How to hit the curve ball.

I love baseball.  It's the greatest game.  I've learned many things throughout my 30 years of playing/coaching the game.  How to hit a curve ball is one of the skills I was taught.  The curve ball moves downward the closer it gets to the batter.  A good curve ball is hard to square up because of the spin and the speed. The hitter has to read the spin on the ball out of the pitcher's hand immediately, or the hitter has to get lucky and guess that the pitcher is throwing one in order to hit it hard.  The most disciplined hitters, the ones with the great batting averages don't guess.  They can read the spin. It takes hours and hours of batting cage work to read the spin out of the pitchers hand.  The other discipline a hitter has to learn in order to hit a curve ball hard is to keep their hands and their weight back.  If you get ahead of yourself, the speed of the curve ball will make you swing and miss because of the timing, or if will make you hit a weak ground ball for an easy out.  The best hitters stay back and try to hit the pitch right back through the middle of the field.  Lots of times in batting practice coaches will tell the hitter to try to take the pitchers head off when hitting the curve ball. 

So why am I talking about hitting a curve ball?  Because my life was thrown a "12 to 6" curve ball, and I believe that this baseball skill I learned is a great lesson for life also.   I started out the year as an Assistant HS principal at Clinton High.  I am currently (for 4 weeks now) the Principal at SW Elementary.  It is the 2nd through 4th grade campus for Clinton Public Schools.  If I try to hit this pitch (the SW Principal position) like I was timing up the last pitch (the CHS Assistant Principal position) I am going to swing and miss or hit a weak grounder to the 3rd basemen.  The most important part of this whole at bat (coming to SW) is for me to sit back and wait on the right time to hit this curve ball back at life.  I can read the spin on this pitch and it doesn't look like I'm working with 9th through 12th grade students.  The spin is definitely different.  This at bat entails me taking the time to get to know the faculty and staff and their expectations at SW.  It also is important that they start getting a feel for me and my expectations.  My  job is to give our students a learning environment that is safe, supportive, creative, and enthusiastic.  I can help create that by supporting, encouraging, and leading our "Rockstar" faculty and staff on campus. 

The best MLB hitters have lifetime averages of .300 or better.  They fail 7 out of 10 times.  It take perseverance and persistence to be a great hitter.  If you get your head down every time you miss a pitch, you might also miss the next few.  I feel like I'm prepared for the curve ball that has been thrown my way.  My plan for this at bat is to take the pitcher's (life) head off.  I want our SW Elementary faculty and staff to keep giving our students the opportunities for a great public education.  If I happen to swing  through a pitch or two, that's alright.  I'll step to the plate at my next at bat and have a plan for it.