Ready, not Perfect

There’s a quiet panic that sneaks into the mind of a professional coach every spring: Are the players ready?

The funny part is the timing. That panic usually arrives in February—a full two months before the first pitch of the season, which for most teams lands somewhere around April 1st.

Pitchers and pitching coaches start staring at radar guns, wondering how they lost three or four miles per hour since last year.
(It’s February.)

Coaches and coordinators pore over playbooks, systems, rules, theories, and metrics—everything that must somehow be “mastered” by Opening Day.
(It’s February.)

Hitters and hitting coaches break down every swing decision and contact point during live BP’s, scratching their heads over how they missed that fastball.
(It’s February.)

I used to fall into this trap when getting catchers ready for a championship season. I obsessed over how to cram everything they might need to know into a few short weeks. I planned. I worried. I sweated. I worried some more.

One simple realization changed everything:

They don’t need to be perfect for the first game.
They just need to be ready.

Spring Training is for knocking off rust.
For tuning the mind back in.
For getting the body prepared to perform.

The real learning doesn’t happen before the season—it happens during it.

Training is just training.
Games are where growth shows up.

So just be ready when the season starts.
Then, let the games do the rest…