Collegiate Baseball interviews Geoff Miller on Intangibles

Collegiate Baseball recently interviewed Geoff Miller, author of Intangbiles.

And Editor Lou Pavlovich was kind enough to allow us to share the article in PDF format.

You can download the article here or just click on the image below.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

One of the most remarkable books to come out in years is called Intangibles by Geoff Miller.

Collegiate Baseball: What are intangibles in the game of baseball? You touch on confidence, focus, will, desire and preparation early in the book. How does an athlete excel in all these areas? It is not easy to do.

MILLER: My explanation of intangibles involves a couple of parts. First, in baseball we are trying to measure performance in so many ways. The mental side of the game has been that one area that has been very difficult to define. Sometimes these intangibles get written off as not being coachable. People are either born with them or not. And there is debate on that. People are looking for this magic formula for how we measure and develop all ofthese characteristics in all our players. My contention with Intangibles is that they are very tangible when we measure them in ourselves. We know right away what it feels like to be confident and what it feels not to have confidence. That’s a tangible feeling. It’s not measured on a scale. It’s not something you can compare to someone else’s confidence. But you can see right away when an athlete is confidence and when they aren’t. Players don’t need to compare their intangibles to Derek Jeter’s. They need to know to understand their own intangibles and understand how to get to a place where they can be comfortable and confident so the focus, discipline and the will and everything they have been preparing for can come out when it matters.

Collegiate Baseball: Is there anything else you would like to discuss about your book. There is so much more that I haven’t even touched on.

MILLER: There are two big messages in the book. The first is getting a clear sense of who you are as a person and as a player. The second is to understand that trying too hard is just as big of a mistake as not trying hard enough. We, as a culture, have made it such an admonishment to have talent and not try hard enough. Usually when players don’t make it today is because they try too hard.

If you want to learn more about Intangibles, you can download a PDF sample here.