HEAD HEART HUSTLE

Every year, my goal is to become a better coach. Why? Well some might argue that I’m prone to hyperbole, but I’m convinced that youth sports coaches can have a HUGE impact on players’ lives, and if that is true, I want to be the best that I can be. To be my best, though, I have to learn from what I’ve done in the past and improve upon it going forward.

I spend the majority of my coaching time in youth baseball, coaching 9-12 year olds. A challenge this division presents: the physical, emotion, and intellectual differences between 9 year olds (3rd grader) and 12 year olds (mostly 6th…can be 7th grader) can be immense. One common theme of almost all of us, and certainly 9-12 year olds, is that they like to be recognized for things they do well. So, in 2011, we started the HEAD HEART HUSTLE Awards.

I first heard the huddle breaking chant HEAD HEART HUSTLE from Luke’s football coach in 2010. I liked it. It emphasized, right before players take or leave the field, that THIS team will play with our head (we’re good thinkers), with our heart (we’re passionate and tough, but also sensitive to teammates needs), and we will hustle everywhere. In trying to build “complete” ballplayers, these are 3 strong foundational principles. So, in 2011, as we (our team) put our hands together in an act of solidarity before taking the field, rather than saying “COKE”, we chanted “HEAD HEART HUSTLE”. That became our battle cry.

To further emphasize how we wanted to play, we decided to implement the HEAD HEART HUSTLE awards after each game. Early in the season, I actually kept clipboards in the dugout, with a column for each of the words in our chant. It was the players responsibility to record examples of their teammates exhibiting HEAD plays, HEART plays, or HUSTLE plays. Examples of HEAD plays: an OF throwing to the 2nd base rather than home plate in order to keep a base runner our of scoring position; a pitcher throwing a ball “up and in” and following it up with a pitch “low and away”. Examples of HEART plays: a 9 year old player confidently striding back to the plate after striking out in his previous at-bat to an overpowering 12 year old; an older player consoling a younger player (or vice versa) after an error. Examples of HUSTLE plays: a diving attempt for a ball, regardless of the catch or not; a catcher chasing the batter down the 1st base line in order to back up the play at 1st. While our players (and we as coaches) were inconsistent with our clipboard notes, the exercise did give us another opportunity to talk to our players about what we wanted to see on the field.

To further reinforce these HEAD HEART HUSTLE plays, we gave out a helmet sticker to 3 different players after each game….one for a HEAD play; one for a HEART play; and one for a HUSTLE play. Because these behaviors can equally be exhibited by all players, the awards can equally be won big 12 year olds and smaller 9 year olds. In this contest, all players were equal and every player was “in the running” for any of the 3 awards in every game. As the year progressed, we tried to make sure that each of our 12 players was getting a similar number of helmet stickers so that all felt they were key contributors to our team’s goals…better players, maturing kids, one team.

Not everything we do as coaches works. There’s certainly some trial and error in what we do. The HEAD HEART HUSTLE theme: the clipboards, the chant, the helmet stickers will all make their way back into the the fabric of 2012 Coke. It makes every player feel special b/c they are recognized in front of their peers for behaviors that we as coaches want to reinforce. My assessment is that behaviors that we reinforce will be repeated.