Coaches, RIGHT NOW Players & Blackhawk Down

In the movie Blackhawk Down, there is a sequence worth watching and discussing with teams 7^th grade and older.  In it, a group of Army Rangers retreated to their base camp after a brutal firefight in Somalia.  They prepared to re-enter the fight in order to rescue elements of their unit that were in grave danger.  One of the Rangers, PFC Thomas, distraught by his recent combat experience says he cannot “go back out there… that’s crazy”.  His leader, SSG Struecker, makes the point upon which we should focus our young men’s attention.  He says, “Thomas, it’s what you do RIGHT NOW that makes a difference…it’s your call.”  Watch this scene and talk to your players about what it would look like if they were RIGHT NOW players... how much of a difference could they make? 

Some will make the mistake of thinking that there is no application between war and real life.  But having served in the 2^nd Ranger Battalion and as the father of two boys, 12 years and older, I know that they can learn a great deal from SSG Struecker. 

We not only express who we are by what we do RIGHT NOW, but our character is actually molded by what we do or do not do RIGHT NOW.  Boys and young men train to be who they will become through an infinite number of actions in the RIGHT NOW.  A few of these moments are critical and defining, but all of these moments forge a pathway to habit, good or bad.  SSG Struecker understands the power of "RIGHT NOW action" and the consequence of it.  As PFC Thomas' Coach, Struecker encourages right action and then is quietly elated when Thomas chooses to act rightly. 

Ultimately, our boys really have only one choice in life: “what will I do RIGHT NOW?”  The way they act in response to this question will deliver a consequence, sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes great and sometimes seemingly insignificant.  But one thing is certain, the type of man they will become will be sculpted more definitively every time they answer this question with action.  Some boys will choose to spend RIGHT NOW in front of a screen playing video games, while others will spend it learning, being challenged, experiencing.  Some boys will always defer to someone else to answer this question for them, while others will face this question alone and often under pressure, taking chances, experiencing the instruction of reward and defeat.  Some boys will always have someone who shields them from the consequence of their actions when they turn out to be negative and significant, while others will learn the lasting and valuable lessons taught by consequence.

As a coach, much like SSG Struecker, you have an opportunity to challenge boys every practice and every game to energetically tackle RIGHT NOW consistently, with passion and conviction.  And you have the opportunity to teach them that they are not just doing it to win games and to just have fun, but because they are developing one of life’s most critical muscles that will either power them into a successful manhood or fail them and enslave them to perpetual adolescence.  

RIGHT NOW players:

• Never give up, that is allowing the past and the future to determine the present
• Never argue with officials, that is allowing the past to infect the present
• Never argue with the coach or chide fellow players, that is a cancer to the present
• Never allow emotions to hijack their play, this empties them of their potential RIGHT NOW
• Always practice every play, every drill, every conditioning drill as if it is the last second of the most important game of their lives
• Always stay focused on every moment of every game, what can they be doing RIGHT NOW to put themselves in the best position to help the team?
• Always encourage fellow players
• Always believe that the future can be altered in the present
• Always maintain a focus on the most productive use of RIGHT NOW

Here’s an example.  Two weeks ago, during the Oregon-USC football game, the USC quarterback threw a pass to the back of the end zone.  The USC receiver thought he was being “held” by the defender.  He slowed down to draw the attention of the officials and began to argue that he was being “held”.  On the other hand, the Oregon defender, the RIGHT NOW player, continued full speed to the pass and intercepted it.  If the USC receiver had played in the RIGHT NOW mode, he could have at least knocked the pass down and thwarted the interception, if not caught it himself for a touchdown.

This type of play in games doesn’t just happen.  Young players train to be RIGHT NOW athletes (or not to be) during every practice.  Some jog through drills, drag their heels during conditioning and think of the next game as something to consider in the future.  While, other athletes run every drill at game speed, use every minute of practice to push their conditioning to the next level and treat every second as if the next game’s final result depends on what they do RIGHT NOW.  Successful athletes capture the future by seizing the full potential of RIGHT NOW.  As Vince Lombardi said, “Some say practice makes perfect, but I say NO, only perfect practice makes perfect!”  Lombardi understood that tomorrow’s game is won or lost RIGHT NOW!  And, I would add that the success of your players' future lives depend upon their ability to develop the habits of RIGHT NOW men.

I would strongly encourage all coaches to deliberately develop a RIGHT NOW culture.  Inspire your players to play RIGHT NOW in practice and in games, so that they prepare, play and then ultimately live at their highest potential.  After all, success belongs to those who prepare most effectively for life’s most critical moments and then seize those moments with clarity of thought, convicted purpose and perfected action… this can only be done RIGHT NOW.  

Remember, how your boy plays on the “fields of friendly strife” will be how he fights the greatest battles of his life.

For a great example of a RIGHT NOW player, watch this video of Michael Jordan during his famous "Flu Game".  And remember, one of the things that Jordan was most famous, was his consistent tenacity and focus in every practice.  Jordan did not just become this RIGHT NOW player in the limelight, he practiced every day as a RIGHT NOW player and when the situation called for him to step up, he was ready, RIGHT NOW!

What Your Boys Can Learn from Navy Seal Heroes



Tyrone Woods



Yesterday at dinner I told my boys (14, 12, 7) the story of the two CIA operatives and former Navy Seal veterans who were killed in Libya.  I asked them, "Why do people like that run into the fire when they don't need to, while most people run from the fire?"  As current information would indicate (many details are still unclear), Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were located a mile from the US Embassy when it came under attack.  Against orders from their superiors, they "ran to the fire" and attempted to defend the consulate against an organized and highly armed terrorist attack.  They held off the enemy for up to 7 hours before being killed.



Glen Doherty

My boys were perplexed with this question.  Initially they thought that this is just what men do.  After continuing to probe, they determined by consensus that people in the military "train" to "run into the fire".  And so they concluded, it is practice that prepares a man for moments like these.

They stumbled upon an understanding of something that used to be known by everyone from Aristotle to George Washington, from Thomas Aquinas to John Wooden, but is woefully misunderstood today.  Courage is not a trait that passes from generation to generation through strands of DNA, nor is it the result of an emotionally motivated moment. Rather, courageous action is possible when one deliberately practices it.  Then, when opportunity presents itself, it springs into action naturally, logically, habitually yet heroically.

My boys and I talked about the opportunities in sports to practice such courage.  Since they are all currently playing basketball, we talked about how some of the kids looked for opportunities to "get out of" the conditioning drills or to run them at half speed.  And, we talked about how it is particularly hard to "gut it out" in the last 5 minutes of practice when the coach makes them run lines.  I told them, "it is in these moments, when your legs feel like they are on fire, that your opportunity to practice courage calls to you."

In most youth athletics we should seek to motivate our sons and our players not by fear, but by inspiring them to ascend to a higher plain where choosing courage consistently is not just for short term athletic gain but it is also a necessary step towards a successful manhood.  It is important to constantly challenge our boys in sports and in life with this question, "will you practice to run to the fire or will you accept a life where you will always run from it?"

Remember, how your boy plays on the “fields of friendly strife” will be how he fights the greatest battles of his life.

For more on Courage in Sports Act of Valor "is" for Our Boys

Coaches: Draft your Parents on Game-Day

Coaches:  Consider taking a stand against the decline of appropriate sideline parenting and for the development of your players as future men.

Feel free to copy this coaches guide as well as the "parent-spectator" covenant document.

A Coach’s Case for Drafting Parents as “Team Members” on Gamedays

Gen. McArthur believed that some of life’s greatest lessons are learned on the “battlefields” of athletics.  In fact, our military academies continue to lean heavily on this belief in their selection process and their rigorous formal instruction. 

“On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that upon other fields on other days shall bear the fruits of victory.”  General Douglas McArthur

Who you will become in times of trial and hardship results from who you train and practice to become in times of trial and hardship.  General McArthur and to some degree our military believe that there is no better place to practice, this side of combat, than in competitive athletics.

If you don’t buy into this, then nothing that follows has any application to you.  But if you believe that the “fields of friendly strife” are precisely the location on which your players will most effectively learn some of the greatest lessons in life, then you must consider how to be the most effective coach before, during and after these “battles”.  To do so well, requires every parent to be part of that effort, all pulling in the same direction. 

Unfortunatley, many parents are either oblivious to or incapable of fulfilling their responsibility to the development of their children during games.  This is why I strongly recommend that coaches take the bull by the horns and “draft” each parent onto the team, giving them a clear and limited role.  The stark reality is that most parents do not have definitive behavioral expectations nor do they have anyone willing and capable of holding them accountable to their role.  And this role is simply what is best for the team and for their children.

Our Youth Sports are Infected by Dysfunctional “Parent-Spectators”

It is not uncommon to find parents in almost any town in America standing on the sidelines or in the stands yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs.  They ciritique and berate the officials, the coaches, the players and sometimes even the other parents.  They coach their children during the games, often at levels beyond the capabilities of their son or daughter and most commonly with advice that has not been taught by the coach. 

In these same games, especially the ones where the parents exhibit these characteristics, it is equally common to find young players barking back at their coaches, questioning the judgement of the officials and riding waves of uncontrolled emotions that inhibit their ability to compete at their best. 

Worse yet, these behaviors being taught and reinforced on the fields and courts, albeit indirectly, may manifest in adulthood as one or more of these tendencies:

·         A quick instinct to blame others for negative outcomes

·         An acceptance of “temper tantrums” as a normative behavior

·         An inability to maintain composure in times of great stress, threat or insult 

·         An inability to ramp up emotion when it is advantageous and to ramp it down when it is counterproductive. 

It is solely for the good of children and the generations that will someday rule the world that parents must re-assume thier roles as “Parent-Spectators” in a way that nurtures character and encourages virtue.

What is a “Parent-Spectator”?

First, it might be easier to understand what a “Parent-Spectator” is NOT.  S/he is not part of the game, nor is s/he “just” a spectator. 

·         Those who ARE actually part of the game are being instructed by their coaches, they are accountable to the officials and because they are playing the game, they are responsible to influence the outcome of the game by how they act, what they say and what they do.

·         On the other hand, those who ARE spectators have no obligation or responsibility to the coaches, the officials or the players.  What they do and how they do it is based soley upon how they desire to enjoy the game. 

“Parent-Spectators”, ARE NOT under the “command” of the coaches, they ARE NOT accountable to the officials and ARE NOT responsible to influence the outcome of the game by what they say, how they act or what they do.  On the other hand, by virtue of parenting one of the players, the “Parent-Spectator” DOES HAVE a responsibility, an obligation to the officials, the coaches and ultimately the life skill development of the players. 

Whether in the home enforcing the completion of homework or modeling appropriate behaviors in public, good parenting requires the “seeking out” of “teaching moments”.  After all a parents job is to engage their youth in the possiblity of becoming more than they otherwise might desire.  This responsibility is no less true from the sidelines or from the stands.  How you act, what you say and what you do WILL influence the development and character of your son or daughter and their team.  You are neither part of the game, nor “just” a spectator; you are a “Parent-Spectator”.

What is the Effective Application of Emotional Control?

The greatest of athletes, the ones who get more out of their athleticism and skills than anyone else (this doesn’t mean the most successful athletes, rather the most successful with what God has given them) apply the power of emotional contol more effectively than everyone else. 

This means that they:

1.      Focus all anger, all fear, all enthusiasm, all energy in the precise moments when they need that “little extra”

a.       When they should be overpowered by the stronger, more physcial opponent

b.      When they should fail because their skill or athleticism falls short

c.       When they should collapse because they are flat out exhausted

2.      Restrain their emotions when precision is the most important objective

a.       Shooting that important free throw

b.      Quickly turning that grounder into a double play

c.       Throwing that 12 yard loft pass over the defense into that hands of the open receiver in the endzone

d.      Laying off the quarterback when he gets the pass of just before they put the hit on him

3.      Experience the joy of leaving it all on the field or the court after the game

a.       Not encumbered by the inability to let a loss go

b.      Not unable to truly experience the joy that comes from a hard fought victory

These are not skills necessary to win games… only… they are in fact the essence of functional character; they constitute one of life’s greatest virtues.  Teaching these behaviors, modeling them, practicing them and demanding them is not just the winning gameplan for a prudent coach, but it is the template for raising youth who will someday become men and women of great character, of great influence, of great and positive consequence.

The Great Appeal

Many will believe that their behavior from the sidelines is of little or no consequence to their players or the team.  Some will even think that their little “tyrades” might actually inspire their sons, daughters or players to play with passion and perhaps might effect the officials to call a more “favorable game”. 

This is both rediculous and illogical.  This is apparent to everyone who witnesses their behaviors who are not emotionally vested in the game or the players.  Those in control of their emotions see clearly that these parents who are screaming at the officials, denograting the opposing players and coaching from the sidelines are doing so as if their personal value were being created by the performance of their son or daughter and their team.

“Parent-spectators” should aspire to perform their “roles” as well as they want their sons or daughters to perform on the field, and in life.  All parents should be asked to become familiar with their role and to take it seriously.  They should be asked to sign a commitment to the team, a covenant, to contribute to the best of their ability.

“Parent-Spectator” Team Role and Covenant

“Parent-Spectator” Team Role

As a “Parent-Spectator” I have a very unique and specific role on the team that is just as important as the coach’s and the player’s roles.  It is critical that I constantly check myself at practice and at games with this question, “what am I doing right now to help the team by performing my role to the best of my ability?”

My role is to:

·         Model positive emotional behaviors and restraints

·         Encourage excellence, character and effort regardless of the outcome

·         Release my son or daughter completely to the game, their coaches and the officials

I am not “part of the game” nor am I “just” a spectator.  I have an obligation and responsibility to the team, the officials and the opposing team.  But most of all, I have an immense responsibility to my own son or daughter, to set the most positive example of character, poise and emotional restraint.

“Parent-Spectator” Team Covenant

I recognize that how I act, what I say and what I do broadcasts loudly to my son or daughter as if to proclaim, “Act like me, scream like me, behave like me” when you compete.

Therefore, I WILL NOT…

… respond nor react to any calls made or not made by the officiating team.  I recognize that I do not have a right to address any official directly or indirectly and that doing so viloates my role on the team.

… address any player, coach or parent from the opposing team directly or indirectly unless I am fulfilling my role as an encourager of excellence, character and effort.  I recognize that I do not have a right to communicate with them in a critical or negative way and that doing so violates my role on the team.

… attempt to instruct or coach from the sidelines.  I understand that my role is to release my son or daughter to the game as well as the other players so that they may succeed or fail without judgement from anyone other than their coach.

I WILL…

… cheer on excellence, character and effort regardless of the score or outcome

… model positive behaviors and emotional restraint

… release my son or daughter completely to the game, their coaches and the judgement of the officials

I fully understand my role as a “Parent-Spectator” and will hold myself accountable to contribute to the development and success of the team.  I will remove myself from practices or games if I cannot fulfull my role fully.  I agree to leave the games or practices if asked to do so by the coach.

Signature                                                          Date

Coaching Basketball - Coaching Life

In an article entitled,  Guarantee Success by Practicing Failure, Coach Greg White challenges coaches to, among other things, “be an awful official”.  His idea is to challenge boys with the adversity of unfairness, obvious unfairness, in order to create situations that are even worse than games.  He suggests that a coach should purposely have an official favor one team in a scrimmage, let them get away with “murder” while calling the most ticky-tack fouls on the other team.  This is pure brilliance.

The great 1^st century Roman Statesman Cicero said, “Virtue (or character) is what happens when wise and courageous decisions have become second nature.”  Making good decisions quickly, choosing the courageous path over the easy one and restraining the emotional outbursts urged on by our humanity are not natural for us, they are learned through experience and practice.

Coach White urges the practicing of such virtue for basketball players.  Put them in situations where they will want to complain, to give up, to blame the officials.  While his intent is to build upon their eventual failure so that they develop a “second nature”. A nature which responds to this adversity with clarity of thought, with focused emotions and with the courage to push harder even when their body is telling them that an acceptance of failure will at least allow for the pain to stop.  Build on this, practice after practice and then when a situation like this arises in a game, the whole team's “second nature” kicks in… again, brilliant, and philosophically classical!

I would add that in the pursuit of “growing up men” in sports, coaches ought to more deliberately help their players make the connection between the virtue that they are learning on the court, with the virtue that they will one day need as a husband, father, employee and contributor to society.  We should not just train athletes, we should expose our players to the idea that as they learn to deal with adversity in practice and games, they are also learning a very valuable skill (virtue) that must be applied to achieve successful living.

Remember, how your boy plays on the “fields of friendly strife” will be how he fights the greatest battles of his life.

You can follow Coach Greg White Twitter@GregWhite32

Misty May - 3 Golds - A Model of Athletic Virtue

Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh

Jennings 2012 Gold Medal Ceremony

3 Golds in a row, something must be going right! 

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings proved their dominance in beach volleyball once again; in fact, they’ve been doing so for a decade. 

Clearly, they are very skilled and athletically blessed, but equally or even more so are many of their world class opponents… and, as age creeps in on this dynastic-duo, the scales continue to lean towards the other side of the net.  Sure, their savvy play and experience can overcome some of this deficit, but it was in these London games, that the world witnessed a “virtue” (a practiced, rare skill) that differentiated them from all other contenders.  Their ancient Greek Olympian ancestors would have called this virtue “Temperance” and would have aspired to it among the other “develolped” character traits of Courage, Prudence and Justice. Thousands of years later, Misty May, the team’s leader, demonstrated Temperance brilliantly.

The Mastery of Emotional Control (and Focus)

Misty May-Treanor is known for many things when it comes to volleyball.  She is revered and sometimes idolized by the other great players of the world.  But despite her incredible skills and her athletic prowess, she is capable of living out two completely divergent personalities.  This, when done so on demand, is a radical and rare power.  However, surprisingly, it is dismissed by many athletes and untaught by all too many parents and coaches.

 

Personality #1 - Misty May patrolled the beach like a lioness, focused solely on the return of the volleyball, as if each possession might produce the single meal that would sustain her pride for a week.  Then, when the kill presented itself, she pounced on it with an efficient fierceness that only results from the perfect mixture of power, skill, clarity of purpose and emotional energy. 

Personality #2 - As if controlled by a switch, once the game was over, she lit up the camera, “shouting out” to friends and family, saluting the troops and demonstrating the unfiltered joy of the moment. 

When an intense focus of adrenaline was required, she elevated above all others.  When precision was the imperative she subordinated her emotions to insure a hand-eye coordinated mastery.  When neither were at stake, she allowed herself the freedom to follow her emotions, enjoying the pinnacle of success.

A Societal Problem

Our world is filled with people who wear their emotions on their sleeves, who think it a virtue to just “be” who their emotions dictate them to “be”.  Our world is also filled with unrestrained emotional competitors who roam the “athletic savanah” like young, fully grown male lions who have the power to steal prey from the cheetahs, bully the hyenas and yet, are mauled by the more experienced “Kings of their Prides” when they think their size and skills warrant an attempt at the throne. 

Unfortunately, our society all too often lifts up these two undisciplined character traits as virtuous. 

·         In the workplace, I often hear variations of something like this, “they (the company) just want me to be quiet, to be politically correct, but that’s not who I am, so I just went off on my boss!” These are the same people who wonder why promotion eludes them and why employment troubles follow them from job to job. 

·         Or, from the sidelines, I witness parents who deride referees, screaming uncontrollably as the highs and lows of the game toss them about like a small sailboat in the throws of a giant storm.  These parents often encourage unbridled emotional play as if this is the outpouring of a finely tuned competitive athlete.  And then, as their child-athletes self-destruct on the court or field of play as emotions run high, they are dumbfounded as the game’s momentum turns… as their children are figuratively mauled at the hands of their opponents. 

Misty May Treanor expertly controls and differentiates her focused intensity from her carefree exuberance… she transitions flawlessly from her dangerous, emotionally fueled attack to her reserved, restrained, perfect set-up for Walsh’s world renowned spikes. 

All young athletes, coaches and parents should take notice of this power of emotional control.  This self-mastery increases athletic accomplishment exponentially, while on the other hand emotional self-indulgence scuttles the otherwise greatest of athletes, families, jobs and communities.  Kids will not develop this “virtue” apart from

1.      Consistent expectations

2.      Opportunities in which to succeed and fail

3.      Situations ignited by high emotion

4.      Practice, practice, practice

But, no matter the environment, whether on a field or a court, there is no better instruction than the example of a coach and a parent who demonstrate Misty-May-Treanor-like “temperance” before… during… and after their games.  It is precisely our behaviors, not our words, which will either prepare them with the “temperance of a lioness” or will condemn them to a mauling in a life for which they have not prepared.

Remember, the way your son or daughter plays on the fields of friendly strife will be how s/he will fight the greatest battles of their lives!  



3 Golden Rules of "Sideline" Parenting

Parents care about their kids… this is real good. 

Parent’s concern for the welfare of their kids is often fueled by emotion… this too is good. 

Parent’s unrestrained emotional concern for their sons or daughters from the sidelines, can be bad, real bad. 

The future temperament of our children is drafted by our expectations and molded by our consistent modeling of it.  This point was made emphatically apparent, albeit from a negative perspective, during a U14 soccer game I recently attended in which my friend’s son competed.  Here's what happened:

His son’s team, the “blue” team, stole the ball from the “white” team on a very aggressive and rough play.  The parents of the white team were outraged and immediately began yelling things like,

·         “What, he got mauled!”

·         “Blow the whistle Ref, before someone gets killed!”

·         ”C’mon, call it both ways!” 

·         “Are you blind ref?”

Many of the white team’s players reacted as their parents did.  They turned to the official, hands in the air, looks of disbelief on their faces, and yelled at him.  The blue team, on the other hand realizing the whistle didn’t blow, quickly passed the ball to the sideline, moved it up the field and threatened to score; and still, many of the white team’s players remained enslaved to their emotions, continuing to focus on the referee, oblivious to the blue team’s attack. 

The parents of the white team, noticing that their son’s had lost focus on the ongoing game began to scream,

·         “Boys go after the ball, he didn’t blow the whistle!” 

·         “The game’s in play, get back on defense!”

·         “Hey, hey, watch out boys, go after the ball!” 

Ultimately (within 10 seconds of the “steal”), as often happens in soccer, the referee blew the whistle and called the penalty. 

Fortunately for the white team, they were not stung by this emotionally driven lapse… this time. Nonetheless, this team’s (parents and players) unrestrained emotional behavior and the dysfunctional consequence of it were palpable.  This example is the essence of what has become a counter-productive “parental fan culture”.  It is destructive and it threatens the potential for our boy’s to experience victory in sport and in life.  

As parents, we ought to understand that we are neither “part of the game” nor are we “just spectators”.  I offer what I call the 3 Golden Rules of Sideline Parenting:    

1. We should offer only positive encouragement, period. 
2. We should let the game come to the players and not try to “coach them” from the sidelines.  This is the coach’s job alone.
3. We should not try to influence nor openly evaluate the performance of the officials or the players on the other team.  There is never a good time to speak directly to an opposing player or openly about his play in a negative way.  This is solely the job of the officials and the coaches.

Ireland’s National Rugby coach, Declan Kidney, demonstrated the right balance of emotional control to which we parents should aspire.  In March of 2011, his team lost to Wales.  The officials allowed a clearly illegal Welsh play to stand that led to the winning score.  Right after the game, Kidney was asked about the play. 

He said that although he felt extremely frustrated (emotionally fueled) he was not going to fulminate (he would choose to demonstrate control) at a time when so many in the world were suffering from the consequences of natural disasters (Tsunami in Japan). 

As frustration threatened to reduce him to a petty complainer on the international stage, he had developed the emotional maturity to thwart it.  In doing so, he drew attention to the dire needs and sufferings of others as opposed to “emotionally venting” which would have benefited no one.  Declan Kidney demonstrated the power of restraint, the power of individual will and the power of words wisely chosen.

It is important to remind ourselves, that as we take to the sidelines of every game, we are neither “part of the game”, nor are we “just spectators”.  And, that while we are encouraging our sons, we are also setting expectations and modeling behaviors for the next generation of Declan Kidneys.  Someday, we will watch proudly, as our son’s assert their impact on the world as men by exercising their power over their emotions, their control over their wills and their mastery over their words... or we will witness grown adolescents, still slaves to the vicissitudes of their emotions, squander their potentials for a life of victory. 

Parents who realize that winning games and raising men are not mutually exclusive endeavors will spend their time “on the sidelines” managing every word that does AND does not come out or their mouths… to do this is good, real good!

Remember, how your boy plays on the “fields of friendly strife” will be how he fights the greatest battles of his life.

Two great related resources

1.       This coach teaches high school basketball players to “Play Present”, teaching boys that worrying about things that they do not control keeps them from playing at their best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWNRgSp9cqk

2.       Justin Verlander’s dad speaks about the importance of parents encouraging character development along side of skill development.  In an article titled, “7 Things Every Sports Dad Can Learn From Richard Verlander”, 3 of the 7 are these:

·         Control is key: In pitching and in life

·         Character is equally important

·         Don’t put unnecessary pressure on your son to succeed

http://www.sportsdadhub.com/2012/06/12/7-things-every-sports-dad-can-learn-from-richard-verlander/