The Tortoise and the Hare

The first time we met, I wasn’t very impressed with her. This kid wasn’t big, strong, athletic or fast. She spoke softly and was very polite. She struggled to grasp the form, had no natural speed, and I began to wonder if her parents were wasting time and money on lessons.

Over the next two years she progressed slowly and steadily, she began experiencing some success, and now she has become the real deal. We all celebrated the “little engine that could”.
Recently a top travel team contacted me about sending some pitchers their way. We combed our list and suggested three young kids. One of those kids was not surprising. She was pretty good from the beginning. The thing that makes her great is that she is very humble and continues to push herself to get better. The other two were very different. One of them seemed to have a very bad attitude at first. Before we met she had enjoyed very little success. She came to the first lesson with no confidence or enthusiasm. What I saw as a bad attitude was actually a kid who was upset with herself for falling short of her own dreams. She wanted someone to take her to the top, but she was going to make me prove myself. She was stubborn, skeptical, and she challenged everything I said. As we reached new milestones, the shell began to dissolve. Every lesson became exciting. This kid is now a “game changer”.
The third kid was almost exactly like the first one in this article. Quiet, intelligent, with no apparent athletic ability, she was a sponge from the first time we met. We always give “homework” and specific objectives that should be achieved before the next lesson. This pitcher lives far from us so we only get together every couple of months. Each time she returned, she was totally prepared for the next challenge. Because the progress was slow and steady, I did not realize how much she had grown until she came to one of our college camps. Watching her alongside several other pitchers it was obvious that something special was in the making. She will be a great fit for a great team.
All of us notice the athletic, strong, fast and flashy kid, but how they start has little to do with how they finish. One of our students, who has committed to a D-1 college, came to a camp last year. She liked our approach and we began working together. Nothing about this kid makes you notice her at first, but she was completely excited by the form changes we suggested. By the third lesson it was obvious that this college was going to get a kid who could change their future. A friend, who coached in the same conference, watched her pitch and could not believe he had never heard of her. During one of the lessons I told her that she had easily exceeded my expectations. She just looked me in the eye, saying, “People have always underestimated me”. It was easy to see this was her motto, her badge of honor, and the theme that would take her to the next level.
You may have a player who struggles for recognition, is a “late bloomer”, or is frustrated because she doesn’t have those natural gifts. Be patient and let the game come to her. We had two of those in our family and could not be more proud of the way each of them stayed the course. Each of them worked harder to succeed, became better players for it, and we see the value of those lessons in the way they approach other challenges in life.