By Kolten Smith –
As someone who played baseball all my life and through college, I have learned many different lessons throughout my career. Some of these lessons include teamwork, time management, and sportsmanship (plus many others). For this blog, I will focus on perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned: leadership.
Leadership is such an important thing to understand and master. It can be used in so many different facets of your life, including your work and personal life. Given this, I am going to highlight three different lessons that have impacted me the most throughout my playing career and now in my life after.
The first is that life is a team sport. What I mean by this is just as you have a team in baseball, you also have a team for the game of life. These “teammates” could include your parents and other family members, friends, or co-workers. These team members should help you get through the tough times, support you in your big moments, and assist you in your growth as a person. In return, you should help them in similar ways. Life is tough enough as it is; have people who possess similar goals and are on the same mission as you to help you through it!
My second lesson is the critical importance of empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of someone else. For example, understanding someone’s point of view in an argument. You might not agree, but understanding why they have that opinion is key. On a team, even if you are with a group of like-minded people, you are going to have debates about things. (If you didn’t, then your team is just a bunch of “yes-men,” and that is never a good thing.) So, during these debates, being able to understand why they have that opinion is so important because it will lead to a greater understanding of the point they are trying to make. As a result, this leads to a more effective team, which is something we should all strive for.
Finally, and probably the most important principle of everything I have learned from the sport of baseball, is your “why.” At the Texas Baseball Ranch®, this is something that is discussed repeatedly with our athletes. For anything in life, you should know why you’re doing it, whether that be your education, baseball, your job, or anything else important to you. If you want to achieve excellence at something, then knowing your motivations for it is of the utmost importance. My biggest why while I played was to make my parents proud. Yes, I had other motivations, like being a part of something bigger than myself, but making my mom and dad proud was the biggest one. They loved to watch me play, whether at my highest moments or my lowest ones. No matter what, they were happy to watch me, and that happiness was my why. I urge you to find your why because strong motivations will lead you to greater success than you otherwise would have.
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Important TBR Updates
- Our Winter Elite Pitchers Boot Camps are filling up. You can visit our website to learn more and register. We hope to see you at one of these camps!
– December 27-29, 2023 (Spots limited)
– January 13-15, 2024 (Spots limited)
– February 17-19, 2024 (final camp until May)
Have you been considering attending one of our 3-Day Elite Pitchers Bootcamp but haven’t yet pulled the trigger? To help, we have a detailed mailing package entitled “What Makes This Boot Camp Different”. If you’d like to receive this package, email Jill@TexasBaseballRanch.com and request a copy.
- Attention Coaches! You can still register for our ONE DAY Pitching Coaches Event taking place at The Ranch on Dec. 15th with a meet and greet the evening of Dec.14th. The emphasis for this year’s event is “Practical Application for Game Time Performance” focusing on not just maintaining but actually improving your pitchers’ command, velocity, secondary stuff and recovery IN SEASON. If you’d like more information on the event email Jill@TexasBaseballRanch.com. To register for the event CLICK HERE.
- We have revamped our YouTube Channel “Texas Baseball Ranch – Ultimate Pitching Training” (@TXBaseballRanch) and would love for you to check it out and subscribe. Doing so will notify you of additional content being added which we’re doing regularly now. CLICK HERE to check it out and let us know what you think!
