"It’s a funny thing about life: If you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get it."

– W. Somerset Maugham

 

J I M  M U R P H Y

MHK, CSCS

 

Jim is a Performance Coach to collegiate, professional, and Olympic athletes, as well as a motivational speaker.  He is also the Mental Skills Coach for Baseball Player University (Fox Sports Net).  Jim received his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Washington while playing professional baseball with the Chicago Cubs organization.  After his baseball career ended he enrolled in graduate school at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and played football.  He was named special teams player of the year as well as one of the top athletes in (head coach) Frank Smith's 20 year tenure at UBC.  After a year of graduate school, Jim coached one year of high school baseball in Seattle, Wa and took a team with a losing record the previous year to an undefeated season.  

Jim returned to pro baseball after a four year layoff (due to injury) and immediately was a unanimous choice to the All-star team.  The following year Jim returned to UBC and soon completed his Masters Degree in Human Kinetics (Coaching Science) where he studied sports psychology and exercise physiology.  His master’s paper was On Becoming a Champion:  Principles of Championship Teams, which became the book Dugout Wisdom:  The Ten Principles of Championship Teams. 

Collegiate Baseball magazine has called Dugout Wisdom "one of the most important books to ever hit the shelves on baseball."  For the book Jim interviewed coaching legends such as Sparky Anderson, Jim Leyland, Rod Dedeaux, Tom Kelly, and Dusty Baker; GM's such as Dave Dombrowski and Pat Gillick, college coaches such as Ron Polk, Pat Murphy, Andy Lopez, Ed Cheff, Rod Delmonico, and many more championship managers and coaches.

During graduate school Jim started a baseball program at UBC, the first university on Canada's west coast to have a team.  UBC soon became an NAIA affiliated school and produced a 1st round pick in 2002 (current major leaguer Jeff Francis).  He also scouted for the Kansas City Royals, as well as became the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) baseball division chairman and British Columbia director for the NSCA while at UBC.

In 2000 Jim went to the Sydney Olympics as the hitting coach for the South African Olympic baseball team.  Jim's success with the Olympic team includes leading them to a three game sweep over heavily-favored Guam in the Olympic Trials, averaging 12 runs a game.  In the Olympics he led a mostly amateur team (including plumbers, school teachers, and accountants) to one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history, knocking Holland out of the medal round (Holland had previously beaten powerhouses Cuba and Australia). 

Jim has authored articles in journals and magazines, including the peer-reviewed Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which he collaborated with Dr. Coop DeRenne, the foremost researcher on improving pitching velocity.  He has given presentations across North America on excellence in athletics.  Jim has also produced three videos:  Functional Shoulder Training for Athletes, Functional Core Training for Baseball, and Medicine Ball and Stability Ball Training for Balance, Agility, and Power.  He has also written for newspapers across North America, including the NY Daily News, The Province (Vancouver), and had columns in www.mlb.com, the Surrey Leader (Surrey, BC), and the Tri-Cities Herald (Tri-Cities, Wa).

Jim is currently writing his next book, Inner Excellence:  An Athlete's Guide to an Extraordinary Career and Life, as well as working with a few select clients across North America.  Jim is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Psychology and the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

 

 

Television Appearances

As an expert on winning and developing champions, Jim has appeared on TV numerous times.  He speaks on what it takes to win, how to excel under pressure, and what separates champions from the rest.  Jim is the Mental Skills coach for Baseball Player University on Fox Sports Net, Saturdays at noon in most areas in the US.