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