I’ve loved baseball for as long as I can remember, and it was because I had always been good at it. To be more specific than that, I was really good at hitting the baseball a long way. My first home run was when I was 10 years old at Lutz Little League in Florida. I hit the ball and had no idea that the baseball had a chance of going over the fence. My Dad was coaching first base and I saw him in disbelief that I had hit a homerun. He told me the ball went over the fence and I couldn’t believe it myself. No one knew the last time a 10 year old had hit a ball over the fence at this park. I continued hitting the ball over the fence throughout my career and it became what I was known for. I had my ups and downs because as I got better, I started going up in competition level. When I got to high school, I had two home runs in each of my first seasons, and I then made my commitment to UNCG and doubled my home run total to 4 for my junior season. If everything in life were great, I would have just doubled my senior season total for home runs and walked right into a starting spot in college. Well, we all know life doesn’t work that way. 

I hurt my arm going into my senior season and I stopped working out because I didn’t want to further the damage of my arm before college. Little did I know, that was the worst possible thing that I could’ve done. I lost most of my power and confidence and went back down to only two home runs that season. My coaches thought it would be a good idea to lose weight and I went into college weighing only 195. I hadn’t weighed this little since my sophomore year of high school and I was in the best physical shape of my life. I could run a mile in less than 7 minutes and do more push-ups than any point of my life. Should translate to the field, right? Wrong. I walk into that huge park at UNCG and only hit one home run all year and I’m only talking about BATTING PRACTICE. I knew something had to change and that was that I needed my power back. 

I got back into the weight room and worked my but off. I gained my weight back and the power came right back with it. It was an awesome summer that I got to stay home, workout at a D1 facility and got to play baseball with my friends from high school. At D1 (the facility) I learned how to “train” and not just workout. I was gaining my confidence back and then I got back to UNCG to show off my re-found power. It was a huge improvement from the year before, but we had a new coach and so I didn’t have anything to reference that to. Here’s the link to learn more about this period of my life, INSERT HERE. 

If you haven’t read about what happens next I’ll try to explain it as short as possible. I got cut from UNCG with one week left in my sophomore semester and decided to play at the nearest community college. I attended GTCC, and this was definitely a tough road for me. We would have practice at a community park at 9am Tuesday-Friday. If this wasn’t bad enough, we had our L screen stolen from us early in the season and couldn’t take batting practice for over a month. I did all I could to make the most of this situation, but my power was lost again. I hit 0 home runs but I did have a decent season. I was 2nd team all conference hitting .350 with a strong amount of doubles. I knew that I had more in the tank though, and I wanted to play to my full potential. Soon after this, I committed to Catawba College and was excited to get back to playing some real, competitive baseball. I knew I had a big task ahead of me. I was to play summer baseball while finishing up 15 credit hours over the summer. The baseball part is one of the reasons that I am still playing today. Here’s what went on and why I believe what I said previously, INSERT HERE. 

I failed two of my classes over the summer and had to finish them up over the fall. I was forced to stay home with my parents and train. Looking back it was a really cool time because I only had 6 credit hours and got to focus on baseball. I spent 2 hours a day at the gym 6 days a week. I REALLY got in the best baseball shape of my life. I thought that I had done the same before going to college but after going through some trial and error, I found the body that worked for me in baseball. Now how did I go from hitting 0 home runs my first two years of college to hitting 30 home runs my last two years of college and year of professional baseball? 

I never really had the confidence I needed to perform at the highest level, and it finally came that junior year of college. It came from the amount of work that my Dad and I put in that fall. Ontop of going to the gym everyday, I went to the baseball field everyday. I would start by long tossing into the fence. My Dad would then front toss me baseball after baseball. FRONT TOSS, TJ? Yes, front toss. Now, how was it that I could get better from this practice? I got better because of the goal that I had behind the practice. My goal was to hit the ball as hard and far every single time I hit the baseball. The field we went to was open, with no fence. This was a huge part of my development because these balls rolled very far. Why does the roll matter? It was a great test to see how HARD I hit the baseball. I would hit some line drives that would roll over 400 feet. This became a great goal to have when I would go to the field every single day. I knew where I would pick up baseballs and there was a tree that was about 450 feet away. I knew that I was having a good day if I was picking up baseballs behind this tree. My Dad and I look back at these days and neither of us would trade it for anything. 

This was a tricky topic to navigate so let me reiterate what I hope you take away from this blog. First thing, never forget that failure can be a performance enhancer if used correctly. Second thing is to double down on your strengths. I could hit a baseball really far. Once I focused on this task it took me farther in my baseball career than I could have ever imagined. Third thing is that external goals will always be better focused on, rather than your internal cues. Lastly, if you’re lucky enough to have your Dad (or someone really important to you) go to the baseball field to help you improve, do it. It will mean more than you ever know as the years go on.