The Baseball Observer March-April 2017 vol 9

Allowing Certain People to Undermine You

There are three particular separate, risk factors, which are interrelated and that can place a baseball player at risk for mental and emotional problems and performance impediments.

I refer to these factors as the player’s PPTs; People, Places, and Things.

In this section, the People factor will be addressed, while the Places and Things factors will be discussed in the following two sections.

With respect to people, there indeed are individuals who, if left unchecked, could derail the player. These unwanted people come in many forms such as fellow students, fans, community members, drug dealers, gamblers, self-seeking agents, and possibly even some relatives.

These undesirable people can very quickly place the player at risk. This is so since such individuals do not have the best interests of the player at heart. In essence, they have the potential to influence the player to engage in activities and substances that are not healthy or good for the player.

These activities and substances could very well be ones such as:

In order to prevent unwanted people from undermining and derailing their game or career, the player can be encouraged to work at developing a positive support system. In this regard, a positive support system includes people who sincerely have the best interests of the player in mind and heart. The members of a player’s positive support system could include fellow students, coaches, family members, teachers, and others.

Frequenting Troublesome Places

Coinciding with people who may undermine a player and his performance or life, comes the risk that a player entails by frequenting places that are not good for him to be at. These places may include : (a) bars and clubs: (b) apartments or dorm rooms; and (c) other locations that place the player at risk.

Knowing what specific places will allow the individual player to be at risk and then deciding when and how to avoid those locations is a priority task for the player. On the other side, developing a set of places that are safe and that do not place the player at undue risk is an important life skills task.

The Baseball Observer March-April 2017 vol 9 | Page 37