So, the name Mike Harkey popped into my head the other day. Remember him? Pitched a bit, then coached for a while, notably with the Yankees bullpen. Seemed like one of those solid, no-nonsense baseball guys.
Got me thinking about his time coaching. From what I recall reading or hearing, he wasn’t about reinventing the wheel. It was more about fundamentals, consistency, drilling the basics until they were second nature. Just doing the work, day in and day out, in the bullpen, making sure guys were prepared.
Anyway, it struck a chord. I’ve been messing around with learning a new little skill lately, nothing major, just something for myself. And I’ve been kinda all over the place with it, trying fancy techniques I saw somewhere, jumping ahead. Not really getting anywhere solid.
So, I thought, right, let’s try the Harkey way. Just for a session. Forget the fancy stuff. Back to absolute basics.
Breaking it Down
I literally took the very first step of this thing I’m learning. The simplest, most basic action. And I just did that. Over and over. Like throwing the same pitch to the same spot, again and again.
- Focused just on that one tiny movement.
- Tried to make it smooth.
- Ignored the urge to move on to the next, more exciting step.
- Just repetition. Boring, honest work.
Man, it felt slow. Really tedious at first. My brain was itching to do more, to show progress faster. But I kept reminding myself – bullpen mentality. Fundamentals first. Make the basic action clean before adding anything else.
I spent a good chunk of time just on that. Didn’t “achieve” much in terms of the overall skill, didn’t finish anything impressive. But that one basic step? I got comfortable with it. It started feeling natural, not forced.
It’s funny. We always want the highlight reel plays, the quick results. But maybe there’s real value in just grinding out the fundamentals, the way guys like Harkey taught. Build the foundation strong, even if it’s not glamorous. That little session, focusing on the absolute basic, actually felt more productive in a weird way than my previous scattered attempts. Might stick with this approach for a bit longer.
