“When I do hit a bad shot, Kevin encourages us to think back whether we did the things we needed to focus on to hit a good shot,” Hu said. “For me personally, one thing I especially have to focus on is staying committed to the shot. Generally, when I am not committed to a shot, the shot goes badly.”

“Everyone on the team understands where he is coming from,” Hu continued. “They really understand the system as it pertains to themselves.”

However, the coach is keen to stress that process alone is not why his players compete. He cares deeply about outcomes and likes his players to be fiercely competitive. Reconciling this desire to win with de-emphasizing outcomes is the final piece to Rhoads’ puzzle, which he describes as a ‘calibration component’.

“I don’t want us to be completely passive in using ‘process’ as the goal of the outcome,” Rhoads says. “There is a calibration component where we take every shot, we say ‘did I do my process correctly?’ and if the answer is yes, then we can start to say ‘and if I’m doing my process correctly, did the ball go in the right place?’. If the answer is no, then we do have to say ‘well, what do we need to change?’ Do I either calibrate the input I am using or do I change the input I am using based on other known parameters?”

Combining this calibration with an internal acknowledgement that the traditional outcome, the quality of the shot, is real ultimately leads to a successful refinement of the individual’s process.

Rhoads’ whole system of thought is designed with the intention of lessening the mental blow of a bad shot on a player, increasing the consistency of his player’s performance and banishing mental demons. After four years at Harvard, Hu has fully embraced her coach’s philosophy.

“I think for me personally focusing on process means not worrying about whatever the outcome is because in a lot of situations the outcome is not fully controllable,” Hu says. “It’s about focusing on those things which are under your control. When I hit a shot, whatever happens happens and I’m okay with whatever the result is because I know that given the situation I tried to the best of my ability with the tools I had at that moment.”