The third and final day of camp was icing on the cake for me. It was a day full of fun, excitement and new opportunities for the players.
Players got the opportunity to showcase their skills in a pro style workout where they ran the 60 yard dash, threw from the outfield, and got to take batting practice. It was a very fun atmosphere and brought out the competitive nature in all of them. For an activity that is for showing off your skills, this pro style workout turned into an all out competition which was enjoyable to watch.
Players pushed themselves to new levels in the 60 yard dash and to the surprise of most of them, they ran faster then they thought they could because they didn’t want to lose. And to our delight it brought a sense of success and hope to a lot of these players.
When we got to the hitting part of the workout I was greatly surprised with what I saw but at the same time frustrated. The surprise was many of the players being able to make the adjustments we were offering and seeing their swings improve after each new round of hitting. I was also surprised with the bat speed and power that some of the younger players possessed.
The frustrating part was seeing players who have so much talent and potential baseball opportunities in front of them swinging with such bad swinging mechanics and fundamentals. It’s frustrating to me because it simply means that coaches down here are limited the abilities of these players due to bad information they are passing on. Which doesn’t come as a surprise because it happens everyday in the US as well.
To end the day we split the players up by age and then into two teams for each age and played whiffle ball. Man was that awesome to watch!! Players communication was fantastic and the energy and teamwork was remarkable. For most of them it was their first time playing whiffle ball but it was also the first time for all of them to play whiffle ball with a fungo bat. Which to all of our surprise they all swung the fungo bat very well.
The growth of the players as a whole over the three days was phenomenal. Their desire to soak up as much knowledge as possible and to believe in what we were teaching them made the whole trip worth it. And not just in the baseball sense. They attitude towards becoming better people and the desire to help each other was paramount to anything baseball related.
I am truly grateful for the opportunity to bring TCP down to the Bahamas and look forward to all future possibilities down here. The relationships I forged and connections I made with the boys has touched me deep inside and has me yearning for more.
God has open my eyes through this opportunity and I am blessed to be able to have had the opportunity to inspire and provide these boys with the hope that they can make it in life and in the baseball world. The same hope that gets stripped from them on a daily basis we were able to help them regain. And thats what it’s all about!!
Andy Schindling 