Talking to 10 year olds

I coach a baseball team for 10 and 11 year olds. The boys had a bit of a rough practice, and lots of heads were hanging low. At the end of practice I asked the boys a question, “Who can tell me what being tough is?”
I got a whole bunch of different answers, one of the boys puffed his chest out and said, “People that walk around like this and think they are really cool.” (which was my favorite answer HAHA) Of course, I said no, that’s not it, I was told that if somebody beats up somebody else, if the person is scary etc…

I tried to explain to the boys that real toughness is not any of those things, but instead (in my opinion), it’s the ability to press on in any situation, when you feel like quitting and you keep moving. When you do quit, and have the courage to try again, learning how to fail, and learning from that failure. These things all are done with toughness.

This was not even the point of this mind vomit though, it was what I learned from this conversation. I realized that sometimes we take for granted what others don’t know. Almost every kid raised their hand and wanted to tell me what being tough was all about, but none of them really had a clue. It made me think how many people we run into on a daily basis and what we say and how we interact with them may be taken a different way than how we meant based on what they think we mean when we say certain things or talk a certain way. Also, flip that on its head and think about it the other way, how many times do you hear something and you muddy what they say with your own thoughts.

So my whole point of all of this is, for myself, I need to be impeccable with my words, and check in with people during conversations to ensure what I am saying is what they are getting, and of course here is a workout for you all:

5 Sets
10 Front Squats
15 GHD or inclined sit ups

Rest 2 minutes

3 sets
10 weighted, one legged squats, or DB squats
:30 second plank

Rest 2 minutes


3 sets
12 weighted back step lunges
20 air squats

10 Minutes Every minute on the minute
5 strict pull ups
10 push ups