Make that Zone special... take photos

Digital cameras are everywhere today. Free websites are everywhere, too (e.g. google sites). You can combine the two to bring some fun to your activities. For example, I created a simple site to share information about our little league baseball team. Benefits:

- It is fun for the players
- Keeps parents informed
- Keeps extended family members and friends of the players/families informed

Here is a little ditty I created with animoto:

Productivity and Proficiency... in a baseball swing

I've been away from the blog pursuing the edges of productivity and proficiency as I coach my son's Single A little league baseball team.



I recently had an experience that transformed my coaching perspective with baseball. It also reaffirmed my belief that "if you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves."

The whole notion of a "Zone" is a small segment of time where you invest your actions and intentions to produce a productive outcome. It is really about he pursuit of mastery through the understanding of the little details that matter.

I recently met Alan Mauthe at our little league wide hit-a-thon event.



During the event Alan was teaching kids how to hit. I am a sucker for watching teachers/coaches teach and how children/adults respond. I love watching the transference of knowledge into new physical behaviors.

When I watched Alan I immediately noticed and appreciated two things:

(1) Alan is a master of the art of hitting a baseball. His eyes, combined with his knowledge of this activity, allowed him to pin point the one to two things the hitter needed to do to improve.

(2) He create a hitting teaching aid that facilitates the knowledge transfer to the players - and they got it immediately. As a person in the training profession I saw and appreciated the genius of the tool immediately. I will leave the explanation of the tool to Adam and his web site.

I walked away from the session saying... Wow! My intentions were good but my instructions where way off for my players. Example:

- Focusing on keeping the elbow up. This is the wrong emphasis.
- My instructions were leading to a long swing versus a short compact swing.

Alan never said a word about "keeping the elbow up" as he coached the kids. His first focus was the hitters foot work. Other coaches and I started to say... "humm... I think I still have a lot to learn."

Since that day at the clinic I've had the opportunity to share a beer and some time with Alan. I am fascinated by what I learned. I am excited to bring my new knowledge to my little leaguers so they can learn how to hit the proper way from a young age.

I also walked away with a deep a appreciation for the path of mastery. Alan has studied 1000's of hours of video to develop his system (it is important to note that a swing takes about 1 second. He's studied a 1000 hours of 1 second swings!). He studied 5 to 6 year olds to teenagers to college to pros. He distilled the principles down to a well defined teaching and coaching program.

I continue to be amazed that much of the mastery in all sports starts with your balance, starting position and how you use your core.

I now see things that I did not see before. Thank you Alan for sharing your mastery. I highly recommend Alan's product (I am not a paid endorser).