5 Success Makers for Baseball Players and Coaches - 365 Days to Better Baseball

Sunday Setting Sights on Success Tip of the Day

What are Success Makers?

Wonder what success makers are? Success makers are those little things that make the difference between success (winning at life) and losing (having regrets) that winners do, often without notice by others. If you watch successful ballplayers closely, especially major league ones, you may see what their focus point is. A focus point is that little action, or gesture, that clears their mind and re-focuses their attention to the present moment. Successful ballplayers perform other successful habits that make them successful. Of course, these are learned traits that coaches must help players develop.

Success Makers for Ballplayers

Players Should:

1. Develop a focus point, a pre-pitch action that has players clear their mind and put them in the present. For example, staring at the bat before getting into the batter's box is a focus point.
2. Practice drills and plays that they find the most difficult ones. Most players do not want to practice things that come hard for them. Big mistake players who can minimize their weaknesses, even slightly, show improved statistics and play.
3. Never say you "can't" do something. Negative thinkers turn into ex-players sooner than later.
4. Expect success and not just hope for it. Winners expect they will find a way.
5. Smile of course, smile is a metaphor for having fun but the point is that if players are not enjoying it, no reason to play.

Success Makers Coaches Should Use

More than ballplayers need success makers, we all need them. Great coaches also have those little characteristics that help them stand out, above the rest. Coaches should:

1. Give players the impression that you are always in control, whether you feel that way inside, or not.
2. Use the three-second rule before coaching coaches should count to three before analyzing the previous action, so they have time to coach positively.
3. Praise results, reward effort. Positive results deserve mention, enormous effort deserves more than that.
4. Maintain perspective by repeating your (coach's) age and the age of team members before every game. Lost perspective leads to unfavorable memories for all (players, self, fans).
5. Smile nothing motivates others like giving the impression that there is nowhere else in the world you would rather be at this time.

Finally, success makers do not come naturally for most, so they are things to develop and practice, until they "arrive" every day with players and coaches.