As for a follow up of my post on how much communication matters in player development, I want to touch on video analysis. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the main character, Prince Hamlet, is often said to have had the fatal flaw of thinking too much. By the late 1900’s, the phrase “paralysis by analysis” became a common expression. In player development, I believe this phrase perfectly captures the potential dangers associated with video analysis. There is no question that a steady influx of video assessments has begun to infiltrate baseball fields, dugouts, locker rooms, and offices all over the country. With the current capabilities of phones, coaches can provide instant feedback anywhere at the press of a button. Practices can quickly become dominated by video, and I would certainly be a liar if I said I have not fallen victim to staring at player video for way too long while at the field. Granted, staring at video goes with my job description, but preoccupation with video can occasionally become a crutch for players and coaches when not used properly. Whether it comes from a player becoming obsessed with a movement or a coach’s inability to express a specific movement goal, “paralysis by analysis” has become all too real in the sport of baseball as the tech era booms.
Don’t get me wrong. I love using video as a tool. There is no questioning its power to provide immediate feedback to players and facilitate communication. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million. However, when a player is struggling to follow a concept or a coach is trying to introduce something new, video alone often fails to achieve the desired outcome because of one key missing ingredient: interactivity.
There is a reason shows like Dora the Explorer or Blue’s Clues are so powerful in helping children learn. They encourage interaction through active listening and response. To test the role of interactive learning in baseball, I elected to attach brief quizzes with all of my video assessments. These brief quizzes enable me to quantify whether the players I work with are able to grasp the main points of a movement, action, or discussion after we have left the field for the day. This practice of recall and reinforcement allows players to get beyond interpersonal and/or intrapersonal differences depending on the type of video analysis we are looking at. Regardless of the video comparison, these quizzes encourage players to truly become students of the game and human movement. If players can begin to master analysis, identifying problems down the line and finding solutions becomes significantly easier.
Moreover, pairing the small quizzes with video allows players and staff to standardize the language used to describe specific movements. As I am sure you can appreciate, we have all had huge disagreements with a counterpart on something, when the only meaningful difference between our viewpoints was vernacular. Sometimes it can feel like three different languages are being spoken on the field—come to think of it, three languages are being spoken on our field: English, Spanish, and Bostonian—
but seriously, we can all attest to the ease of communication when everyone speaks the same language and lingo. Today’s baseball hitting and pitching lingos have developed into true dialects, and if you are not fluent, it is very easy to get left behind. Video analysis paired with quizzes allows coaches and players to quickly overcome these communication barriers, allowing movements to take precedence.
Interactivity and standardization of language are massive. As with all teams, our 39 guys all are dealing with glaringly different focal points in their development, but a lot of these different short-comings or areas of need can be addressed in different buckets, as discussed briefly in my previous post. Every coach on our staff is not going to be an expert in every particular area, nor will he get to spend individual time with each player on the roster each day, which only highlights the importance of interactivity and standardization of language. With these two aspects, for example, players in a hitting group (bucket) can begin to work together to tackle issues while coaches are not around based on the individual’s specific goal or the group’s improvement focus. The language becomes easy as the chance for miscommunication is minimized, and players learn what to look for in themselves and others. The goal is to empower players to become their own best coaches, as opposed to being overly reliant on someone else for their development. The game has simply become too advanced to think that one coach can have all the answers for every player. Like every good elementary school teacher, I will shout “knowledge is power” from the rooftops. If I can get my players to be knowledgeable in understanding precisely what to look for, video assessments can become incredibly powerful tools to enhance their development.
In review, “paralysis by analysis” has crept back into the game of baseball due to the instant access of video and other technologies in the fingertips of players and coaches. Utilization of something as simple as a video filmed on a cell phone can get lost in translation if there is not clear communication on what a player needs to pay attention to. In order to reap the benefits of video analysis, yes, even from a phone, I highly encourage coaches to utilize a quiz or another engagement concept to ensure players are evaluating video in a manner that matches what coaches deem most essential for players to focus on. This concept will highlight the areas of greatest importance and/or help coaches to identify the disconnect of what a player may not fully grasp or understand. From this point, coaches can immediately shift their focus to that specific need. In short, although athletes need to do a lot more than simply recall facts or concepts to ensure proficiency in carrying out a task, being able to do so, I contend, gives them a better chance to perform specific movements on the field, and gives coaches the tools to provide more meaningful instruction.
Talk to you soon,
Adam Moreau, MBA, CSCS
Director of Player Development and Recruiting Coordinator
Eckerd College
419-250-7243
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