Baseball Training: Adds the Magic of Disney to Your Game

“Oh Tooooooo-dles!”

Ripper, if you have a child under 5 you might recognize that call from The Mickey Mouse Club House show.

At the start of the show a goal is set (like have a picnic or throw a surprise party for Minnie), but before they start out they told about the 4 “tools” they will have at their disposal on their adventure.

(Things like a mini-trampoline, a wagon, and a blanket.)

Then they head off to complete their task.

Of course they run into obstacles along the way, and when they get stuck they yell:

“Oh, Toodles!”

And Toodles the magical wheel (or whatever the heck it is) shows up with just the right tool for the job.

That problem solved, they move on, only to encounter a different obstacle (e.g. kite stuck in tree).

And dog gone if that Toodles doesn’t just happen to have provided the perfect tool for THIS obstacle.

Somehow, through the magic of Disney, Toodles knows BEFORE THE ADVENTURE BEGINS which tools Mickey and co. are going to need.

Of course, that’s actually not so amazing since the writers make the whole thing up.

What does this have to do with baseball performance?

You are about to set out on your adventure through the 2009 season. You have your dreams and goals — your task is clear.

I say you’re just like Mickey at the start of the show.

And just like the writers of the show — you KNOW what obstacles are coming.

Umpires. Pitchers. Hitters. Errors. Losses. Stupid coaching decisions. Rain. Snow(!). Curveballs. Bloop hits. Slumps. Botched run downs. Botched bunts. Amazing comebacks. Big time chokes. Lucky bounces. Bad hops. Line drives right at people. Injuries.

And much, much more.

So wouldn’t it be nice if you could hit an an obstacle and
yell:

“Oh Toooooodles!”

And have just the right tool show up to help you through the situation?

You can.

It’s called mental skills training. You can load it up now and be ready when those obstacles hit you.

Just like on the Mickey Mouse Club House, it isn’t a question of whether or not you’ll get hit by obstacles this year, it’s WHEN and HOW MUCH.

So now you get to choose. Do you want to have Toodles on your side this year bringing you confidence, focus, and the ability to quickly let go of negative events?

If so, go to one of the options listed below and get going.

If you want to go on your adventure un-armed, good luck.

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
www.BaseballConfidence.com

1. Great offer: www.FreeBaseballConfidence.com

2. Scroll through loads of other powerful programs:
www.BaseballConfidence.com/Products.html (including a
program for youth players)

Please forward this to anyone you know in baseball (and high school and college coaches with children under 5 on their teams).

Hot New Video — Smokin’

Go now to FreeBaseballConfidence.com and get yours!

Baseball Coaching Lesson from Joe Maddon: 9=8?

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…

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

“He with the best distinctions wins.”

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Baseball Coaching: Am-Rays-zing Results!

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.

————————————

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

————————————-

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.

———————————

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.

How to Play Like Tiger Today

I’m so inspired by the golf tournament yesterday I’m going to have a one day “Tiger and Rocco” sale to enable anyone else inspired by these two great warriors to elevate their game.

(see below for details)

In case you missed it, Tiger Woods made a 12 foot put on the last hole yesterday to tie Rocco Mediate in the U.S.
Open.

Today they play 18 holes against each other to determine the champion.

The two have very different styles.

Tiger is big, focused, dramatic, thrilling, calm, confident.

He is a tiger.

(although part of the thrill with him is that sometimes he doesn’t come through. We expect him to be a machine, but if you’ve watch him for a while there is just enough doubt from past failures that you aren’t quite certain he’s going to come through.)

(In psychology this gives us fans “intermittent reinforcement,” the most powerful addictor.)

Rocco also has a tough sounding first name, but he’s been laughing his way around the course, and after each round talking about how much fun he’s having.

He’s small, unassuming, light.

He’s never contended for a major tournament win like this, while Tiger wins them routinely.

To me their different styles underlines the importance of being yourself.

If Rocco tried to be like Tiger he wouldn’t be playing today.

If Tiger tried to be like Rocco he wouldn’t be playing today.

Both have discovered their strengths and expanded on them through practice and training.

This is one of the top challenges of executives I coach that ascend to new heights running companies: to be themselves.

Expanded, bigger versions of themselves, but themselves none the less, with their own personalities and leadership styles.

So as Tiger and Rocco tee it up today we’ll see different personal styles and different golfing styles.

(Perhaps Rocco hopes his jokes and levity round off Tiger’s mental edge.)

But certain performance fundamentals will be there, like focus, trust, patience, persistence and routine (at least they’ll be there for the winner).

So those of us trying to excel in our own areas can choose the qualities from each we’d like to expand in ourselves.

Action Item: Notice the quality or qualities of the two that stand out to you most. The qualities that stand out to you most stand out to you most for a reason — you have that quality yourself.

Play with expanding that quality in whatever form your 18 hole play-off takes today.

Sincerely,

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
www.HeadsUpPerformance.com
www.HansonsGym.com

p.s. For the one day sale, here you go:

Enter the coupon code when you check out with these
programs:

1. $25 off my “Confidence Conditioning” program. Perfect for business and sales people and certainly leaders of any type — and golfers. http://www.ConfidenceConditioning.com;
Coupon Code: Open

2. $25 off my “Coaching the Mental Game of Baseball” (for coaches of 13+ year olds) http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/baseball_coaching.html
Coupon Code: Open

3. $20 off my “Winning the Mental Game of Youth Baseball/Softball” program http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/youth.html;
Coupon Code: Tiger

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.

7-Second Baseball and Softball Confidence

I’ve got a good buzz going today.

One because I did my morning mental training (as seen in my
BREAKTHROUGH! program inside www.HansonsGym.com)

And two because I’m getting more and more great feedback
from people using the info from both my $0 program, “How to
Overcome Failure and Play as Great in Games as You Do in
Practice” and the BREAKTHROUGH! program.

I’ll share a couple:
————————-
Dan writes:

Tom,
Our 10/11/12 year-old team won a game last night that
we should have lost. We were without our 2 best pitchers,
one injured, one sick (who we expected to start the game).

There were a few innings in the game where the 3 different
guys pitching found themselves with the bases loaded and
one or even no outs. They managed to get out of these jams
by doing the ABC routine!!

We practice it with our pitchers every practice and last
night, it was great to see the boys on the mound with their
chin up, taking deep breaths, and connecting with the mitt.
It was amazing to watch the ABC’s work so well!

Thanks,
Dan Rasimowicz

btw, the team is at the top of the standings in our league,
and your mental prep has played a big part to put us there.
(And we haven’t instituted the ABC’s yet for hitting or defense.)

————————–

And here’s one from a former yipper, a HS pitcher about to
turn outfielder when he started tapping a couple weeks
ago…

————————–

“I pitched last night in my first varsity game of the year.
I hit my first batter on the first pitch. i ended up only
giving up 1 run in the first inning.

I then pitched 5 scoreless innings before I was pulled
after the sixth inning when I pitched my way out of a jam.

I ended up with 1 run, 3 K’s, 5 hits, 1 BB and 2 HBP on 80
pitches and I got the W with the score being 3-1.

it was one of the most mentally and physically draining
experiences of my life but I was very pumped up when our
closer finally finished it.

I had total control of my fast ball, especially after the
first inning. I didn’t even throw it for a ball in the 4th
inning when I struck out 2 batters.

My slider was good but I wasn’t nearly as confident
throwing it on the inner third of the plate as I was
throwing it on the outer third (one of the hit batters was
a slider).

I was not nervous warming up, but I was a little
in the bullpen, and a little during the first and the
beginning of the 2nd inning.

I know this is late notice but I was really hoping that you
would be able to talk tomorrow at 7 45 central time, please
let me know.

Thanks for everything you have done for me!”

[end quote]
————————–

It’s a fun buzz to get that feedback, but even funner to be
the ones out doing it!

I’m writing this week about the 1983-1985 Luther College
Baseball team (worst to first). We overcame a lot of
adversity during those years, and were able to be
confident despite it.

But lets stick with the examples above. Did you notice that
both of the people above faced adversity?

Starting pitcher a no-show? Bases juiced with 0 outs?

Or how about having been benched all spring as a pitcher
because you are obliterated with fear (yips) and then while
making a first varsity start (“If I blow this I’ll never
get another chance”) and HITS THE FIRST GUY with his first
pitch!

No one gets a free ride in baseball. Bad happens.

The ability to generate confidence in just a few moments is
*vital* to success.

You can’t afford to let what happens on the field determine
what happens in your nervous system. (Well, not if you want
to succeed or enjoy playing anyway.)

You must be able to take a punch. But how do you do that?

Practice your mechanics super hard and hope you’ll be OK
when the storm hits?

Wishfully hope nothing bad happens?

Please.

In my BREAKTHROUGH! course Lesson 2 is called “7-Second
Confidence.”

It teaches you how to condition yourself simply and quickly
to generate confidence super fast. It puts confidence
literally at the tip of your finger.

Players (and coaches and parents) find that useful.

Like between pitches.

You can get access to it now at

http://www.hansonsgym.com/site.php/subs/subscription_plans

Otherwise, good luck.

Dr. Tom
Tom Hanson, Ph.D.
www.HansonsGym.com

p.s. The exercise I start my day with is Lesson 1 in the
BREAKTHROUGH program: “Emotionalize Your Goal”

Click here now, do in just moments from now

http://www.hansonsgym.com/site.php/subs/subscription_plans

Lesson 5: Your Breathtaking Performance

I’d love to hear what you get out of this one — it is my favorite. You have to *experience* it; just watching will do you no good.

The new Gym opens next week for sure… stay tuned.

Here’s a quickie from the mail bag today:

“Dr. Tom: I have a question; when I paid to become a member of the gym a few months ago I was paying to become a member of the new gym too right? Thanks again. So far the Mental Gym has helped me so much, I’m batting in the .450s right now and I can definitely say it is because of the gym.” Christian Lauer

Answer: Yes. Current members roll into the new format.

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