Rob Parson

Performance Psychology
Mental Performance Coach
West LA College Baseball Coach
IG: @robparson23

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@CoachKobyM When someone complains about bat flipping, all I hear is: “Act white.” Usually, the bat flipping and celebrations are more fun. There’s a reason fans watch now and it isn’t for “gentlemanly” behavior.

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@CoachKobyM @CoachLeo_ Damn. CAUGHT 😂😂😂

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@CoachKobyM But…GOD!!

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@_jakelampert Haha I love it. But what’s the meaning behind it? 👀

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@hannah_huesman YAY!!! MAZEL tov, Hannah!!! ❤️❤️❤️

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@CoachKobyM @nut_history My bad. Gravity ball

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@_jakelampert Francisco Lindor hit a home run in every park 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@CoachKobyM Those same people claim that sports are rigged but then complain when it’s not rigged 🤦🏻‍♂️

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@_jakelampert What is Nimmo doing as the DH? And what is Taylor doing in the lineup? 🤦🏻‍♂️

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@BaseballFlowsHQ I hope there’s a day where you don’t have to say it’s underrated anymore 🙏🏻

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@RBrown267340394 @flowsdoc @tommywhite44 Hunter Pence, Jimmy Foxx, Jackie Robinson, Justin Turner, and the list goes on and on

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@CoachKobyM Tough for sure. I go with The Sopranos because it inspired The Wire but both are elite shows. Two of the greatest shows of all time.

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@flowsdoc Throw a pitch that isn’t gonna hit him! SHEESH 😂

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

The reason why Gretzky became known as “The Great One.” Look at this process. Amazing!

Thank you, @bpoppenheimer

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

When he was 14, Wayne Gretzky moved from his small hometown to play in a more competitive hockey league in Toronto.

He was undersized and during the first practice, he got pushed around.

After practice, his coach pulled him aside.

“When you go home tonight,” the coach said,

“the Toronto Maple Leafs are playing the Philadelphia Flyers—watch Bobby Clarke play.”

Bobby Clarke was an undersized player on the Flyers who went on to be inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame.

“He's not very big,” Gretzky’s coach told him, “but he's very smart.”

“And I studied him and I studied him and I studied him,” Gretzky said.

“I would take out a piece of paper and draw a rink and then without looking at the paper, I’d watch the hockey game on TV, and I would take my pen and I’d follow the puck.”

When Clarke got off the ice, Gretzky would look down at the paper and look for patterns.

He began to notice two things.

First, that Clarke “played the game mostly out of the corners.” Second, that players almost never went behind the net.

So, Gretzky said, “I started playing out of the corner and from behind the net…I started using the net as a decoy. Consequently, I wasn’t standing in front of the net, getting knocked over, and being on my keister the whole time.”

Takeaway 1:

In his books and on his podcast, Tim Ferriss talks about the question he likes to ask when setting out to learn a new skill:

“Who is good at this despite being poorly built for it?”

The idea is to study those, like Bobby Clarke, who found ways to excel even without the prototypical characteristics or advantages.

Then you yourself can use what you learned and, like Gretzky, excel even without the prototypical characteristics of advantages.

Takeaway 2:

Early in his career, in his lab, the neuroscientist Andrew Huberman kept a list of the scientists he loved and admired. “I would read that list over and over,” he said, “I didn’t realize it at the time, but this is what is called introjection.”

In psychology, "introjection" is the process of absorbing the qualities and behaviors of others.

If you regularly listen to so-and-so’s podcast, Huberman explains, “the nervous system begins to ask questions like, what would so-and-so do? That’s a very real thing, and we’re not always consciously aware of it.”

As he regularly watched and doodled the play of Bobby Clarke, Gretzky introjected Clarke’s style, stopped spending so much time on keister, as he put it, and consequently, went on to set 61 NHL records—many of which he still holds—including most career regular-season goals (894), assists (1,963), and points (2,857).

- - -

“I started playing out of the corner and from behind the net because nobody had ever done that before…and by the time they sort of kind of figured it out, I’d retired.” — Wayne Gretzky

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

Challenges and obstacles are blessings in disguise because they’re often what you need to get you over that plateau.

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@hannah_huesman

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

“Sometimes a defeat is the secret ingredient to success.”- Conor McGregor.

Just because you fail, doesn’t mean you’re destined to be a failure. Use it to learn and get better. Make it your secret ingredient for success.

[Rob Parson @RobParson23]

@_jakelampert Exactly. I’m a Giants fan and wondering why they paid DJ for a Saquon and Daboll carried offense 🤦🏻‍♂️