10 Yogi Berra-isms for Coaches
Yogi Berra, one of the greatest baseball players of all time, passed away in September. His feats as a baseball player and coach are legendary. He still holds some records in major league baseball as a player and a coach. He was even the inspiration for a long running cartoon character, Yogi Bear (although Hanna-Barbera denied the association for a long time).
He was also well-known for his ability to coin a phrase. Many of his sayings have become long running punch lines. Here are ten that offer good advice for coaches.
On the importance of deciding and acting: When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
On driving to the end: It ain’t over till it’s over.
On framing and reframing: Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.
On having goals: You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.
On being totally committed: Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.
On action orientation: How can you think and hit at the same time?
On listening: It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.
On coaching silence: You can observe a lot by just watching.
On owning the results: I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?
On being in the flow: You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it’ll go.
Bonus: (It fits every occasion) If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
May he long be remembered.