For many Americans, baseball is what brings them back to fond childhood memories. They learned baseball from their fathers and uncles. They played with their neighbors using only what equipment they can find in their backyards. For many of us, baseball is a way of life. It’s something that brings us together. This is even truer in big baseball cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta.
Have you tried to play baseball with a speed pitch booth? Have you tried developing your batting speed average? Why is this such an important part of every American child’s life? What have you learned from playing baseball? What lessons have you taken as you go through life?
Not All Swings Turn into Home Runs
When you stand on the batter’s box, you cannot expect everything to play out the way you see it in your head. Not all your swings are going to turn into home runs. The important thing about baseball and life is the understanding that it’s all in the planning and execution. You need to strategize well. That gives you the armor you need on that batter’s box.
You plan. You execute. You hope for it to be a home run. In baseball and in life, you can never dictate what will happen. All you can do is to hope that everything’s going to work out the way you have planned it.
Criticism Should Make You Better
Whether you play professionally or for leisure, you are going to hear criticism about the way you hold the bat, the way you stand on the box, the way you run, etc. You can either let criticism affect your play or better yourself. Either way, this will have a profound effect on how you play. The same goes in life. You can let criticism bring you down; you can prove to yourself and the naysayers that you can do better.
Life Is About the Journey
How many times have you heard someone say, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey?” The late Kobe Bryant said that during his farewell speech to the NBA. Indeed, in baseball, you will try to do your best on every swing and every possible home run. You’ll keep your eyes on the prize. But ultimately, it’s about how you get to that point that makes that prize worthwhile. If it’s just handed to you without you hitting a ball or anything, it won’t feel the same. That’s why a baseball season has 162 games.
In life, you’ll go through injuries and disappointments. You’ll fall 1,000 times but get back 1,001 times. Going back on your feet one more time will make the difference between staying on the ground and fulfilling your dreams. Indeed, life is about what you make of the journey and not how fast you reach your destination.
Playing sports has always been a good playground for people to learn about life. The experience of playing is the ultimate life coach. You’ll learn so much about winning and losing, about surviving, and about dreaming.
