“Routine” by Phillies Prospect Eric Pettis

From Eric Pettis’ blog, “just a MINOR perspective“

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Routine
A lot about being an athlete revolves around the word routine. Outside of the actual performance on the field, most of an athlete’s life deals with a routine. Whether it’s sticking to a routine, or practicing to make difficult things seem routine, or tweaking a routine to improve it, the word routine keeps popping up. The better an athlete can stay within the confines of a routine the better they can deal with unexpected things that might be thrown at them. Look at it this way, if you are trying to remember a phone number and then someone tells you four more numbers to remember then that task becomes more difficult. But, if that original phone number is already memorized (in other words, part of a routine), remembering those extra four numbers will now be pretty easy. Well, it’s the same thing in sports. The harder you work to make things second nature, the better you will be able to cope when those “extra” things that will inevitably happen in every game.

The idea for this post came to me because of two things at practice today. As I woke up this morning I looked outside and saw that it was pouring rain. Now, as a native southern Californian, the mere sight of rain usually disrupts my normal routine. Most SoCal people shut down their lives on the few days a year that we see a sprinkle. But today it didn’t affect me. I got to the field, though soaking wet, and went through my normal routine. I lifted a few weights, did a few arm exercises, ate some breakfast, and was ready to go. And as I stood under one of the covered areas of the facility doing my arm bands it really hit me, “hey this is pretty cool”. Personally, I am huge into routines and like get myself into good habits. So, as I watched the rain hit the asphalt I thought to myself that my day was surprisingly unaffected by it. At that moment I was just really appreciative that the Phillies provide us with the facilities necessary to get into a good routine and stick to it. It might seem trivial, but to an athlete who is trying to get better every day it’s huge.

The second instance at practice where the idea of routine hit me might be a little bit of a stretch, but try to stay with me. Like I said it had rained earlier in the day, and after practice we had to condition. Today was a semi-light day of 8 poles followed by pick-ups. So, as I was running my poles on the warning track I noticed that the inside path on the track was muddy while the outside path was much dryer. Now, having the weird psychological/philosophical brain that I do, this got me thinking about routine. I likened the condition of the warning track to people’s path in life. While the shorter path on the track might look as if it will get you to where you want to go with less work, you’ll get “muddy” in the process. If you take the longer path, it might be a bit more difficult but you will come out the other side “cleaner”. Trading less running for getting “muddy” is like trading doing less work for better chance of failure. While, trading more running for being “clean” is like doing more work for better chance at success. In other words, in life and especially in sports, there are no shortcuts. You have to put in the work to get the results. The harder you work within the confines of your routine, the “cleaner” and better prepared you will be for what life and sports has to throw at you.

Whether you buy in to my babble or not doesn’t really matter. Because I buy into it. And that’s what a routine is all about. It is something that YOU know YOU can do every day and believe will make YOU better for the ware. And as an athlete, routine really is the name of the game.

Phillies prospect Eric Pettis is detailing his minor league experience on his blog, “just a MINOR perspective.” Special to the Horn & Bell, we will be following Eric in his first season in the Phillies organization.

“Accelerated Normalcy” by Phillies Prospect Eric Pettis

Accelerated Normalcy

The first two days of camp are over and I feel like I’ve already been here for weeks. I think that feeling of normalcy can be credited to the Phillies. While completely exhausting, the first two days of camp are dedicated to getting all the mumbo jumbo out of the way and making sure that you are familiar with your surroundings and ready to go full bore by day three. This year, unlike any other year of minor league camp (as we’ve been told numerous times) pitchers, catchers and position players all reported at the same time. This allowed the staff to get all the medical testing and random meetings out of the way in a “timely” manner. The first day, from 6 AM to 12 PM, was dedicated to medical testing. Everything was covered including blood test, ortho exam, and general health. Then the meetings started. Head field coordinator Mike Compton went over all the organizational rules and made sure we knew that a “first division organization” follows rules to the “T”. Then, after all of our backs had sufficiently stiffened from sitting on the ground for an hour, we stretched, played some catch, conditioned, and called it a day.

Day two was much more enjoyable because we got to do baseball activities first, before being mentally drained by another flock of meetings (do meetings travel in flocks or is it herds? I always get those mixed up, anyway). We began with what I now believe to be a run-through of how most of our days in spring training will look. Using all four fields at the complex we went through four stations of fundamental work (25 minutes at each station and on to the next). Today’s fundamental work was basic, mainly just an explanation of how to do things the “Phillie way”. I’ll have more on how practices work in a later post. Then, after stations, we had another rousing session of conditioning, and lunch. Lunch was followed by nearly three more hours of meetings in the conference room upstairs. We went over drug policies, the mental game, and visual techniques (which is really just another form mental techniques, but I clearly don’t decide what the Phillies spend their money on). And finally, after nearly all 80+ of us had lost at least one battle over the last 3 hours to nodding off, the day was over.

Were the last two days draining? Yes. Heck I’m even getting tired trying to remember everything that happened. But, I think these last two days were entirely constructive. Coming into Spring Training I had no idea what to expect. I had heard about Spring Training before on ESPN and seen videos of pitchers doing half-assed PFP drills. But, I really had no idea what it would actually take to be in camp. Now, after two days of meeting nearly every single person in the organization, and waking up at 5 AM, and listening to what seemed to be irrelevant blabber, I feel better. I feel like I know what it takes. And most importantly I feel comfortable.

My Phillie card- In case I get amnesia and forget I’m a professional baseball player. Also good for use in routine traffic stops.

From Eric Pettis’ blog, reposted with permission.