What does it mean to choke? Choking is a response to pressure and starts with worry about what others think. Your mind gets sidetracked from the real task. The mind races with thoughts of negative outcomes or screwing up a big lead. “What if we blow a three run lead?” the pitcher says to himself. Then anxiety sets in… Your mouth gets dry, your hands sweat, your breathing becomes faster, and you feel like someone is strangling you. If you feel like choking when under pressure, here are some suggestions to control yourself.

Challenge Yourself
Many players take a defensive approach to their game when they’re under pressure. Instead of trying to not strike out and embarrass yourself, challenge yourself to see the ball well. Take a positive approach. Be aggressive  instead of avoiding mistakes. If you try to avoid striking out, most likely you will focus more on striking out than hitting a solid ball.

Play Like You Don’t Care
When you care too much about winning, you try too hard to make it happen. PGA Tour star Bob Tway said, “You need to play golf like you don’t care, but if you work at something your whole life, it’s hard not to care. But that is the way you need to play golf. You need to sit on the first tee and not care, just let the ball go. That’s how you play your greatest golf.” The same concept applies to baseball.

Tame the Demons from the Past
Memories from the past can also haunt you. Past memories of failure pop into your head when faced with a challenging situation. If you don’t stay grounded in the present, those memories of the past will haunt you. Use the past only if it’s to your advantage.

Be Your Own Coach
What you say to yourself can have a big effect on how you feel and behave. Positive self-talk can be one of your most powerful assets on the field. Your self-talk should always be encouraging and supportive, just like a good coach. You don’t want to tell yourself , “You will never get a hit if you keep playing like this”!

Stay Task-Focused
Most fear relates to outcomes such as striking out. The fear causes you to get ahead of yourself rather than focus on the task. Focus on what you can control, which is execution and staying in the present. For example, your task is to focus on your set up and seeing the ball well. Focus on that. Don’t think about what will happen if you strike out.

Some baseball players and coaches would answer ‘fear of success.’ It maybe fear of success, but not likely. Fear of success, although it does cause players to self-destruct, is more rare in my work compared to fear of failure.

What is the difference between fear of failure and fear of success when it comes to your mental game of baseball?

Both the fear of failure and fear of success cause you to get in your own way with fear, anxiety, tension, and worry about results. This leads to self-sabotage. However, the source of the fear differs.

Fear of failure is worry about not getting what you so badly want and have worked hard to obtain. Fear of success is worry about what comes with being more successful in your sport. Most students I work with come to me with fear of failure.

Are you afraid to succeed in baseball? You might be thinking, why would anyone be afraid to succeed at something they work so hard to obtain?

Think Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and Ken Griffy, Jr. Very successful athletes for sure. But think about the precautions Tiger Woods has to make just to go out to dinner with his wife or friends. With success, come ‘other’ responsibilities and constraints that non-elite athletes never experience.

“Getting in your own way” because of fear of failure is much more common in my work as a mental game expert to players. Fear of failure turns into anxiety and tension on the diamond because you don’t want to fail and screw up. Fear of failure can also cause you to try too hard to get a hit or make a play, which would be my definition of ‘getting in your own way’ mentally.

It’s ironic that the player who want to succeed so badly, worry too much about “what if I don’t succeed?” The need to play well often turns into a failure-oriented approach to your game: don’t strike out, don’t give up a hit, don’t make an error, etc.

So how do you improve your mental game so you are not getting in your own way with fear of failure?

The answers are not easy because players hold themselves back for many reasons. You might fear not reaching your or others expectations, for example. You might fear embarrassing yourself if you go 0-4 at the plate. You might worry too much about impressing college scouts. In each of these scenarios, I would take a different approach to finding the solutions.

However, one tip that applies to all these scenarios is you have to learn how to focus on success instead of failure when you play. You should never set negative goals for example – to not strike out. You should always focus on what you want to have happen – hit it hard down the 3rd base line – instead of avoiding mistakes (don’t foul the ball off again).

In the mental game of baseball, the body will follow the input from the mind. If you focus on not striking out at-bat, your body finds a way to strike out. If you think about seeing the pitch well, you focus on positive cues and your mind will achieve this task. Thus, always ask yourself, “What do I need to focus on to execute this pitch, at-bat, or defensive play.” Strive for success instead of avoiding failure is the mental game lesson for today!