McKay REALLY said all that?

Ooooooh.....If so, I'm pretty sure that he's been drinking WAY too much of his own visualization/Dr. Norman Vincent Peale/Ty Webb Kool Aid.

So let me get this right?  In a world (or career field) filled with mediocrity, he is convinced he's the least mediocre of the bunch?

There is a bit too much psycho-babble here for me.  Hey, I get the whole idea, I spent a bunch of sessions with a golf psychologist way back (which I quite enjoyed), but it isn't quite the "science" he's pretending it to be.  (If it were, it would make him a scientist).

All them Micky Mantles and Frank Robinsons did just fine, thank you, without somebody pushing their "whittled down, usable program" at them.  

If he's talking about keeping it simple, focused and positive...well then he's on to something (as any good HS basketball coach would tell you).  If he's sure he's reinventing the field, well then I'm afraid he's a bit delusional.

Those Colorado Rockies of his haven't lit the baseball word on fire with formalized processes lately.

Maybe he's claiming credit for the Corey Dickersons of the world.  Hmmmm...man he hit .348 in his first season as a pro, looks like he had something with him when he started getting paid.

OK....I'll simmer the rant down.  But I dislike this kind of "I know the secret" stuff, especially in player performance psychology.

Heck, the best psychologist for Lee Trevino was a 340 lb caddy with a jr. high education.  You get my drift, Mr. McKay?

Professional ballplayer types are not computers, ready for your usable program to be downloaded and performance to peak.  It doesn't work that way.  Ask a Dustin Ackley.

OK...I'm sure McKay knows this.  His college coaching experience actually encourages me.  But he seems to be spouting kool aid solutions.  Work with people Andy, not with programs.

Moe

But none of our players, from Rook ball to Safeco, have got this far without some sports psychology/visualization/in-the-moment/anchor-the -positive teaching/coaching.  Every college program in the nation does this, and almost every good HS coach (as I've pointed out) incorporates much or some of this.  I'm sure every player in our minors has had it, too...as part of the Seattle organizational process.

Kivlehan and Pizzano (thanks for mentioning them, as they are two of my very favorite Seattle prospects) have had lots of it.  McKay is unlikely to be giving them something they haven't heard.

Heck, every Robinson and Mantle found ways to do the same thing, long before it was "science."

But I'm leery of "codified" sports psychology and I fear that is what I see here.  If I am misreading Mr. McKay, then I am relieved. 

Paraphrasing:  "We can formalize the process of learning and experience and hold people accountable for continuous growth and player performance."

Such a statement is one gigantic nostrum.  My goodness, doesn't baseball "hold people accountable" for player performance right now?  if a player stops "growing," don't teams notice and deal with that?  Mike Zunino wasn't held accoutable last year for his lack of growth and performance as a hitter? 

There is a timelessness to the Gospel According to DiPoto ("Thou Shalt Control the Strikezone") that I earnestly applaud.  There is a "Eureka!" to whittled down usable programs.  I am not "there" on a Eureka discovery moment of sports psychology.

Mr. McKay is a very qualified guy.  I trust he will have a positive impact on the M's in some fashion.  I don't think it will be because he's figured it out, beyond everybody else in the field.  I trust he knows that.  Perhaps I misread the "snippets" included above. If so, mea culpa.

But those snippets can certainly be read to indicate his belief in some sort of secret/divined Gnostic-knowledge in his "usable program."

Hope not.  Go team.

Moe

You almost can't even compare a 20 year old in 2015 with a 20 year old in 1950. They are almost a different species. Gotta change with the times. 

Count me among the skeptics that there can be radical breakthroughs in sports psychology.

Here's why:

There is a commonly held Facebook belief that humans only use 10 percent of their brains.  If a person could employ the other 90 percent, he or she would predict the future, bend spoons with the mind, and so forth.

Everyone I know that holds this mind belief has never really pushed themselves mentally or physically to the edge of their breaking point.

When I was six, I thought I was going to be a rocket scientist.  That didn't last long.  They wouldn't let me into college prep algebra in high school.  When I was 15, I thought I was going to be a boss wrestler.  I was disabused of that notion by a regional rival who liked to grind my face into the mat in front of my friends and family.  When I was a senior in college, I thought that I was going to ace law school.  I got to 1L, worked my very hardest, cracked two molars from grinding my teeth at night, and wound up in the 50th percentile.  Exact middle of my class. I didn't get better at wrestling from believing that I was better, I got better from diligently studying judo in the off season and getting an edge over my opponents.  I got better at law by years of practice. 

It hit me around 2L.  I'm not a genius.  I'm not especially special.  I've given many different things my all, and have discovered the limits of my unlocked potential.  There are people out there who are just better than me at many different things.  I'm never going to be Usain Bolt.  My top speed is 18.5 mph, and it will never be possible for me to hump up to 23 mph.  If I worked at it every day, I might hit 20 mph.  If I went to a race, I would be there with the really fast people, who exceed 20 mph, and I would appear slow.

Baseball is similar.  In baseball, players become used to failure, pain and suffering.  Those other guys, they like to drive Mercedes too.  You can teach a pitcher a new grip and give him an edge.  You can teach a batter superior strike zone control or pitch recognition and give him an edge.  You can eat HGH gummy bears and get an edge.  But you can't think yourself into Beast Mode.  It has to come from inside of you. 

Sports psychology has its place, but the delta between a new system of sports psychology and the system that everyone has been using is probably not great.  There are things that a person can do to maximize their psychology.  My list of ways to maximize output is as follows: 1. Don't drink or do drugs, or do anything that is more fun than your work.  2. Don't fight with your wife.  3. Do something that you know gives you  an edge.  4. Find something rewarding about your job.  5. Play some good music while you work.  6. Make a to do list and then cross out things when they are finished.

My two cents.

In this thread, two things I'd like to respond to:

--"don't argue with your wife".  Not only is this essential advice, but golfing got a lot more enjoyable for me when she decided to take up the sport.  Now a regular part of my foresome.  This is a gift.

--one of my buddies says the turning point in his golf history came when he got one of Dr. Bob Rotella's books for Xmas.  He says everything went downhill from there.  I must say that the results don't lie.  He's bad.