Your Mental Game and Letting Go of Errors
Mistakes or errors occur every day in baseball, but many players don’t have the mental game that allows them to let go of errors and this hurts their chances for success.
Missing a throw, botching a simple ground ball, striking out at the plate, or dropping a pop up will and do happen all the time in baseball. However, these errors become a huge mental game thorn in a player’s mind. And in many cases, especially with youth players, they shut down for the remainder of the game. Baseball parents contact me all the time complaining about their players’ who can’t stop dwelling on errors or missed chances.
I am sure you have made some mistakes in your baseball career, mistakes that you were unable to forget quickly. You might have carried a mistake with you for most the rest of the inning or even the rest of the game. Many ball players can’t enjoy the game or their day because they are too busy beating themselves up. Dwelling on mistakes does not help you get the error back and it doesn’t help out your team.
Dwelling on errors or missed chances during a game is the number one distraction for athletes today. You cannot play in the present moment, a quality of the zone, or enjoy the game when your mind is stuck on a missed opportunity or error you made on the last play.
Based on my experience working with 100s of athletes on their mental game, rarely do athletes use their frustration or anger to help them perform better. It’s rare when a player can use the anger to perform better, but it does happen. You can get angry only if you need a boost of intensity or you can channel your frustration to make it work for you instead of against you.
Why does your mind want to stay glued on the past and dwell on errors?
For many players, when you make errors this does not match what you expected of yourself (or what you think others expect of you). You set a standard for yourself (.500 at the plate) and think you should always perform up to that standard. I’ve noticed that some players will display their anger or disappointment to others who are watching because they want to show others they are better than their mistakes.
Once you start dwelling on an error, it is very hard to stop the cycle of negativity. Why? Based on my experience, you’ll try to avoid making errors again – not a great mindset for playing freely and focusing in the present play.
The best players in baseball have this mindset: They use mistakes to help them grow and become better ball players. If you can become more focused, more determined, and can let go of mistakes quickly so it does not snowball and affect the next play, you’ll be a better player overall.
OK, what are the mental game keys to letting go of errors? If you struggle with letting go of errors, I don’t want you to expert your mental game of baseball to change overnight. Therefore, you have to be patient with changes.
However, two important mental game strategies will help you let go of errors:
- Prior to the game, you have to check your expectations in the locker room. Expectations are the root of your anger or frustration with errors because they set you up for feeling let down when you don’t play up to your ideals.
- After an error, you have to let go quickly and focus on the next play. This means you have to interrupt the dwelling cycle. You interrupt the dwelling cycle by making the mistake OK in your mind so you can play on. I know it’s not OK for you when you make errors, but you have to think this way to move on to the next play!
