A few of you have come to learn that we stay away from the term instincts. Let me discuss why.
Our aversion to ‘instincts’ has nothing to do with being ignorant to how players engage on the field. It comes from a place of understanding how terms can take on a life of their own. Much like the term ‘talent’ we discussed on Day One, we want to ensure that your message is communicated clearly and not clouded by the readers preconcieved notions.
I discussed many of these factors in a roundtable with Matt Waldman a while back that you can listen to here.
Nevertheless, a piece from Doug Farrar on SI.com where he broke down film with former Carolina Panthers DC Josh Norman and was in awe of Norman’s ability to ‘anticipate’. In reading Norman’ responses, all I could think of was here is a perfect teaching moment to discuss ‘instincts’.
Here is my brief definition of the term: “Instincts take over when you have mastered your technique, studied your film, and your body takes care of the rest”
Now read the piece, study Norman’s responses and see if you get my point.
Finally, for our purposes, we still want you guys to stick with ‘Mental Processing’ and not ‘instincts’.
If you have any questions, leave them in the forum.