Finding The Winning Edge

Playing on the edge can often be seen as a great thing for athletes. Pushing themselves, challenging their own team, playing almost reckless but still in control. In many other sports this can be seen in much more obvious fashion. In baseball this is much more of a subtle thing. I think that is what is so different about baseball. Many of the other sports praise and can even promote the idea of playing recklessly. In baseball players this is so much different and can often times not be seen.

Playing on the edge in baseball in my own opinion, is nothing more than being ultra aggressive in all phases of the game. At bat it means attacking pitches that are over the plate. On the basepaths it means getting an aggressive lead, being even more aggressive in your secondary leads, and lastly fearless on the basepaths. In the field it means hard to the ball and giving up the body when it is needed. Pitchers can always live on the edge and a lot of it has to do with being ultra aggressive with their primary and secondary pitches.

The edge is always a dangerous place to being playing. What I have found as a coach is that it is much easier to rane a player back in who is living on the edge rather than push someone out to the edge who is not as aggressive or risk averse. Players who are afraid to make a mistake are players who in my experiences have been the ones to play cautious.

The winning edge for a team comes when you have just the right balance between players who are pushing the limits of aggressiveness and those who are still playing with an edge. I always think of the word swagger when talking about this subject. Teams who are risk averse play with little confidence and often times it is obvious from the way they play. Teams with lots of confidence or swagger (my term) can often be seen as cocky or even "cherpers". To be clear those teams that step over that line can sometimes play the game the wrong way, but I am focused more on making players have confidence in themselves and in their teammates.

Playing on the edge can be a good thing for baseball teams because often times that is where the good stuff happens.