How Shohei Ohtani Used the 9-Square Grid to Become the Best Player in Baseball

What is the Ohtani 9-square grid?

The Ohtani 9-square grid is a goal-setting framework that breaks one central goal into 64 concrete actions. It is built on a 3x3 grid of squares, where each square itself contains a 3x3 grid. The center square holds the main goal. The 8 surrounding squares each represent a key area that supports that goal. And each of those 8 areas gets broken into 8 specific, actionable tasks.

Ohtani created his grid as a first-year student at Hanamaki Higashi High School in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. His coach, Hiroshi Sasaki, introduced the method to help players think systematically about their development. Sasaki had adopted the framework from the Harada Method, a goal-setting system developed by Japanese educator Takashi Harada.

The structure forces a level of specificity that most goal-setting approaches skip entirely. You cannot fill 64 cells with vague intentions. Each cell demands a concrete behavior, habit, or milestone.

For a concrete example, see [_teacher goals_](https://open64.us/goals/education/high-school-teacher-goals-examples).

What did Ohtani put on his original grid?

Ohtani's central goal was direct: get drafted by all 8 NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) teams. This was an audacious target for a high school student, and the 8 surrounding categories showed how seriously he thought about every dimension of becoming that caliber of player.

His 8 supporting categories included areas like pitching (hitting 160 km/h), batting power, fielding, physical conditioning, mental toughness, character, luck, and human qualities. What stands out is that the grid was not purely about physical skills. Ohtani dedicated entire quadrants to things like being kind to others, reading the room, keeping his living space clean, and showing gratitude.

In the mental toughness area, he listed actions like not panicking in high-pressure situations and maintaining composure regardless of the score. Under character, he included picking up trash, greeting people properly, and being someone others want to support. Under luck, he wrote things like being positive, caring for equipment, and being respected by fans.

The original grid is now displayed at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It has become one of the most studied examples of structured goal-setting in sports history.

For a concrete example, see [_startup founder goals_](https://open64.us/goals/career/startup-founder-goals-examples).

How does the 9-square grid connect to the Harada Method?

The 9-square grid is one of four tools in the Harada Method, a self-reliance and goal-achievement system developed by Takashi Harada. Harada was a junior high school track and field teacher in Osaka who transformed underperforming athletes at Naniwa Sogo High School into national champions.

The 64-chart (also called the Open Window or mandala chart) is the planning backbone of the method. Harada's system also includes a personal mission statement, a daily journal for tracking progress, and an open window analysis for identifying strengths and gaps.

When coach Hiroshi Sasaki brought the Harada Method to Hanamaki Higashi, it became a standard part of player development. Ohtani was not the only student who filled one out. But his grid became the most famous because his results were the most extraordinary. The framework gave structure to ambition that might otherwise have stayed abstract.

How is the grid structured from center to edge?

The grid works from the inside out. Start with the very center cell of the entire 9x9 layout. That is your primary goal. In Ohtani's case: drafted by 8 NPB teams.

The 8 cells immediately surrounding the center goal become the names of your 8 supporting categories. These are the major areas of focus that collectively make the central goal achievable. Think of them as pillars.

Now here is where the structure expands. Each of those 8 category names gets copied to the center of its own 3x3 square in the outer ring. You then fill the 8 cells around each category center with specific actions, habits, or targets for that area.

The result is a single visual that holds 1 goal, 8 pillars, and 64 actions. Everything fits on one page. You can see the entire plan at a glance, which makes it far easier to identify gaps. If one quadrant has only vague entries while another is packed with specific tasks, you know where your thinking needs more work.

Can you use the Ohtani grid for non-sports goals?

Absolutely. The grid structure is goal-agnostic. It works for anything where you need to break a large ambition into actionable parts. Career transitions, business launches, health transformations, creative projects, academic goals. The framework does not care what the center cell says. It only cares that you can fill the 64 surrounding cells with honest, specific actions.

The Harada Method was originally used with middle school students, many of whom applied it to academic goals and personal development targets that had nothing to do with athletics. The method spread from Japanese education into corporate training programs at companies like Uniqlo, Kirin, and SoftBank.

What makes the grid effective is not the sports context. It is the forced decomposition. You cannot say "get in shape" and leave it at that. You have to define what "in shape" looks like across 8 dimensions, then define 8 actions per dimension. That level of granularity turns a wish into a plan.

How can you build your own 9-square grid with Open64?

Open64 is a free Chrome extension that puts a 64-cell Harada Method grid on your new tab page. Every time you open a new tab, you see your goal, your 8 pillars, and all 64 actions. The grid is always visible, which is the point. Goals that live in notebooks or apps you never open tend to fade. Goals that appear 30+ times a day stay top of mind.

To get started, install Open64 from the Chrome Web Store. Your first step is defining your central goal, the equivalent of Ohtani's "drafted by 8 NPB teams." Then name your 8 supporting pillars. Finally, fill in 8 actions per pillar. The extension stores everything locally in your browser. No account required, no data sent to any server.

If you want guidance filling out your grid, Open64 includes AI-assisted onboarding that helps you identify pillars and brainstorm actions based on your specific goal. It follows the same structured approach that coach Sasaki used with his players: start broad, then get specific, then get honest about what is actually required.

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