This past weekend, I fully experienced how our job as coaches has become much more challenging.

Coaching a very talented under-13 baseball team opened my eyes to how much harder we must coach this generation in terms of focus.

After a four-hour drive and six frustrating innings of baseball, the game was on the line. The team we were playing was far less talented than us, but we were off all game.

I called time and brought the fielders in for a quick defensive meeting on the mound. We put a shift on, gave the pitcher and catcher instructions to work the outside half of the plate and set the infield to cut the winning run off at the plate.

Immediately, I saw the focus and sense of urgency in the players’ eyes. I walked back to the dugout and watched as they executed the instructions to perfection, throwing out the potential run at home and getting out of the inning unscathed.

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After the game, we talked specifically about having focus and playing with an edge. I asked the players what they did on the long trip down.

They were on social media. They were playing games on their phone. They were sleeping.

A few mentioned thinking about baseball.

It became clear that the distractions available to these talented young players were hurting their performance on the field. As we have progressed to performing at an elite level as a team during the last few summers, the necessity to be on top of the mental game has become much more important. It’s not just about talent at this level.

To perform at an elite level, any team in any age group in any sport must be focused and play on edge.

I made it a point to show the players what brought out their focus and ability to perform under pressure in a game to that point they had largely under performed. The sense of urgency and the game being on the line brought out their focus.

So how can we be focused like that the entire game?

Here’s four ways I’ll implement this approach this football season.

• Phones off. Shut them down an hour prior to warm-ups and two hours before game time. Ideally, they are off by the time players enter the facility. Some college programs have installed small lock boxes in which players put their phones once inside the facility. The message is clear: Be 100 percent engaged with the team. Having the ability to call, text or chat moves focus to what’s happening outside.
• Learn to visualize. When I was a high school head coach, we took the players into the wrestling room a few hours before each game and had them lay on the mats and close their eyes. They were to relax, listen and visualize what the coach was saying. If they fell asleep, we were OK with it, but most didn’t. The coach would call the play or the defense and give the players specific mental cues to rehearse in their minds. This is an underutilized part of game day preparation.
• Quiet in the locker room. We allow music up to 30 minutes before warm-ups and then it’s cut off. The focus should be focus. Players use that time to mentally run through assignments one more time, specifically through their position tip sheets prepared by their position coaches. Players are given these the day before the game.
• Coach focus. It’s not just the players who have to shut out the outside world. Coaches have families, friends and often other jobs to think about, too. Have an active strategy to get the coaches focused. Maybe small group position meetings where coaches guide the players through their process. By helping players get there, coaches do too. Whether it is an active review session in a meeting or a visualization period with your position group, players need to be taught the process and techniques of mental preparation.

Find a way to rehearse this before the first game. Expecting that it can be effective by doing it for the first time on game day is as foolish as drawing up a play on a white board right before the game starts. If it hasn’t been practice, players will not be able to execute it.

Yes, this generation has plenty to distract it, but it’s our job as coaches to ensure they are ready for the game and every aspect that effects it. The mental side becomes important as the level of completion increases.

Like the fundamental techniques we coach, focus must be taught at each level as well.

Keith Grabowski has been a football coach for 26 years, currently serving as an offensive assistant and technology coordinator at Oberlin College in Ohio. He previously was a head coach at the high school level for eight years and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Baldwin Wallace University. Grabowski serves as an advisor for several sports technology companies. He is a columnist for American Football Monthly and writes his own blog at thecoachesedge.com/blog. He’s the author of “101+ Pro Style Pistol Offense Plays” and five other books available on thecoachesedge.com and operates Coaches Edge Technologies. Follow him on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.