goal demonstration. Demonstrates how your attitude can affect your results.
• Set a runner between 3rd base and home. Positive results move you closer to home. Negative results move you back towards 3rd.
  • Base hit: move two steps towards home.
  • Strike out: take two steps towards 3rd.
  • Fielding error: take two steps towards 3rd.
• While your results determine how close you are to your goal, your attitude determines the direction you're facing. The ultimate goal is stay facing your goal (home), even after failing (moving backwards).
• You may face setbacks, but keep yourself facing home plate.

Conversation Starters:

• Q: What does failure do to your attitude?
  • A: Answers will vary. Failure is frustrating, and frustration can make you take your mind off of what you need to do to reach your goal
• Q: What does success do to your attitude?
  • A: It builds confidence in yourself. It shows you that you are doing the right things to help you reach your goal.
• Q: What are things you can do to stay "pointed towards home" even though you've made a mistake?
  • A: Answers will vary. Accept any answer that helps you move past the mistake and refocus.

Key Points:

• Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody is perfect.
  • The best fielders in baseball still commit errors.
  • As a hitter, if you bat 10 times and only get 3 hits, and you do that for your entire career, you'll end up in the Hall of Fame.
• To help you recover from your mistake, develop mistake rituals. These are actions, or hand motions, that help you acknowledge your mistake, then refocus your attention on the next pitch.
  • Flushing a toilet, holding your fingers in the air to "flush the mistake away"
  • Brush your shoulder off to "brush off your mistake"

“The Ride Home”

• I loved watching you play.
• Aside from baseball, when is the last time that you failed?
• Explain that your last failure is nothing more than a bump in the road.
• Never be afraid of failing. Failing is good because it helps you grow. You cannot begin to grow with a negative attitude (feeling sad, angry, frustrated). Brush off the failure, leave your failure in the past, and learn from it.
• Parent: Tell a story about a time that you failed, how you learned from that failure.