My Own Harada Grid

Shohei Otani is arguably trending toward becoming the greatest baseball player to ever play the game. He’s already proven as much with a slew of broken records. But before he became a titan of the sport, Otani was a normal kid.

I came by an Instagram post that outlined the Harada method Otani used when he was first coming up. I did a deeper dive in a basic google search and came across a great article, by Sahil Bloom. It’s clear and concise; it more than adequately communicates what you ‘need to know’ to understand why trying this method might be goof for you. You can find that article here:

The Harada method ARTICLE

What I wanted to procure for you was a way to get started on something like this as an individual or a team using what I believe to be are the core 8 facets of achieving success.

My guided version of that can be found below as an excel document that you can download (I recommend saving it as the document name, plus your name or team name). Along with that I’ve added a video to walk you through the steps I have in this document. I’m not saying this is the only way you can use the Harada method, or that it’s the best way to use it, but it’s certainly a simplified way to get a lot out of it. If you use the guided document provided you’ll produce the following:

PERFORMANCE METRICS:

Daily, goal-specific, measurable fitness, fundamentals and performance drills
Personal/Team standards for measuring performance, strength & fitness
Ways to measure performance/progress in competitive scenarios
5 key character qualities and expectations & a way to measure them
5 personal or team core values and guiding behaviors & a way to measure them
A list of 8 conviction/belief statements
A list of 8-24 standards/rules to achieve success

Having a strategy to guide and measure the facets that lead to success will inevitably track your progress toward achieving the goal you have set for you/your team. Leslie A. Yerkes said, “What get’s recognized gets repeated.” A system that helps you/your athletes recognize the landmarks and checkpoints on the way to their destination allows them to repeat the steps and build momentum toward that goal.