BaseballDOJO MINDSET: NEW TEAMMATES

You’ve started laying the foundation bricks on your new team, as have your teammates, but without mortar you’re just making a pile of individual bricks.  A group of players is not a team until they come together, no matter how talented each one is.  The whole must be greater than the sum of its parts.

How do you get this process going?

As fall ball progresses, start getting to know your teammates.  This is the perfect time to interact and learn about what makes them tick, especially because the games don’t “count” until the spring season.

What are they like when they’re relaxed?  Tense?  Having fun?  Struggling?  It’s one thing to know someone when things are all good, but it’s another thing altogether to see how they respond to adversity and conflict.  When they get punched in the face, do they punch back?  When they get knocked down, do they get back up?  When they’re on top of the world, how do they celebrate?

Once you begin to understand them, you’ll begin to see how you can help each other through tough situations.  This is how we become more than just a collection of players.  Understanding your teammates is the mortar between the bricks, making the loose pile of into the solid walls of a fortress.

What’s the best way to help your teammates?
When you can answer this, you know you’ve become a team.