February 5, 2012

Use Warm-ups to Focus Your Mind

immersive

All good athletes use a warm-up routine one hour before they play. Besides helping you get loose and limber, a warm-up routine has several psychological advantages. The first is that it helps you get focused to play. A warm-up routine helps click in your concentration and put on your game face. It … [Read more...]

Mental Training is Safer than Drugs

yogi

When people talk about baseball they usually mention the physical aspects of the sport such as, hitting, arm-strength, and power. The primary focus of athletes today is improving their physical game to compete at a higher level. The physical component of the game is so emphasized that a good handful … [Read more...]

Play Aggressively When in the Lead

joey-votto

Being in the lead can present some mental game challenges. Some players, and even teams, try to protect their lead so they don't make mistakes. This can cause you to over control your performance, try too hard, think about the results and play tentatively. Other players become complacent with the … [Read more...]

Joe Saunders Stays Positive After Loss

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You can react to losses positively or negatively. You can beat yourself up, become frustrated with your performance and lose confidence, taking a negative approach to your game. You can also take a more positive look at your performance learning from your losses. The Los Angeles Angels fell 0-6 … [Read more...]

Do You Ride The Confidence Rollercoaster?

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Doubt is the number one killer of your baseball confidence. You might think, “Can I get a hit off this pitcher?” or “Don’t walk this batter!” Your doubts cause you to lose confidence, question your ability and get down on yourself. Without confidence and a strong mental game, you crumble … [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...]

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...]

Mariano Rivera and The Power of Self-Discipline

Coping with failure is very much a part of baseball. Hitters’ certainly don’t get a hit or succeed every time. The top hitters succeed three out of 10 times on average. Pitchers have had their taste of failure too. Pitchers succeed only half the time, even at the professional level. With all … [Read more...]

How to Avoiding Choking in Baseball

All baseball and softball players feel the pressure of competition at some point in their career. The word “choke” for baseball players can stop them in their tracks. Players never want to admit to others that they choked. PGA Tour player Bob Tway said, “It's how you handle it. Some people … [Read more...]