Pat Geroni's Philosophy Statement

Pat Geroni Baseball programs are not typical in any way, shape or form as the philosophy for all camps, clinics and lessons focuses on the entire student. My vision of teaching the youth of today does not solely fall in the physical aspect, rather I believe it is imperative to teach towards the mental and psychological domains. All of my programs build towards developing proper mechanics and ironing out flaws, but unlike many other clincs/camps we teach the players fun, self help drills that they can implement on their own. My speciality is recognizing and fixing mechanical baseball flaws, but long term success in this sport lies in the true understanding of the game. In addition, a main target of my programs is geared towards learning how to overcome adversity and keep a positive line of thinking. The psychological factor of baseball is just as important to the development of an athlete as it is to the development of a person. My goal is not only to produce more successful and polished baseball players, but also more confident and better people.

I find myself looking around at many youth sport competitions and cringing at the amount of pressure some of these kids are feeling game in and game out. I fear that as a society we are losing sight of the vision that the founders of little league and even baseball may have once had. It is great that so many kids are playing at an exceptionally high level, phenomenal that they are so mechanically sound due to personal training, but I cannot help but notice that so many coaches and even parents forget that the main purpose of youth sports is to have fun, to engage in activity and to build social skills. We all want to win, we want success for our kids and players, but we have to keep in mind how these same kids are feeling at all times. I train so many elite players that can possibly have a career in baseball/softball ahead of them, but with the amount of pressure and expectations that is placed on them I also see a lot of these players leave the game at a very young age. It is up to us as coaches and ex-players to not only teach the youth how to play, but also how to deal with adversity and create a strong mental make-up. We cannot always control what other coaches and role moldels do to our players, but we can train and monitor their minds to be able to handle it. 

Baseball is a game where a coach needs to be a role model, guidance counselor, actor, informational source and sometimes a therapist. Many of us realize that these attributes need to exist for the kids, but not many of us are successful at implementing them day in and day out. I was very fortunate to be surrounded by coaches that exemplified these characteristics, therefore now I try to exude the same. Send me an email, give me a call or come see me personally and I will be glad to give you the best baseball advice I can, because I want to not because it is my job.