Simplify Your Focus
There is a famous Kung Fu story about a man who visited a Shaolin Temple and begged the monks to teach him Kung Fu in one year so that when the bandits returned to raid his village, he could defend it. The monks led the man to a trough full of water and showed him a strike and told him to punch the water until there was no water left. He immediately began punching the water, each time sending a splash out of the trough and onto the floor. But each time the water level dropped below half, a monk would come with a bucket and refill the trough. After a few months, the man voiced his dissatisfaction with his training to the monks, but each time they simply compelled him to continue. He begrudgingly continued striking the water, each time hoping the monks would finally actually begin teaching him Kung Fu. Finally at the end of the year, he emptied the trough and no monk refilled it. He stormed into the room where the monks were all sitting around a stone table, waiting for him. They asked him if he was satisfied with his training. The man shouted, "In all my time in the temple I have learned nothing! I have wasted the entire year on a pointless task!" He became so angry that he struck down with his one strike at the stone table, and to his amazement, split it in half.
Then one of the monks stepped forward, put his hand on the man's shoulders and said, "Do not fear the man who has practiced a thousand strikes once each, but the man who has practiced one strike a thousand times."
Consistency (which happens to be my One Word for 2018). Repetition. Deliberate practice. Routine. Fundamentals. Discipline. For anyone who wants to "get better" at anything – it doesn't matter what it is – there is nothing more important than this.
Think about it in these terms...
Football coaches, which team concerns you more, the team that has 100 different plays in their playbook and practices each one of them one or two times during the week? Or, the team that has 5 plays in their playbook but practices those 5 plays relentlessly, every day, over and over and over again to perfection?
Musicians, if you were to practice five instruments per week – one different instrument per day, five days a week – how proficient would you be at playing all five of those instruments after one year, having had 52 practices for each instrument? On the other hand, what if you practiced one instrument five days a week? How well would you play that instrument after one year, having had 260 practices on the same instrument? Which method do you suppose would make you a more accomplished musician?
A baseball coach once asked me if I would watch his team practice and then make recommendations on what they should be working on in order to advance to a "higher level" of play. His team was pretty good, and he wanted to continually challenge them to reach new heights in their game. I like that, so I was glad to oblige, but I already had a pretty good idea of what I was going to say to him even before I watched the practice. In fact, I would probably say the same thing to just about any and every team that were to ask me a similar question.
Often we tend to think that we need something special. A trick play. A different strategy. Better scouting. A shift here. An adjustment there. But in truth, what is really needed is more of the same basic fundamentals.
A little a lot is better than a lot a little.
Which would make you physically stronger and healthier, going to the gym once a week and working out for 2 hours, once a week? Or, going to the gym three days a week and working out for 30 minutes 3x a week? The first scenario is an example of doing a lot a little, while the second scenario is an example of doing a little a lot. There is no dispute that consistency and simplicity will beat irregular complexity in exercise, or in just about any number of examples you can come up with.
Back to the coach who asked me to watch his team practice and then make recommendations about what they should work on. Here is the list I gave him:
Throwing and catching
Fielding ground balls right at them
Fielding ground balls to their glove side
Fielding ground balls to their backhand side
Catching pop-ups
Running bases
He said, "But we pretty much do all these things anyway. I thought maybe you would give us some ideas for how to play more advanced ball like they will be playing when they get to high school."
I replied, "When they get to high school, they are going to have to be able to throw it really well and catch it really well. They will need to field ground balls right at them, and to their glove side and to their backhand side. They will need to be able to catch lots of pop-ups. And they are going to have to be very good at running bases. Then, if any of them go on to play in college, the game gets even more advanced. In college, they will need to be able to throw it and catch it really well. They will need to be able to field ground balls right at them really well, as well as to the glove side and backhand side. They will need to be able to catch popups really well. And they will need to be very good at running bases. Then, if any of them should ever happen to make it the professional level, they will have to really, really be able to throw it and catch it...."
See, there is nothing new under the sun. Those who are the best simply do the basic things better than they did them yesterday. They don't look for some magical, shiny and new scheme that is going to propel them into a superstar. That's not how superstars become superstars. They get there a little bit at a time, rep after rep of the most simple and basic fundamentals... consistently done, again and again and again.
Try it. Pick out just three or four things that you want your team to excel in. Make those things non-negotiables. Meaning, you will never sacrifice working on these things for anything else. These few things will be part of your every day practice, and you will always be intentional about working on them.
Let me warn you. These things will get old. People will start to complain and ask you why we are doing these same things every day. "Why aren't we working on other things, like things we aren't as good at. We have already mastered these simple fundamental things, time to move on!"
The best never seem to "move on" though. If you were to go to a major league ballpark on an off day, do you know what you will see the best working on? I have seen this several times with my own eyes, so I will tell you. I have seen some of the fastest players in the MLB practicing over and over and over again their running skills. Taking turns around first base, imagining a ball was hit to left field, center field or right field. Practicing the perfect path for going around the bases on extra-base hits. Practicing the stride of the first few steps off the bag. Practicing running the bases while looking up at the ball when the play is in front of him. Practicing the timing of picking up his base coach when the ball is behind him. I once watched an MLB player spend 40 minutes working on his base running.
Hall of Fame third baseman, Wade Boggs, used to take 100 ground balls before every game. I have read about Alex Rodriguez doing the same. Bryce Harper arrives at the ballpark on game days at 2:00 and after a full-body weight lifting routine he then goes through a batting cage routine of tee-work and front toss before his regular team BP.
I once heard a former MLB coach speak at a coaches clinic and during the Q&A time he was asked, "Can you tell us what a typical practice looks like in the MLB?" His answer is one I will never forget. He said, "It's not real sexy. A lot of throwing, catching, fielding ground balls, pop-ups, hitting, running bases, pitching and catching bullpens."
Greatness emerges from simplicity of focus. In Gary Keller's Bestseller book, "The ONE Thing," he poses this question: “What’s the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” He argues that there is incredible power behind organizing every area of your life around ONE thing, and that the key to success is figuring out your ONE most important thing. Once you have figured that out, you then need to identify how many dominoes you need to line up - and then knock down - in order to achieve it. The principle is simplicity of focus. One domino at a time. Identify what is MOST important to you (and your team) and then give that your undivided attention.
On a team, where multiple skills are necessary for success, the "one" things might actually be a handful of things. But I guarantee you there are not a ton of things, and they are not complex. They are likely things you might hear someone say, "They learned that when they were in Tee Ball."
In fact, that might be a good way to determine what kinds of things you should focus your primary attention on in your practices. Ask yourself, "What are the five most important things we would do in our first week of Tee Ball practice?" Write those down. Then build your 12U practice around those things. Then build your high school practice around those things.
I'll take my chances any day with a team that practices one thing a thousand times over a team that practices a thousand things once.