Development Requires Patience

I get asked all the time, “When are the mechanics going to translate into a game?” My honest answer is “I don’t know.” Everyone has a different development schedule. Some athletes are able to learn a skill very quickly while others it takes a while. However it’s important to remember that when you are trying to learn hitting, pitching, or anything else in baseball that you are essentially only learning a movement pattern or skill. Just like every other movement pattern or skill you’ve learned throughout your life, so if you were able to learn those skills then there is no doubt you can learn and master your mechanics. So when I’m asked “When are the mechanics going to translate?” I really don’t know. However, I do know that with consistent deliberate practice it WILL happen, I just can’t tell you when.

What inhibits our development?

What we tend to do as parents or athletes is look at the other athletes on the field and compare them to ourselves or our child. If another athlete happens to be farther along developmentally we then classify that athlete as “more talented” and we then expect to be able to ascend to their level of performance quickly and when we can’t we blame it on our genetics, our ability level, or any other excuse that takes our focus away from our development. You need to remember that athletes can be farther along for a number of reasons, maybe the other athlete was exposed to the proper mechanics at an earlier age, or maybe they for whatever reason they just naturally executed proper mechanics, whatever the reason it has absolutely nothing to do with you or your athlete’s “natural ability”.

Consider the “Ten Year Rule” that is discussed in Geoff Colvin’s book “Talent is Overrated”. Studies have shown that it takes approximately 10 years of deliberate practice to reach the “expert” level of mastery over a skill. Unfortunately some athletes aren’t exposed to proper mechanics at a young age and even though they may have been practicing their sport for years they haven’t been deliberately practicing and as such their 10 year clock hasn’t even started yet. Think of two athletes: The first athlete is 15 years of age and the second athlete is 5 years of age. They both begin working with me at the same time and as such are both exposed to the same information, drills, and correction, they work with me for 10 years and by the time the first athlete reaches 25 he has achieved mastery over hitting and is one of the top major league hitters. While the second athlete reaches the same level of mastery at the age of 15. Now the 15 year old isn’t as physically mature as the 25 year old however he is dominating his high school competition and is being looked upon as a future first round pick. If you were to compare these two athletes at the same age the second athlete would be much farther along then the first and would probably start being called a “natural”. People would assume that the second athlete is far more gifted then the first but is this true? Reality is that they both started at the same place and got to the same place in the same amount of time. One isn’t more talented then the other, one just had the benefit of learning the skill at an earlier age. I tell my clients to think of this whenever they begin to feel as though their mechanics won’t translate. They aspire to play at a certain level and even though they’ve practiced all of their life they haven’t really practiced until they started seeing me and learning the proper mechanics. So if it takes 10 years from that point then how can they ever expect it to be perfected after only a month or two.

Another common thing we do to inhibit our development is putting time limits on it. Many times athletes and parents feel that the athlete must reach a certain level of performance by a certain time or they can kiss that D1 scholarship goodbye. While this might be true there is nothing you can do to speed up the athlete’s development so worrying about it is counter productive. Maybe you are in the unfortunate situation of learning the proper mechanics at an older age. While this sucks it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to realize your dream of playing in college. First of all, there are so many colleges out there, just because Texas isn’t banging down your door doesn’t mean you won’t get the opportunity to play in college. It’s important that you relax and give yourself the time necessary to develop. If you have to go to a JC for two years then fine, give yourself that time, if you have to go to a smaller school then fine. Do whatever you need to do to allow yourself time to develop and if you do that and focus on developing and mastering your skills everyday there is no reason why you can’t end up in the big leagues. Remember it doesn’t matter where you start it only matters where you finish.

I know this from personal experience. I worked and worked and worked my entire career but was never exposed to the proper skills or mechanics. As a result I never experienced the performance I knew I could experience. Then I began to figure things out at the tender age of 27 and so for the past 5 years I have been finally practicing deliberately. The development I’ve made over that time has been remarkable, to the point where I have become far better as a hitter then I had ever even imagined. The exciting part is I still have 5 more years before I reach the “expert” level of mastery. This couldn’t of happened until I made development my focus. I stopped placing time tables on my development and just focused on improving and achieving mastery over my body and mind in order to become the hitter I wanted to become. If you apply the same mentality to your career there is no limit to how good you can become. Remember that developing as a baseball player is like growing a plant. You plant the seed, water the plant, and give the plant sun light and just relax and wait for it to grow. You don’t rush the growth of the plant, you don’t get up and stress out each day because the plant hasn’t grown yet, you simply do what’s necessary to allow the plant to grow and allow it to develop in it’s own time.