Process, Process, Process...

Life is a Process...

What does that mean?  Well, since this is a blog for baseball let's relate it to that.  Baseball is all about the process.  You either have one and when you enjoy the process and follow it and believe in it and don't stray too far from it, the game will bring you success.  But when you float around aimlessly and don't have a process and don't focus yourself on a daily basis, the game beats you up.

Take the professional season for example.  It doesn't matter if you are in Low A or the Big Leagues, there is a process to each day that the manager and organization lays out for you.  Everyday you come to the park you get into the locker room and sit down.  There is time to say hello to your teammates or for the coaches to review the prior days work or what will go on for the current day.  Then the players will dress for some early work and get some hitting in or perhaps watch film or do whatever they feel they need to get better each day.  Then the team will meet together on the field and go through a warm-up, long toss session, fundamental for the day, BP, and bullpen sessions for the pitchers.  After all the pre-game work is through the players and coaches will have a bit of down time to relax before the game.  At about 30 minutes or so before the game the pitcher will go out with the catcher and pitching coach and start to throw and get loose for the start of the game.  Usually all the games will start at 7:05pm right after the Star Spangled Banner.  After the game the guys get into the locker room, they shower and then head out for the night hopefully getting something to eat on there own and then going to bed.  The coaches will do their reports for the night and then go eat and replay the days workings in their heads to see if they could do something different or improve upon what they did the day before.  Then it is off to bed for all so that we can all do it again the next day.

You can see from this brief description of a day in the life of a professional player or coach that the process is long and repetitive.  But this is a great thing.  What this does is, it allows the players a chance to get comfortable in their environment and surroundings so they can focus on what they need to focus on.  What happens sometimes though is the players don't ever wake up and realize what their own process needs to be.  What I mean by that is there is a routine layed out each day just like what was mentioned above, but the kids don't seem to realize that is not the exact process for them as an individual.  You don't want to just be sucked in by the schedule and not know what you should be doing inside of that bigger schedule.  Most players get caught just rolling along with the herd and doing the same old thing not understanding that each day is passing them by and there is no real work going on. 

We all do the same type of drill work and the same type of preparation each day, so why are there some players that are soooooooo much better then others?  Well, that's because they have a process of their own, inside of the overall process that is provided for them by each organization.  The point of all this jabber is that you must be present when you do your work.  And even before that you must have a process of your own that you follow each day.  Then when you follow the process each day you must be awake and present and focused as you perform this process.  The amount of repetitions, types of drills, skill work, physical training workouts, whatever it is that you are deciding to do that day, you must be present and focused for the session.  The trick to training is not doing more then the next guy, the trick is to do it more focused then the next guy.  Being more deliberate, more concentrated, more focused, more intense, more passionate then the next guy is what really matters.  The physical work matters, but the mental and emotional approach to the physical work is much more important.  This is something that is easily talked about and at times easy to understand, but tougher to actually do.  Not that many people choose to want to be that aware of what is going on or be that focused on a daily basis.  That takes much more effort then physically running through the process and performing a series of exercises.  It is much easier to just shut your thoughts down and run on auto pilot through the workouts.  That is the true reason starting pitchers need 5 days in between starts.  Of course they need to recover from the physical workload, but even more so they need recovery from the mental focus they hopefully were using for the nine innings they were pitching in the game.

In closing, the process you choose in your daily life should be something you do with a trained focus that continues to make you better as a person and player everyday.  You create the process, you decide what makes you tick, you go after it the way you want to go after it.  But just don't forget that while you are in this process be aware, be present, be in the moment and take advantage of the process.  Don't let the process take advantage of you!!

Spring Training rolls on.  Games for the minor leagues start in two days.  Talk to you soon!!!!