Baseball Skills: Baseball Errors Explained
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
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!
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.
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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.
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Check out THIS Quote from the Article…
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“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.”
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Did You Catch That?
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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).
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So here’s the article:
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/09/unraveling_the.php
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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!
Baseball Confidence is NOT in Your Head!
“Damn!” I yelled as I pounded my fist on my desk.
“ERROR — DISK FULL” said my computer screen.
I’d just paid $114.73 to have the memory on my
computer doubled.
Doubled!
Yet here, just 15 days later, I get this message and my
work comes to a grinding halt.
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Remember, first ever “Success-athon” coming Monday….
Details at www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com
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What was the problem?
How could I have doubled my computer’s memory but in 15
days be OUT OF MEMORY?
I didn’t know.
So I called in an expert.
(I love experts. They relieve me of having to know
everything.)
Pieter, who has focused his whole professional life on
computers, diagnosed it quickly.
“You added memory by adding G and H drives and they have
massive space available,” he said. “But your computer is
using the C drive to operate. Your C drive is full and
that’s why you are getting that error message.
“Your computer isn’t set up to use the space it has right
now, we’ll need to re-configure it.”
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Bingo!
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So it didn’t help to know that there was tons of space
available on my computer.
My computer wasn’t using it! It could “tell me” that there
was tons of space available.
The computer “knew” it was there….
But the computer wasn’t set up to use it.
So it didn’t.
The inner workings of my computer had to be set up
differently. They had to be conditioned.
So Pieter the expert did what he needed to do and coached
me on what to do when he wasn’t there.
It took awhile to move things (from the C drive to the G
and H drives). It didn’t happen over night.
But in time — it took a few visits from him as the data
had to be moved in stages — things got aligned.
My computer now operates with the speed and efficiency that
I need it to (and PAID for it to do!).
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Why Did I Tell You This Story?
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I told you this story because it directly parallels one of
the core principles of baseball success (and softball
success, and business success, and relationship success,
and everything else).
Do you KNOW confidence is important?
Of course you do.
But it doesn’t help you to KNOW that confidence is
important to playing, coaching and parenting.
It doesn’t help you to have that info in your head.
It has to be in your body. You have to actually BE
confident.
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How to Install Confidence in Your Body (and others’)
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This idea that confidence (and focus, and desire, and
determination and resilience, and mental toughness) must be
in your BODY, not your HEAD is a cornerstone of my
“Baseball Success Secrets Coaching Program.”
As you’ll see Tuesday at noon, the program gives you
exercises that put confidence in your body.
So you FEEL it.
(Players don’t say “I thought confident out there.” They
say, “I FELT confident out there.)
I play the role of Pieter.
I’ve focused my entire professional life on the psychology
of success in baseball. I’ve been a DI hitting coach, DIII
head coach, consultant to the Rangers and Yankees and many
others.
My focus hasn’t been on gaining knowledge only, it’s been
on getting it in my body.
Look, I quit a tenured college professorship to pursue my dream.
Imagine: I was set for life.
I had a promised job for life I would have to break a bunch of laws to lose.
But I left it.
For 10 years I’ve been on the high wire of business without a net.
So my stuff better work!
It won’t help me to KNOW what to do and what is important.
IT BETTER BE IN MY BODY.
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Fortunately,…
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I now live in a phenomenal home in Tampa with a pool and a
beautiful conservation area in the back. (Look for some
video soon).
I say this not to brag, but as proof that what I’m teaching
works.
I have no paycheck. I “eat my own kill” as they say in
business.
If what I teach doesn’t get results I don’t eat and my wife and two kids and I are on the street.
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In Closing…
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So while I’m “Pieter” the expert, you get to be me in the
story.
You call the expert, let him do his thing, follow some
simple instructions, and enjoy playing, coaching or
parenting with a new, highly improved level of efficiency.
That comes Tuesday.
In the mean time, please enjoy the gifts I have for you at
www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com
I don’t know how much longer I’ll keep them up.
Sincerely,
Dr. Tom
Tom Hanson, Ph.D.
p.s. and mark your calendar for Monday’s Success-athon.
Details at: www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com
Please forward this email to your friends — Tweet it, Facebook it, etc. Thank you.
New Baseball Training Success Program Announced
What does it take to succeed?
I mean REALLY succeed?
That’s a question I’ve been asking for the past 18 years and I’ve made a good life by practicing and teaching what I’ve learned along the way.
I’ve never been more excited about what I am about to offer the baseball world than I am today and after this quick announcement, I’ll tell you why.
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Mark Your Calendar
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On Monday, September 14th from noon to 4pm Eastern time I’ll be broadcasting live the first ever “Success-athon”
online TV show.
No, I won’t be taking pledges, but I will be taking questions!
I’ve received over 383 questions from you and although I can’t promise I’ll cover them all in 4 hours, I’ll try.
Tune in by going to www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com and entering your name and email address.
You’ll also immediately receive:
* My write up of my interview with Hank Aaron (a copy of which is in the Baseball Hall of Fame);
* My interview with AL Home Run leader Carlos Pena on how the Rays went from worst to first last year;
* A recording of my teleseminar “The Two Plaguing Baseball… and How to Cure Them,” in which I explain how the we’ve been robbing our players and ourselves of our potential for both results and enjoyment…and what one simple shift we can make to fix the problem;
*and a transcript of a powerful interview with Tony Robbins on how to succeed at anything.
Get all that here for no charge:
www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com
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New Program Launch: Tuesday Sept 15
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All this is in preparation for my new program, “The Baseball Success Secrets Coaching Program.”
On Tuesday next week you’ll be able to get “7 Success Secrets of Baseball’s All-time Best,” the one CD where I reveal everything I can about what I’ve learned studying and coaching baseball’s all-time best.
I’m on a mission to help baseball players, coaches and parents perform great, have more fun, and learn life success skills.
This program will bring together everything I’ve learned the past 19 years studying and coaching and practicing and put it’s it in a format that compels you to succeed.
I’ll tell you more in the next couple of days, but right now I’d like you to go get the hours of gratis success instruction at: www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com.
Sincerely,
Dr. Tom
Tom Hanson, Ph.D.
p.s. What did you notice so far about your own energy since my email a couple of days ago? Do you feel like your energy is expanding or contracting?
Consistently notice that and you’ll elevate your game markedly.
p.p.s. The place to go now is www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com
Please forward this email to your list of friends who are interested in baseball success.
Thank you.
Baseball Training: This Doubled My Ability to Help Players
Here’s a quick baseball coaching training tip…
The way I view baseball has evolved over the years.
First I focused on the physical aspects — mechanics,
technique.
Then I focused on the mental aspects — confidence, focus,
belief.
Then I saw the “whole” — that there are many aspects to
the game: technical, physical conditioning, mental,
emotional, and strategic, and they all are important
elements to the “whole” of baseball performance.
One thing I learned interviewing Hank Aaron and Rod Carew
and Tommy John and Nolan Ryan and Stan Musial and others is
that you need to keep things simple.
Simple wins.
So my “helping players and coaches and parents have more
fun, perform great, and learn life success skills” game got
raised when I was able to simplify all the elements of the
“whole” to one thing….
Energy.
Viewing baseball looking through the “lens” of energy has
more than doubled my ability to help players, coaches and
parents get what they desire.
I’ll be teaching you more about that in the next week.
But for now…
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Here’s What to Notice the Next Couple of Days…
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There are several great “energy” distinctions that can help
you as a player, coach or parent.
But I’ll just share one quickie today: Expanding vs.
Contracting.
Which do you think leads to best performance?
Yes, expanding. When your energy is “expanding” you are
free, you are trusting, you are relaxed, you are big, you
are light, you are confident.
When your energy is “contracting” you are tight, small,
fearful, sad, bummed out, angry.
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Try it Right Now
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As you read this, CONTRACT. Cave that chest in, tighten up,
curl up, head down.
Hold that and notice how you feel.
Once you feel contracted, EXPAND. Lift your chest, inflate,
head up, and look up and smile.
Hold that and notice how you feel.
NOTICE: For the next couple of days look for this
distinction. Notice whether YOU are expanding or
contracting in any given moment.
Notice others. Are they expanding or contracting
You can hear it in players’ quotes in the newspaper and see
it on TV.
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Are You Ready to Expand?
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I’m expanding myself in baseball and next week Tuesday I’m
launching my new program “7 Success Secrets of Baseball’s
All-time Best” along with my new coaching program “Baseball
Success Secrets.”
Whether you coach, play or parent it will expand your
possibilities and dramatically increase your personal power.
(Power = ability to produce desired results)
Look for more great stuff in the next few days as I leak
power-getting information in preparation for the launch.
Expanding,
Dr. Tom
Tom Hanson, Ph.D.
p.s. SPECIAL REQUEST I’m looking for help spreading the
word on the benefits of “whole” training.
If you have benefited from my work, including my online
programs, 1-1 coaching, or Heads-Up Baseball, please click
here:
p.p.s. If you know a number of people and would like to be
compensated for spreading the word on my new program, http://www.7baseballsecrets.com/jv.html
Baseball Training: A Plan is Not Enough
Quick Note: Ask your question, get Aaron and Pena classic interviews gratis. Last day.
Click Here: www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com
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The Texas Rangers are making a serious run at the play-offs and pitching coach David Maddux (brother of Greg) is a big reason why.
Here’s a great quote from an article on Maddux — yet afterward I’ll tell you how what he says falls short…
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“Sometimes you can try and get too smart, and it works against you,” Maddux said. “As long as you’re pitching to your strengths and guys are executing each pitch with conviction, we’re going to be fine.”
It comes down to having a good plan and sticking with it, and having an idea of how to execute.
“If you do that, you don’t have to worry about anything else,” Feldman said. “Trust your stuff and make pitches. No matter what predicament you’re in, you can always get out of it by making pitches.”
full article here:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090903&content_id=6778908&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
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Yes — have a plan and execute it with conviction.
Too few players, especially at the lower levels, have a real plan.
A process.
An approach.
An ability to say “Here’s what I am going to do out there today:”
(My ABCs are a simple plan any level player can execute.
As a result of no plan they ride Emotional Rollercoasters:
melt down when facing a tough pitcher, crumble in the face of adversity, panic in pressure situations.
And they certainly don’t play with conviction.
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But a Plan is Not Enough
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So most players don’t have a clear plan so they are set up to fail.
But a plan must be practiced. It must be conditioned.
In the heat of battle emotions can wipe out the best of intentions.
A player may have been told to take a breath and be calm on each pitch, but once he crosses those white lines amnesia sets in.
GEM: You don’t “rise to the occasion” under pressure… you sink to the level of your practice.
So you have to practice executing your plan.
You must condition yourself to respond to pressure and failure and long odds the way a soldier prepares himself for battle or an astronaut prepares herself for a space walk.
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So To Succeed…
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To succeed you need a simple plan that has been practiced and conditioned.
My new program, Baseball Success Secrets, spoon feeds you the knowledge, practice and support you need to perform great and be fulfilled.
It’s not just for players, but for coaches and parents as well.
Success principles are success principles and the best way to teach something is to BE what you are teaching.
Details to follow soon. (Sept 15 launch).
What’s your plan today?
Dr. Tom
Tom Hanson, Ph.D.
p.s. I’m planning today to wrap up my offer to “ask a question and get my Aaron and Pena interviews for no charge.”
Go here to ask me a question or at least tell me what your biggest challenge is.
www.BaseballSuccessSecrets.com
Thank you.
Dr. Tom Hanson
Heads-Up Performance, Inc.
12852 Big Sur Drive
Tampa, FL 33625
813-968-8863
www.HeadsUpPerformance.com
www.FreeBaseballConfidence.com
www.YipsBeGone.com
www.ConfidenceConditioning.com