Players do not develop without a plan.

Do you have a plan for your goals?


I have been thinking about this a lot lately while watching student baseball.

Once summer vacation begins, many teams schedule a large number of games.

There are exhibition games almost every day, and players who don't usually get to play are given opportunities to participate.

Especially in university baseball, where teams have many members, I believe this summer break is a very important period for developing underclassmen and reserve players.

However, there are many coaches who treat each game as if it were a one-off event.

They schedule games aimlessly, decide on the lineup aimlessly, and use players aimlessly.

And if a player doesn't get results in that day's game, they don't use them in the next one.

Conversely, if they do get results, they use them again.


Is that really "development"?

I don't think players grow that way.

For example, let's say there are 20 games this summer.

Out of those 20 games, how many innings should this pitcher experience?

How many at-bats should this batter be given?

Which position should this player be assigned to?

And when summer vacation ends, what do you want that player to be like by next spring?


I believe it is only after thinking that far ahead that you should play games.

Of course, things don't have to go exactly according to plan.

Some players get injured, while others grow more than expected. Conversely, some players don't get the results they hoped for.

So, a plan can just be a schedule.

But "changing a plan" and "having no plan from the start" are completely different things.

Because there is a vision for each individual's development, there is meaning in how they are used.

"Let's make sure every position player gets at least 30 at-bats this summer."

"Since you never know who might break out, let's have everyone pitch not just as a starter, but in various situations."

If you have a purpose like that, you won't get discouraged just because someone didn't get results in one game.

And without a plan, you cannot evaluate them either.


Why were they stopped from playing?
Even though they weren't given the same number of at-bats,

how can you compare one person to another?

What have they become able to do?

How have they grown compared to a month ago?

Without a standard for "what they should be able to do" in the first place, you can't even tell if they have grown.

If the evaluator has no standards, the player being evaluated cannot possibly be convinced.

They were in the game yesterday, but today they are suddenly out.

They don't know the reason.

They don't know what they need to improve to be used again.

I think it is difficult to keep a player's motivation up in such an environment.


That is why I believe coaches, more than anyone, should have a plan.

Especially in student baseball, the coach's ability directly affects the team's growth rate.

Players are only on the team for a limited number of years.


Four years for university baseball.

About two and a half years in practice for high school baseball.

Should we really spend that limited time "without a plan"?

I believe that to get results, you have no choice but to work backward from your goals.


What kind of baseball do you want to play in the fall tournament?

To achieve that, what do you need to be able to do this summer?

To achieve that, what will you do this month?

To achieve that, what will you do this week?

And in today's game, what will you challenge yourself to do?

From the goal four years from now to one year from now. From one year from now to three months from now.

And then, today.

If you work backward from big goals, what you need to do today will naturally become clear.



When you don't get results, it's easy to end it by saying "they have no talent" or "they have no ability."

But have you really done everything you should have done?

Set a goal, know where you are now, think about what is necessary to bridge that gap, and build on it every day.

If you try it and it's wrong, correct it.

Execute it again.

I think it's all about repetition.



Playing games is not the goal.

Doing a lot of practice is not the goal either.

Both games and practice are means to get closer to your goal.



That is precisely why you must decide on a "goal" just as much as you decide "what to do today."

Growth does not come from a day without a purpose.

Work backward from your goals every day.

This is the plan I, a student coach in training, believe in.

I haven't talked about how to create a full-scale plan today, but it should emerge by writing down your goals, starting from the big ones and moving to the more immediate ones.


That is all for today.

Thank you for reading until the end.