My favorite pages of the New York Times are the Sports pages. I delight in reading about almost all sports, some of which am more familiar with than others. Full disclosure – I originally hail from Ballarat, a country town in south-eastern Australia… baseball is not the national pass time.
A few weeks ago I was reading of the Mets firing their hitting coaches, you can catch up with it here if you’re interested in the specifics. To cut a long story short, pitching dominates hitting in baseball, but even more so at the moment. The Mets are in a slump, with little offense, and the article led with the lovely quote that “it’s all fun and games until someone gets fired”. Further to that, the author quotes management as saying that the firing “isn’t about recent results. This is about the process behind the scenes.” I may be quoted as saying I don’t believe the New York Mets.
Success has many parents and failure is an orphan… I am reminded of that quote when I read about any coaches being shown the door. In some of the professional sports it appears when they win, the players were awesome, when they lose, the coaches were poor… Fundamentally the unarguable aspect of sport is that players play and coaches coach. No matter how good the coach, they still don’t get to hit the ball, run around the track or punch the other guy in the mouth. Coaches can engender loyalty, they can make sensible plans, design curriculum, teach and motivate. Paraphrasing the words of the great Chael Sonnen, you can have five reasons why you don’t want to go to practice, but you just need to find one that gets you there and maybe your coach can help you find that one reason. All things being equal, a daily diet of work, designed by a conscientious coach should set players up for success… but never forget the fundamental truth. It’s in the hands of the players.
See you on court…
