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Champions Never Take a Day Off
At first glance, today’s headline probably sounds like BS. I’m sure there are those among you who are saying “I see lots of high level coaches and healthcare experts who talk about the importance of rest and recuperation as part of an overall training strategy,” or something to that effect.
That is very true, and I am definitely an advocate of not only building some unscheduled time into the season but also taking time off post-season to recover both physically and mentally. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Today’s subject is more about the approach players need to take whenever they are practicing.
We tend to think about practice time in terms of quantity. A question coaches are often asked is “How often/how long should my daughter practice?”
The implication is if you fully fill out the practice time card you will magically get better. All you need to know then is what the numbers are.
But that’s not how it works. The real question is how focused are you in the time you do practice?
Think about two players. The first one is more oriented to the time-based approach.
She goes out for a half hour every other day to practice on her own in addition to attending two or three team practices a week.
Sounds like she ought to be seeing huge gains, doesn’t it? Yet her improvement is slow, and she gets frustrated because she’s investing all this time for very little reward.
Yet the answer lies in HOW she is practicing. When she’s on her own, she basically goes through the motions, doing what she has always done.
Maybe she’s a pitcher who needs to work on her leg drive. But that takes a lot of effort and concentration, which is hard, so instead she just continues to pitch the way she’s comfortable.
Yes, she is out there putting in time. But as far as effort goes she’s pretty much taking the day off.
Then she wonders why her speed isn’t going up the way she should.
Player B, on the other hand, is driven to get better all the time. When she goes out to practice, whether it’s on her own or with her team, she is legitimately trying to improve some aspect of her game all the time.
If she’s a pitcher who needs to improve her leg drive, she’s out there doing her assigned drills and pushing her body to the max with every repetition to try to see improvement. And she doesn’t try to throw a full-distance, full-motion pitch until she feels herself generating a higher level of energy.
If she’s a hitter who has a problem with dropping her hands to swing, she takes dry swing after dry swing with her hands in the proper position before she even thinks about hitting a ball. She starts slowly so she can get it right, and gradually builds the speed up, always being careful to ensure she continues to keep her hands up.
If they start dropping, she backs off a little on the speed, recovers the proper form, then starts increasing speed again.
The same is true with her approach to fielding, throwing, running bases, and every other softball skill. She tries to make every repetition count because she knows that the more she does things correctly, with intensity and a purpose, the better she will play when it’s game time.
And the better chance she will have of becoming a champion.
The reality is we are whatever we do repeatedly. If we are sloppy and lackadaisical in our approach to practice because we don’t feel like it today or it’s just easier, that sloppiness or lack of effort will show itself on game day.
But if we are focused and have a goal in mind for every minute of practice time every day, when game time comes around performing at a high level becomes much easier.
It’s easy to say you want to be a champion, win trophies, play for a particular high-level team, etc. The question is, are you willing to pay the price to get there?
True champions don’t take days off when they are practicing – or playing. They work on their weaknesses and give their all with every repetition, even when it’s frustrating.
The next time you go out to practice, give this approach a try. Dedicate yourself to accomplishing a goal, and be single-minded in your effort to achieve it.
And if you find you can’t give your all that day just stop, because you’re probably wasting your time at best and possibly even making yourself worse. Then come back when you’re ready to go 100% on every repetition again.
I think you’re going to like the results a whole lot better.
Turning On A Light Bulb About Efficiency In Movement
Photo by Rodolfo Clix on Pexels.com
Achieving efficiency in athletic movements is one of the most important principles in maximizing performance. Yet it’s also a concept that’s difficult to grasp, especially for younger players.
The drive to efficiency isn’t “fun.” It’s actually a lot of work, and usually starts with a lot more failure than success.
It also often requires breaking down a skill and working on a particular element until you get it right. Only when you can do it well is it inserted back into the overall skill.
Take pitching, for example. A pitcher may be over to throw the ball over the plate with decent speed, getting hitters out and winning MVP awards. A physically stronger pitcher may even be able to bring impressive speed naturally.
But until that pitcher develops a more efficient approach to how she throws the ball she will never find where her ceiling is.
While parents or coaches may understand that, players may not. Efficiency is kind of an abstract concept for them, especially these days when everyone is more focused on outcomes (Did we win? Did I perform well?) than development.
So, here’s a way of explaining explaining efficiency in terms they can understand.
Tell them to think about an LED light versus a traditional incandescent light bulb. (Depending on age, by the way, players may not know what “incandescent” means so you may need to reference an actual bulb at your home or somewhere else. Remember, they’re growing up in a world of compact florescents and LEDs.)
Let’s assume both lights are throwing out an equal amount of light into the room. Ask them what would it feel like if they walk up and touch the LED light. The correct answer, of course, is nothing. It’s like touching a table.
But what happens if they try to touch an old-fashioned light bulb? They’re going to get burned.
Then ask them if they know why one is hot and the other is not. It’s because 90% of the energy being consumed by the LED is being converted into light, while 10% is being lost as heat; the incandescent bulb is the opposite – 10% light, with 90% lost to heat.
In other words, the LED is very efficient because almost all of its power is being used for the purpose intended, while the traditional light bulb is very inefficient since most of its power is being wasted on something that is non-productive.
It’s the same with athletic skills. The more extraneous movements an athlete has, or the more things she does that get in the way of efficient movement, the less powerful she is. Even if she is trying as hard as she can.
But if she works on becoming efficient in the way she transfers the energy she has developed into the skill she is performing, she will maximize her power and effectiveness.
If you’re challenged with explaining the need to be efficient, give this analogy a try. Hopefully it turns into a light bulb moment for your player.
Take Your Effort to 11
The other day I was reading an article’in the NFCA’s Fastpitch Delivery newspaper. It was written by Megan Brown, Ph.D., an assistant coach at Brown University, talking about what softball players can learn from UConn basketball.
Basically, it talked about an approach they use to improve pitching performance during practice, which improves performance during games. While the article was about pitching, it can be applied to other areas as well. I’ve been playing around with it a bit this week, and I think it’s pretty effective so I thought I’d share.
The crux of it is to ask the player to rate her effort on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being standing around talking about it (as you will be doing at that time) and 10 being putting every fiber of your being into the pitch, hit, throw, whatever.
The typical answer will be 5 or 6. If she says 6, you then ask the player what it will take to get that effort level up to a 7. How do you go that little bit harder?
Once she gets to 7, ask what it will take to get to 8, and so on. It really seems to help players loosen up a bit and worry a little less about “perfect” mechanics and a little more about going hard.
Of course, being a movie fan and a music fan, the whole idea of “turning it up” couldn’t help but remind me of this great scene from the classic movie “This Is Spinal Tap.” Sorry about the commercial in the front, but it’s worth waiting it out:
It’s very easy for players to slip into their comfort zone when they’re practicing or playing. Unfortunately, for many that comfort zone may be far less than they’re capable of achieving when pushed.
Maximum performance requires maximum effort. To help players get there, ask them to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10, and then see if you can get them to make turning it up to 11 a habit.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 