It is time for all players and parents to learn a very simple lesson. Stop talking.
Just stop telling other players and parents what your plans are. Stop telling your team mates what teams are interested, or what camps you are going to.
Stop giving advice and stop asking for advice. Just stop talking.
Real players, real serious athletes do not talk. They do not gossip, and they do not tell everyone what their plans are or what they are thinking. Real serious athletes in every sport simply plan and go about working their plan. There is no time to talk and no reason to talk if you are actually doing something.
Coaches don’t want to hear you talk. They only want to watch what you do. Scouts don’t want to hear you talk. They only want to see results.
If you think your team mate listening to you talk wont try to steal the spot or opportunity you are talking about, you clearly have not been around this game long. You want to compete against your line mate for an opportunity he wouldn’t have known about if not for you talking?
If you think for one second that all your talking is getting you anywhere or is impressing anyone, then you are too busy listening to yourself talk and not busy enough looking around at what everyone else is doing.
Do you all understand that during big showcase events, scouts and coaches will go to dinner together and share notes? Do you understand that everything you say eventually gets back to the scout or coach involved? The biggest laughs at dinner come when a coach finds out he was really interested in a player from another coach who heard the player talking, and that coach has no idea who the player is.
Stop talking.
No one wants to know who you think you are just as good as. No one cares who you played with last year. No one cares that you think your son is better than so and so.
Action, not words. Do, not talk. This is what will separate you from all the other people talking. When you step out from the noise, then you will begin to think, see and do things differently. That is when you will begin to reach your goals.
Joseph Kolodziej – Adviser
