There is an age-old battle between confidence and fear that goes on within each player. It doesn?t matter how old you are. It only takes a few swings or at-bats before the thought that you might be overmatched, or you have lost your touch begins to set-in and take control of your mind. Every player has gone through it, and every player never wants it to happen again. Worst of all, when you ask most players what is the cause of their baseball batting slump, and most will respond, ?I don?t know!?
Every player has heard the phrase, ?I can?t teach you to be confident, that is something that you are going to have to do on your own!? Up until a few years ago, I would have 100% agreed with them. However, after my recent studies in psychology, I was wrong! The act of being confident, much like training your physical mechanics and your muscles, has to be learned. Fortunately, we have the tools and understanding to accomplish that now! Among all of the batting techniques that are out there, there are to very powerful mental training exercises your player can use to overcome any of his baseball batting woes.
For starters, I want to let you know that it doesn?t matter what level of play your player may be at. Several prominent professional like Alex Rodriguez who has had abysmal performances in the playoffs up until late, or Tejada who threw his bats over the dugout a few years back suffer from these same issues . On the personal side of things, a minor leaguer who is loosing confidence after 9 very successful seasons in the pros recently contacted me. With that in mind, it?s safe to assume, that those who aren?t at the professional level, little leaguers, high school players, and college players are struggling with the same batting battle.
The long and short of a baseball batting slump comes down to two mental states and the wrong type of focus. Let?s start with focus and work backwards. Everywhere you look players are judged based on their statistics. As a result, players are taught from a young age, that good day at the plate involves a hit, regardless of how they got that hit. On the contrary, a bad day at the plate is going 0 for, even if every time up they hit a hard line drive. We want to see high numbers in the stats column, and as a result, a player?s confidence is derived from seeing the results instead focusing what it is they need to do to get there! This is precisely why so many players love to get a hit in their first at bat, because they no matter how they perform the rest of the game they at least got one hit!
If a player doesn?t get a hit in his first at-bat, the pressure begins to mount. Each successive at-bat piles on top of each other and before player?s have a chance to take a breath, each at-bat becomes the make or break moment of their career. Whether they begin swinging at every pitch they see, or take pitches right down the middle because they are afraid to get out, they enter a emotional state and loose their ability to make good decisions.
You see, the mind can only be in one of two mental states at once. There is the emotional state, which is result oriented and typically leads to making less than desirable decisions. Then there is the logical state where you are able to see the issues around you objectively and see all of the angles in effort to find the best solution. Unfortunately, most player?s will spend the majority of their career in the emotional state which leads me to Mental Baseball Training Technique #1: create positive proactive action steps that help you correct the now!
Unfortunately, most player?s will never make a it past, ?I?m not going 0 for today? or ?I am going to get a hit this time around?. Sorry sport, contrary to what mom says, pure determination and telling yourself you are going to get a hit just won?t cut it! What will cut it is telling yourself very specific positive action steps that you can perform on your very next swing. For instance, if you are having trouble dropping your back shoulder, you shouldn?t tell yourself, ?Don?t drop your back shoulder!?. Don?t is a negative! Instead, try drive your backside harder, or drive your hands down through the zone. Always be in the process of solving your problem and moving towards a solution instead of running away from your mistakes!
Another way to think about it is to be in the process of solving a problem not running away from the result! Saying that, this will not come easy! Just like training your mechanics, you have to train your mind. When you feel a negative, you have to spin it into a positive action step. Too many players focus on what their average is going end up like at the end of the season instead of focusing on what they can do now to help their chances of success! This leads perfectly into Mental Training Exercise #2, make your goals actions you want to accomplish on your very next swing!
When you get right down to it, it is really just increasing the number of positive proactive action steps you tell yourself to do! Are you getting the idea! Every swing you take allows you the opportunity to learn what you did right, and what you need to do right next time. If you did something right tell your self to repeat that action. If you need to do an action right next time, tell yourself to do. By telling yourself what to do, you are actively programming your mind to perform at a higher level. This is why I suggest you have at least three ?goals? you ?set? for yourself before every swing. Before long, you will be a positive performance machine that isn?t concerned about the past or the future. You will be focused on the ?now?, which is a very powerful place to be!
If this seems incredibly simple then you would be correct! However, simple does not mean easy. Humans are mentally programmed to be negative, which means you are fighting an uphill battle! The good news is your mind is just like a muscle and can be trained the same way. The more positive phrasing you tell yourself, the more positive you will naturally become. The real key is seeing each previous at-bat as a learning experience and not a success or failure. If you are able to remain in the now, and continuously-proactively set your ?goals? for you very next swing you will remain a dominant consistent hitter that will be able to perform under any situation!
Every player has heard the phrase, ?I can?t teach you to be confident, that is something that you are going to have to do on your own!? Up until a few years ago, I would have 100% agreed with them. However, after my recent studies in psychology, I was wrong! The act of being confident, much like training your physical mechanics and your muscles, has to be learned. Fortunately, we have the tools and understanding to accomplish that now! Among all of the batting techniques that are out there, there are to very powerful mental training exercises your player can use to overcome any of his baseball batting woes.
For starters, I want to let you know that it doesn?t matter what level of play your player may be at. Several prominent professional like Alex Rodriguez who has had abysmal performances in the playoffs up until late, or Tejada who threw his bats over the dugout a few years back suffer from these same issues . On the personal side of things, a minor leaguer who is loosing confidence after 9 very successful seasons in the pros recently contacted me. With that in mind, it?s safe to assume, that those who aren?t at the professional level, little leaguers, high school players, and college players are struggling with the same batting battle.
The long and short of a baseball batting slump comes down to two mental states and the wrong type of focus. Let?s start with focus and work backwards. Everywhere you look players are judged based on their statistics. As a result, players are taught from a young age, that good day at the plate involves a hit, regardless of how they got that hit. On the contrary, a bad day at the plate is going 0 for, even if every time up they hit a hard line drive. We want to see high numbers in the stats column, and as a result, a player?s confidence is derived from seeing the results instead focusing what it is they need to do to get there! This is precisely why so many players love to get a hit in their first at bat, because they no matter how they perform the rest of the game they at least got one hit!
If a player doesn?t get a hit in his first at-bat, the pressure begins to mount. Each successive at-bat piles on top of each other and before player?s have a chance to take a breath, each at-bat becomes the make or break moment of their career. Whether they begin swinging at every pitch they see, or take pitches right down the middle because they are afraid to get out, they enter a emotional state and loose their ability to make good decisions.
You see, the mind can only be in one of two mental states at once. There is the emotional state, which is result oriented and typically leads to making less than desirable decisions. Then there is the logical state where you are able to see the issues around you objectively and see all of the angles in effort to find the best solution. Unfortunately, most player?s will spend the majority of their career in the emotional state which leads me to Mental Baseball Training Technique #1: create positive proactive action steps that help you correct the now!
Unfortunately, most player?s will never make a it past, ?I?m not going 0 for today? or ?I am going to get a hit this time around?. Sorry sport, contrary to what mom says, pure determination and telling yourself you are going to get a hit just won?t cut it! What will cut it is telling yourself very specific positive action steps that you can perform on your very next swing. For instance, if you are having trouble dropping your back shoulder, you shouldn?t tell yourself, ?Don?t drop your back shoulder!?. Don?t is a negative! Instead, try drive your backside harder, or drive your hands down through the zone. Always be in the process of solving your problem and moving towards a solution instead of running away from your mistakes!
Another way to think about it is to be in the process of solving a problem not running away from the result! Saying that, this will not come easy! Just like training your mechanics, you have to train your mind. When you feel a negative, you have to spin it into a positive action step. Too many players focus on what their average is going end up like at the end of the season instead of focusing on what they can do now to help their chances of success! This leads perfectly into Mental Training Exercise #2, make your goals actions you want to accomplish on your very next swing!
When you get right down to it, it is really just increasing the number of positive proactive action steps you tell yourself to do! Are you getting the idea! Every swing you take allows you the opportunity to learn what you did right, and what you need to do right next time. If you did something right tell your self to repeat that action. If you need to do an action right next time, tell yourself to do. By telling yourself what to do, you are actively programming your mind to perform at a higher level. This is why I suggest you have at least three ?goals? you ?set? for yourself before every swing. Before long, you will be a positive performance machine that isn?t concerned about the past or the future. You will be focused on the ?now?, which is a very powerful place to be!
If this seems incredibly simple then you would be correct! However, simple does not mean easy. Humans are mentally programmed to be negative, which means you are fighting an uphill battle! The good news is your mind is just like a muscle and can be trained the same way. The more positive phrasing you tell yourself, the more positive you will naturally become. The real key is seeing each previous at-bat as a learning experience and not a success or failure. If you are able to remain in the now, and continuously-proactively set your ?goals? for you very next swing you will remain a dominant consistent hitter that will be able to perform under any situation!
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