Hideki Matsui

Several years ago, when I was the catching coordinator for the New York Yankees, I had the privilege of working alongside Hideki Matsui. As a special assistant, he spent time with our Double-A and Triple-A hitters, offering feedback that was shockingly precise—simple, direct, immediately useful—and always delivered with humility.

Here was one of the greatest players from either side of the Pacific Ocean, sharing powerful insights with young hitters in a voice that never carried an ounce of ego.

One night in Scranton, during a rain delay, the two of us sat in the coaches’ locker room sipping coffee and talking about high school. He told me a bit about practicing and competing in judo. I asked when players in Japan begin learning mental discipline. He didn’t hesitate: before they learn physical skills.

That stopped me. How could that be?

He turned the question back on me—he was surprised to learn that here, we teach the physical first and try to add the mental later, if we add it at all. In his view, we had it backwards. What happens in your head matters more than what you do with your body. They learned those lessons as children, then applied them to whatever path they followed—judo, baseball, anything.

That conversation has stayed with me ever since. Why don’t we teach our kids how to think, how to adapt and cope, how to lead and be great teammates? We seem to leave that to chance, or we frame it as “character” and simply hope they figure it out on their own.

Matsui-san wasn’t born with an extraordinary mindset. He was taught it—by parents, by coaches, by a culture that sees the mind as the foundation for everything that follows.

On our side of the ocean, we’ve become incredibly good at building players who are bigger, faster, and stronger. We refine mechanics, measure movement, optimize swings and deliveries, sharpen speed and strength. But the mental game continues to get overlooked, mostly because we can’t put a number on it. We can measure every physical detail, but mental skill still feels intangible, so it slips through the cracks.

But it doesn’t have to. This isn’t an either/or choice—it’s a both/and choice. It’s not about deciding which one matters more. It’s about understanding how the physical and the mental fit together to develop a complete player who can actually use their physical tools under pressure.

As a young player, you can develop your mental game now. Will you take this opportunity, or just wait until later and hope it happens “naturally?”