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Coach Tully's
Recap! |
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Mental Skills by the Numbers
3,189 -- That’s the numbers of players who were drafted in 1988 before Mike Piazza was. The vast majority never made it to the big leagues. This proves dramatically that no one knows exactly which players will develop, and which ones will disappoint. So coaches must must treat every player with hope and energy. If players see that you have hope for them, their attitude and energy will be better. They will be more focused. Coach every player with the care you would devote to a future major leaguer. People often rise to the level of expectations!
85 -- According to a study quoted in the book “The Talent Code,” by Daniel Coyle, this is the percentage of time that Coach John Wooden delivered pure information. Not lectures, stories, praise, or criticism. Just pure information. Do it this way. Stand like that. Hold your arm here. Clear instructions will lead to more learning.
36 -- Days left until the start of training. In those five weeks, I hope you will read at least oone of these three books: “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, and “Talent is Overrated,” by Geoff Colvin.
20 -- The number of minutes at the start of practice in which you should give a compliment to every player. This adds motivation and eases the way for some of the tough coaching that may come later. To be even more effective, the praise should be connected to a specific issue the player has been working on.
7 -- The number of seconds that form the best window for feedback. Spend some time with a player on the field, and give them immediate and specific feedback on each repetition. Do it within seven second of the rep, or the athletes loses the connection between what the body did and what the feedback is.
3 -- Coach in Threes. It is mother Nature’s Magic Number. The Three Bears. The Three Little Pigs. Deliver your skill keys in threes. Your scouting reports. Your game plans. It will keep things clear and manageable for your players.
2 -- Players have two choices when looking at their lives: Is their universe open or closed? Example: One day a teammate of Ted Williams returned to the dugout after striking out. Williams asked him: “When you swung and missed, did the ball go above or below your bat?” The player was puzzled. “Who cares? Either way, I struck out.” Who cared? Williams did! For him, knowing what went wrong was the first step to fixing it. But the player was so frustrated at the strikeout that he didn’t take the time to figure out what went wrong. For the player, the game was over when he struck out. He had a closed universe. For Williams, the game had just begun. His universe was open.
A recent study by a prep school sophomore in Connecticut offers the main reason why young people play sports: To have fun! It’s basic but we often forget. More than for learning or winning, they do it for fun. And when kids are having fun, they learn more, and learn it more deeply.
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