How to Hit Like Pete Rose
Sorry if you missed my conversation yesterday with Ces
Coulson.
On the one hand it was pretty deep — but on the other it
was so simple.
Sort of like hitting: See the ball, hit the ball. That’s
what Pete Rose told me about hitting.
“You’re talking to the wrong guy,” he said after I asked
him about the mental aspects of hitting, “I was pretty
simple: See the ball, hit the ball.”
Ces, MVP of the 2006 USSSA Women’s Slow Pitch National
Championship, talked about being centered. You may have
heard that term, but it’s unlikely you’ve heard it talked
about the way she did.
I reckon the people that listened that didn’t get much out
of it didn’t actually do what she was saying at the time.
But whether you heard her or not, and whether you did what
she said or not here’s the point: it’s not about doing
something once.
It’s about practice.
How did you go from a non-driver to a skilled driver?
How the heck did my brother get so good at conducting that
he could conduct the NY Philharmonic?
How did Luther College Baseball go from worst to first and
then stay there in the mid-80’s?
How did Ces Coulson going from being a really good player
to a great player?
How do you think you go from being a choker who
consistently under performs to a clutch champion?
How do you think you go from the level you’re now at to the
next level?
Yes, practice is the answer to all those.
But you also have to know what to practice. In order to
take the shortest route to your goal (a straight line), you
must
1) know the right things to practice 2) practice them
So my encouragement to you is to have a “practice.”
Practice is a noun and a verb.
A practice is a set of exercises — or just one exercise –
that you do daily.
Practice being confident. Practice letting go of negative
emotions. Practice being calm and self-assured.
It’s like how the military takes a guy off the street and
turns them into someone that keeps his/her cool under live
fire.
Practice. Training.
As you do your practice you change. Just like your muscles
change when you run or lift weights.
“You are what you practice.” — Richard Strozzi-Heckler
You don’t just arm yourself with tools you can use when the
heat is on, you become someone different.
So that “the heat” doesn’t seem so hot anymore.
Scouts being at your games. Parents yelling at you. Close
games. Making mechanical changes. Having two strikes on you.
They don’t seem like heat.
That’s what practice will do.
As long as you practice the right things.
You are what you practice.
Have a good practice.
Sincerely,
Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
www.HansonsGym.com
p.s. Guess where you can find the right things to practice
and get support to keep you going? Where you can be part of
a team that helps you and answers questions?
The Gym.
Loaded with the right things to do to put you on a straight
line path to the next level.
Join the few, the proud, the practiced…
http://www.hansonsgym.com/site.php/subs/subscription_plans
p.p.s. I’ll be posting the Ces Coulson interview in there
later today.
p.p.s. Members, be sure to visit Jay Kamin’s blog in the Gym (under Main > Blog
Please forward this email to people.
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!