May 19, 2012

The Mental Game of Pitching and Trust

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Are you able to perform freely and let your performance happen in games? This is a common challenge among all baseball players, including pitchers. You may try to “fix” your pitching technique after a wild pitch. Some players become too mechanical and over think their pitching motion. When … [Read more...]

Lester Draws Confidence From the Save

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Some baseball players thrive in crunch time, such as when the bases are loaded. They want to be up to pitch or bat in this situation. These players demonstrate their confidence and trust to perform their best in critical moments. Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester is one of those players who thrives in … [Read more...]

Mental Toughness Helps Tigers’ Hang Onto Lead

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Does your seem to relax when they have a big lead? For many teams, maintaining the lead and finishing off the game is hard to do. Finishing a game strongly is primarily mental, not physical. Physical skills can only carry your team so far. A team also needs a strong mental game to allow them to … [Read more...]

Dotel’s Composure Helps Pirates Win

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A baseball player’s ability to stay composed is critical to success. When you’re composed, you can play up to your physical ability. You don’t get rattled by a couple of bad calls. You’re able to stay relaxed after mistakes. You can let go of mistakes or mishaps quickly. Pirates’ relief … [Read more...]

Focusing on the Process Key to Winning

“What was I thinking?” you mutter in frustration after you struck out at bat. You lost your focus temporarily and it cost you the at-bat. Most players at times, lose focus, blank-out, get distracted, or are too stressed to concentrate. Even the greatest players in the world have trouble … [Read more...]

Helping Young Athletes Cope with Mistakes

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Frustrated parents and baseball coaches contact us everyday about their athletes' inability to handle mistakes or cope with imperfection in sports. If your athletes get frustrated with errors, strike outs, bad calls from unpires, you'll want to watch the video below. Dr. Cohn an exciting … [Read more...]

Mental Keys to Staying in the Moment

The ability to concentrate is critical to successful performance in all sports, especially in baseball. Each game requires you to turn your concentration on and off several times. When it is time to go to the plate, you have to turn on the concentration. When you’re in the dugout, you can relax … [Read more...]

The Power of Choice in Hitting

The power of choice is one of the most important mental game abilities that ball players possess. Much of my work with athletes involves teaching players that they have the ability to make good choices with their mental game. In fact, everything I do in sport psychology revolves around showing … [Read more...]

Refocus When You Get Too Far Ahead

Do distractions cause you to become sidetracked during baseball or softball games? Are you anxious about what the outcome of the game might be? Do you tense up and put more pressure yourself to win? If you said yes, then you focus too much on results and not enough on the process. You … [Read more...]

How to Keep Practice Exciting

Mental Game of Baseball Practice

Keeping practice interesting is a big challenge for professional players that spend as much as eight hours a day practicing and playing ball. It’s also a challenge for amateur players who practice more than two hours at a time. When you are bored with practice, you don’t feel challenged enough. … [Read more...]