It has been over a week since returning home after 2 months in South Florida. I’ve had some time to digest all that happened and compared it to previous summers that I’ve had as a college baseball coach. I first want to thank everyone involved in the Collegiate League of the Palm Beaches (CLPB) for making this summer possible. I knew that being in an environment such as the CLPB was something that I needed and I proved myself right. This blog is going to be heavily focused on what I needed as a coach. We often hear the reason that “coaches’ coach.” They are heavily based around helping others. Which is exactly the reason that I coach as well. Many people that I met throughout this summer will continue to be a part of my life. The reason for this blog is to share how impactful this summer was to prepare myself to be the best coach I can be for the rest of my life. I’ll leave you with my favorite quote of all-time to further explain why I focused on myself this summer: 

“What you do for others, you do for yourself. What you do for yourself, you do for others.” Pema Chödrön

Quality of Life

When I think about improving myself as a coach, this includes improving myself as a person. In the past, I was thinking about what would improve my coaching abilities separately from who I was as a person. When thinking about what I wanted for this summer, I thought about both. I knew that I needed to get more time as a head coach and just more time coaching in general. This led me to looking into summer baseball options. I was lucky enough to be a part of every type of college summer baseball has to offer. The leagues that I have been associated with now have been: the CVCL, CPL, Cape Cod, Great Lakes, Virginia Beach, and now CLPB. They all have their pros and cons. The pro that I can now take into consideration was quality of life. In most summer leagues it is nothing but baseball. A typical day in the Great Lakes would be: waking up, eat, drive 2-3 hours, games, drive back 2-3 hours and do it all over again the next day. Safe to say quality of life is not the highest. In saying that, I needed that summer to develop as a coach and to appreciate what quality of life really is. I knew that this summer I needed a place where I could develop myself while helping others. 

The CLPB provided me and the athletes the chance to live in paradise for the summer. I was minutes walk away from the beach, beautiful walking trails, unbelievable housing and forest class training with Cressey Sports Performance. I walked into the apartment the first day knowing that this would help me get back to where I needed to be. Activity that I enjoyed was something I needed to find and I found that. 

Activity

The first activity that I found was rucking. Rucking is a weighted walk and I read about how great of an activity that it is from “The Comfort Crisis” by Michael Easter. I bought the vest as soon as I finished the book but this was the first time I really put it to use. Walking was already one of my favorite activities because it would get me out of my shell. I find myself outgoing and ready to talk to people on walks. If you’re getting a phone call from me there is a good chance that on the other side I’m on a walk. The only problem was that I wanted walking to be a bit more of a workout because of how time consuming it is. That’s why I loved the idea of rucking so much. I get way more bang for my bucks while allowing me to get other things accomplished while working out. 

My next activity was pickleball. I’ve tried to play tennis in the past and I knew that I was just way too far away from becoming an average amateur tennis player. We spotted the brand new pickleball courts early on and I knew I needed to give it a try. When I play a sport as a hobby, I need to see myself having a chance to get better. After the first day of pickleball, I knew this could be something I could get behind. For those reading who are good at ping pong and bad at tennis, give pickleball a try. To get the exercise that you want out of it, I would recommend playing singles. Doubles are fun but singles get your heart rate going a bit. 

The last one is currently what I’m obsessed with getting better at: Golf. I have played golf since I was 6. I grew up on a golf course, but there never was a time in my life that I have played more than 2 rounds in a month. My Dad was an avid golfer back in the day and has played all over the world. We would always play together and I would never play well enough to think that I would have a chance to get better. When I was playing baseball I thought that it would mess up my swing. This summer- I found a local par 3 and decided to walk it to get some exercise while taking in the beautiful views of Jupiter, FL. I did alright and when my roommate asked me if I wanted to go with him I agreed. It was one of the best rounds of my life. I think everyone who has played golf knows the time that they got hooked. Mine was the next round at Abacoa when I shot under 100 for the first time in my life. I played more golf in the last 3 weeks down there than I have in my life. Golf is such a great activity to go with because you only need yourself. I just got my membership at Wallace Hills Driving range and I already can feel the positive effects it’s going to have for my life. I go to the range daily for about 45 minutes and I get the following benefits.

1. Sun exposure
2. Grounding (bare feet)
3. Me time / Decompressing
4. Competitive Drive

Now that’s a lot about what I did off the field for a Head Summer Baseball Coach right? I agree that this is an unconventional blog and take on what a coach should write/care about. This is something that I believe in strongly. We talk about mental health and that we need to talk about our feelings, but what do we do about it? I knew I needed to make my life more of a priority, and I was able to find some answers this summer thanks to the environment that the CLPB provided for us and the players.