| Dr. Tom Hanson's
Ultimate Baseball and Softball Clinic Speaker #1: Hank Aaron
Welcome to the show! Our Opening Day speaker is the Great Hank Aaron. I recorded this interview as part of my Ph.D. dissertation back in 1991. I got goose bumps when he told me 15 minutes into the conversation..."This is the most important part about hitting, and nobody has ever asked me this before." So enjoy listening to one of the greatest players who ever played tell you how he did it. Scroll down for bonus information on Aaron and the interview. (Click play twice to start)
I encourage you to take notes and listen more than once. This is really powerful information. I've taken what I learned from Aaron and many other greats and created step-by-step success systems for players, coaches and parents.
Stay tuned, the next speaker is just a few days away. If someone forwarded this link to you -- don't miss out on all the rest of the great presentations in this free clinic. Click here to sign yourself up Get Free Access to the Ultimate Baseball and Softball Clinic
p.s. I suggest you create a folder in your Outlook or other email system to keep these emails in. Bonus Material: Hank Aaron Background Information Henry Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1934. After growing up playing sandlot baseball in an impoverished environment, he left home at the age of 18 to join the He played for the Braves for 21 of his 23 seasons, the first 12 in Aaron was a model of consistency throughout his career. His average season over his 23 years was .305, with 33 home runs and 100 RBIs. He led the National League in home runs four times, in runs batted in four times, in slugging percentage four times, in runs three times, in hits twice, and in batting average twice. In 1957 he was the league's Most Valuable Player, leading the league in home runs and RBIs, and leading the Braves to the World Series championship. He also hit over .300 fourteen times and drove in over 100 runs 10 times. He was a member of the National League All-star team 21 times. On April 8, 1974, Aaron provided baseball with what has been voted it's "Most Memorable Moment" by surpassing Babe 212 Ruth's career home run record. Adding to the difficulty of achieving the record (hitting more than 32 homers for twenty years) were countless death threats from people not wanting a black man to break the legendary record, and an unprecedented media barrage that turned what should have been a glorious time into what he said was the worst time of his life (Aaron & Wheeler, 1991). For his career, Aaron played in 3,298 games (3rd on the all-time list). His totals include 12,364 at-bats (2nd), 2,174 runs scored (tied for 2nd), 3,771 hits (3rd), 755 home runs (1st), 642 doubles (8th), 6,856 total bases (1st), 2,297 runs batted in (1st), and 1,477 extra base hits (1st). He is third on the total player rating, and his relative batting average puts him 47th on the all-time list. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982. Although best known for the home run record, Aaron's record for total bases is perhaps more remarkable in that it betters Stan Musial's second place effort by 722 bases, or the equivalent of more than 180 home runs. Another perspective is "When every player has hit every ball he ever hit and run as far as those hits would take him -- that is, when all the total bases have been paced off -- and the dust has cleared, Hank Aaron is exactly 12.3068 miles in front of the next guy" (Aaron & Wheeler, 1991; p. 274). Interview Context I interviewed Hank Aaron on February 18, 1991 in I met him in his office in We spent about half of the interview time (roughly 40 minutes) talking in his car. We were interrupted while we made three stops (an eyeglass store, a picture frame store, and his condominium he was trying to rent). The time in the car was ideal because we had no other distractions. The interview continued when we returned to his office. We were interrupted by a brief phone call and a couple of messages from his secretary during this part of the interview. On the whole I felt he was well focused on the interview almost all the time and was very interested in the dialogue, especially when we were in the car. His engagement in the interview was demonstrated not only by how hard I felt he was working to answer some of my questions, but also by a few comments he interjected fairly early in the interview, including: "I've never heard anybody discuss hitting to the point of, the way that you're talking about it, because they don't know, they just think that you just pick up the bat and go out and swing it." These comments also provided an adrenalin rush for the researcher. I was excited throughout the interview because I found what he was saying fascinating and thought he was making some highly significant and powerful statements (powerful for current hitters to hear). In particular, I was struck by his attributing his success to his visualization and ability to focus, and his saying that these were skills that he learned. I attribute my reaction to how closely it paralleled my educational sport psychology philosophy. I was also struck by how the topics we discussed were interrelated. The two-hour interaction concluded at 12 p.m. when he had a lunch appointment. He was warm and sincere in his salutations, and said that I was welcome to call him if I would like to talk some more.
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