By Ron Wolforth –
In my 40+ years of coaching, I have learned one very important question every athlete should ask himself when heading into his off season.
That question is this:
This offseason should I be chasing capability or should I be chasing consistency?
This is what Paul Nyman in 2003 referred to as the ‘ability’ vs. ‘skill’ dilemma.
The answer to this question isn’t always a simple yes or no…either A or B.
I would estimate that 60% of the athletes we come in contact with fall into the category of needing to significantly increase their capability in order to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves. They need to dedicate a vast majority of their time, efforts, energy and resources this off season into building ‘capability’.
In short, they are simply not powerful, athletic, coordinated, connected and/ or explosive enough to move to the next level of performance or competition.
Think of the otherwise good college running back that can only run a 4.8 forty yard dash. He may in fact do multiple things very well but for him to play in the NFL, this lack of speed would be a disqualifier. He must improve this specific element or his career path will be very limited.
In pitching, a classic example would be the junior or senior in high school that is otherwise a very good pitcher but his throwing velocity is 78-82 mph. Likewise, he must improve this element or his career will be limited.
This specific athlete profile is in large part what the Texas Baseball Ranch® has built our foundation upon. Think no further than our Athletic Pitcher Programs™.
Over the last ten years years, we have significantly expanded our processes to be much more holistic, targeted and inclusive to the needs of pitchers anywhere along the capability/consistency continuum. However, developing ‘capability’ remains today a central part of what we do at TBR.
What if that description doesn’t quite fit my athlete?
Ok. Let’s investigate further.
I would estimate 15% will fall into the category of needing to significantly increase their game time consistency in order to achieve their goals. They need to dedicate a vast majority of their time, efforts, energy and resources this off season into improving the consistency of their game time execution.
In other words, they are very capable. They simply can not yet consistently execute those abilities on a regular basis at game time.
This particular avatar would be the junior or senior in high school that sits in the upper 80’s and low to mid 90’s but is clearly uneven in his game time performances from inning to inning and/or outing to outing.
Our quip for these types of athletes is that they are Sandy Koufax one night and Mrs. Koufax the next night. Clearly they are capable. They are just not as reliable as they need to be.
And finally, roughly 25% will fall into the category of needing to improve BOTH their ability and consistency.
This specific profile example is the junior or senior in HS that sits 83-87 and is also inconsistent in his game time performances from inning to inning and/or outing to outing.
Of course I could include similar profiles for 12-15 year old and college pitchers but for simplicity sake I used juniors and seniors in high school to make my point.
Furthermore, certainly there are skills and abilities that are impactful to performance other than velocity such as command, spin/shape/movement and recovery. However, I didn’t want to get too deep into the weeds and risk losing the primary point of this article.
I want to return to the key point in this piece.
The question every athlete should ask himself when heading into his off season is: This offseason should I be chasing capability or should I be chasing consistency?
The Mistake 95% Make In The Off Season
Typically, athletes and their parents make a mistake and take a very generalist approach to their off season training.
So often if you ask them what their primary goal was they would tell you something along the lines of … “They just want to get better”… “to be a better pitcher”.
A high percentage of the time I have found that this very common objective of ‘getting better’ is so general that in essence the work often becomes ineffectual and uninspiring to the athlete.
We do not ever want this to happen. Our goals and objectives need to drive us and motivate us. Motivation is critically important to development and anything that limits or diminishes that motivation is a bad idea.
We find less than 3 in 10 athletes we work with is truly clear on exactly what ‘better’ actually entails.
They all realize that if, let’s say, they improve from 82 mph to 86 mph on the radar gun that is a very tangible and apparent ‘improvement’. So therefore simple velocity gains often become their default objective.
But does that velocity increase automatically translate to improved game time performance?
Short answer. Of course not.
If you gain 4 mph but now your arm begins to hurt, we have done you no good.
If you gain 4 mph in your velocity enhancement session but none of those miles per hour transfers to the game itself, we have done you very little good.
If you gain 4 mph but after the third inning or 30 pitchers, you can’t maintain that velocity going forward, we have done you very little good.
If you gain 4 mph but in consecutive starts, you can’t sustain that velocity outing after outing, we have done you very little good.
If you gain 4 mph but you can’t throw it over the white thing, we have done you very little good.
If you gain 4 mph but the guys you used get out on a regular basis, now are hitting .400 against you, we have done you very little good.
If you gain 4 mph but you have lost all feel of your secondary pitches, we have done you very little good.
Clarity Is Invaluable For Development
Bottom line:
- If you want better answers you must first ask better questions.
- Assess yourself honestly and determine what you need to accomplish this off season. Do you need to build capability? Do you need to increase your consistency at game time? Which one is more critical for you to improve at this particular stage of your career? Almost never is that answer equally both capability and consistency.
- Do not be a generalist. Instead be precise. Be clear. Be specific. Vagueness, ambiguity and platitudes are frequently the death knell to development.
- Remember that time is the most valuable of all commodities. Use it well. Deep, deliberate, purposeful practice is the best way to close the performance gap if you trail your peer group and also to further separate yourself if you are ahead.
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