I give this speech every year. "Its alot better to learn from others mistakes than it is to learn from your own." I go on to use myself as an example for all the players. But I also understand that at that age you think you know it all. You think you got it all figured out. And sometimes you have to get hit right in the head with a 2 by 4 to actually believe that it hurts to get hit in the head with a 2 by 4. Its all part of growing up and learning. The more things we can help kids avoid and learn by learning from our mistakes and others mistakes the fewer times they have to get hit by that 2 by 4. But lets face it they all are going to have to take their lumps just some a little more often than others. But the beauty of all of this is those lumps can make you a better person in the end and allow you to teach others down the road.
As much as we would all love to shelter our children our players etc from these bumps and never see them have to learn these tough life lessons we have to understand we can not shelter them from all of them. We teach we talk to try to guide them but in the end they are the one that must walk their own road. And along the way they are going to stumble and they are going to have some tough times. But we pray and we continue to assist them along the way and it is a wonderful feeling of pride in the end when we see them actually get it. Its all part of growing up and becoming a man both in the game of baseball and life itself.