Baseball Coaching Lesson from Gregory Peck
“You can’t do what you want! You have to do what everyone else is doing!”
———-
Have you seen the movie “The Fountainhead?”
Great movie — watched it last night.
It’s old — stars Gregory Peck. (That means it’s in black and white).
You youngsters might not think it is so great, the action isn’t Grand Theft Auto 4 paced.
Set in the 1940s, it’s the story of a guy who has his own ideas about how buildings should be.
He’s a genius and into modern architecture.
He hears the quote above over and over as he keeps putting his “wild” building designs out there.
Developers laugh at him. Mock him.
Newspapers conspire against him.
People betray him.
He goes broke.
And there’s a girl.
Always a girl.
She’s wrestling with the strength of his personal integrity
– his unrelenting character and commitment to staying true to what is inside him.
She knows that to be with him she’d have to match his commitment to ideals.
I won’t tell you much more of the story, you can rent it (or get it free like we did from the public library).
It left a mark on me for continuing to get clear on what I believe in, and relentlessly putting it out there.
One example has been the tapping I do. I wrote about it in a series of articles for Collegiate Baseball.
Some would say I was putting my neck out.
I’ve made a strong career out of “making good sense.”
People like Heads-Up Baseball in large part because it makes sense, its grounded in the game, it is highly practical.
But tapping on your body parts? Come on, Tom. Do you want to be known as the guy that has you tap on your body?
Yes.
Why?
It works.
Its doubled my ability to help players. If not tripled.
It is weird, yes. But I find players that want to succeed are willing to be a bit weird.
You have to be unusual to succeed. If you do what everyone else does you will not succeed.
About 5% of players who sign pro contracts make the big leagues. One in 20 of the best of the best make it.
They can’t just do what everyone else is doing. They have to go beyond.
Not just work harder. But work smarter.
And stay true to themselves in the process.
Many, actually, most of the pro players I’ve coached over the years have in one way or another sold out on themselves.
They did one thing to get themselves drafted — had one set of beliefs and a set of actions they followed, then let circumstances pull them off line.
Their self-convictions weren’t strong enough to withstand the heat of failure and negative feedback.
They aren’t Gregory Peck enough.
So the challenge to us all is to clarify our standards and beliefs and hang on to them when the )@(#$@$ hits the fan.
How do you do that? Make up your mind to do it. That’s first and foremost.
Then, like a muscle, you condition it using the best possible means.
I’ve got a Gym full of self-conviction muscle-building, baseball coaching machines waiting for you in Hanson’s Gym.
(Great step-by-steps on the tapping…)
Are you up for being a top 5% person, or are you going to do what everyone else does… and just do what everyone else does?
Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
p.s. Rise up and join the Gym at
http://www.hansonsgym.com/site.php/subs/subscription_plans
p.p.s. Take a peek at the next level with an assortment of baseball coaching freebies at http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/Homebase.html
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