How does CANI relate to baseball?

The Sumter P-15's have the letters "CANI" on the back of their hats.

Recently my son leaned over and said "what does that mean?" I know the answer, but thought I'd see if there are any "in the know" coaches or parents out there. Bottom line is that CANI is very relevant to any baseball player’s development and achieving your goals.

Curious yet? I'm hoping that someone explains the meaning, and the relevance to baseball. I'll check back on Friday, hopefully someone has the anwer and saves me the effort.

 

Constant And Neverending Improvement~ Tony Robbins

 

CANI - constant and never ending improvement

That’s correct…Continuous and Never-ending Improvement.

Let’s relate it to baseball. Many players, parents and coaches focus on what they perceive as a problem, keep doing the same things, and keep getting sub-optimal results on the baseball field. Here are some CANI tips for baseball.


1 – Ask the right questions.

Let me give you some examples of poor questions:
· Coach complains, “Why can’t my team hit?”, “Why are my players not motivated?”, “Why don’t I have good pitching?”
· Player ponders, “Why don’t I throw hard?”, “Why do I bat last in the lineup?”, “why didn’t I make the team?”
· A parent asks, “Why can’t my son hit off-speed pitches?”, “Why is that kid playing and my son is sitting the bench?”

Rather than focusing on a problem (an obstacle in your path), which is probably going to lead you back in a circle to a possible pity party. You should Ask better questions that are going to point you towards success by focusing your effort on what you can improve. Try these instead.
· Coach asks himself, “What can I do to make my team hit better?”
· Player asks himself, “What can I do this off-season to make my arm stronger, healthier, and throw harder?” “Who can teach me how to practice hitting off-speed pitches?”
· A parent asks, “How can I allow my son enjoy the game more to motivate him to practice more?”
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2 –Keep asking better questions.

Asking good questions will start you on a better path toward success in baseball. But what’s going to keep you going after achieving some success? CANI is about continually asking better questions and taking action. It will serve you well.
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3 –Make CANI a habit.

Make asking better questions a habit. What you habitually ask yourself will help define you. If you are always asking, “what’s the minimum I have to do? “How can I make people think I’m working hard? “How can I get dad or coach off my back? “ Then you are just asking for disappointment.
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4 – It’s not where you start…it’s where you finish.

Many of the great players in sports did not start off at the top. They continually worked at got better. Many didn’t make their High School teams, the college of their choice, and or get drafted in the first round.
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Here is a sports example of CANI in action.

Here is a quick non-baseball CANI example. Pistol Pete Maravich had a father who knew basketball. His father was an assistant at West Virginia, Clemson, and NC State. During Pete’s middle school years, his father was at Clemson, and he invented more and more challenging basketball drills for Pete to practice. Pete had never heard the term CANI, but he lived it. He continually worked on dribbling, passing and shooting. He was a gym rat - practicing everywhere – loved basketball – loved improving. He dribbled on his bicycle while riding it to the gym. Even out of his dad’s car window. some of his drills are still used by players like Steve Nash. Anyway, back in his day, when college basketball freshman had to play JV, Pete had more fans showing up for his JV games at LSU than the varsity team had. He is still the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. As a pro, Maravish earned a $1,900,000+ contract in the NBA. A lot of money at the time. Pete scored 68 points as a guard against the NY Knicks (when they were good) before the NBA had a 3-point shot.
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“Pistol” Pete Maravich was successful because he….

1) Took advice from an expert
2) He varied his practice to and consistently modified his workout to be more challenging,
3) he put his work in on a consistent basis.
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As a baseball player, ask yourself if you work like Pistol Pete and practice “CANI”. Or do you do the same old warm-up, take the same old batting practice, and throw the same old bullpens, just like you did in little league. Do practice every once in a while, or do you have a plan?

(Many of these ideas came from others, including the Texas Baseball Ranch and their weekly podcast "Let's talk baseball". )

 

Great post