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Ever feel the car ride home get heavier than the final out?
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I'm Joey Myers from hittingperformancelab.com and today I'm tackling truth most of us miss.
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Your young hitters' strikeouts, whiffs, and flubs aren't the problem.
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How we frame them is we're going to flip failure into fuel with a simple science backed approach I call progressive failure exposure.
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In the next few minutes, I'll show you how to protect confidence without coddling, the exact words to swap on the sideline and in the car, and a five minute three missed challenge you can run tonight to turn nerves into learning.
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We'll also ditch batting averages the North Star and track what really predicts improvement, quality contact percentage, pitch selection success, and competitive at bats.
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If you're a baseball or softball parent or coach who wants bats, better decisions, and contact that actually shows up on game day, this episode is your blueprint.
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Stick around.
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Let's turn flops into feedback and pressure into progress.
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The relationship between young athletes and failure, particularly in baseball, creates a complex dynamic that affects both children and parents deeply.
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That moment when a child strikes out can create visceral reactions, parents clenching their fists, whispering advice under their breath, and experiencing that sinking feeling in their stomachs.
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These moments often lead to tense car rides home, but potentially harmful attempts to immediately fix the problem.
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A significant shift is occurring in youth sports culture, particularly visible across social media platforms, where sports parents and youth baseball showcase a new understanding of failure's role in athletic development.
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Our coaches and parents are increasingly sharing videos and experiences that demonstrate the importance of allowing young athletes to work through their struggles rather than trying to shield them from every setback.
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The fundamental challenge isn't the occurrence of failure itself but rather how adults and children respond to it.
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When parents and coaches treat every missed swing as a catastrophic event, they inadvertently transmit their anxiety to young athletes.
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This creates a problematic cycle where children begin playing from a defensive position focusing more on avoiding mistakes than on developing their skills and enjoying the game.
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The result is often visible in crucial moments: frozen bats on strike three or desperate swings at pitches well outside the strike zone.
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The concept of progressive failure exposure offers a more constructive approach to athletic development.
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This method treats failure like strength training for confidence.
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Just as muscles only grow and challenge beyond their comfort zone, mental resilience develops through carefully managed exposure to setbacks.
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Each missed swing, each strikeout becomes valuable data rather than a devastating outcome.
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This approach transforms failure from something to fear into a tool for growth.
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Scientific research strongly supports this perspective.
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Carol Dweck's groundbreaking Sports psychologists, including Doctor.
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Brett McCabe, emphasize the importance of focusing on controllable elements, attitude, decisions, and effort rather than outcomes beyond one's control.
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This modern understanding echoes ancient wisdom as expressed by Marcus Aurelius nearly two millennia ago about the importance of controlling one's response to external events rather than the events themselves.
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A compelling real world example involves a 10 year old player who struggled with an intense fear of striking out.
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In two strike situations, he would either freeze completely or swing wildly at anything near the plate.
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If today's conversation helped you see strikeouts as feedback instead of flaws, here's how to turn that insight into a simple plan you can run this week.
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It's called Swing Shift and I built it for busy baseball and softball families who want calmer at bats and real game results without two hour practices.
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In five to seven minute sessions, we train what actually transfers: progressive failure exposure, the three missed challenge, two strike compete routines, and green versus yellow zone pitch decisions.
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You'll also get parent language, short, pressure free cues, and a one word check-in.
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So support replaces over coaching.
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Every session gives you exactly what to do, what to say, and what to track.
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We keep score on the three numbers that predict improvement: quality contact percentage, pitch selection success, and competitive at bats.
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No spreadsheets, no gadgets.
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If you want the cage version of your hitter to show up on game day, this is your blueprint.
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Head to hittingperformancelab.com/swingshift.
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Let's turn flops into feedback and pressure into progress starting tonight of increasing technical instruction and correction only added to his pressure.
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The breakthrough came through reframing these situations as two strike battles where the goal shifted from avoiding strikeouts to simply competing effectively.
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Success was measured by the quality of the fight, fouling off pitches, extending at bats, and maintaining competitive composure regardless of the ultimate outcome.
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This shift in perspective led to noticeable improvements in both confidence and performance.
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The three miss challenge provides a pool for implementing this philosophy at home.
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This five minute drill intentionally incorporates failure into practice sessions by asking young hitters to accumulate three total misses.
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Each miss becomes an opportunity for celebration and learning rather than a source of shame or frustration.
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Parents and coaches document what the player felt during each miss, reinforce that negative consequences didn't follow, and then reset for the next attempt.
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This approach helps normalize failure as part of the learning process and paradoxically often leads misses as players swing more freely without fear.
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This drill serves multiple purposes beyond just technical improvement.
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It builds psychological comfort with failure while redirecting focus from outcomes to process, emphasizing effort, feel, and resilience.
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Its brevity makes it particularly for parents, proving that meaningful mindset changes don't require lengthy training sessions or complex protocols.
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K?
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The long term goal extends beyond improving baseball performance.
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This approach develops life skills that serve young athletes well beyond learning careers.
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When children learn to view strikeouts and missed swings as learning opportunities rather than personal failures, they develop resilience that transfers to academic, professional, and personal challenges.
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Parents play a crucial role in this developmental process.
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By maintaining a supportive presence and helping children frame setbacks as learning opportunities, they create an environment where young athletes can develop genuine confidence through experience rather than protection from failure.
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This requires parentage their own emotional responses to their children's struggles, understanding that temporary setbacks often pave the way for lasting success.
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The transformation becomes visible in small but significant ways.
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A player walking back to the dugout after a strikeout with their head held high, already thinking about adjustments for their next at bat.
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Instead of dreading parental reaction, they feel supported in their learning process.
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Rather than being devastated by failure, they're motivated by the opportunity to apply what they've learned.
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This shift in perspective from viewing failure as something void at all costs to seeing it as a necessary component of growth represents a fundamental change in how we approach youth sports development.
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It's not just about creating better athletes.
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It's about developing resilient individuals who understand that challenges and setbacks are natural steps on the path to improvement.
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If today's episode helped you see strikeouts as information, not identity, here's how to turn that insight into results that show up under the lights.
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It's called the Rocket Hitting Formula Building Better Game Hitters.
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I built it to take the pressure on coaches and put a proven plan in your hands, short repeatable sessions that train quality at bats, green b's yellow pitch decisions, and two strike compete.
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You'll get simple game sim drills, parent coach language that lowers stress, and an easy way to track the three numbers that actually predict improvement, quality contact, selection success, and truly competitive ABs.
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Run it at home or with your team.
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It's designed for busy schedules and real games, not just pretty BP.
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If you want the cage version of your hitter to show up on game day, go to hittinglab.com forward /rockethittingformula and use coupon code rocket hitting 50 for 50% off.
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Start this week, build confidence, and turn flops into feedback and feedback into hard contact.
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If today's episode helped you turn strikeouts into feedback and pressure into progress, follow or subscribe so the next one lands right in your queue.
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If it resonated, leave a quick review with your biggest takeaway.
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It helps more baseball and softball families find us.
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Share this with a teammate's parent or your coaching staff so their hitters benefit too.
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For step by step drills, short daily practice plans, and proven programs designed for real world development, visit hittingperformancelab.com.
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Thanks for listening.
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Keep showing up and keep swinging smarter.
