This is of course when the magic happens.
If anyone can figure out how to instill drive and passion give me a call......I have a son who could use a dose.........LOL
Seriously, this is why you keep them going and try not to be too much but enough to make sure they stay with it until they decide if they are passionate or not. They can only go so far if driven by an outside force (parent, coach) but once the drive comes from within there is no ceiling.
I am reading a book titled; the Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, that explores what some of the best do to train. He talks about athletes, tennis players, singers, musicians and has visited their facilities around the world.
A common factor is practicing slowly to perfect the moves or what he terms deep practice.
From his book, "When you are practicing deeply, the world's usual rules are suspended. You use time more efficiently. Your small efforts produce big, lasting results. You have positioned yourself at a place of leverage where you can capture failure and turn it into a skill. The trick is to choose a goal just beyond your present abilities; to target the struggle."
When we practice the matrix drill we are trying to get the player to understand every movement from the ground up and that includes balance, vision, tracking and the proper sequence it works in and that takes time . However the benefit is huge and then when we start to increase the effort their body takes over and you can see how smooth the effort becomes to accomplish the task. You often hear bat speed, quickness, rotation etc. You must first learn the moves and for me there is no short cuts, just short term thinking that there is one.
In the book a music teacher tells the student you are not moving slow enough as you are practicing if someone passing by can recognize the song.
Google the word myelin to understand where he is coming from.
From the net...."As part of the nervous system, myelin lines
nerve fibers to protect and insulate neurons. Myelin aids in the quick and accurate
transmission of electrical current carrying data from one
nerve cell to the next. When myelin becomes damaged, the process involves numerous health conditions, including multiple sclerosis."
"Nerves are like an
electrical wire. Current (the message) must be conducted along a path (the nerve) to successfully get from point A to point B (the
brain to a fingertip). The electrical current must travel without being corrupted, scrambled, diverted from the proper path, or leaking energy. Therefore, myelin is like the layer of plastic insulation surrounding an interior wire, which is the nerve. Additionally, myelin speeds the
conduction, so it's also analogous to a secondary coating on the wire that reduces the resistance facing an electrical current. The interior wire represents the series of axons and nerve cells that relay the electrical impulse."
"Deep practice is built on a paradox: struggling in certain targeted ways-operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes-makes you smarter. Or put it a slightly different way, experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them-as you would if you were walking up an ice- covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go-end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it."