What really matters is confidence, mind, and heart.
Athletes are overlooked for different reasons. Things like skill level, height, speed, agility, and strength are some of the reasons. But you know what cuts through those conventional specs? It’s confidence, mind, and heart.
Take baseball for example. It all starts with a pitcher and a hitter. Let’s focus on the pitcher.
Does it really matter if a hurler can throw a fastball 100 mph? Or that a curveball or slider breaks “just right?” Not really.
Courtesy: NBC Sports
In football, having a ‘great arm’ doesn’t automatically mean a player is a great quarterback. There’s a lot more to it than arm strength or even passing accuracy. At issue is being able to lead a team–doing what needs to be done to keep the chains moving.
Tom Brady, inarguably the best pro quarterback of our time, was a 6th round draft pick, 199th overall, in the 2000 NFL Draft. Why was he drafted so low? NFL scouts told GMs that Brady didn’t have great arm strength, couldn’t move around well in the pocket, and wasn’t effective running downfield.
All of these things may have been true. But Brady had other attributes that contributed to winning. He’s now the winningest quarterback in Super Bowl history.
We shouldn’t forget about Brady situation when we think about how to evaluate young athletes. Yeah, it’s easy to measure things like pitching speed and how accurate a player than throw a ball. But neither of those attributes (alone) makes a player “great.”
It’s not so much that the scouts were wrong about a player like Tom Brady. It’s just that they were looking at the wrong things.
Confidence, mind, and heart are at the top of the evaluation pyramid. Some players come with all three. But those players are few and far between. The real challenge for coaches is helping players develop those attributes. That ability separates an ordinary from a great coach.
Love this article! I’ve played sports all of my life and this could not be put any better. Great job Matthew Paris. I just recently found your articles and they have all been very good.