The Head Game and Harvey Dorfman

We talk about Inside Baseball, the Head Game, or The Game Within the Game. Yogi Berra famously said, "ninety percent of baseball is half mental." Summarize that! But what processes initiate resilience training?

This diagram might define the challenge to our students. 

Or this mantra from Polynesia.

But shortcuts to mental toughness don't exist. Teams don't perform to the level of their education; they perform to the level of their training. Remember the "Undefeated General" Alexander Suvorov, "He set out to transform the lives of his peasant recruits, to render the difficult possible and the unthinkable more palatable."

Master communicator Harvey A. Dorfman wrote Coaching the Mental Game. 

I share some quotes from Chapter 5:

"Good relationships are established through effective communication..."deal with them" or "establish effective relationships." 

Frank Robinson improved as a manager because he changed. "I try to always leave them with something positive."

Bill Belichick changed after an ineffective stint in Cleveland. "His was an act of will, not of personality."

Donovan McNabb said of Andy Reid, "if you have a coach you can talk to, not just about football, but about anything, that's all you want."

The poetic parable of John Saxe discusses six blind men and an elephant, variably describing a snake (trunk), a rope (tail), and a tree (leg). Their lack of communication produced a poor description of the animal, although each was partly right. 

Some wisdom never changes. James Thurber wrote in 1961, "Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of hair-trigger balances, where a false or misunderstood word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act."

"An athlete communicates...behavior that may be based on a lack of understanding, lack of self-confidence, or lack of listening skills...the coach may interpret the athlete to be resistant, uncooperative, selfish, or stupid." 

Billy Donovan said, "the most important thing...is  the players to believe the coach is being fair. There has to be constant communication."

"Perception is not necessarily the same as reality. The more the coach communicates with the athlete, the closer the two can come to understanding what is real to each."

My comments: Education changes behavior, but only when the recipient sees value and feels valued. Sharing the truth demands immense trust. How we achieve that is the art of coaching.