How to Cope with Failing at the Plate Is it possible to have confidence after a bad game? This is one of the most asked questions by athletes. Confidence can be fleeting for many athletes… If you have low confidence, you will not play your best game. But the reverse … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Control Your Focus and Control Your Performance How well do you manage distractions during a game? Do you use any mental strategies to deal with in-game distractions? A distraction is when your focus is pulled away from playing intuitively in the present moment. Practically anything can be a distraction during … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Different Ways to Make a Positive Impact Slumps are, no doubt, frustrating. When you can’t get a hit, you feel like you will never get on base. Even making contact with the ball seems difficult. When you are in a slump at the plate, your approach changes. You become more … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Simplify Your Thinking and Improve Your Game Summary: Throwing a ball accurately is normally an unconscious skill built through repetition, but players with the yips turn it into an overanalyzed mental struggle. This article uses MLB pitcher Daniel Bard’s multi-year battle with the yips to explain how doubt and overthinking … Read Sport Psychology Tip
The Solution to a Slump is Mental, not Physical Summary: When ballplayers hit a slump, they typically look for a physical or mechanical fix, but the real cause is usually an inability to focus rather than a swing flaw. This article explains why slumps are primarily a mental challenge and … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Use Positive Self-Talk to Increase Trust in SKILLS How would you characterize your self-talk during a ball game? In other words, is your self-talk primarily positive or negative before you practice or play in games? Does your self-talk become more negative as the game nears? Many baseball players believe they … Read Sport Psychology Tip
How to Have Proactive Confidence Are you struggling to find the level of confidence needed to succeed as a baseball or softball player? Does the success of other players around you cause you to question your abilities and further detract from your confidence? Though gaining confidence seems to be a … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Expectations and Pressure Players Feel To be Perfect Part of baseball that players dream about is making flashy plays; fully laying out to snag a line drive, throwing out a player at home, diving for a ground ball to throw out a runner, hitting a walk-off single, etc. Many times, … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Mental Keys to Stable Confidence One sure-fire way of killing confidence is to be excessively hard on yourself after a bad game. Berating yourself or focusing on mistakes hurts your confidence greatly. Imagine if you had a coach that verbally beat you down after an error, giving up a run … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Stabilize your Confidence Chalk it up to experience. This phrase is used to relay that bad circumstances, mistakes or outcomes can be used as learning experiences or dismissed altogether rather than dwelling on the negative, reliving the experience or beating yourself up over the result. As a baseball player, you … Read Sport Psychology Tip
The Power of Your Mental Game in Baseball There is no doubt that baseball is a mental game. You can have a string of great games where you are playing at a high level, then “BOOM,” out of nowhere, the bottom drops out. This inexplicable drop in performance can be … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Developing a Positive Attitude to Improve Success What affects your baseball confidence the most? Some may say your thoughts and it is very true that your thoughts affect confidence. Think about making mistakes and your confidence drops while thinking about your talents tend to enhance confidence. Another factor that impacts … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Staying Confident After Negative Commentary In baseball, how many times have you heard things like: “That player is not tall enough,” “He doesn’t have the arm strength,” “He is not quick enough to be a leadoff hitter,” or, “He is too slow, too fat, too uncoordinated, too…”? Similar statements can … Read Sport Psychology Tip
There are two ways to deal with a slump: the slump mentality and the solution mentality. Performance ruts become reinforced when athlete’s have a “slump mentality.” The slump mentality asks, “What’s wrong with me?” The solution mentality asks, “What adjustment can I make?” The slump mentality focuses on past issues, … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Mental Keys For Success “I’m not as talented as other players,” “He or she is so much better than me,” “I will never be able to beat her.” Have you ever had one of these thoughts about your ability? Do you sometimes feel at a disadvantage because other athletes have … Read Sport Psychology Tip
Mental Strategies To Move Past An Injury How is your confidence affected after a baseball injury or layoff? Do you find that you need a few good games following an injury to regain your confidence? Think of a time where you were injured and returned to play in the middle … Read Sport Psychology Tip