In manufacturing, there is a principle: quality is built into the process.
If you chase outcomes alone, you end up inspecting and sorting good products from bad ones. But if you improve the process itself — eliminating the causes of defects — good results emerge naturally.
Shohei Ohtani has applied a similar philosophy to baseball.
From his rookie year in Nippon Professional Baseball, he wanted results. He wanted numbers. Wins. Home runs.
But he did not feel trapped by the need to produce them immediately.
Why?
Because he believed that if he executed his form — his mechanics, his timing, his preparation — results would follow.
If he pitched in his ideal form, he could suppress hitters.
If he swung in his ideal form, he could drive the ball.
The focus was never on forcing results.
It was on refining “his shape.”
Improve the process.
Sharpen the execution.
Trust the accumulation.
By his fourth season, that belief had solidified into confidence. He recorded his second double-digit wins and double-digit home run season and became a central force in leading the Fighters to a Japan Series title.
He wanted results.
He just refused to chase them.
Source
This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.
Shohei Ohtani: Baseball Chronicle I (Japan Edition 2013–2018), p.225