I was informed recently that a head coach that I and another coach had spent some time with, passed away a few years ago. As we exchanged stories about this great man, one in particular is my favorite. I’d like to share it with you.
I was early for an appointment and interview so I sat just outside this head coach’s office and noticed all the books in his collection. Just about any and every subject that you could think of was there. Books on coaching dynamics, human kinetics, mediation and motivation, volume after volume of pitching stuff, and even a series on applied physics. My first thought was that I might have bit off more then I could chew here.
Surprisingly, my head coach was nowhere near the academic think-tank that his collection suggested. A soft spoken man with a genuine personality and a talent for making me feel welcome on the first handshake. Right off the bat he wanted to walk me to the bullpen area --- there was enough time later to see the rest of the “spread”.
As we entered the nets, he introduced me and immediately one of the guys remarked that maybe they had a coach NOW that could show them how to pitch a decent slider. Without a moments notice, the head coach grabbed a ball and advised me that he was going to show me his eight step method on coaching pitchers. I could only vision all those books in his reception area and now I was going to see this stuff in action. So here was his eight step system, and I quote:::
First - show the pitcher what a baseball looks like.
Second – give the pitcher a baseball.
Third – show the pitcher a grip.
Fourth – tell the pitcher what the grip is.
Fifth – show the pitcher how to pitch the pitch using the grip.
Sixth – confirm with the pitcher the results.
Seventh – now comes the reinforcement part … say” good boy”.
Eight – turn to the guy behind him and yell out …’NEXT!”
After which he looked at me and asked if I had any questions?
All I could think of to say at the time was……”works for me!”
