The title phrase for this post is a song lyric. It comes from the Grateful Dead. My friend and co-coach Rich was the person who introduced me to it (old hippie that he is). I was thinking about that tonight as I pondered the aftermath of tryouts.

By now most teams have completed their tryouts for the 2009 season. Some of them, maybe even many, look a lot like they did in 2008. Others, however, may have had a lot of turnover in players.

That kind of thing can be traumatic for some people. They look at the players who left — whom they know — and wonder how the team will ever recover and be any good. This is more of a parent thing than a player thing, incidentally.

Well, the team will certainly be different. But if you’re one of those left behind, it may actually be a good thing for you. You see, on teams that have been around for a while, the coaches make certain assumptions about their players. Consciously or unconsciously, there is a pecking order that was established long ago, especially at certain key positions. It’s tough to break through that for new players, or players who skills may not have been so good when they joined the team.

But as those preferred players leave it opens up opportunities for others. If there was an established shortstop you (or your daughter) may never have had a reasonable shot to play there. If the shortstop leaves, however, she has to be replaced, which creates an opportunity that wasn’t there before.

The same is true at every position — even pitcher. While it’s always tough on a team to lose a great pitcher, it does create the opportunity for #2 (or #3 or #4) to step up and take on a bigger role.

Remember what Charles R. Swindoll said: Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. Players leaving a team is part of the 10%. What you do about it falls in the 90% category. Instead of moaning over it, take advantage of the opportunity. You don’t get that many opportunities in life to make such a big leap forward.

When I was a kid growing up we were told that adding chocolate to milk would take all the nutrition out of it. Regular milk was fine, but skip the chocolate.

I just read an article in the NCFA’s Recruiting supplement written by Brandon Marcello, the strength and fitness coach for Team USA, that says chocolate milk is a good choice for recoverr after a workout. In fact, he references a 2006 study in the International Journal of Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism that showed it’s a better choice than those fancy carbohydrate drinks that go for $40 or more a bottle. While the price of milk has gone up, it’s a lot less than $40 a bottle. Tastes better too.

What’s on your training table? If you’re getting into your off-season strength and conditioning program (as you should be), make sure there’s some chocolate milk in the fridge.