In honor of 2-22-2022, and with Opening Day only a few days away, I thought I'd give you 2 super easy ways to help with your ballplayer's emotional growth as a young athlete.

1. Make them carry their own bag to and from the field.
2. Don't talk about the game on the car ride home.

By carrying their own equipment to and from the field, even the youngest ballplayers will start to understand that their baseball experience is their experience, and nobody else's. It's their bag, their at-bat, their teammates, and their effort. This simple act will help them start to take personal responsibility and ownership of their time on the field, while ultimately helping to create independent young men off the field.

Here's my son Maddux carrying his baseball bag (that's bigger than he is!) to his first-ever tee ball practice a few years ago :-)

After the game, especially games where they might have lost or not performed as well as they would have liked, the LAST thing kids want to do is talk about it. So, even though we might have advice for them about that at-bat where they struck out or that base they forgot to back-up...in the immortal words of Frozen, "Let it gooooooo." (Shoutout to all of you, like me, with daughters at home who have had to listen to that song 43,280,023 times!) After the game isn't the right time for coaching or commentary - save it for practice.

Of course if they bring up something about the game that they want to talk about, you should absolutely allow that conversation to happen, but the vast majority of kids will have completely forgotten about the score or what their stats were within 5 minutes of leaving the dugout and getting in line at the snack shack! That's exactly how we want them to behave post-game.

The only thing you should say after the game is something along the lines of, "I love watching you play." That simple sentence lets them know you have their back regardless of the result and that your love and support is NOT conditional on their personal stats or what the scoreboard said.

Knowing this, they'll always be much more relaxed on the field and not feel any pressure to live up to external expectations. Without a doubt, relaxed players always perform better than nervous players.

Have a great time at Opening Day and good luck in your first regular season games.

PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!