No Messing Up, Just Leveling Up

Help young athletes reframe early practice mistakes and learn to see each rep as an opportunity to adjust, learn, and level up.

By Scott K. Wilder · Young Athletes and Parents

No Messing Up.

Just Leveling Up.

This morning I was standing in a batting cage with a hitting coach and a six-year-old working off a tee.

He'd swing, mishit one, and before the ball even stopped rolling he'd drop his head and say it.

"I'm messing up. I hate messing up. I keep messing up."

The hitting coach glanced over at me. That look said everything — the swing we can fix. This is something else.

That's where I tend to step in. The hitting coach knows this game far better than I do. My job is the other part — what's happening between the ears while the swing is being built.

At six, this isn't messing up. This is just practice.

I told him: that swing just taught you something. Your body's figuring this out right now. That's the whole point of being in here.

You're six years old hitting off a tee. Nobody's keeping score. There's only trying things and figuring out what works.

And slow down. Let that one land before the next swing. You'll see it if you don't rush past it.

No messing up. Just leveling up.

That's all a rep is:

SWING

→

SEE WHAT HAPPENED

→

ADJUST

→

GO AGAIN

Nothing in that cycle says messing up.

He just doesn't have enough reps yet to trust it.

He came into that cage with his parents watching and two coaches right there. He wanted to do well — you could see it in how fast he reset after each swing, rushing to the next one before he'd processed the last.

Adults can look back and see progress. Most little kids can't yet. They don't see it. So we point it out. That's where we step in.

After we talked he took a few more swings. Still mishit some. But he stopped dropping his head. He'd look up, reset, go again.

That's what it looks like when it's working.

"Remember when you couldn't do that?"

One of the most useful things you can say to a young athlete.

Every skill they have right now was once something they couldn't do. Couldn't walk. Couldn't tie their shoes. Couldn't make contact off a tee. And then, one rep at a time, they could.

The kid missing balls in the cage today is building something. He just can't see it yet. Our job is to keep pointing at it.

You don't need a speech. Just something like this.

Next time you hear a young player say "I keep messing up":

"That swing just taught you something. Watch."

"Slow down. Let that one land before the next rep."

"Every great hitter missed that pitch a thousand times first."

"Remember when you couldn't do that? Now you can."

"No messing up. Just leveling up."

Say it enough and they'll start saying it to themselves.

That kid is lucky. He's got a hitting coach working on his mechanics and someone else working on the mental side. Both in the same cage.

Most kids only get one or the other.

That's the work. Both parts. Same place.

There's always a next swing.

Scott Wilder is the founder of Game Ready Mindset™, a mental performance coaching program for athletes at every level.