Improving Your Mental Game In Baseball

No doubt, if you have an athlete involved in youth baseball today, he has experienced some disappointment. Thats ok, its part of athletics; it builds character. The problem I want to dissect here is how and why these game to game disappointments sometimes turn into prolonged slumps, or long-term struggles.

Baseball is a game of failure, Im sure youve heard that many times. Therefore, the game to game failures are usually caused from a particular skill that has yet to be develop as good as it can be. The long-term struggles are usually a bit more complex and are the combination of physical skill deficiencies and mental game problem such as lack of confidence. A recipe for a long-term slump is when the physical problem is combined with mental problems.

So how do short-term performance issues slip into log-term slumps? It has to do with what types of mental pictures a players minds eye take. I frequently explain to athletes when I teach this concept that all of us have brains that take snapshots of all we do in life. Over time, your mind dumps all the pictures that do not have emotions attached to them. This is why you tend to remember clearly your injuries, graduations, first dates, etc. and forget other things that are less emotional.

Unfortunately, prolonged poor performances come with usually extreme emotions. The longer the performance struggles continue with the same emotions, the more frequent an athletes mind replays the mental image of his failure.

The solution to fixing a struggling mental game is to change the mental image your mind has stored. Instead of seeing the failure or series of failures, begin to see those failures turn into successes. Rather than seeing yourself strike out looking at bat, see yourself hit the pitch into the left-center gap for a double. Rather than seeing yourself make an error in the infield, see yourself backhand the ball and throw out the runner at first base. This skill is a bit tricky and strange at first since you are essentially lying to your brain. But, with time and frequent practice, youll be able to lessen the impact of failures and experience continued growth as an athlete.

Tagged with: Baseball

Filed under: Baseball

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