Baseball Scholarship or Pro Contract?
I was giving a talk to some parents and athletes the other evening on the topic of creating a game plan for success this season. One of the points I mentioned was that I am pretty confident that one day you won't simply wake up with a college scholarship or a pro contract and say to yourself, "Wow, I wasn't expecting this, how did it happen?"
Athletes who are successful create their success without accident. They have a plan, and that plan drives them to work hard while others are sleeping in on the weekends, or taking weeks off during the holiday season! A well prepared athlete has a well thought out routine during the off season. This is not to say that you can't enjoy yourself over the holidays, and stuff your face with turkey, potatoes, and pumpkin pie. But I am suggesting that if the thought of moving through the holidays thinking that you will get busy on the other side is going through your mind, my bet is you have no written game plan guiding your practice.
Consider the following question in preparation for creating your personal game plan for success this season.
What am I going to achieve this season?
This is a big concept! It's meant to be so. Here are a couple ideas. Hit .500, win 10 games on the mound, lead the team in RBI's or HR's, make fewer than 7 errors in the field. Whatever you think about, make sure it's BIG. Not ridiculous, but BIG. Its got to be something that you can measure and insert into your workouts.
To get started, think of your game plan as a road map. Without a clear road map, your path to completing your BIG idea this season will be unclear and confusing. To avoid this, we need to take your BIG idea (hit .500, win 10 games, make fewer than 7 errors) and create some procedural goals to include in your road map.
Using the example of the BIG idea of winning 10 games as a pitcher this season, let me show you how procedural goals work. Depending on how long your season is, winning 10 games could be amazingly difficult. Feel free to adjust that number to fit an aggressive goal for your league. If you typically win 2/3 of the games or your BIG idea, there are some things that need to change in order for you to win 1/3 more games. So, a couple procedural goals would be like:
1. I will throw 50% more curveballs for strikes.
2. I will throw a first pitch strike 75% of the time.
Without these valuable procedural goals, your BIG idea of winning 10 games would be tough to lay out in your road map. Once you have established two to three procedural goals to help you accomplish your BIG idea, you're ready for the last piece in your road map creation process, Action Habits.
Action Habits are your daily and weekly habits that you focus clearly on during your training. Most anyone can sit down and plot out a direction for the season, though it takes another level of athlete to plan out daily and weekly practice and improvement plans.
So let's say that your BIG idea is to win 10 games this season. To do that, you have identified some procedural goals, one of which is to throw a first pitch strike 70% of the time. Your action habits are then directly connected to your procedural goal. Maybe you would create an action habit of working on mental focus or practicing your fastball more during this off season. Whatever you choose, it needs to be consistent and measured.
And the secret to this process to make it stick? Let others in on your road map. Tell your coaches your plans, tell your parents, write it down and show a teammate or two. The more people who care about you and see your road map, the more likely you are to accomplish what you want this season!
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