How to Make Your Performances Breathtaking
This is a glorious time of year for us mental game-arians:
college baseball playoffs.
I can see the guys working their pre-pitch routines, taking their pre-pitch deep breaths. (The top teams almost all either have coaches that are into the mental game or they use a consultant to teach the stuff.)
It seems like the players really get that each pitch is important, that they need to really be focused to give themselves their best chance of dog piling on each other at the end of it all.
So you see the breaths in particular. Its sort of a “Deep-Breath-apolooza.
But…
Newsflash: every pitch in a game throughout the whole season is important.
These guys are still playing in part because they get that.
They do it all year. It’s not something you “turn on” for the playoffs.
If that’s your approach you won’t get to the playoffs.
I remember a Single A level player telling me “I can’t wait to get to the Big Leagues. You see those guys? They look so relaxed and free.”
The short of where I went with the conversation is that they GOT to the Big Leagues by playing that way, they didn’t get there and then free up and let go.
“Oh,” he said.
So the key is to start now. Elevate your game to where you’re focused consistently. To where you’re playing free and focused.
This is a learnable skill.
I’ve watched it be developed in my students and I’m experiencing it now myself.
I’ve improved my play on my softball team dramatically by applying the stuff I teach to others. As I’ve practiced and refined my mental approach I’ve gotten better and better and the games are funner and funner.
For example, since I’ve been practicing just two of the many ideas I got from Garin Bader in this month’s Baseball Confidence Gym CD I’m 9 for 9 with a slugging % of over 2.000. With no HRs (big park).
That’s a lot of doubles. 2 doubles, a triple and a walk tonight.
So pick a mental tool and work on it.
And get into each pitch — the game is so much more fun and the results are so much sweeter.
Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
p.s. Much of what the top teams are doing have roots in “Heads-Up Baseball,” the book Ken Ravizza and I wrote over 10 years ago.
I’ve advanced the programs and made them simpler to use. To see the line up go to www.BaseballConfidence.com/Products.html
Click here for more on baseball coaching.
Heads-Up Performance Inc
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