Michael Cooper Joins Us In Creating Enthusiasm (JUICE)

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In dugouts and on the baseball fields all over South Florida a familiar chorus has been heard this season, with players chanting and sharing “JUICE” with each other. These moments are just some of the indications of the enthusiasm and excitement that has been generated thanks to their experiences meeting Michael Cooper during the first-ever High School Baseball Network Media Day events held in January.

Cooper heads the Human Performance Mentors, which trains elite athletes to maximize performance by mastering the mental game. JUICE means Joins Us In Creating Enthusiasm, and when Cooper wants to make a point when speaking he will follow it with this short quick phrase and invoke the same response back from the audience. JUICE works to inspire, motivate and empower them to create enthusiasm. It creates energy and vibe and helps drive teams and individuals to achieve more.

This season Cooper teamed up with HSBN as a major sponsor, and through this partnership thousands of players enjoy extended player profiles that provide greater exposure to scouts. These opportunities open more doors and generate more chances for student-athletes to continue playing the game they love at the next levels. Most importantly, they are having their eyes and minds opened to concepts that improve their overall lives in ways that far transcend the playing fields.

“I think that it is a blessing to team up with High School Baseball Network,” Cooper said. “You are sharing these wins and these losses, but even the losses are wins because it is learning. So really, sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. So when you highlight these athletes they get to come to a place to experience their results. Being able to provide them now with a service to mentally train and develop them to where they can see them highlighted more often in the spotlight, rather than maybe just being on the other side where they are learning more, now they are learning whether they are winning or losing. When they begin to train and develop the mental stuff, this can help them elevate their performance and showcase themselves where they will be mentioned much more with what HSBN is doing.”

Players are going to have anxiety and nerves when they step onto the playing field, and Cooper offers a great plan on how to approach that moment and all moments in life. The focus is to always keep your mindset in the present. Living in the future keeps one from being focused on the present, and looking back to the past leads to anxiety and depression. When one is JUICE’d and locked into the exact moment they are living they find their true capabilities.

“I saw the opportunity to team up and create awareness of the mental training,” Cooper explained. “Lots of people focus on the physical stuff but they don’t focus on the mental and spiritual aspects. In traveling over the globe over the past decade speaking at lots of different events, and lots of baseball events, I started to pick up on the student-athlete and how they are missing so much awareness on who they are and their ‘me’. They have this mind and they have this body that is a fine-tuned machine, and once they understand how to use it properly it can take their performance to a whole new level in all areas of their life. It is not just baseball; it is your academics, your relationships, your health, and your profession. So teaming up with HSBN is good because you have this message and this voice.”

At the onset of each team’s Media Day experience Cooper spoke briefly with each squad, sharing what he does and bringing awareness to an aspect of athletics that most never even realized. It is a challenging phase for young athletes because growing up they are taught the mechanical aspects without any emphasis on mental training. Most talented athletes do not know how to balance their lives. If they are struggling in relationships it affects them on the baseball field, and if they are struggling on the field it affects them in their personal lives. Most have not been taught how to unpack buried emotions from past experiences.

One thing Cooper emphasizes is to establish their purpose. They build a clear vision and set their goals in line with that vision, and that fuels them to achieve those goals. It really was just the seed level what Cooper was able to do in reaching the teams during HSBN’s Media Day events. Yet those seeds can be nurtured and grown, spread and shared to be appreciated and enjoyed by more than just the gardener.

“When we were doing the short sessions at Media Day, I was only getting them for six or seven minutes. But even in those little short periods of time, when you can deliver a message and they get it, and now they transfer that to someone else that gets it, that is a really good feeling,” Cooper said. “They got that with JUICE, and they got that feeling to Join Us In Creating Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is what gets people to move and it inspires people on a change. So when you get all jacked up in the dugout and chant, ‘JUICE, JUICE, JUICE’ it elevates their performance to make a play or when they are in the batter’s box. That energy is channeled to that teammate and they may just hit the ball out of the ball park.”

One of the most important things to Cooper is opening understanding of spiritual harmony. In athletics, success is most often achieved when teammates unify together. Each individual brings their own part to the equation, and together they create a unified being that is the team. It becomes an entire new entity that they are all sharing in together, and that being is something special that often drives them to success.

“The greatest secret in the world is to become a being of transformative sharing,” Cooper said. “How can I share with a being who is going to get it and transmit it to others so they are going to get it? You start to create this chain reaction. It is not about ordinary harmony, because that is not in cooperation with each other. That doesn’t actually mean spiritual harmony. So it is a powerful thing to achieve that, but that is a challenge. That is why a lot of coaches and organizations struggle is because they don’t have that harmony in the clubhouse.”

Cooper’s influence has already been evident from so many of the people he met in January. Yet it is only the tip of the iceburg. The message is deep, powerful and multi-layered. Those who grasp and grow through Cooper’s methods find fulfillment both in sports and in life.

Yet the experience itself is also its own reward, for Cooper is a kindred soul with true passion and interest in the message he shares. Conversations with him naturally generate focus, passion and enthusiasm. He lives what he teaches, and getting the chance to share that with him creates a new entity together. It is one that is fueled by passion, spirit and enthusiasm, and it can open one’s eyes to a world-view never previously imagined.

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