Mr. Gerry Lambert ’88 Speaks at Annual NHSBCA Convention

For the past decade, Mr. Gerry Lambert ’88 has been a familiar face in the audience at the National High School Baseball Coaches Association’s annual convention. This year, however, he was taking the stage as a featured speaker.

As one of only two Massachusetts-based coaches asked to present at the convention, Mr. Lambert admitted that he was initially a little intimidated. “You’re standing in front of a room where the people there have had tremendous success beyond what you’ve done in quantity and in quality,” he said. “I’m used to standing up and talking and writing on the whiteboard in front of teenagers. In this situation though, I was talking to my peers.” 

True to form, Mr. Lambert was quick to downplay his own résumé. In reality, his impact at Xaverian has been anything but modest. A coach for nearly two decades, he has guided both the golf and baseball programs to sustained success, including multiple league titles and state championships. His teams are known not only for winning, but for their discipline, composure, and preparation, hallmarks of a coach who understands that success begins long before the first pitch or tee shot.

His presentation, A “Goldilocks” Approach to Mental Leveling in Baseball, spoke to the mental side of baseball and how to recognize which players need additional support by using a ‘leveling’ system. Mr. Lambert attributes this approach to coaching to having played a major role in his teams’ past successes. The core idea of Mental Leveling is simple: to play your best, you don’t want to be too “jacked up” or too “loose.” You want to be just right. He suggests that if you were to imagine intensity levels on a scale of 1-4, you want your players to be at a level three for baseball. 

Mr. Lambert’s presentation included well-thought-out, color-coded charts detailing various categories of game scenarios, such as a ‘clearly blown call by an umpire’ and ‘speed of executing a play’, along with the typical reactions a player at level one through four would have. According to this system, coaches should never allow their players to operate at a level four. “A lot of baseball players also play other sports,” he explains. “And in those sports, you often want to be on the top of your mental threshold. In baseball however, if the bases are loaded, you do not want to be breathing fire.” 

An educator to his core, Mr. Lambert couldn’t let his audience walk away without a little bit of homework. Regarding the widespread issue of ‘chirping,’ he implored his fellow coaches to be a part of the solution. He left them with a quote from legendary college football coach, Mike Leach: “You’re either coaching it or allowing it to happen.”