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Don't worry, this is not a promo article on some illegal growth hormone, or some psychedelic mumbo
jumbo that attempts to counter all you've ever learned during your baseball instruction about hard
work, practice, and dedication. However, what I’ll show you in this article will give some serious
juice to your game. While the topic will help jumpstart your thinking, it won't transform your game
over night. But, if the skill is developed, then I'm confident you will experience an increase in
batting average.
The concept at hand is referred to as imagery, or visualization. Translated into English it's
simply mental weight-training. And the reason you are unfamiliar with it is simply because rarely
does formal baseball instruction before the collegiate level emphasize it. I'll give you a taste
here, but it's up to you to search out more on the topic and really chew on it.
I will be writing as if I was providing some mental baseball instruction to an athlete. If you are
a coach or parent reading this, just pick up the concepts should you choose and pass them on to
your players. If they truly get it, they will be forever grateful to you.
Getting to the next level will require you make some changes to your game for the better. I’m
suggesting that ability to control your thoughts and feelings and use them to your advantage will
contribute greatly to your success. This is especially true if you have a goal of playing
professionally. The use of imagery is a must-you'll never get there without it. And those who are
physically talented who make it without developing imagery, quickly fall at that level. So here is
how the concept is applied to your offensive game.
Take a quick trip back to a game where you struck out with the bases juiced. Yeah, I know, great
way to start isn’t it. What did you think about in the field the next inning, or the next time up
to bat? Those thoughts your mind had about your performance is called imagery. The more you
condition your thinking either positive or negative, the more your body will respond to what is
familiar. This is why athletes that are in a hot streak have a bad game and then sometimes slip
into a little slide, or a full blown slump. It's not because they suddenly forgot the skill of
hitting, their imagery was horrible.
Let me put you in the right frame of reference with a clear illustration of how imagery plays out
in your game before we move on. You're up to bat, it's a 2-2 count, and the guy has a nasty curve
ball you haven't seen in a while. A quick thought runs through your mind and you wonder if you
might see it this pitch. He winds, you ready yourself, the pitch is released, and sure enough it's
the big hammer. Strike three looking. You trudge slowly back to the dugout with your head down,
teeth clenched in frustration as you grab your spot on the bench.
If you haven't experienced the above scenario yet, you haven't been playing long enough. It will
happen to you more than once unfortunately. But, the real problem is not the strikeout; the best in
the game strike out all the time.
The point I want to bring to the forefront in the above example is the fact that the automatic
instant replay system in your head was working overtime generating depressing footage of the strike
out. It's playing back your strikeout mentally over and over for you to think about. How dangerous
is this? Quite dangerous actually. It's programming your body to react the same way the next time
you find yourself in a similar situation. The good news is that you can manage your instant replay
system and actually create the mental video footage that plays over and over. Doing this is what
visualization is all about.
If you want to be sure what images are being played through your instant replay mechanism, you have
to make sure you've tuned it to the correct mental channel. What do you do when there is a show on
television you don't want to watch? Turn the channel. The same applies to your mind in
baseball.
You must change your channel after you experience a negative result during a performance. Here is
the meat of this concept called imagery/visualization. If you've spaced out until now, this is the
paragraph you'll want to take away with you after you click off this page. I'll use the previous
example of the strikeout above. The key after the strikeout is to take a minute once back in the
dugout, or before the next inning starts out in the field, and change your mental channel. Most
athletes will run the strikeout on loop in their head telling themselves they stink, and all the
while getting more frustrated in the process. It's what feels normal, and you're mind will do this
automatically. Instead what you need to do is play the at bat over again in your mind, but this
time with a positive ending. Maybe you see yourself hit a line drive through the hole, maybe it's a
double off the wall in deep left, or it could possibly be a bunt base hit. It really doesn’t matter
as long as it’s different from the negative strikeout you experienced. Repeat the at bat multiple
times in a row and then give it a rest and refocus on your current task on defense. The key is then
the next time you're on deck, play the positive result instant replay series again and you'll be
fully prepared for your following at bat without bringing your nasty mental baggage with you into
the batter’s box.
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