Slow Down

It is amazing how much the game of baseball parallels with our EVEryday lives. The comparisons are infinite and quite significant. I am thankful for the game's presence in my life and what it has taught me and continues to residually teach me as I shake and move through my journey.

Slow down. Its so hard to remember to do. We have to do lists that pile up and knock us down so often when we can't keep up with them. We have our families, jobs, hobbies, chores, etc that fulfill our lives so much, and often times it is feels impossible to think that we can ever align them all and truly balance them out to the degree that we desire. Slowing everything down is so necessary. Literally taking 5-10 minutes to just breath and be thankful for all the blessings that we have is one of the best tactics we can use to maintain a better balance. I myself even find it hard to take that 5-10 minutes to just breath, unless I am fortunate enough to get in a hot yoga class. I actually even got a job at the yoga studio that I just linked to in order to make sure that I take class at least once a week. 

For me, yoga is so much more than physical. I used to practice yoga because I knew it was good for my replaced hip and the continued EVEryday rehab and strengthening I needed to uphold in order to stay in the game...and now I appreciate my practice for the mental and meditational aspect more than ever. It allots me 80 minutes of myself time to check back in to all that I am thankful for and all that I genuinely appreciate. I think of taking class as a refueling station; my body, mind, and spirit are the car with the gas tank. When I give myself that time to slow down and focus on nothing else except giving back to my body and spirit, my everything thanks myself and the powers that be that got me to get up and go to class that day. 

This is not a sales pitch on yoga! Although, anyone who really knows me knows that I am a big advocate of it and it is a key element of not only my physical training regimen, but even more importantly my mentality and balance regimen. Once I am in class and the door is closed I have already succeeded because I simply made the decision to show up. Showing up is literally 98% of the battle. Then 1% is just staying present, and finally the last 1% is the actual physical movement.

Now, lets associate that with the game of baseball. As young ball players, what often happens when we make an error? We get flustered and try to move too quickly to make up for it and then we compound the error because the game speeds up on us! Its hard sometimes! We just want to make up for what we just did so we rush and then before we know it that simple routine ground ball to the 3rd basemen with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd just resulted in an overthrow to first base because we bobbled it and tried to rush our throw. Now we have runners on 2nd and 3rd and the tying run just scored. Sometimes we just have to cut our losses and know that we will get another shot! We will get another shot...that is inevitable.

We must slow down. We must play one pitch at a time. One moment at a time. One breath at a time. All with an attitude of thankfulness that we are even lucky enough to be on the field in the first place. This is something that is ever completely LEARNED. It is something that is PRACTICED, just like yoga. There is no peak you can reach, you simply reach. Beyond the talent, beyond the size, beyond the God given ability, we have the opportunity to make the decision to simply slow it all down and stay in the moment...and separate ourselves from the pack. 

Practicing the physical aspect of the game and life is the easy part. Deciding to incorporate and truly value the mental side of the game is what differentiates us player to player, person to person. There sometimes is simply no way to be better than the guy next to you when it comes to physical ability...but the mind has infinite room for growth and maturation no matter what age we are or how big we are or how talented we are. Make the decision to slow down the game and your life, appreciate whats around you, and Practice your mind...and see what it does for your game. Remember, it is not learned, it is practiced, EVEryday.

Thanks for reading.

Respectfully,

Isaac Hess

Balance in the Baseball Life

As for anything in this life, balance is the key to success. Balance is something that takes consistent consciousness and effort to achieve, and it is something that is never reached, only sought after. One can not be enlightened once they believe they have reached a pinnacle, because reaching is part of the beauty and grace in the movement. I believe that too much contentment can be distracting, and that appreciation of focus is a much better approach. That all being said, balance in Europe is something that has not been so easy for me to achieve. It has been brand new territory for me out here, not only geographically, but metaphorically as well. I chose to explore the opportunity out here in the Czech Republic not because I was giving up on my endeavors to continue reaching for a major league career, but more so to step outside of the box for a summer and see if I couldn't find some new and untapped opportunities out here. I decided that I would make a decision for me instead of making it based solely on the hopes and dreams of making it to the big leagues. Its like you want it so bad that you become a slave to it, so I just chose to look at it differently this summer. I don't know what next season has in store, let alone the next few months of my life. It always swirls around and goes up and down, I'm just here for the ride now. My hunger seemed to fade out here a bit with regards to my work ethic and some decisions I have made, but I know that was part of the learning experience so I allowed myself a bit of lee way for a couple months. I am really looking forward to the next phase when and where ever that will be. I am hoping to play in Venezuela or Australia...two entirely different places for baseball, but nevertheless I would be happy ending up at either place.

When you are in such a new place I think you have to let go for a while and disconnect from your norm and discover some newness. I did that while I was here and it has put me into a new norm for some time. I am ready to get back to balance. Out here I have such minimal obligation of responsibility...its pretty much show up twice a week for practice and once a weekend for games, and then chill and have free time the rest of your week. Of course you can go practice every day if you choose, which I tried to do at least 4-5 days a week. Regardless, that is what the job here consists of, and you don't make too much money, but its enough to enjoy yourself.

We just had our last game of the season here in Czech and unfortunately we took the loss in the first round of playoffs. I will be heading back home here with a couple weeks, although home is such a relative term these days. For the last few weeks here I am looking forward to getting back into a more balanced routine, and a great foundation of this for me is to revisit my yoga practice. I just went to hot yoga here in Brno last Thursday, and I plan to go tonight as well. Its just a chill little bus and tram ride away from my flat. Every time I am in a consistent practice everything else is falling into place all the time. Yoga is a huge part of my ability to achieve balance. In addition to all the benefits I have received from it physically, the consciousness and appreciation it helps me gain is infinitely strengthening. I always thank myself every time I get into class.

I tend to go on tangents from time to time. The point of this blog is to help young ball players that are curious and want to learn about the lifestyle of baseball in order to help them become better pitchers,  players, and people. I give my perspective on this life and stay positive about things regardless of my situation, because if it helps any one player decide to keep going then its worth it to me. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading,
Isaac

PS. This is a sweet song I have been digging. Music is necessary.