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 your concentration. Total concentration is the ability to immerse yourself in a task without becoming distracted or pulled off task. Great players talk about... [Read More...]
How to Think Less at the Plate
The ability to swing your bat naturally and instinctively is critical to great hitting. The major purpose of batting practice is to trust your swing when it’s time to play the game. As you get more repetitions through practice, you develop a memory program for that movement. Soon with a lot of practice, your swing becomes instinctive, natural, and feels effortless to do (you reach a state of over-learning). An effortless reactive swing is... [Read More...]
6 Common Mental Game Errors For Hitters
In my work, it’s important to help ball players be aware when they are making mental errors and also provide direction. You first have to know when there is a problem before you can address it. Great hitting requires you maintain a great attitude. Confidence, trust, and focus are the keys to great hitting, but many players stifle their chances of better hitting by making too many mental errors at the plate. In this article, I discuss six typical... [Read More...]
Do You Have Fragile Self-Confidence in Baseball?
Baseball confidence is an important mental game skill for all players to learn. Some baseball players struggle with fragile self-confidence. You have fragile baseball confidence when your confidence changes each moment depending on how you are playing in the game. Do you have to get a hit in order to feel confident or make a good play? Or do you lose confidence after you strike out or make your first errors? When you have fragile baseball confidence,... [Read More...]
Professional Baseball Players and Frustration
I’m sure you’ve seen professional baseball players lose their cool during games. What causes players to lose their composure during competition? You can lose their composure for several reasons. You might lose your composure after making stupid errors, not meeting your expectations or feeling angry or frustrated with your performance. Milton Bradley of the Chicago Cubs shows his anger by throwing temper tantrums on the field. Recently, Bradley... [Read More...]
The Mental Game: Distracted by Inner Chatter?
Do you start a game focused and ready to play, ready to clean up, but then become distracted by your own negative inner chatter? Many baseball players can get focused, but their inner chatter can hold them back from performing their best. Your negative inner chatter includes any thoughts that do not help you perform in the moment. You might be thinking about the score of the game as you get up to bat. You might be worried about what your hitting coach... [Read More...]
Two Confidence Killers Ball Players Must Avoid
Baseball players can undermine their confidence without even knowing it. One way is to set strict expectations. The other is to hold onto self-doubt. We’ll take a look at each of these mental game challenges to help you boost your self-confidence. Here is my conclusion after working with 1000’s of athletes: Strict or high expectations can undermine and suck the life out of confidence! Expectations can be tricky. You might think that setting high... [Read More...]
Mental Game and The Tale of Two Hitters
I once knew a hitter named Soft Hands. Soft Hands was a great hitter, who brimmed with confidence when the ball bounded squarely off the center of his bat. He had touch, confidence, and fed off momentum. When Soft Hands got his first hit of the day, he felt like he could not miss all day. He would hit great that day. If Soft Hands did not get a hit, he knew that the next at bat would be successful. He would say to himself: “It’s OK because I know... [Read More...]
