Baseball Confidence

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The memorial service was Tuesday.

Thank you to all of you who wrote back to me after my email about my fried John passing last week. And to those who thought of him and me whether you wrote or not.

And to those of you who read the email and then thought of yourself and what you want to do with your life before its over. (missed the email I’m talking about? www.BaseballConfidence.com/blog)

THAT’s the Big Leagues of mental training, that issue right there.

Who do you want to be? As a player, coach, parent? When it’s all over, who do you want to have been?

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Desire.

That’s the fuel. Gotta have it if you want to accomplish your dreams.

But what happens when you want it so bad you get in your own way?

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WHAT A LONG STRIDE CAN HIDE

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Wednesday I had a player here for his second lesson with me. He came in the first time as a guy with huge desire…
and huge expectations that he should be perfect.

“I should succeed every time,” said his uncovered unconscious belief, “or I shouldn’t be here at all.”

Tough to play great with that going on, with that program running in the background of your head.

Each time to the plate is a referendum on your personal value.

A recipe for tension and poor focus, a player’s most vicious foes.

He said he hits great in practice but in games his stride is too big and his swing is too long.

In the past I would have talked with him about relaxing and having fun. Actually, I’d have let him tell me about what he’s like when he does play great.

And we’d learn from that and then work on his routine.

Very good stuff.

But not good enough. Not any more. Not when there are better tools. Not when he (and I) are aware of how limited our time is to play here on earth.

So we tapped. And tapped.

We went into his past and cleared things out. We went into the programs that run his performance and re-wrote them.

He tapped on his own afterwards.

“Amazing,” he said as he sat in front of me for the second time weeks later. “At least 100% improvement. I can make an out now and it’s no big deal. It happens to everyone.”

This from a guy who previously would throw a rage fit upon making an out. Several years of behavior changed in one hour.

He moved from 7th to 5th to 2nd in the order.

It doesn’t always go like this, this fast. But it goes.

Consider this: if you walk into your bathroom right now and find the water running in the sink and the sink over flowing, do you first go for a mop or shut off the water?

The stuff in Heads-Up Baseball I see as the mop. Important, but not directly addressing the issue.

Sometimes a mop is all you need.

But tapping gets at the water tap. The source.

We tapped a little on this guy’s over striding in our first session, but not much.

His stride in games is now what he wants it to be. Because the source of the over striding was his internal programming putting pressure on him to succeed.

The source trumps the symptom.

Tapping is a bit weird. But given that you’ve only got so much time on this earth, and much less time to play baseball, I find my clients are more than willing to do something a bit unusual to get the best possible results.

I’ll be teaching a tapping course on the phone starting in December.

The best quality mental training at the best price is all right now at www.FreeBaseballConfidence.com

Get the free program. Then get the ($120)dvds for $30, then sign up for the tapping course (and get my whole Hank Aaron interview for no extra charge as a bonus!).

If you already have the dvds (really great mops) and just want the tapping course, stay tuned, I’ll give you info soon.

Stay focused,

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

p.s. Please feel free to forward this email to 3 people.

www.FreeBaseballConfidence.com

My friend John Otterness gave me a wonderful birthday present night before last.

He then died yesterday.

I’d picked him up at the cancer center and driven him to his home where the Hospice guy was waiting.

We maneuvered him into a reclining chair.

True to our entire relationship, John was giving to me the whole time, but it’s in that chair that I’ll remember it best.

It wasn’t what he said (he couldn’t say much), it wasn’t what he did (he didn’t do much but breathe), but it was in allowing me to see this great man, a big, strong, Texas man, be so graceful and well-spirited when he knew virtually every thing he did was the last time he’d do it.

He gave me the reminder that that chair is waiting for me.

Someday that will be me.

May be sooner, may be later, but one day I’ll be in that chair (or its equivalent).

So when later that night both my kids, at separate times, woke up and woke me up, I actually enjoyed it.

Because I knew I wouldn’t always be able to get up. Someday they’ll likely help me into a chair.

I doubt I’ll be able to hold that strong of a perspective on life all the time. (You know how when you’re sick you think you’ll never take being healthy for granted again, but then you do?)

But I’ll try.

And so one take away can be one of the core principles of the mental game:

Have a big picture vision of your target, of what you want in the future (what do we want to have for memories while we sit in the chair?) and then pour everything we’ve got into the present moment.

Focus on enjoying and competing on each of life’s pitches as if that chair was waiting for us.

Because it is.

Thank you, John.

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

Go now to FreeBaseballConfidence.com and get yours!

My friend and fellow Rays fan Nancy Laine created a really, really great video for you to watch.

Strike that — for you to feel.

As you watch it — feel into it. Imagine you are each guy in the video. Feel what it would be like to be him at that moment the photo was taken.

Feel what the words say (i.e., gratitude).

The movie grabs you by the shirt collar and nearly forces you to powerfully visualize. But you still could hold back.

Don’t.

Let go and feel the feelings that come with the images and music.

And one more thing about how great this exercise is: it was made BEFORE the Rays clinched the East. So before they were even in the playoffs.

Lesson: See, hear and feel now what you want to see hear and feel in the future.

If you’re serious about your baseball future, contact my friend Nancy Laine and talk with her about having her make one of these for you (or your son or daughter — what a perfect gift! The Holidays are coming up… give the gift of confidence.)

Call her at 727-787-9825 or email her at Nancy@NancyLaine.com

Go Rays,

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

Go Rays.

What a great thing. Worst to first.

From laugh at to laugh with in one year.

How do you do that?

If you’ve been around with me for a while you might be able
to guess.

If not, you’re apt to recognize what they’ve done, but not
put words to it that satisfy you.

That gives you less power to pull a “Rays” yourself.

(or to “Rays” yourself up by your bootstraps) (or “give
yourself a Rays”), or…

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“He with the best distinctions wins.”

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That means you’ve got lots more power to effect change if
you can better distinguish one thing from another in a
given context.

A guy worked on my computer last night and now I have loads
more power. He can distinguish what things mean and what
will happen if you push the keys in a certain order.

I’ve got fewer distinctions around computers than he does, so
I’ve got less power to get what I want with them than he
does.

A guy worked on my car a couple of weeks ago. Now it runs
better.

He can distinguish what things do and what will
happen if you twist and turn and bang and clang on things
in a certain order.

So he’s got more power than I do to create desired results
around a car.

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Joe Maddon has taken a team — highly talented, we can’t
overlook that — and led them to be today’s Rays because he
has a lot of distinctions around team performance that
other managers don’t have.

Too often coaches look at their team and see only
technique, strategy, and physical conditioning issues.

But the distinction Joe Maddon makes is in the domain of
self-image.

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Given our talent level, we perform consistent with our
self-image.

********************************

The Rays last year had much the self-image as they had the
previous 9 or 10 years: “We’re bad. We lose.”

If that’s your self image, what do you think your
self-conscious is picturing when you are losing or in a
close game?

We perform consistent with who we see ourselves to be.

Who do you see yourself to be? What is your pictoral
representation of yourself?

As an individual? As a team?

***************************************

Positive team self-image happens when a leader creates an
emotional context conducive to self-image growth.

***************************************

Like a gardener, the leader must cultivate the soil the
seeds are in.

He can’t make them grow. He can’t change who they are at
their core.

But he can create a “context” in which they can tap into
their potential.

Tim Gallwey says: Performance = Potential - Interference.

A good “gardener” removes not only the external
interference (the stuff from the outside that can interfere
with free flowing performance), he also helps players
remove internal interference.

Doubts. Fears. Dejection. Disappointment.

Joe Maddon is a great gardener.

A devotee of Heads-Up Baseball (he influenced our thoughts
as Ken Ravizza when we were writing it, so that one cuts
both ways), Maddon sees things others don’t see.

He has distinctions others don’t have so he has more power
to create desired results with a team than almost any other
manager.

So add this distinction to your tool kit: self-image.

Works at the individual and team level.

Want to expand your performance? Expand your self-image.

How do you do that?

The 9=8 thing is all about expanding the team’s self-image.

Planting the visual seed: “If we all focus on doing our jobs great
for this one game today, we can end up being one of the
last 8 teams playing.”

He had the distinction “self-image.” He planted a visual
image/seed. And cultivated it, and cultivated it and
cultivated it.

The Fall is harvest time.

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
www.BaseballConfidence.com
www.FreeBaseballConfidence.com

It was a bright, sunny mid-January morning at the Yankee minor league complex here in Tampa.

I had grabbed a random catcher’s mitt and was sh agging BP for some big leaguers taking some extra hacks with a couple of other coaches.

Posada, O’Neil, Jeter and someone else were taking turns at the dish.

I’m in right center and a light breeze is in my face.

Jeter’s up, and airmails one of his signature drives to right center.

“Too high,” I thought, “he didn’t get it all.”

That means I should catch it.

It had been a while since I’d tracked fly balls from the outfield (or anywhere for that matter) and when coupled with the cloudless blue high sky and four World Champions and three coaches I wanted to build rapport with and gain the respect of made for a compelling moment.

As a highly educated sport psychology expert I immediately had a wonderfully helpful thought:

“Don’t choke.”

Well, the last thing I wanted was the ball to go over my head. That looks the worst. I can always go for the basket catch if I’m too deep.

So I stay put.

It keeps coming and coming. Floating and floating.

I just track it and track it.

I was still leaning forward because I knew he didn’t really hit it (or did he), but darn if it didn’t at least look like it was still carrying.

Yes, it was.

I was already standing on edge of the warning track (remember, better to have balls fall in front), but now I start to walk back.

I want to catch it, but not go overboard. (Perform AND be cool, Tom, that’s mature thinking).

I raise my glove, still walking back.

“Good grief, how far is this ball going?”

Just keep tracking, tracking, tracking.

BLANG!

My extended arm hits the 6-foot chain link fence.

RIP! the ball rips through some leaves on a tree that overhang the fence.

SPLAT! the ball lands in my glove, well above the fence.

So in real time that was: BLANGRIPSPLAT!

“Wow,” I thought, “that just happened.”

So I cooly wing the ball toward the bucket behind 2nd. And walked back to my spot.

TH 1, Jeter 0.

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The point I’ll make off of that is that there were a lot of factors that could be termed “stressful,” including how I was going to look to people I wanted respect from, I got a good result because I stayed focus on what was most important.

The Ball.

I had some bad thoughts. I hadn’t practiced, but I got the result because I stayed focused on the ball.

I spoke with a big leaguer yesterday about a great performance he had.

“It’s a testament to staying focused on the plan,” he said.

The money is in the plan.

And in a mastery of staying focused on it when the forces of evil (like your stats and how you look) tempt you to press for the result you want.

Sincerely,

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
www.HansonsGym.com

p.s. You’re way ahead of where I was that day if you practice. I tell you what to practice and take you through practices in all my programs.

Get the one that calls to you today at
http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/Products.html

p.p.s. And please forward this to anyone that enjoys a true story.

BLANGRIPSPLAT!

The Rays are just the tip of the iceberg today, read on and believe…

Beyond the outcome of last night’s game, tune into this:
Hero of the game? Pena with a 3 run HR in the 14th.

** But before that he struck out TWICE… in extra innings! **

Then comes back and goes with an outside pitch over the monster.

That’s what we’re talking about here — a relentless commitment to your process — regardless of previous results.

Hear him interviewed at
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_09_10_tbamlb_bosmlb_1&mode=wrap

Again, a relentless commitment to your process — regardless of previous results.

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And here are emails from two clients I’m excited to have the permission to share…

1. This college player sat his entire freshman year because he couldn’t throw the ball back to the pitcher…

He writes…

Hey Tom, Throwing went really well today. I think I threw it to the chest almost every time.

I even threw long toss and it felt pretty good.

My teammates are shocked!

I tried tapping on the sides of my fingers when I was walking around and I liked how it made me feel. I felt very tall and confident.

My meeting [with the coaches] went really well. I told him I was getting tremendous help from you. He seemed excited that I can throw now.

He even suggested that I help some other guys with their throwing YIPS they have every once and a while.

Imagine that.

I went from not being to throw it back to the pitcher to being asked to help other guys out.

I never thought I would ever hear him tell me that.

Thanks again Tom. I will let you know if I run into any problems that we can tap out. I will continue to tap on my own.

Thomas Chadwick

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2. On the call I did two nights ago (Gym members have access to the recording), super tapper Nick Acosta, a HS senior from the Miami area, told about how his mother was considering going to the hospital because of abdominal pain, but then he tapped her down from a 7 (pain level out of 10) to a zero.

And she slept soundly all night.

!

And here he comments on his yips throwing problem…

Hey Dr. Hanson,

This is Nick from the last two teleseminars. Just wanted to update you on my throwing. Its been great, I’m throwing to any point at will. I want to thank you for your expertise and help. .

Nick Acosta

P.S. I just finished helping my mom with EFT with some pain she had … she said she felt like she was having a heart attack but now shes sleeping soundly, pain free. Its a good feeling you know, because she cared for me when I was sick and now I get to repay her care and for that I thank you sir; for guiding me in EFT.

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That’s enough for today.

I hope you’re getting the results you want… these people that stepped up are.

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

To learn how to do what Pena did get this:
http://www.baseballconfidence.com/Hit_&_Pitch.html

To learn how to tap yourself happy, join the Gym WWW.BaseballConfidence.com/gym.html

Or contact me for 1-1 phone sessions. I’m running a Fall Ball special.

Get the dvds on pre-pitch routines AND the Gym for a great
deal: www.BaseballConfidence.com/gym.html

And please forward this email to your teammates, thank you.

Just a few days after I said the Rays won’t choke they’ve now lost 6 of 7 and there 5.5 game lead is down to .5.

Choking?

I don’t know.

Maybe.

But they’ve run into some great pitching. They’re still missing two of their best players (3B Longoria, CF
Crawford) and their closer is a gunfighter but old and oft injured (Percival).

They’ve thrived this season on winning close games. Gutting them out. Someone comes through.

No one player has had the team on his back. They’ve

There’s been a sense of magic, of destiny.

They don’t seem to have that luster right now. It has always felt they’d find a way to win.

Now it doesn’t feel that way — there’s a sense of doing the math for how many games they could lose and still get the wild card.

I think they’ll get it back.

But typically teams and individuals in this situation (a run of negative results) will wait around until someone comes through, a big hit falls in, the other team gives them a game, something.

Waiting for that is called being a Victim.

A Victim of circumstances.

A Victim lets what happens outside of them determine what goes on inside of them.

I help players and teams learn to be Players. A Player generates their own “state” (confidence, positive energy,
focus) by how they think and move their bodies.

A Player doesn’t wait around for positive results to happen to them.

A Player creates the state they want, when they want.

They’ve learned to do this through practice. They’ve acquired the skills required to feel positive and confident regardless of recent results.

So they Rays need to connect with the magic again. Generate the state of lightness, joy, and fire they’ve had all year.

Regardless of circumstances.

And focus on the process of performance they’ve been focused on all year.

It gets tougher to block out the end result as the end result gets nearer.

This is where the practice intensity comes in. This is where the practice specificity (specifically practicing being confident, being focused on your routine, etc) comes in.

(Typically players and coaches focus just on mechanics and strategy and hope they hold up under pressure — ignoring the fact that you can train your mental muscles so they can hold up heavier weights).

It’s Baseball in the Fall — beautiful stuff.

Go Rays,

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
www.HansonsGym.com

p.s. Your version of Baseball in the Fall is coming. Your next tryout, your next showcase, your next season, your next tournament.

Don’t wait until the last minute to say “Oh, I’m nervous, maybe I should get something to help my mental game.”

Does the farmer wait until the Fall and say, “Oh, I should hurry up and plant some seeds, it’s almost harvest time!”?

Popular choices for you include:

(if you join the gym today you’ll get in on a call tonight at 9 where you can get coached on anything you want) CLICK HERE

Get my dvd programs that drill you on creating a pre-pitch routine (the key to confidence, consistency, and composure under pressure)

(have you heard my interview with the JC coach that used these programs to reach the JC World Series?) CLICK HERE

Focus is THE master skill of superior performance,Tom.

(of really poor performance as well, actually).

In my coaching of players, coaches and business executives, I often refer to one movie clip.

One of the best movie clips of all time in my opinion.

It provides a beautiful metaphor for what we each have to do to be successful in whatever we endeavor.

Distractions abound. The “pressure” is on.

But can you identify your “target” and ….

Well, I won’t spoil it for you.

This is from our new leadership/executive coaching blog…

(cut and paste that link if it breaks)

Sincerely,

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
www.HansonsGym.com

p.s. For baseball/softball specific help TRAINING this quality (which is what you need to do to be able to do it under pressure), go here

p.p.s. Some huge progress was made by people on the first “Throwing Freely” teleseminar Tuesday. I’ve yet to not be amazed. (If you want in, use a link from an earlier email from me — or join the Gym.

And please forward this to anyone that might benefit from it.

Hail the Mighty Rays!

I had to pass this on to you today — one on line article
is virtually a baseball coaching/mental training program onto itself.

Here’s just a sampling of the quotes:

“We were just trying to put some good at-bats together [in
the eighth] and I think the best example of that was Aki’s
at-bat,” Pena said, admiringly. “Staying within himself,
seeing the ball, working the count to 3-2, then fouling off
a bunch of pitches and finally getting a walk.

“That’s not easy, man. You’ve got to be cold-blooded to be
in that situation and concentrate on only seeing the ball,
and staying in your zone and stuff like that. Needless to
say, it’s not normal for a human being to maintain, stay
poised in a situation like that, and Aki did it
unbelievably. … It takes its toll on a pitcher. … I
think that was the key at-bat in that rally.”

B.J. Upton followed with an RBI single to tie the game at
3, before Pena’s two-run single then put the Rays up, 5-3.

“[My] first reaction was, ‘I want to do something really
big,’” Pena said. “But again, calm yourself down, don’t get
too excited, go back to the basics. ‘I know this guy throws
hard, but what’s the ultimate thing you want to do?’ You
want to see the ball and you want to be relaxed and that’s
going to give you the best chance possible to actually do
something. And I was able to execute my plan, and next
thing you know, base hit to right field.”

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My suggestion: go to the link below and print out the
article, then go through it with a highlighter for the
several great mental game quotes.

FULL BASEBALL COACHING ARTICLE

Post it somewhere for frequent reading.

And pass this email on to your whole team.

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

p.s. Baseball coaching bonus: Take your pick of great no charge mental training at
http://www.BaseballConfidence.com