Romain Thomas, the mental coach for the French Baseball and Softball Federation, joined the France 15U team for the MLB camp in late April. He shares his experience
Young talents of this generation, today’s and tomorrow’s:
From April 25 to 29, the MLB Europe 15U Camp 2022 took place in Toulouse, specifically at the CREPS and on the beautiful field of the Argoulets. A perfect opportunity to meet 40 young players from all over France, among the best of their generation for this age category.
This was a great opportunity for the staff of the Poles (Hopes and France) and those of the France teams to observe today’s and tomorrow’s talents.
Many French players, now indispensable on the national and even international scene for some, had the chance to participate in these camps and they keep very good memories of these enriching experiences. I think this was also the case for this new edition after a two-year break due to the pandemic.
These annual meetings are also a new opportunity for us, members of the FFBS performance cell, specialists, selectors, and managers, to see the evolution of these young players year after year, whether it concerns their fundamentals, technical and physical abilities, and of course the mental aspect.
Players can reveal themselves more or less young; at this age, things can move very quickly, especially since an individual’s progress is rarely linear. That’s why it’s important to stay attentive to each player’s evolution, not to rule out any leads, to conduct regular assessments to analyze what has been acquired, and of course to maintain a link with the various people working on the fields daily in the clubs, poles, and academies, to get precious opinions.
Before establishing a list of players eligible for France collectives, for example, it is crucial to have data on the players and their evolution beforehand. Everything is not decided in one week, of course, but these camps allow us to gather most of the potentials at the same time and to take stock to cross and validate our various analyses.
FFBS and MLB Objectives:
Throughout the week, the players benefited from an ideal framework to practice and showcase their skills on the field. The program included technical workshops, physical tests, specific exercises, and numerous matches, all supervised by the MLB/FFBS staff and skillfully orchestrated by the manager of the France 15U team, Jean-Michel Mayeur, as usual.
This camp week ultimately had two objectives, in my opinion.
For MLB, the goal each year is to detect young talented players of this age group and establish follow-up to evaluate each player’s progress. Thus, they can keep an eye on the strong potentials to find the next hidden gem!
In parallel, with a large majority of the France 15U team staff present, we were able to establish an expanded list of players that we can likely select to participate in the World Championship (which will take place from August 26 to September 4 in Mexico).
Depending on the profiles, the various stakes, and the strategies we should deploy during this type of competition, it’s often a real puzzle, and the meetings to discuss it can drag on… exhausting but fascinating!
Romain Thomas in briefing, credit photo Nicolas Mennetrey
We think, as mentioned previously, about these upcoming major competitions, but just like MLB, our reflection also engages in a long-term logic, in favor of the experience gained by the players, beneficial to their learning. In a certain continuity and a transverse programming in the structures, the objective is therefore to continue to favor the improvement of the general level of our French players, from the 12U category to the Seniors.
This inevitably involves practice on the fields, relevant training programs, to progress through varied and adapted exercises. It is also essential to play matches for our young players, to live concrete situations, to fail and bounce back, to flourish and continue their efforts while having fun with this sport. This is part of the experience I was talking about and it’s one of the priorities to be competitive on a large scale.
This is also a great opportunity for the players as well as the coaches to meet, create bonds, share, exchange, compare methods, evaluate themselves; it’s enriching for the players but not only!
Mental Preparation for the 15U:
Regarding the specific mental skills for this age category, we often address the issue of the relationship with failure, stress, frustration, or even concentration and confidence, as well as the entire set of underlying reasons that can be at the origin of these fluctuations.
At this age, players begin to become aware of the difficulties generated by the competitive environment, the ‘things they must prove,’ the ‘harmful consequences of their errors,’ the numerous ‘difficulties preventing them from reaching their objectives,’ and in many cases, the game gives way to the stakes too often…
As we discussed during our meetings with the entire group, everyone can have their chance in this sport with a rather late maturity; there is no predetermined career path, the objectives of each as well as the sports careers can be very different depending on the individuals, and that is precisely what makes the beauty of the sport, of our sport. Thus, for the majority who felt observed by scouts for the first time, we accentuated our support and our speeches on the things they could act on directly without changing their approach for all that.
Starting from this observation, everyone’s expectations can ultimately be redefined, and the players’ mindset can already be different.
My role as a mental coach and one of my primary objectives is to allow these players to take a step back to apprehend things differently, to find their ways to cope with all this and to adopt the most effective strategies possible to express themselves fully.
To do this, it may be possible to propose multiple exercises, techniques, and methods to appropriate, allowing to perform the various requested actions under optimal conditions for each of us.
Among these methods, I was able to lead a few awareness sessions on mental imagery techniques and respiratory relaxation to be applied on the field, for example. At this age, it’s often new but very useful! These exercise proposals are something new in an MLB Camp, I believe.
Finally, another determining element, in my opinion, remains the group dynamic. A good teammate and a real sense of cohesion in a group can have unsuspected repercussions on collective performance! We saw this again last summer during the European Championship with the France 15U team, and it’s a subject that takes an important place in the debates to build a performing group.
