Baseball Skills: Baseball Errors Explained

September 27, 2009 by Dr. Tom · Comment
Filed under: Baseball Training 

The baseball skills a player “has” don’t always show up on the field.

That is, players typically don’t play to their potential.

Why is that?

Here’s a model you might find useful in understanding this…

Click here for more info and a free video with the #1 Success Secret.

Baseball Coaching: How to Motivate Today’s Player

September 23, 2009 by Dr. Tom · Comment
Filed under: Baseball Coaching 

Straight from the mail bag today:

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Coach Jason writes:

IN THESE DAYS OF ‘EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY’ AND IF YOU DIE IN THE VIDEO GAME YOU GET UNLIMITED LIVES … HOW DO YOU MOTIVATE A KID THAT HAS ABOVE AVERAGE TALENT TO EXCEL AND NOT JUST PLAY AT THE LEVEL THAT IS HIS COMFORT ZONE?

YOU KNOW, HOW DO YOU GET
100%-ALL-OUT-WIN-OR-GO-HOME-WITH-MY-BALL EFFORT?

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TH: First of all, you might not be able to. For a coach or parent, a player’s motivation lies in the land of “I care about it but I can’t control it.”

Understanding what you can and can’t control is a foundational element of the mental game.

Hitters need to realize (“realize” is a whole different ball game from “knowing”) they can’t control getting a hit; pitchers need to realize they can’t control getting a batter out.

Likewise for the coach and parent re: player motivation

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But of course that doesn’t mean you don’t do anything about it. I could go on for book length about this question.

But today I’ll touch on one often overlooked piece: context.

By context I mean the surrounding elements in a player’s physical world which give rise to his all-importnat inner context (beliefs).

Let’s just say by context I mean his environment.

So my answer to Coach Jason’s question is to improve the player’s context.

(The normal approach is to focus on HIM. I’m saying focus on his environment.)

Put him in an environment that inspires him; gives him a taste of a good life that could come from playing good baseball.

For example…

Why is Tampa a baseball hot-bed producing more players than many other similar sized metro areas? There are “cues” in the Tampa environment that suggest a good life if you play good baseball.

And since this Tampa player and that Tampa player and that other Tampa player made it big and you are from Tampa YOU can make it big too, if you work.

A young Tampa player at my son’s Citrus Park field, for example, sees trophies of State Champions that have come before, including last summer’s Little League WS team.

The success is palpable in the environment.

I also felt it the first time I walked onto the Yankee’s minor league complex. The environment elevated performance.

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So my answer is to put this player in situations where success is expected. Hard work is the norm.

And where he can taste success. Taste passion. Taste the fun that comes from really committing and playing full out.

And the “taste” is hugely important.

A great talent can’t just be told about the great fun possible if he works hard, he needs to experience it.

So look for ways to get him that taste. One example is a personal brush with a role model. Another is my Baseball Success Secrets Coaching Program.

www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com

Each week he’ll get an exercise to do that will give him the FEELING of great success. Feel success enough and you start to want more.

It’s like a drug. So maybe think of yourself as a “success pusher” — giving a player samples of the success feeling until he gets hooked.

Of course, just like a hitter, you can do everything right and still strike out. (but it’s not very smart to focus much on that…)

Dr. Tom
Tom Hanson, Ph.D.

p.s. Re-formatting my dissertation has taken a lot longer than I anticipated and I apologize to BSSCP members, but I’ll be done in the next few days.

Part of the delay is I’m re-experiencing it for really the first time since I set it aside in 1992.

Reading the words of Oliva, Musial, Aaron, Carew and Yaz has really been inspiring to me. The info in these 335 pages is staggering.

And my colleagues are wondering what I’m thinking giving it as a bonus for a $4.95 investment.

So once I get it done and do the “FAST START” bonus teleseminar Thursday night I will re-evaluate whether I will let it out for gratis.

So if you haven’t yet got the CD “The 7 Success Secrets of Baseball’s All-time Best” and the 2 weeks in my coaching program (with exercises that let you taste success) and my “Confidence Conditioning for Baseball” program and my doctoral dissertation (“The Mental Aspects of Hitting) for just the shipping cost, please do so now before I re-evaluate my bonus offer and start selling my
dissertation:

www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com

p.p.s And please tweet this.

p.p.s. Last second thought: Coach or parent, YOU are a major part of his context. So you can upgrade his context by upgrading yourself. THAT is what my program does for you.

Baseball Coaching Strategies: Get Hitters to Mute Neo-cortex!

September 18, 2009 by Dr. Tom · Comment
Filed under: Baseball Coaching 

Below is an article I’d really like you to read.

It’s by a former Big League pitcher, though it reads like
its been written by a really smart guy…

(I’ve had ML pitchers tell me they wish they weren’t
intelligent so they wouldn’t think themselves to death.)

Dave Baldwin analyzes what goes in inside a batter’s brain
and the rest of his body while a pitch is on it’s way.

It explains a lot about what it takes to succeed as a
hitter and as a pitcher.

———————————-

To Think or Not to Think?

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One highlight is Baldwins’s talking about the functions of
the different parts of the brain, namely the neo-cortex and
the limbic system.

(I break this down in a very practical, useful way at the
start of Week 2 lesson in my new program “Baseball Success
Secrets.”

The lesson shows you clearly why the primary goal of mental
game training, and, for my $$, the primary goal of baseball
training period is to _______.)

Baldwin emphasizes that any activity in the neo-cortex
messes up hitters. It explains why virtually every hitter
will tell you he hits best when he’s “not thinking.”

Thinking = neo-cortex activity.

———————————-

Check out THIS Quote from the Article…

———————————-

“The batter’s noggin has about 270 msec or a little more
than a quarter of a second to get its ducks in a row and
start the swing.

“But, although the bat has started its journey, the
batter’s conscious mind is still unaware that the batter
has decided to swing.”

———————————-

Did You Catch That?

———————————-

The body has decided to swing before the conscious mind
even knows it!

This emphasizes one of the central points of my training:
confidence is not just a brain thing: it’s a whole body
thing.

Thus, it doesn’t help you to KNOW things about how to
perform. The thing has to BE IN YOUR BODY.

That’s why each week in my program you get some knowledge
in the form of a lesson or what I call a “distinction.”

AND you get a practice (an exercise): Something to DO so
that confidence and trust and belief get into your BODY,
not just into your neo-cortex (where it does you “know”
good).

———————————

So here’s the article:
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/09/unraveling_the.php

———————————

Then if you haven’t grabbed your fr.e.e. trial of Baseball
Success Secrets Coaching Program, do it now at
www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com

You can be doing the first exercise, which compels you to
feel unstoppable self-confidence, in just a few minutes.

(notice you FEEL it, don’t just THINK it)

The program is for Coaches and Parents as well as players.

That’s all for now –

Play with Confidence,

Dr. Tom

p.s. We’re well past 100, but my dissertation has been such
a popular bonus that I’m extending it for at least today.
You’ll also get in on the FAST START teleseminar next week
where I’ll coach you on how to turbo charge your confidence.

p.s.s. If you’ve already grabbed the $4.95 offer (for
postage), the dissertation bonus will be sent Monday.

p.s.s.s. Here’s the link where high achievers are taking
action: www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com

Please Tweet it!

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