|
 Recently I received an email from a coach who is working with 9-year
olds and having some trouble helping them with their emotions up at bat. It seems that
many of the little guys get upset when they swing and miss a pitch. This of course
doesn't help the rest of the at bat, in fact, only makes things worse. While some of
this behavior is age specific, all competitive athletes to some extent have a tough time
dealing with the inevitable failure that occurs each game up at the plate. I know I had
a rough time with that. All the way through college I remember thinking that there was
no reason that I couldn't hit the ball hard every time. And of course when that plan
fell through I didn't understand why and became frustrated.
The mental game
of baseball is tricky to teach at times because the feedback you receive from working on
baseball psychology can be delayed.
This is always tough for athletes since many need to see and experience a positive change in their
game before they fully buy into a new concept. I told the coach to be consistent in his
messages and communicate the following to his players.
1. Find easy correlations that the boys
can make with another activity where success is not as easily achieved. I like to use the
example of fishing. I ask my athletes if they happen to catch a fish every cast. When
they say "no" I ask them how that makes them feel. Nearly 100% of the time they are ok with
the low success rate of the cast to catching fish ratio. It's part of fishing and silly to
expect a fish to be pulled in every cast in most places. I then make the parallel to swinging
a bat. Not every time will you have great contact. That's ok because just as in fishing
the better you get, the more consistency you'll
experience.
2. Keep your mind out of the past.
This one is a bit tricky for younger players but it can be achieved over time and with some mental
maturity. I first teach players that their brain is incapable of having two different
thoughts at the exact same time. To illustrate I tell them that I am going to say a word but
I don't want them to think about the word when I say it. Instead, I instruct them to think of
anything else. I give them the words, "pink elephant". Many of them smile or join in
with laughing because they know they lost the game and thought about a pink elephant. I then draw
them back to a scenario when they are up to bat. I explain that as soon as they recognize
that they missed a pitch, their mind will want to spend some time thinking about the swing and
miss. They cannot allow that and have to force their brain to focus on the next pitch.
That can be accomplished a couple different ways.
A. Concentrate on listening to their
breathing patterns. This keeps their brain occupied and won't let it slip into being
disgusted with their last swing. They should just try to hear their own breathing, not change
it in any manner.
B. Focusing on some object on the plate as
they step back into the box. It could be one of the corners, a piece of dirt or grass, their
batting gloves, whatever. For a couple seconds just focus closely on it and observe it.
With older athletes this concept of using focal points will essentially clear the slate in the
brain and allow it to refocus on the next pitch.
To wrap up, it's most important to communicate
in a frequent pattern that the mental game of baseball takes a long time to master and that
positive results might not be evident as quickly as some players would like. But like my
coach used to tell us, "consistency is the breakfast of
champions."
|
