99. What is Game Readiness

Patty Gasso said it in an interview and it stuck with me: your hitters can be good and the grind will still expose them if they don't show up ready to play. It sounds like a small question when a coach asks it. It isn't. I spent four and a half years as a volunteer assistant at New Jersey City University in the NJAC — the SEC of Division III. The hardest part of the job was never the swings. It was making sure twenty players could walk onto the field on game day and leave the professor, the paper, and everything else in the parking lot. In this solo episode I make a different argument: readiness isn't your coach's job. It's yours. I break game readiness into four categories — mental, emotional, physical, and strategic — and get specific about what each one looks like in practice. Pregame mental checklists. Who you warm up with. Cutting the phone off before you pull up. Box breathing and visualization. Focus anchors. Counting the cards on opposing pitchers during warmups. Shrinking your strike zone to quadrants so you stop chasing. And the 1-2-3 consistency formula I used with college staffs to find out how many players on a roster can honestly be counted on. If you're headed to the next level, pay attention to the last third. What keeps freshmen and sophomores on the bench usually isn't physical ability. It's 80% mental. Probably more. Website: https://www.complete.gameShow notes: https://www.complete.game/podcast-shownotes