The Millennial Method

By: Jason Schreiber, Baseball Coach - Alvin College

As a college baseball coach, I am always looking for ways to get through to my players. This past season I tried something unique, and experienced tremendous success. For the first time in fifteen years of coaching, I was certain every player on my team was on the same page with me.

The idea came to me at a coach's convention where a speaker emphasized we retain 10 percent of what we hear, 50 percent of what we do, and 90 percent of what we teach to someone else. For me, 90 percent represents a large number. So, I thought to myself: I have to get my players teaching.

But I quickly realized there is just not enough time in practice to have my players teach. Then I remembered that each of my guys has a cell phone with video capability. I wondered: Why not have my players teach me the ideas taught in practice by making videos on their smart phones?

I talked to a few of my players about the idea and their response was "Coach, you want me to make a YouTube video? We make videos all the time just not about baseball."

When I decided to use this concept I call The Millennial Method with my team, I learned something interesting. Young people today take great pride in the videos they produce. They will not make a video that might embarrass them. This method forced our players to learn the skills I needed them to learn.

Our most dramatic example involved a strong defender and competent hitter who struggled when required to execute a bunt. He batted at the bottom of the lineup where we need a batter who can handle a bunt. Although we encouraged him to improve his bunting, he never demonstrated a sense of urgency about it. One day early in the season, I watched as he failed to drop a single bunt in one of our drills. I'd had enough, so I ordered a video.

"I want you to become the leading expert on bunting, and make a video suitable for YouTube about it," I said. ‘Teach the world how to bunt. Take a couple of days and make it a good one. Research bunting. Talk to coaches. Talk to teammates. Find lessons on the Internet. Then show me how it's done with your video."

He produced a terrific video on bunting. He spoke with confidence on the subject and I could sense he had taken ownership of this skill. Bunting had become his specialty. As the season played out, he became our statistical leader in sacrifice bunts. More impressively, for the first few weeks after producing his video, we could actually see the result in his joy. Dropping perfect bunts prompted applause from teammates who were shouting: "It's the videos! The videos work!" For a coach experimenting with a new method for teaching, feedback from students cannot get much more satisfying than this.

Although I wanted my players to make videos like they were teaching the world a concept, nothing they produced was put on YouTube or social media. My players did an outstanding job with their videos. Young people today take great pride in making videos.

We would not have won our conference without this breakthrough, which I call the Millennial Method because it appeals to this technology-driven generation of athlete. We used this method to teach our plays as well as our mental routines. We used it for skill development. And we even used it to correct a behavior issue.

The results so impressed me that I wrote a book entitled "The Millennial Method" to chronicle the many ways we used this teaching method and elaborate on our implementation of the method in our programs. It can work in any sport, once the coaches understand the motivations of the millennial generation. The response I have received about this concept has been very positive. Coaches are not only excited to try it with their athletes, but some coaches want to bring it into the class room.

As coaches we have conversations with players to improve their sense of urgency about learning a skill. We may think the conversations go well and expect the player will go straight to the field or court and get to work. But too often we learn that our definition of urgency and the player's definition can be very different. Now I have seen this concept bridge the gap between the two definitions. The Millennial Method increases an athlete's sense of urgency, helps players learn by teaching, and allows coaches to know for certain if our players know what we are teaching.