Last year, my youngest son was trying out for his summer tournament baseball team. He was younger and smaller than everyone else trying out. The oldest kid trying out was a full two years older than him, and he knew it.
He’s a phenomenal athlete, and crazy smart when it comes to sports; size and age fade away when you watch him play. The ONLY problem (similar to the same problem the rest of us have) is that he thinks he’s smaller and younger than everyone else.
I made it clear early in the week that he had tryouts, and if he wanted to play, he needed to focus and play the way he knows how. I don’t care how he performs, I just want it to be clear that I expect him to do his best. No goofing off and walking when he should be playing and hustling.
He spent the week nervous about it. The day before and the morning of tryouts, he made me hit grounders and pop ups to him for 45 minutes.
Here’s where Mr. Timberlake comes in (I know you’ve been waiting for it).
We get in the car on the way to tryouts, and he say’s “Dad can you put Trolls on?” What he means is “Can you play ‘Can’t stop the Feeling!’ by Justin Timberlake?”
He wants it LOUD. Volume all the way up, and he wants it on repeat until we get to the field. My little guy knows something I didn’t learn until I was in PA school at 26 years old: Music clears your head. The same song on repeat clears it out like nothing else I’ve found. Really loud, over and over. The jitters and the worries get pushed out by the music. You listen right up until you need to perform. Then you go out and do your thing.
By the time you get there, you don’t want to be thinking. You want to be doing. If you’re still thinking, you’re sunk.
My song is ‘Everything In Its Right Place’ by Radiohead. That song just wipes out my mind. Listen to it two or three times and you’ll see what I mean. It’s worth the 99 cents. Go get it for yourself and see.
Any song that’s really full works. It can’t be slow with lots of open space. It needs to be really full of sound, so it doesn’t let you brain start thinking in between the notes.
No doubt about it, Justin Timberlake helped my little guy get his head on straight and perform.
Choose a song for yourself and see how well it works for you. Or if you have one, hit reply and let me know so maybe I can share it with everyone.
Once you’ve got a copy of The Final Step and your song picked out, you’re pretty guaranteed to pass.
Brian Wallace
P.S. He made the team that year 🙂