Confidence is “Humility” in Action

“One of the most important components for building confidence is humility”. This is a surprising statement, but I could not argue with the man who made it.

His job is to protect important people in hostile places. If our Vice-President makes a surprise trip to Iraq, this man’s job is to keep him alive.

Everything about his job demands planning, execution, and perfection. If he operates at 99-percent, someone can die. He was fascinated with my job so I asked what he had learned that could help our pitchers. He said, “Do not be cocky. If you are cocky, you do not double-check yourself.”

He went on to explain that confidence is knowing that you have thought of every possible scenario and practiced dealing with it over and over. He said that, when everyone else has left the range, he is still practicing with his weapons. Though he has carried the same handgun for years, every single morning he takes it apart and checks every part, lubricates each piece, puts it together and makes sure everything works smoothly. He must always be ready and confident for that one second that could change everything. Cocky people, on the other hand, think so highly of themselves that they feel they can handle any situation as it arises, so planning and practicing small details are beneath them.

As a pitcher, if you make a mistake, people do not die. But, one of the reasons we enjoy competition is that it allows us to push ourselves to the limit without those serious consequences. However, most of the same rules apply.

If we enjoy some success, it is easy to assume that will continue. We constantly see kids who were great early in the career, began to believe the press releases, and did not prepare every day with the same sense of urgency. Everyone told them they would be amazing, they became cocky, and by the time they got to us we had to rebuild them in every way. Once upon a time, these kids were more athletic and stronger than the competition, so they assumed this would always be the case. Cockiness led to failure. Failure led them to look for things they should have considered long ago.

Confidence, on the other hand, comes from the humility of knowing that what you did yesterday is not good enough, from practicing every scenario over and over until it is habit, and from challenging yourself in ever more difficult ways.

One of the ways I illustrate this with my pitchers is the College Dreams Class. The pitcher is evaluated in many ways, including speed, amount of break on a pitch, location, and so forth. It is extremely demanding, but actually scores kids based on where they are versus where they should be. The cocky kids are humbled quickly. I have seen kids cry after realizing they were far short of where their parents, coaches, and friends had told them that they were. They sometimes get angry, frustrated, but almost every one has taken their scores as a reality check, gone home, and changed the way they prepare.

Sometimes, when I am grading these kids, they will say that their drop is awful today but try to convince me that it is normally quite good. As my friend said, “It is easy to hit a target that is not shooting back at you”. These kids let the stress of me standing there evaluating them get into their heads, sort of like they will do in pressure situations in games, and if they cannot do it in that environment, I explain they have not adequately prepared to do it in a tight game.

Do you assume that early success will always carry you? Because you won a championship early, do you think the things brought you there will work for you tomorrow? Are you prepared for the opponent who will study you, find a weakness, and attack that spot? We get way too many kids in their late teens who thought they were on a great track, and too often we tell them “I wish we had gotten you five years ago.” We get too many kids who fail in their first year of college and want to begin studying with us. They never learned body awareness, to think with their hips, and to get the junk out of their upper body so they lower body could work. They were cocky and thought that success would continue because they were “special”, so they never learned the things the great ones know.

By the time some of those kids get to us it is too late. We can change their form, but we cannot change their mindset. You cannot teach an 18-year-old kid to suddenly learn to feel the power in the hips or to magically find body awareness.

Always, always double-check yourself. Be humble enough to seek answers and do the little things that build confidence. And, always know that the things you did yesterday are not necessarily the things you will need to do in order to be great tomorrow.