Trying to get your catchers and pitchers to talk to each other, try these 2 simple questions.
Instead of telling your catchers to “talk” – ask 2 questions instead.
Recently I was struggling trying to help a catcher talk to her pitcher. She wasn’t sure what to say, and I had run out of ways to try and describe what she should say.
Then it dawned on me to change things. Instead of telling players to talk, I needed to help them talk by asking questions. These two questions to be exact:
- What do I GET from you?
- What do I NEED from you?
I paired up our pitchers and catchers and had the catchers start, and ask the pitcher these two questions, and then the pitcher would ask the catcher the same two.
It was really powerful to listen to their discussions. By starting with what I GET from you I’m making it easier to tell you what I need from you. Our pitchers and catchers were saying things like, “I NEED you to be specific about my pitch movement”, or “I NEED you to trust me on the location”.
Real talking doesn’t come when we insist on it, it comes when we put our players in a position to have something to talk about.
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Thats good stuff Cindy.
Variants of that communication principle work all over the field and in the dugout as you try to install and maintain a winning culture. Clear and consistent communication is an important key to the culture of a winning team and getting to right thinking. Questions help get there.
It is extremely important for coaches to apply question asking to themselves as well.
“Do you know what that means?” is one I have found of immeasurable value for my players and my coaching. We throw trade terms and phrases out all over the field to players young and old acting like children genetically know what we mean. When they don’t respond to them, we assume the players are hard of hearing and just repeat the phrase louder. One day I asked a child to explain what I just said to them and they couldn’t.
“Do you know what that means?” It meant I had been failing the children by instructing them with unclear communication! May as well have been speaking Chinese.
After that, I started asking lots of questions, and encouraging my players (and my kids) to ask them too. It helped change the culture.