Frozenshorts: Derek Jeter and winningDerek Jeter. Let’s talk about the over the top importance of winning to some people in youth sports, mostly adults, parents, friends, and organizations, and how they feel winning youth sports games at a young age teaches a child valuable life lessons. And then let’s talk about Derek Jeter. Many people believe him to be the consummate winner. They see the World Championships he has won as a member of the New York Yankees and his mantra of playing to win. They see the way he handles himself with class and dignity. They never see him chewing out, or showing up a teammate and rarely does he ever argue with an umpire. He stays out of controversy off the field and does a lot of charitable work behind the scenes, rarely drawing attention to himself. He is an excellent role model for his teammates, fans, and Major League baseball. Pretty straight forward stuff isn’t it? Maybe not. Probably not. It isn’t! So what exactly is it that makes the tag of a winner so hard to define? Are there way more important things that go into being a winner than just winning? Could it be that the great Derek Jeter says he plays to win and winning championships is the only thing he plays for just to appease the masses? Or could it be that he uses winning as a motivational tool to keep his focus and drive at a level he needs to compete at the major league level? One thing is for sure, Derek Jeter has lost a heck of a lot of baseball games. I would venture to say that he has played in and lost over a 1000 games in his professional career. So if he truly believed in the mantra of winning, and he didn’t win, why wouldn’t he stop playing? Of course you can say it is the money that keeps him going, but in reality, it seems he is very well off financially. Could it be the winning mantra is just a sound bite used to garner a brand name around athletes? Is it possible with the breakdown of what we feel is important to us, that we feel the need to associate ourselves, and align ourselves with a brand, a name, and organization that makes up for and possibly replaces some peoples family structure? This is the thing, this is the group we can identify with as something we want to be a part of? Something as social beings we need to feel part of, to make us feel better, or in some cases, superior. Because really, tell me right now how to win! If teachable with a 100% guaranteed success rate why aren’t more teams trying this formula for success. No, honestly, in all the years team sports have been played, why, if there was a formula for success, and how to win, why hasn’t anyone packaged it. A person could make millions! And if they can’t figure it out for highly trained professional athletes, coaches, and organizations, how is it even remotely possible that untrained people, coaching part time, could believe that they could teach this mythical thing called winning to our children in youth sports. How could they think that these children could grasp a concept so vague in its meaning, definition, and execution, that it could be more important for them to grasp than it is for the children to PLAY FOR FUN? Because, that my friends takes time. And as a good friend of mine Tony said: “We want to microwave our kids development when we should really be slow cooking it.” Look how many years of development it took before he became the captain of the New York Yankees. No one talks about how many games he won or lost in the minor leagues or even when and where he played amateur baseball with much regularity. It’s almost as if his career began when his team starting winning World Championships. Very few talk about his struggles when he first got to the Major Leagues. No one seems to want to talk about the journey. But if you ask him, and I wish someone would, how important the journey was to his success, I am pretty sure you would be surprised at how important it is to him. Not winning mind you, just the importance of enjoying and learning from and during the journey. Then ask him this one. How important was luck, yes, plain old fashioned luck that anyone could have, at reaching his ultimate goal of playing shortstop for the New York Yankees? And finally, because he is well known for his dry wit and sense of humor, ask him how important, even at the highest level in the world of professional baseball, how important it is for him and his teammates to have fun, TO PLAY FOR FUN? Few people talk about the hours and hours he spends with teammates behind the scenes working out and talking to teammates about the right way for them to behave and act at the major league level to help the New York Yankees be successful as a TEAM first and Derek Jeter second. Many many hours tutoring, listening, and encouraging the players around him to have fun, work hard, and enjoy the journey. All the while, he is stressing the importance of learning and executing the fundamentals properly, consistently, over time. And you know why they listen, sure because it’s Derek Jeter, but the real reason, and you can ask him this one too, is because they trust him. Plain and simple. And he trusts them also. Nowhere in this whole paragraph have I mentioned the word winning in what it takes to make a champion, and I doubt Derek Jeter stopped any workout he was having, any tutorial he was giving and said, “we have to win” because he knows you don’t! He knows that his success is intrinsically tied to the team’s success. Derek Jeter is keenly aware that not everyone on his team is going to be an All-Star or future Hall of Famer. The ability for him and the coaches to intigrate all levels of talents and all types of personalities into the framework of a successful team is what truly makes Derek Jeter’s talent transferrable to the playing field and the scoreboard. He knows that getting along with these teammates over the course of a six month season is imperative for the long term success, fueled by teaching and getting better, for the team’s development. When is the last time you heard a coach say during a drill that we need to win? NO, the coach says we have to get better. When a team loses a championship, or gets eliminated from tournament, what is the first thing you hear from them after they get over being upset about the loss? “We got to get better.” Development as a TEAM is the primary focus. They can’t all of a sudden come up with a magic elixir that will guarantee them victory. Even at his greatest height of achievement Jeter failed almost 70% of the time at the plate. And when you break it down even further he is taking more swings and missing pitches and hitting foul balls, so his success rate is even a smaller percentage than the 30% that many people use as a standard for batting average greatness. Now let’s go to Derek Jeter playing in a game. It is the ninth inning and he is up to bat with two outs and the bases loaded. He may walk up to the plate thinking about getting the game winning hit, but then he immediately has to return his focus to actually making contact with the baseball to get the hit. He can think about the pitcher he is going to face and what history he has had against him or what the pitcher might throw him during his at bat, but ultimately, even in a game winning situation he must focus on executing the basic fundamentals of swinging a bat to hit a pitched ball. Over the years, and many many years and thousands of pitches he has trained himself to keep his head still and his hands held a certain way and to stride or not stride a certain way. Even in this most critical moment when the game is on the line he is not thinking about winning because thinking about winning will actually hinder his ability to win and he is a highly trained individual. Now please tell me, if even one of the greatest baseball players of all time a sure Hall of Famer can’t think about winning to help him win at the most crucial point in a game, how can we suppose to “teach” our amateur athletes the importance of winning at any age and not hinder their development and distract them from the goal of getting better so as to put themselves and their team in a position to win? One component missing in all this and it is a critical component is trust. In that game winning or losing situation, Derek Jeter has to have a lot of trust. He has to trust the pitcher; yes he does, to throw the ball over the plate and not at him. He has to trust the players on base will run when he gets a hit. He has to trust the first and third base coach to not get the runners thrown out. He has to trust the bat manufacturer. He has trust, not respect, as a priority. That’s what we should be modeling and teaching our young people both on and off the playing field. The long term value and benefit of learning and earning trust! Well, since this all conjecture on my part, I would certainly like to give Mr. Jeter his turn to respond. I can be reached on twitter @VJJStanley, Face Book at Frozenshorts, on my website frozenshorts.com and by email at vj@frozenshorts.com or just get my book: Stop The tsunami in Youth Sports, through a link at my website.Derek Jeter. Let’s talk about the over the top importance of winning to some people in youth sports, mostly adults, parents, friends, and organizations, and how they feel winning youth sports games at a young age teaches a child valuable life lessons. And then let’s talk about Derek Jeter. Many people believe him to be the consummate winner. They see the World Championships he has won as a member of the New York Yankees and his mantra of playing to win. They see the way he handles himself with class and dignity. They never see him chewing out, or showing up a teammate and rarely does he ever argue with an umpire. He stays out of controversy off the field and does a lot of charitable work behind the scenes, rarely drawing attention to himself. He is an excellent role model for his teammates, fans, and Major League baseball. Pretty straight forward stuff isn’t it? Maybe not. Probably not. It isn’t! So what exactly is it that makes the tag of a winner so hard to define? Are there way more important things that go into being a winner than just winning? Could it be that the great Derek Jeter says he plays to win and winning championships is the only thing he plays for just to appease the masses? Or could it be that he uses winning as a motivational tool to keep his focus and drive at a level he needs to compete at the major league level? One thing is for sure, Derek Jeter has lost a heck of a lot of baseball games. I would venture to say that he has played in and lost over a 1000 games in his professional career. So if he truly believed in the mantra of winning, and he didn’t win, why wouldn’t he stop playing? Of course you can say it is the money that keeps him going, but in reality, it seems he is very well off financially. Could it be the winning mantra is just a sound bite used to garner a brand name around athletes? Is it possible with the breakdown of what we feel is important to us, that we feel the need to associate ourselves, and align ourselves with a brand, a name, and organization that makes up for and possibly replaces some peoples family structure? This is the thing, this is the group we can identify with as something we want to be a part of? Something as social beings we need to feel part of, to make us feel better, or in some cases, superior. Because really, tell me right now how to win! If teachable with a 100% guaranteed success rate why aren’t more teams trying this formula for success. No, honestly, in all the years team sports have been played, why, if there was a formula for success, and how to win, why hasn’t anyone packaged it. A person could make millions! And if they can’t figure it out for highly trained professional athletes, coaches, and organizations, how is it even remotely possible that untrained people, coaching part time, could believe that they could teach this mythical thing called winning to our children in youth sports. How could they think that these children could grasp a concept so vague in its meaning, definition, and execution, that it could be more important for them to grasp than it is for the children to PLAY FOR FUN? Because, that my friends takes time. And as a good friend of mine Tony said: “We want to microwave our kids development when we should really be slow cooking it.” Look how many years of development it took before he became the captain of the New York Yankees. No one talks about how many games he won or lost in the minor leagues or even when and where he played amateur baseball with much regularity. It’s almost as if his career began when his team starting winning World Championships. Very few talk about his struggles when he first got to the Major Leagues. No one seems to want to talk about the journey. But if you ask him, and I wish someone would, how important the journey was to his success, I am pretty sure you would be surprised at how important it is to him. Not winning mind you, just the importance of enjoying and learning from and during the journey. Then ask him this one. How important was luck, yes, plain old fashioned luck that anyone could have, at reaching his ultimate goal of playing shortstop for the New York Yankees? And finally, because he is well known for his dry wit and sense of humor, ask him how important, even at the highest level in the world of professional baseball, how important it is for him and his teammates to have fun, TO PLAY FOR FUN? Few people talk about the hours and hours he spends with teammates behind the scenes working out and talking to teammates about the right way for them to behave and act at the major league level to help the New York Yankees be successful as a TEAM first and Derek Jeter second. Many many hours tutoring, listening, and encouraging the players around him to have fun, work hard, and enjoy the journey. All the while, he is stressing the importance of learning and executing the fundamentals properly, consistently, over time. And you know why they listen, sure because it’s Derek Jeter, but the real reason, and you can ask him this one too, is because they trust him. Plain and simple. And he trusts them also. Nowhere in this whole paragraph have I mentioned the word winning in what it takes to make a champion, and I doubt Derek Jeter stopped any workout he was having, any tutorial he was giving and said, “we have to win” because he knows you don’t! He knows that his success is intrinsically tied to the team’s success. Derek Jeter is keenly aware that not everyone on his team is going to be an All-Star or future Hall of Famer. The ability for him and the coaches to intigrate all levels of talents and all types of personalities into the framework of a successful team is what truly makes Derek Jeter’s talent transferrable to the playing field and the scoreboard. He knows that getting along with these teammates over the course of a six month season is imperative for the long term success, fueled by teaching and getting better, for the team’s development. When is the last time you heard a coach say during a drill that we need to win? NO, the coach says we have to get better. When a team loses a championship, or gets eliminated from tournament, what is the first thing you hear from them after they get over being upset about the loss? “We got to get better.” Development as a TEAM is the primary focus. They can’t all of a sudden come up with a magic elixir that will guarantee them victory. Even at his greatest height of achievement Jeter failed almost 70% of the time at the plate. And when you break it down even further he is taking more swings and missing pitches and hitting foul balls, so his success rate is even a smaller percentage than the 30% that many people use as a standard for batting average greatness. Now let’s go to Derek Jeter playing in a game. It is the ninth inning and he is up to bat with two outs and the bases loaded. He may walk up to the plate thinking about getting the game winning hit, but then he immediately has to return his focus to actually making contact with the baseball to get the hit. He can think about the pitcher he is going to face and what history he has had against him or what the pitcher might throw him during his at bat, but ultimately, even in a game winning situation he must focus on executing the basic fundamentals of swinging a bat to hit a pitched ball. Over the years, and many many years and thousands of pitches he has trained himself to keep his head still and his hands held a certain way and to stride or not stride a certain way. Even in this most critical moment when the game is on the line he is not thinking about winning because thinking about winning will actually hinder his ability to win and he is a highly trained individual. Now please tell me, if even one of the greatest baseball players of all time a sure Hall of Famer can’t think about winning to help him win at the most crucial point in a game, how can we suppose to “teach” our amateur athletes the importance of winning at any age and not hinder their development and distract them from the goal of getting better so as to put themselves and their team in a position to win? One component missing in all this and it is a critical component is trust. In that game winning or losing situation, Derek Jeter has to have a lot of trust. He has to trust the pitcher; yes he does, to throw the ball over the plate and not at him. He has to trust the players on base will run when he gets a hit. He has to trust the first and third base coach to not get the runners thrown out. He has to trust the bat manufacturer. He has trust, not respect, as a priority. That’s what we should be modeling and teaching our young people both on and off the playing field. The long term value and benefit of learning and earning trust! Well, since this all conjecture on my part, I would certainly like to give Mr. Jeter his turn to respond. I can be reached on twitter @VJJStanley, Face Book at Frozenshorts, on my website frozenshorts.com and by email at vj@frozenshorts.com or just get my book: Stop The tsunami in Youth Sports, through a link at my website.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Derek Jeter and winningDerek Jeter. Let’s talk about the over the top importance of winning to some people in youth sports, mostly adults, parents, friends, and organizations, and how they feel winning youth sports games at a young age teaches a child valuable life lessons. And then let’s talk about Derek Jeter. Many people believe him to be the consummate winner. They see the World Championships he has won as a member of the New York Yankees and his mantra of playing to win. They see the way he handles himself with class and dignity. They never see him chewing out, or showing up a teammate and rarely does he ever argue with an umpire. He stays out of controversy off the field and does a lot of charitable work behind the scenes, rarely drawing attention to himself. He is an excellent role model for his teammates, fans, and Major League baseball. Pretty straight forward stuff isn’t it? Maybe not. Probably not. It isn’t! So what exactly is it that makes the tag of a winner so hard to define? Are there way more important things that go into being a winner than just winning? Could it be that the great Derek Jeter says he plays to win and winning championships is the only thing he plays for just to appease the masses? Or could it be that he uses winning as a motivational tool to keep his focus and drive at a level he needs to compete at the major league level? One thing is for sure, Derek Jeter has lost a heck of a lot of baseball games. I would venture to say that he has played in and lost over a 1000 games in his professional career. So if he truly believed in the mantra of winning, and he didn’t win, why wouldn’t he stop playing? Of course you can say it is the money that keeps him going, but in reality, it seems he is very well off financially. Could it be the winning mantra is just a sound bite used to garner a brand name around athletes? Is it possible with the breakdown of what we feel is important to us, that we feel the need to associate ourselves, and align ourselves with a brand, a name, and organization that makes up for and possibly replaces some peoples family structure? This is the thing, this is the group we can identify with as something we want to be a part of? Something as social beings we need to feel part of, to make us feel better, or in some cases, superior. Because really, tell me right now how to win! If teachable with a 100% guaranteed success rate why aren’t more teams trying this formula for success. No, honestly, in all the years team sports have been played, why, if there was a formula for success, and how to win, why hasn’t anyone packaged it. A person could make millions! And if they can’t figure it out for highly trained professional athletes, coaches, and organizations, how is it even remotely possible that untrained people, coaching part time, could believe that they could teach this mythical thing called winning to our children in youth sports. How could they think that these children could grasp a concept so vague in its meaning, definition, and execution, that it could be more important for them to grasp than it is for the children to PLAY FOR FUN? Because, that my friends takes time. And as a good friend of mine Tony said: “We want to microwave our kids development when we should really be slow cooking it.” Look how many years of development it took before he became the captain of the New York Yankees. No one talks about how many games he won or lost in the minor leagues or even when and where he played amateur baseball with much regularity. It’s almost as if his career began when his team starting winning World Championships. Very few talk about his struggles when he first got to the Major Leagues. No one seems to want to talk about the journey. But if you ask him, and I wish someone would, how important the journey was to his success, I am pretty sure you would be surprised at how important it is to him. Not winning mind you, just the importance of enjoying and learning from and during the journey. Then ask him this one. How important was luck, yes, plain old fashioned luck that anyone could have, at reaching his ultimate goal of playing shortstop for the New York Yankees? And finally, because he is well known for his dry wit and sense of humor, ask him how important, even at the highest level in the world of professional baseball, how important it is for him and his teammates to have fun, TO PLAY FOR FUN? Few people talk about the hours and hours he spends with teammates behind the scenes working out and talking to teammates about the right way for them to behave and act at the major league level to help the New York Yankees be successful as a TEAM first and Derek Jeter second. Many many hours tutoring, listening, and encouraging the players around him to have fun, work hard, and enjoy the journey. All the while, he is stressing the importance of learning and executing the fundamentals properly, consistently, over time. And you know why they listen, sure because it’s Derek Jeter, but the real reason, and you can ask him this one too, is because they trust him. Plain and simple. And he trusts them also. Nowhere in this whole paragraph have I mentioned the word winning in what it takes to make a champion, and I doubt Derek Jeter stopped any workout he was having, any tutorial he was giving and said, “we have to win” because he knows you don’t! He knows that his success is intrinsically tied to the team’s success. Derek Jeter is keenly aware that not everyone on his team is going to be an All-Star or future Hall of Famer. The ability for him and the coaches to intigrate all levels of talents and all types of personalities into the framework of a successful team is what truly makes Derek Jeter’s talent transferrable to the playing field and the scoreboard. He knows that getting along with these teammates over the course of a six month season is imperative for the long term success, fueled by teaching and getting better, for the team’s development. When is the last time you heard a coach say during a drill that we need to win? NO, the coach says we have to get better. When a team loses a championship, or gets eliminated from tournament, what is the first thing you hear from them after they get over being upset about the loss? “We got to get better.” Development as a TEAM is the primary focus. They can’t all of a sudden come up with a magic elixir that will guarantee them victory. Even at his greatest height of achievement Jeter failed almost 70% of the time at the plate. And when you break it down even further he is taking more swings and missing pitches and hitting foul balls, so his success rate is even a smaller percentage than the 30% that many people use as a standard for batting average greatness. Now let’s go to Derek Jeter playing in a game. It is the ninth inning and he is up to bat with two outs and the bases loaded. He may walk up to the plate thinking about getting the game winning hit, but then he immediately has to return his focus to actually making contact with the baseball to get the hit. He can think about the pitcher he is going to face and what history he has had against him or what the pitcher might throw him during his at bat, but ultimately, even in a game winning situation he must focus on executing the basic fundamentals of swinging a bat to hit a pitched ball. Over the years, and many many years and thousands of pitches he has trained himself to keep his head still and his hands held a certain way and to stride or not stride a certain way. Even in this most critical moment when the game is on the line he is not thinking about winning because thinking about winning will actually hinder his ability to win and he is a highly trained individual. Now please tell me, if even one of the greatest baseball players of all time a sure Hall of Famer can’t think about winning to help him win at the most crucial point in a game, how can we suppose to “teach” our amateur athletes the importance of winning at any age and not hinder their development and distract them from the goal of getting better so as to put themselves and their team in a position to win? One component missing in all this and it is a critical component is trust. In that game winning or losing situation, Derek Jeter has to have a lot of trust. He has to trust the pitcher; yes he does, to throw the ball over the plate and not at him. He has to trust the players on base will run when he gets a hit. He has to trust the first and third base coach to not get the runners thrown out. He has to trust the bat manufacturer. He has trust, not respect, as a priority. That’s what we should be modeling and teaching our young people both on and off the playing field. The long term value and benefit of learning and earning trust! Well, since this all conjecture on my part, I would certainly like to give Mr. Jeter his turn to respond. I can be reached on twitter @VJJStanley, Face Book at Frozenshorts, on my website frozenshorts.com and by email at vj@frozenshorts.com or just get my book: Stop The tsunami in Youth Sports, through a link at my website.Derek Jeter. Let’s talk about the over the top importance of winning to some people in youth sports, mostly adults, parents, friends, and organizations, and how they feel winning youth sports games at a young age teaches a child valuable life lessons. And then let’s talk about Derek Jeter. Many people believe him to be the consummate winner. They see the World Championships he has won as a member of the New York Yankees and his mantra of playing to win. They see the way he handles himself with class and dignity. They never see him chewing out, or showing up a teammate and rarely does he ever argue with an umpire. He stays out of controversy off the field and does a lot of charitable work behind the scenes, rarely drawing attention to himself. He is an excellent role model for his teammates, fans, and Major League baseball. Pretty straight forward stuff isn’t it? Maybe not. Probably not. It isn’t! So what exactly is it that makes the tag of a winner so hard to define? Are there way more important things that go into being a winner than just winning? Could it be that the great Derek Jeter says he plays to win and winning championships is the only thing he plays for just to appease the masses? Or could it be that he uses winning as a motivational tool to keep his focus and drive at a level he needs to compete at the major league level? One thing is for sure, Derek Jeter has lost a heck of a lot of baseball games. I would venture to say that he has played in and lost over a 1000 games in his professional career. So if he truly believed in the mantra of winning, and he didn’t win, why wouldn’t he stop playing? Of course you can say it is the money that keeps him going, but in reality, it seems he is very well off financially. Could it be the winning mantra is just a sound bite used to garner a brand name around athletes? Is it possible with the breakdown of what we feel is important to us, that we feel the need to associate ourselves, and align ourselves with a brand, a name, and organization that makes up for and possibly replaces some peoples family structure? This is the thing, this is the group we can identify with as something we want to be a part of? Something as social beings we need to feel part of, to make us feel better, or in some cases, superior. Because really, tell me right now how to win! If teachable with a 100% guaranteed success rate why aren’t more teams trying this formula for success. No, honestly, in all the years team sports have been played, why, if there was a formula for success, and how to win, why hasn’t anyone packaged it. A person could make millions! And if they can’t figure it out for highly trained professional athletes, coaches, and organizations, how is it even remotely possible that untrained people, coaching part time, could believe that they could teach this mythical thing called winning to our children in youth sports. How could they think that these children could grasp a concept so vague in its meaning, definition, and execution, that it could be more important for them to grasp than it is for the children to PLAY FOR FUN? Because, that my friends takes time. And as a good friend of mine Tony said: “We want to microwave our kids development when we should really be slow cooking it.” Look how many years of development it took before he became the captain of the New York Yankees. No one talks about how many games he won or lost in the minor leagues or even when and where he played amateur baseball with much regularity. It’s almost as if his career began when his team starting winning World Championships. Very few talk about his struggles when he first got to the Major Leagues. No one seems to want to talk about the journey. But if you ask him, and I wish someone would, how important the journey was to his success, I am pretty sure you would be surprised at how important it is to him. Not winning mind you, just the importance of enjoying and learning from and during the journey. Then ask him this one. How important was luck, yes, plain old fashioned luck that anyone could have, at reaching his ultimate goal of playing shortstop for the New York Yankees? And finally, because he is well known for his dry wit and sense of humor, ask him how important, even at the highest level in the world of professional baseball, how important it is for him and his teammates to have fun, TO PLAY FOR FUN? Few people talk about the hours and hours he spends with teammates behind the scenes working out and talking to teammates about the right way for them to behave and act at the major league level to help the New York Yankees be successful as a TEAM first and Derek Jeter second. Many many hours tutoring, listening, and encouraging the players around him to have fun, work hard, and enjoy the journey. All the while, he is stressing the importance of learning and executing the fundamentals properly, consistently, over time. And you know why they listen, sure because it’s Derek Jeter, but the real reason, and you can ask him this one too, is because they trust him. Plain and simple. And he trusts them also. Nowhere in this whole paragraph have I mentioned the word winning in what it takes to make a champion, and I doubt Derek Jeter stopped any workout he was having, any tutorial he was giving and said, “we have to win” because he knows you don’t! He knows that his success is intrinsically tied to the team’s success. Derek Jeter is keenly aware that not everyone on his team is going to be an All-Star or future Hall of Famer. The ability for him and the coaches to intigrate all levels of talents and all types of personalities into the framework of a successful team is what truly makes Derek Jeter’s talent transferrable to the playing field and the scoreboard. He knows that getting along with these teammates over the course of a six month season is imperative for the long term success, fueled by teaching and getting better, for the team’s development. When is the last time you heard a coach say during a drill that we need to win? NO, the coach says we have to get better. When a team loses a championship, or gets eliminated from tournament, what is the first thing you hear from them after they get over being upset about the loss? “We got to get better.” Development as a TEAM is the primary focus. They can’t all of a sudden come up with a magic elixir that will guarantee them victory. Even at his greatest height of achievement Jeter failed almost 70% of the time at the plate. And when you break it down even further he is taking more swings and missing pitches and hitting foul balls, so his success rate is even a smaller percentage than the 30% that many people use as a standard for batting average greatness. Now let’s go to Derek Jeter playing in a game. It is the ninth inning and he is up to bat with two outs and the bases loaded. He may walk up to the plate thinking about getting the game winning hit, but then he immediately has to return his focus to actually making contact with the baseball to get the hit. He can think about the pitcher he is going to face and what history he has had against him or what the pitcher might throw him during his at bat, but ultimately, even in a game winning situation he must focus on executing the basic fundamentals of swinging a bat to hit a pitched ball. Over the years, and many many years and thousands of pitches he has trained himself to keep his head still and his hands held a certain way and to stride or not stride a certain way. Even in this most critical moment when the game is on the line he is not thinking about winning because thinking about winning will actually hinder his ability to win and he is a highly trained individual. Now please tell me, if even one of the greatest baseball players of all time a sure Hall of Famer can’t think about winning to help him win at the most crucial point in a game, how can we suppose to “teach” our amateur athletes the importance of winning at any age and not hinder their development and distract them from the goal of getting better so as to put themselves and their team in a position to win? One component missing in all this and it is a critical component is trust. In that game winning or losing situation, Derek Jeter has to have a lot of trust. He has to trust the pitcher; yes he does, to throw the ball over the plate and not at him. He has to trust the players on base will run when he gets a hit. He has to trust the first and third base coach to not get the runners thrown out. He has to trust the bat manufacturer. He has trust, not respect, as a priority. That’s what we should be modeling and teaching our young people both on and off the playing field. The long term value and benefit of learning and earning trust! Well, since this all conjecture on my part, I would certainly like to give Mr. Jeter his turn to respond. I can be reached on twitter @VJJStanley, Face Book at Frozenshorts, on my website frozenshorts.com and by email at vj@frozenshorts.com or just get my book: Stop The tsunami in Youth Sports, through a link at my website.

Derek Jeter.

Let’s talk about the over the top importance of winning to some people in youth sports, mostly adults, parents, friends, and organizations, and how they feel winning youth sports games at a young age teaches a child valuable life lessons.

And then let’s talk about Derek Jeter. Many people believe him to be the consummate winner. They see the World Championships he has won as a member of the New York Yankees and his mantra of playing to win. They see the way he handles himself with class and dignity.

They never see him chewing out, or showing up a teammate and rarely does he ever argue with an umpire. He stays out of controversy off the field and does a lot of charitable work behind the scenes, rarely drawing attention to himself. He is an excellent role model for his teammates, fans, and Major League baseball.

Pretty straight forward stuff isn’t it? Maybe not. Probably not. It isn’t!

So what exactly is it that makes the tag of a winner so hard to define? Are there way more important things that go into being a winner than just winning?

Could it be that the great Derek Jeter says he plays to win and winning championships is the only thing he plays for just to appease the masses? Or could it be that he uses winning as a motivational tool to keep his focus and drive at a level he needs to compete at the major league level?

One thing is for sure, Derek Jeter has lost a heck of a lot of baseball games. I would venture to say that he has played in and lost over a 1000 games in his professional career. So if he truly believed in the mantra of winning, and he didn’t win, why wouldn’t he stop playing? Of course you can say it is the money that keeps him going, but in reality, it seems he is very well off financially.

Could it be the winning mantra is just a sound bite used to garner a brand name around athletes? Is it possible with the breakdown of what we feel is important to us, that we feel the need to associate ourselves, and align ourselves with a brand, a name, and organization that makes up for and possibly replaces some peoples family structure?

This is the thing, this is the group we can identify with as something we want to be a part of? Something as social beings we need to feel part of, to make us feel better, or in some cases, superior.

Because really, tell me right now how to win! If teachable with a 100% guaranteed success rate why aren’t more teams trying this formula for success. No, honestly, in all the years team sports have been played, why, if there was a formula for success, and how to win, why hasn’t anyone packaged it. A person could make millions!

And if they can’t figure it out for highly trained professional athletes, coaches, and organizations, how is it even remotely possible that untrained people, coaching part time, could believe that they could teach this mythical thing called winning to our children in youth sports. How could they think that these children could grasp a concept so vague in its meaning, definition, and execution, that it could be more important for them to grasp than it is for the children to PLAY FOR FUN?

Because, that my friends takes time. And as a good friend of mine Tony said: “We want to microwave our kids development when we should really be slow cooking it.”

Look how many years of development it took before he became the captain of the New York Yankees. No one talks about how many games he won or lost in the minor leagues or even when and where he played amateur baseball with much regularity. It’s almost as if his career began when his team starting winning World Championships. Very few talk about his struggles when he first got to the Major Leagues. No one seems to want to talk about the journey.

But if you ask him, and I wish someone would, how important the journey was to his success, I am pretty sure you would be surprised at how important it is to him. Not winning mind you, just the importance of enjoying and learning from and during the journey.

Then ask him this one. How important was luck, yes, plain old fashioned luck that anyone could have, at reaching his ultimate goal of playing shortstop for the New York Yankees?

And finally, because he is well known for his dry wit and sense of humor, ask him how important, even at the highest level in the world of professional baseball, how important it is for him and his teammates to have fun, TO PLAY FOR FUN?

Few people talk about the hours and hours he spends with teammates behind the scenes working out and talking to teammates about the right way for them to behave and act at the major league level to help the New York Yankees be successful as a TEAM first and Derek Jeter second. Many many hours tutoring, listening, and encouraging the players around him to have fun, work hard, and enjoy the journey.

All the while, he is stressing the importance of learning and executing the fundamentals properly, consistently, over time. And you know why they listen, sure because it’s Derek Jeter, but the real reason, and you can ask him this one too, is because they trust him. Plain and simple. And he trusts them also. Nowhere in this whole paragraph have I mentioned the word winning in what it takes to make a champion, and I doubt Derek Jeter stopped any workout he was having, any tutorial he was giving and said, “we have to win” because he knows you don’t!

He knows that his success is intrinsically tied to the team’s success. Derek Jeter is keenly aware that not everyone on his team is going to be an All-Star or future Hall of Famer. The ability for him and the coaches to intigrate all levels of talents and all types of personalities into the framework of a successful team is what truly makes Derek Jeter’s talent transferrable to the playing field and the scoreboard.

He knows that getting along with these teammates over the course of a six month season is imperative for the long term success, fueled by teaching and getting better, for the team’s development.

When is the last time you heard a coach say during a drill that we need to win? NO, the coach says we have to get better. When a team loses a championship, or gets eliminated from tournament, what is the first thing you hear from them after they get over being upset about the loss? “We got to get better.” Development as a TEAM is the primary focus. They can’t all of a sudden come up with a magic elixir that will guarantee them victory.

Even at his greatest height of achievement Jeter failed almost 70% of the time at the plate. And when you break it down even further he is taking more swings and missing pitches and hitting foul balls, so his success rate is even a smaller percentage than the 30% that many people use as a standard for batting average greatness.

Now let’s go to Derek Jeter playing in a game. It is the ninth inning and he is up to bat with two outs and the bases loaded. He may walk up to the plate thinking about getting the game winning hit, but then he immediately has to return his focus to actually making contact with the baseball to get the hit.

He can think about the pitcher he is going to face and what history he has had against him or what the pitcher might throw him during his at bat, but ultimately, even in a game winning situation he must focus on executing the basic fundamentals of swinging a bat to hit a pitched ball.

Over the years, and many many years and thousands of pitches he has trained himself to keep his head still and his hands held a certain way and to stride or not stride a certain way.

Even in this most critical moment when the game is on the line he is not thinking about winning because thinking about winning will actually hinder his ability to win and he is a highly trained individual.

Now please tell me, if even one of the greatest baseball players of all time a sure Hall of Famer can’t think about winning to help him win at the most crucial point in a game, how can we suppose to “teach” our amateur athletes the importance of winning at any age and not hinder their development and distract them from the goal of getting better so as to put themselves and their team in a position to win?

One component missing in all this and it is a critical component is trust. In that game winning or losing situation, Derek Jeter has to have a lot of trust. He has to trust the pitcher; yes he does, to throw the ball over the plate and not at him. He has to trust the players on base will run when he gets a hit. He has to trust the first and third base coach to not get the runners thrown out. He has to trust the bat manufacturer. He has trust, not respect, as a priority.

That’s what we should be modeling and teaching our young people both on and off the playing field. The long term value and benefit of learning and earning trust!

Well, since this all conjecture on my part, I would certainly like to give Mr. Jeter his turn to respond. I can be reached on twitter @VJJStanley, Face Book at Frozenshorts, on my website frozenshorts.com and by email at vj@frozenshorts.com or just get my book: Stop The tsunami in Youth Sports, through a link at my website.

Frozenshorts

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

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