Comfort Zone

While instructing baseball lessons at a local baseball academy I observed the way the group of 13-16 year old boys communicated with one another. When they first entered the room they were silent not even making eye contact with each other. The younger boys seemed intimidated as they walked slightly slouched, their eyes shuffled from side to side and their facial expression looked like that of a child on his first day of preschool. The older kids in the group seemed to have walked slightly taller and with more confidence almost as if they knew they were superior to the younger kids. After putting down their baseball bags and grabbing their gloves I told them to circle up for stretching.

Still silence and blank stares across the circle to one another. Unable to take anymore of the tension and knowing they just needed someone to break the ice I decided to spark conversation. I started by asking Andrew, one of the 13 year olds, if he had done anything fun over the weekend. He shrugged his shoulders and simply said no. In attempt to get a better answer out of him I light heartedly joked and said, "What did you do? Go to your grandmother's house and bake cookies?" The group laughed and 14 year old Jared chimed in and made a wise comment sparking a series of back and fourth chatter proceeded by laughter. Andrew never answered the question but it had certainly served its purpose, the kids were getting visibly more and more comfortable with each other. The group took the conversation into their own hands first talking about the weekend and then somehow the conversation morphed into lightheartedly teasing each other about their baseball abilities. The initial talk about the weekend was certainly good small talk for the kids to loosen up a little. Then as they quickly moved onto another topic it was no surprise they chose baseball since they were all there to take lessons and obviously had some if not a lot of interest in the sport.

They continued to poke fun at one another and it appeared that everyone was finally on the same page. Their blank stares turned into smiles and laughter, and their slouches turned into a comfortable posture. Finally I knew everyone had entered their comfort zone.

After breaking up from the large group they paired off to start throwing. Yet again there was a slight level of intimidation. The older kids appeared superior not wasting anytime in choosing their partner, but the younger