The SSI app has 21 things that have been proven to help a baseball player succeed and the professional and college level. Those 21 things are called Focus Factors, and when users go in to score them both in terms of how they are doing with them and how important they are (defaulted by our expert Glenn Freeman, who has been coaching/training professional athletes with this approach for over years). Glenn is better known as IronGlenn and once users go through the initial setup up the app, which usually takes a couple of minutes, you are ready to go. From there, the underlying algorithm in the app, which is patent pending, takes the input and serves up the three most important things for that user to work on right now. As the user updates their progress in the app, every time they go back into the app, it will recalculate the three most important things for them to work on. So instead of getting long lists of things to work on, instead, the user gets a highly personalized list of three things every day. It’s like having IronGlenn as your own personal coach. And if you have questions for Glenn – there is a place to submit those through the app, and Glenn will review these and respond to the ones that he thinks can be the most helpful.
To help users understand the SSI Focus Factors, we will do a post about each one to help users better understand them and how they fit into the overall picture.
Before we get into that, it’s important that we start with the three categories of Focus Factors, Mental Factors, Physical Conditioning, and Money Matters. These three overall categories need to all come together for a player to stay healthy on and off the field. This isn’t just a list of 21 things, it’s more like three basic elements to a recipe, and the 21 Focus Factors are the specific ingredients across those three elements that have to come together in equal measure. So here they are:
MENTAL FACTORS
- It’s a Brand-New Day. This is a look at how to not let what happened yesterday or last week or last month get in the way of your progress today.
- Peace of Mind. Helping to clear your head of things that won’t help you with your next play, your next pitch, or your next at bat, can be critical.
- Mental Balance. Learning how to get, and stay balanced, is like other muscles. It takes work, and practice to be strong here.
- Understanding Stress. Stress takes many forms and understanding how to manage it so you can maximize your performance is key.
- Home and Career Stability. All kinds of things can be going on at home and with friends and family. Keeping all of that stable is key, and this Focus Factor offer some insights into how to achieve this stability.
- Who’s “the Man”? As a player progresses, they have to realize that they are the man and no one else is going to be as focused on your success as you are.
- Adapting to the Moment. Life is full of surprises. Not letting surprises throw you off is key and this Focus Factor will help with this.
PHYSICAL CONDITIONING
- Area of Focus. With a particular emphasis on staying healthy, this helps the user understand where they need to focus today.
- How are You Currently Feeling. It’s critical to listen to your body and know how you are feeling today, so you can take steps to stay in balance and focus on your goals.
- Injury History and Status. Injuries are part of any sport. Having the right coaching and training to recover from injuries as well as prevent them is how this Focus Factor will help you.
- Physical Balance. There are many things that go into your physical balance – and they are very specific to you, because no two bodies are the same. This Focus Factor will help you walk through that.
- Injury Prevention Training. One of the reasons Glenn has been so successful is helping athletes train to prevent injuries – he explains it in detail here.
- Fueling and Maintaining Your Machine. Your body is a machine, and the food and exercise are how you keep it well tuned.
- Sport Specific Training. Every position in baseball is a bit different. Here Glenn offers exercises and guidance for every position.
- Knowledge of the Kinetic Chain. Some like to focus on “beach muscles” but Glenn knows that for every baseball move, several joints and muscles need to be used in a specific sequence, like a chain – and it’s almost never the beach muscles. Glenn walks you through the kinetic chain of several baseball moves with his unique approach.
MONEY MATTERS
- Understanding Impact of Finances. Finances can get complex quickly for athletes and having a good plan is key. There are lots of stories of people who got huge contracts and blew it all. That’s not what you want to do.
- Lifestyle Level. Once players get contracts, it can be tempting to change spending habits and lifestyle – Glenn offers his thoughts on this here.
- The Cost to be the Boss. They say you have to spend money to make money and in this Glenn talks about the responsibility of the player to take steps to stay in control.
- Your Support System. While the player is the Boss and “the Man” it is important to have a support system at home and with all things baseball.
- Debt and Spending Self Control. It’s really easy to spend too much and Glenn has some ideas on how to avoid that.
- Retirement Goals and Planning. You never know how long your career will last, so Glenn has some ideas on how to think about that.
- You are Now a Business. You are not just a kid playing a game anymore – now you are a business, and this section offers thoughts on that subject.
As you can see, there is. lot there, and this is just the Focus Factors, not that 75+ training videos. But because the app narrows it down to just three things for you to work on every day – it’s very manageable. So, get going, and get results with SSI.