The Oregon Ducks football team is using a personal development method used by Shohei Ohtani in their pursuit of a national championship.
Ohtani popularized a Japanese structure called the Harada method to help drive his success early in his career. The No. 2 team in the country is using the same method to help them realize their goal.
“It started a little bit with our leadership group when we did our leadership retreat; went through it, kind of built out some of our vision boards,” Lanning said. “Some of our players have done the same thing individually. But yeah, kind of grew from there.”
The Harada method was invented by Takashi Harada, a track-and-field coach in Japan who turned around the fortunes of the school he coached, from one of the nation’s worst programs to one of its best. The method centers on self-reliance and daily discipline.
An adherent of the method starts with a particular goal, often a lofty one. He or she then puts the goal in the middle of a 9×9 square and fills the remaining eight boxes with eight aspects of that goal that would help him or her make progress toward it. Each aspect is then placed in its own 9×9 grid around the center square; around each aspect, the adherent writes down eight daily disciplines or practices that would produce that aspect over time.
Ohtani put the method to use during his high school baseball career. He started with the goal of being drafted first overall by eight teams in the Nippon Professional Baseball League draft. His eight sub-goals were body, control, sharpness, mental toughness, speed, personality, karma, and pitch variance. His 64 daily disciplines ranged from refining his pitching and batting technique to controlling his emotions on the plate and mound, to people skills, to good habits like keeping his room clean, reading books, and taking out the trash.
Ohtani has seen significant success in his professional career, including six All-Star selections, two World Series wins, four MVP Awards, six First-Team All-MLB selections, four Silver Sluggers, and three Hank Aaron Awards.
The Ducks have extolled the virtues of the Harada method as they chase the first official national championship in program history.
“The Harada method definitely helps you hone in on little goals before getting to that big goal, and if you can’t do those little goals, like you just can’t expect that big goal, and that’s been the main thing we’ve been preaching,” wide receiver Evan Stewart said.
Defensive lineman Bear Alexander posted his Harada board to Instagram in June. His goal is to become a first-round NFL Draft pick. His eight sub-goals are: leadership/great teammate, mental strength, strain, faith, elite technician, discipline, character, and health.
Quarterback Dante Moore said that if it works for Ohtani, it might just work for them.
“Ohtani is probably going to be the greatest baseball player of all time, I mean, at the end of the day, what he’s done,” he said. “But yeah, we’re just trying to learn from the greats and make sure we be that team this year.”
Starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fourth inning of the MLB game at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona on June 03, 2026. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Oregon enters the 2026–27 season at No. 2 in the AP Top 25 poll. They open the season against Boise State on Saturday.
At his weekly press conference, Lanning was unwilling to say whether the Ducks are the best team in the nation, but he did talk about what it would take to be that team.
“Football’s a unique sport,” he said. “[It] takes 11, right? And it really takes a lot more than 11. It takes a team, right, to be successful on the field. So seeing that all come together, you’ve got a lot of moving parts, and to be able to operate at a high level, that’s exciting.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Friends Read Free
Copy
Facebook
Tweet
