Month: January 2020

In the game of football, the line of scrimmage is the ultimate battleground throughout the course of a game. The goal of the offense is to prevent the defense from penetrating the line of scrimmage in order to open up running lanes and protect the quarterback so he can have more time to throw. The goal of the defense is the exact opposite: blow up the line of scrimmage to clog running lanes, put pressure on the quarterback, and force him to make bad decisions under duress. The team who can consistently control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball wins, while teams who struggle to do either have trouble competing for 60 minutes. This constant battle between the offense and defense is a great way to illustrate a similar battleground on the baseball field: the war of the strike zone.

 

Just like football, the pitcher and hitter are constantly competing for control of the strike zone. Pitchers are trying to pound the zone early and often so they can get hitters into counts where there are more strikes than balls. Hitters are trying to hit good pitches in good counts where there are more balls than strikes. Pitchers who get ahead are able to put pressure on the batter by making them expand the zone and swing at pitches that initially look like strikes. Hitters are trying to get into counts where pitchers are going to throw their most predictable (and straightest) stuff.

 

To explain why controlling the count is so important, let’s look at some numbers by count from the 2017 MLB season. When hitters were working with two strikes, they batted .177 (0-2: 0.152, 1-2: 0.159, 2-2: .181, 3-2: .216). When hitters were ahead in the count (more balls than strikes), they batted .366 (1-0: .341, 2-0: .360, 3-0: .414, 2-1: .349, 3-1: 364). In three ball counts, the OBP was .702 (3-0: .946, 3-1: 698, 3-2: 462). In two strike counts, the OBP stood at .244 (0-2: 0.160, 1-2: .166, 2-2: .187, 3-2: .462). If you subtract the 3-2 count (a neutral count), OBP falls to .171 with two strikes.

 

Based on this data, we can assume a few things:

1. Pitchers thrive when they get to two strikes quickly (0-2 BA: 0.125, OBP: .160, 1-2 BA: .159, OBP: .166).
2. Hitters do their most damage when ahead in the count (no BA in hitting plus counts was below .341).
3. Three ball counts are a hitter’s dream and a pitcher’s nightmare (hitters get on base more than 70% of the time in three ball counts).
4. The only time when batting averages sunk below 0.300 was when the count went to two strikes. The worst BA in any non-two strike count was .330 in 0-1 counts. The best BA in a two strike count was the 3-2 count (.216).

 

Let’s dive a little further. Two counts I want to emphasize are the 0-0 count and the 1-1 count.

 

0-0 Counts

 

The first pitch is crucial to the direction the at-bat will take. Pitchers are going to throw their best pitches in their highest strike percentage locations in 0-0 counts. They want to get to two strikes as quickly as possible. They’re not going to nibble around the strike zone – they’re going to go right at you with their best stuff.

 

To avoid falling into two strike counts, most hitters are going to be very aggressive in 0-0 counts. They know the pitcher is going to throw the ball over the plate early in their at-bat. By hopping on pitches early in the count, they reduce the likelihood they’ll see an offspeed of breaking ball later in the count. In 2018, the MLB BA on cutters/sliders and curveballs was .267 and the BA on changeups was .279. On 4 seam and 2 seam fastballs, MLB hitters batted .348.  

 

In 2017, MLB hitters batted .348 on 0-0 counts and slugged .585. 2017 batting champion and AL MVP Jose Altuve (.346 BA) hit a staggering .449 in 0-0 counts. 2017 AL MVP frontrunner Aaron Judge was just as exceptional batting .400 in 0-0 counts. Mike Trout, another pretty popular name in baseball, batted .447 in 0-0 counts. When we look at all three players in two strike counts, they barely combine to scratch .200 (Trout didn’t even touch .200 in 0-2, 1-2, or 2-2 counts).

 

As a pitcher, this does not mean 0-0 counts are time to nibble. According to research done by Jerry Weinstein, 92.7% of first pitch strikes lead to an out or strike one. 69% of strikeouts begin with a first pitch strike, while 70% of walks start with first pitch balls. If you throw a first pitch strike, there is an 80% chance two of your first three pitches will be strikes. Considering what we know when the best hitters in the world get to two strikes, this is a huge advantage for pitchers.     

 

1-1 Counts

 

Aside from 0-0 counts, 1-1 counts are arguably the most important count in baseball. To illustrate this, let’s look at some numbers for what happens after 1-1 counts. If the pitcher throws a strike and gets the count to 1-2, hitters struggled batting .159 with a .166 OBP. If the pitcher throws a ball and lets the hitter work back into a plus count, BA and OBP jumps to .349 and .351 respectively. In the matter of one pitch, we’re looking at a difference of .190 in BA and .185 in OBP.

 

As a pitcher, 1-2 counts are where we thrive. We can throw our best swing and miss pitches without worrying about whether we’ll walk the batter or not. Hitters can’t be as selective and must battle off a variety of pitches to work themselves back into a favorable count. In 2017 in 1-2 counts, Altuve batted .235, Judge batted .172, and Trout batted .188.  

 

In 2-1 counts, the options for pitchers are limited in their arsenal based on what pitches they are most confident in throwing for strikes. We know that hitters get on base nearly 70% of the time when the count gets to three balls. We also know that in 2-2 counts, hitters batted .181 at the MLB level in 2017. As a hitter, we don’t have the pressure of fighting off a wicked curveball when the thought of going back to the dugout on strikes isn’t in our mind. Plus counts are where we do our damage. In 2-1 counts in 2017, Altuve batted .444, Judge batted .621, and Trout batted .486. If we’re doing the math from the averages above, that’s a .209 difference for Altuve, .449 for Judge, and .298 for Trout.

 

To summarize what we’ve talked about:

• The line of scrimmage to football is what the strike zone is to baseball. Teams who win their respective line of demarcation win games.
• Pitchers dominate when the count gets to two strikes.
• Hitters do damage when there are more balls than strikes and when they aren’t in two strike counts.
• 0-0 counts dictate at-bats. Pitchers who throw strike one succeed. Hitters who hop on a good pitch early have success.
• There is a huge difference between a 2-1 count and a 1-2 count. Winning the majority of 1-1 counts is crucial.

 

Coaches: Put a premium on controlling the strike zone in your practices. If you don’t emphasize the importance of hitting in plus counts or getting to two strikes quickly, don’t be surprised when your team can’t do either in games. Below are some ideas on how to do so:

 

1. Practice hitting in a variety of counts (0-0, 1-1, 2-0, 0-2).
2. Talk about approaches in each count (what pitches/locations they’re hunting).
3. Keep it simple in the box – if you’re looking for everything, you’re not going to be ready for anything. One speed, one location.  
4. Have pitchers practice throwing with counts to RHH/LHH.
5. Figure out what pitches/locations they are most confident when they need a strike, strike out, or ground ball.  
6. Manipulate the count, baserunners (RISP) to create certain situations.  
7. Develop multiple pitches that can be thrown with confidence in 0-0 counts.
8. Pitch backwards in hitter plus counts.
9. Create incentives (not having to do field work, team captain for scrimmage, etc.) for those who rise to the challenge and execute in certain counts.
10. Keep track of how your team performs in certain counts throughout the season. Especially keep track of 0-0 counts and 1-1 counts.
11. Record your team and the other team’s walks/strikeouts.
    1. Winning teams: Your walks/how many you strike out – their walks/how many times they struck you out = positive number. Losing teams: Same equation yields negative number.

 

Information used in this article from the 2017 MLB season can be found below.

 

Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. Keep learning and growing.

 

Hitting is hard. Hitting with two strikes is really hard. Based on data from the 2017 MLB season, MLB hitters batted .177 in two strike counts (0-2: 0.152, 1-2: 0.159, 2-2: .181, 3-2: .216). If we remove the 3-2 neutral count, hitters batted .164 with two strikes.

 

To put this into perspective, let’s look at batting averages from the top five offensive WAR leaders from the 2017 MLB season and their splits with two strikes.   

 

1. Jose Altuve: 0-2: .255, 1-2: .235, 2-2: .151
2. Mike Trout: 0-2: .172, 1-2: .188, 2-2: .183
3. Aaron Judge: 0-2: .184, 1-2: 172, 2-2: .165
4. Giancarlo Stanton: 0-2: .100, 1-2: .132, 2-2: .147
5. Charlie Blackmon: 0-2: .259, 1-2: 218, 2-2: .248

 

While Blackmon’s splits were the best by far, it is worth noting that both the AL and NL MVP (Altuve and Stanton) combined for a .170 batting average with two strikes (Altuve: .214, Stanton: .126). Even Mike Trout, baseball’s current $400 million man, couldn’t muster a batting average over .200 in 0-2, 1-2, or 2-2 counts.

 

There are several reasons why it’s hard to hit with two strikes. For one, hitters don’t have the ability to be as selective because of the strikeout. Hitters can take tough pitches early in the count for called strikes, but can’t afford to strike out looking on borderline pitches deep in the count. Strikeouts are the most unproductive out in baseball. Good teams strike out less. In 2017, the World Series champion Houston Astros finished with the least amount of strikeouts in the MLB with 1,087.  

 

Since hitters can’t be as selective with two strikes, they are more susceptible to pitches that look like strikes and end up finishing outside the strike zone. Instead of seeing fastballs, hitters now have to defend against cutters/sliders, curveballs, and changeups. In 2018, the MLB batting average on cutters/sliders was .267, changeups was .279, and curveballs was .267. Against four seam and two seam fastballs, hitters batted .348.

 

Given what we know about hitting with two strikes, we are faced with a few options. One of the most effective ways to get good at hitting with two strikes is to never get to two strikes. A large majority of the best hitters in baseball attack good pitches early in the count – and have a lot of success. Since we know pitchers want to throw 2 of their first 3 pitches for strikes (0-2 BA: 0.125, OBP: .160, 1-2 BA: .159, OBP: .166), hitters have a great opportunity early in the count to hunt pitches over the plate. Below are the batting averages of the five hitters from above on 0-0 counts:

 

• Altuve: .449

• Trout: .447

• Judge: .400

• Stanton: .475

• Blackmon: .441

 

While avoiding two strikes seems like a pretty good plan, 48% of your at-bats are going to ultimately get to two strikes. We also know that batting average on balls in play (BABIP) with two strikes in 2017 was .295. The worst BABIP in any count in 2017 was .294. That shows us a large part of our battle with two strikes is simply putting the ball in play. Considering this, it is worth coming up with a different approach for two strikes that will help you put the ball in play and avoid striking out. Below are some tips on how you can improve how you hit with two strikes:

 

1. Hitting with two strikes is tough, but it’s not a death sentence. Remain confident when battling with two strikes. If you’re having confidence issues at the plate, revisit your pre-pitch process (see previous blog posts on this).
2. Pay attention to what pitchers are throwing in two strike counts. Pitchers are creatures of habit. Anticipating certain pitches/pitch sequences can help you avoid the unpredictability of hitting with two strikes.
3. If anticipating the breaking ball/changeup, see the pitch up. If the pitch starts off looking like a fastball, it’s going to finish outside of the strike zone.
4. Expand in a specific part of the strike zone, not the entire strike zone. Hitting is hard enough with the zone you have. Expand where you think the pitcher will be coming (a few baseballs outside, inside, etc.).
5. Widen your stance, choke up on the bat, move closer to the plate, use a different timing mechanism. If pitchers have to learn a windup and the stretch, it’s not a bad idea for hitters to learn two different swings.
6. Take bad pitches, work yourself back into the count (3-2 BA: .216, OBP: 462). Most pitchers are going to shrink the zone with two strikes because they don’t want to give up a base hit. Use this to your advantage.
7. Practice with two strikes. Learn what borderline pitches look like. Understand which ones you need to fight off/take. Drive mistakes.
8. Practice adjustability. Sometimes you’re going to have to barrel speeds you weren’t looking for originally.
9. Keep things simple. Don’t get caught over analyzing every possible pitch/situation in the box. You’re at your best when you’re thinking the least.
10. Be the best competitor on the field. Compete one pitch at a time. You can’t worry about the two that just went by you. Be great at being where your feet are.
11. Remember times when you succeeded with two strikes, forget times where the pitcher got the best of you. We tend to hang on to negative experiences the longest. If you’re constantly thinking about how bad you are with two strikes, there’s a really good chance you’ll see more two strike counts in the future – and you’ll see similar results.

 

Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.

 

Keep learning and growing.

In today’s consumer culture, we are drowned in advertising for products and services that are guaranteed to give you the life you’ve always dreamed of almost instantly.  Want more money?  Just buy this program and you’ll be drowning in financial success!  Want a better body? Take this pill once a day and you’re on the fast track to a six pack!  Want more fastball velocity? Just go to this pitching guru and he’ll share mechanical secrets to get you lighting up radar guns in less than two weeks!  

While no sole person or company is the culprit of this movement, I believe a multitude of factors have created what people have coined “The Quick Fix Myth”.  Quick fixes are essentially synonyms for shortcuts.  It is the expectation that the least amount of work should yield the greatest results.  People who seek quick fixes just don’t have the time, energy, or motivation to get things done like the rest of us.  They want the gold at the end of the rainbow, but the trail to get there is just not worth their time.

In terms of training, these athletes are the ones who are always looking for that one thing that’ll transform them into the player they crave to become.  Examples of these could be a mechanical breakthrough, a specific drill, or a cunning training program that is guaranteed to add 5-10 mph to their exit speed.  If it’ll make them a better player, they want it – just without any real effort or hard work.  Oh, and they want it now.    

Swing feels a little off?  Nothing a quick 30-minute lesson can’t fix.  I mean, who has the time to actually hit three to four times per week?  Having issues with your command? Just get to your balance point and you’ll be painting corners in no time!  It can’t and be because you barely touch a baseball outside practice.

Sure – making small mechanical tweaks can be a difference maker for athletes at times, but is it the entire picture?  Is showing up for a half hour lesson once a month really going to do anything to help make significant long term changes?  Is your back elbow really the culprit for lack of success at the plate, or is it because you’re not hitting at all outside of games?  Is searching for that perfect supplement really going to help take your workouts to the next level?  Or is actually working out?

In life, there are no shortcuts to success.  Quick fixes don’t exist.  John Wooden didn’t win his first national championship at UCLA until his sixteenth year as head coach.  Steve Jobs had to get fired from his own company before he was able to take Apple to unprecedented heights.  Milton Hershey ran three different candy companies into the ground before eventually building one that stayed afloat (I don’t think I need to tell you what it’s called).  What is the common denominator in all of these stories? It’s simple: These guys showed up every day, embraced the challenges before them, and worked.        

As you can see from above, putting in work isn’t always going to get you the immediate results you want.  Thirty minutes of cage time isn’t going to transform you from the nine batter in your lineup to the three hole – but thirty minutes three times per week over the course of twelve months might.  Progress requires consistent, deliberate hard work over a long period of time.  Those who are willing to invest the necessary time, attack weaknesses, and constantly find ways to improve will eventually be rewarded for their efforts.  Those who want the glory without the blood, sweat, and tears will always seek the shortcuts – and hard work always beats shortcuts.  Quick fixes may help you feel good now, but they will never be a substitute for hard work.

This is one of the sole reasons why Carmen created a year-round training program for baseball and softball athletes in central PA.  Maintaining and refining your craft requires much more than just a ten lesson package. Through the year plan, we are able to offer kids an incredible deal where they can train and receive professional level information up to seven days per week over the course of an entire year!

If you’re serious about your development as a player, get in contact with us and we can get you scheduled for your free assessment.  We understand what it takes to become the player you want to be, and we’re willing to create every opportunity for you to make it happen.     

If you want to work hard, crush goals, and take your skills to levels you’ve never seen, we can help you.  If you’re looking for a quick fix for the reasons why you can’t get it done, you’ve found the wrong place.

Until then, keep working, learning, and growing.  

To review our mental game series, we have covered a variety of concepts which include learning how to breathe, designing an approach, controlling the controllables, creating routines, and developing a release.  While this doesn’t summarize it all, it’s a great start to helping your kids develop the game between the ears.  All that’s left at this point is arguably the most important skill of them all: COMPETING!

Competing, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated and undervalued skills in youth baseball today.  A large reason why I believe this is because of the culture we have created at the youth level.  Instead of developing competitors, we are developing “lesson babies” who believe their secret pill to success is in some small mechanical tweak.  Just underneath the ball? Make sure you keep your hands up!  Hit a ground ball to short?  Make sure you don’t roll those wrists!  Oh, and don’t forget to stay back, step straight, and take your hands to the ball while managing to track a pitch traveling through space at 90 miles per hour at the same time.   

As a result, we’ve created kids who can’t stop thinking about their mechanics in games when mechanics are the last thing they need to be thinking about!  Hitters have under three tenths of a second to decide pitch type, speed, location, and whether they should swing or not.  Any focus that is not on the baseball is wasted.  Did you seriously think reminding Joey about his back elbow would be a good idea when he’s got fractions of a second to do arguably the hardest thing in all of sports?  

As a baseball community, we need to get away from this fixed mindset of thinking that mechanics lead to success.  If mechanics are the reason why athletes succeed, why have no two people in the history of baseball ever had the same exact mechanics?  Why do some guys who have pretty swings never make it out of high school, while some others with “bad mechanics” play professionally?  The answer lies between the ears.  If you’re an aspiring player and you want to maximize your window in baseball, forget the mechanics and get great at competing.     

What is Competing?

In Heads Up Baseball 2.0, Tom Hanson and Ken Ravizza define competing as “giving 100% of what you’ve got right now to win the next pitch.”  Note they did not say anything about feeling good, having your best stuff, or needing perfect conditions.  Competing is messy and demands everything you have – but nothing more.  Some days will be great, some days will be alright, and other days will be just plain ugly.

Jon Lester talks about this saying out of 30 starts in a big league season, he will have his “A” game for 5, his “C” game for 5, and the rest he will have to battle with his “B” game.  Those 20 starts with his B game are where his season is made.  Great competitors find ways to adjust, compensate, take punches, and return punches regardless of how they feel.  In Ravizza’s words, “Are you really that crappy of a baseball player that you have to feel good to perform well? Feeling good is overrated.”  

Anthony Rizzo, All-Star First Baseman for the Chicago Cubs, talked about the importance of competing saying, “The key for me is just competing and not really worrying from pitch to pitch about how my swing feels or how I’m feeling mechanically that day. It doesn’t matter how I feel today, I’m going to beat you. I’m going to will it to happen.”

Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks and Super Bowl champion, uses competition as his overarching theme for the Seahawks.  In his book Win Forever, Carroll talks about how he instills an “always compete” mindset into his players. Whether it’s their competition, teammates in practice, or themselves, Carroll wants his players to constantly strive to compete and get the most out of their abilities.  

Dean Smith, Hall of Fame basketball coach at North Carolina, used competition in every drill he organized for his teams.  There was always something on the line and a consequence for the loser.  Through this structure, he was able to teach his players to compete just the way they would in a game.  

Ron Wolforth at the Texas Baseball Ranch uses competition on a daily basis to help get the most out of his pitchers.  Athletes call locations out loud and are forced to do a punishment for every target missed. When athletes become accustomed to challenges, they are forced to adapt to a new circumstance (different sloped mound, weighted baseball, fatigue induced, etc.).  Those who love competing thrive.  Those who can’t crumble under the pressure.  

How to Implement  

The good news is that competing is a skill and can be taught – just like any other skill.  The biggest predictor of competitiveness, according to Milwaukee Brewers pitching coordinator Jake McKinley, is the environment the athlete has grown up in.  It’s no coincidence many great athletes spent their youth years competing in backyard sports.    

In McKinley’s 2019 ABCA convention presentation, he broke down competition into three different components: Self-competition, competition against others, and unspoken/organic competition.

Self-competition is any sort of challenge aimed at developing a specific individual beyond their current capabilities.  Examples of how to utilize this include:

• Constraints
  • Ex: Using obstacles to teach right-left infield footwork, how to avoid baserunner on double plays
• Variability
  • Ex: Different length/weighted bats, different size/weighted baseballs, plyo balls
• Targets
  • Ex: Pitching to a specific target, hitting a certain part of the cage/field
• “Edge” training (getting guys to compete at levels that just exceed their current skill level)
  • Ex: Moving the hitter closer/farther away from a pitching machine to simulate different velocities, lifting heavy weights
• Stopwatch
  • Ex: Making plays from the infield in less than four seconds, plays from the outfield in less than seven seconds
• Radar gun
  • Ex: Needing to hit three out of five balls over 85 mph, beating a personal record in throwing velocity

Competition against others is exactly what you see in a game: Man vs. man – one winner, one loser.  You can get as creative with this as you’d like, but the idea is simple: Beat the guy in front of you.  Below are some ideas to help you design your own:

• Pair people of similar abilities for challenges
  • Ex: Do a velo competition with guys who throw hard, command competitions with your highest strike percentage throwers
• Use handicaps for guys of different skill levels
  • Ex: Have a slower athlete start at a shorter distance than a faster athlete, give less powerful athletes +5 mph on their exit velocities
• Physical challenges can be great ideas, but also poor ones
  • Speed is a great skill to enhance using competition, but doing as-many-reps-as-possible (AMRAP) push-ups for a minute is a great way to reinforce poor movement patterns. The emphasis must always be on good movement.
• No gray areas, no ties
  • There are no ties in baseball games. You either win or you lose. The winner and loser must be clear.
• Teach kids how to be their own officials
  • 21 is a great game to teach catch play, but also a great way to teach kids how to resolve conflict. A winning-at-all-costs mindset is dangerous. Play the right way, accept defeat, move on to the next challenge.
• Reward effort, don’t undermine it
  • Give points for accomplished tasks, refrain from subtracting points for miscues. You want to create athletes to rise to the challenge over athletes who are afraid to screw up.
• Create teams for challenges
  • Have kids draft teams and get after it. After all, you are competing against a team in a game.
• Encourage emotion, involvement from teammates
  • Competition will bring out the best and worst of everyone. Let kids be who they are and encourage their teammates to cheer them on. Use this energy to enhance the environment.

Unspoken or organic competitions are ways to help create competition by unifying your team to accomplish different objectives.  Since competition can bring out the worst in people, unspoken competitions are a great way to create cooperation while still increasing the intensity of a challenge.  Some examples include:

• Having to hit a certain number or percentage of balls over 80 mph
• Throwing at least 60% strikes throughout a team bullpen session
• Taking a clean round of infield before ending practice
• Completing a physical challenge under a certain time
• Posting leaderboards of batting exit velocities, command percentage, throwing velocity, weight room personal bests, etc.
• Celebrate when kids crush records. A candle does not lose its light when it lights another candle.  

*See the entire presentation here.

Overall Notes for Competition

• Keep verbal involvement with competitions at a minimum.  The environment you create as a coach is the most important aspect of competition – not verbal feedback.
• Let kids fail.  We learn the most from our biggest setbacks.  Be there to lend a helping hand, but let athletes work through the challenges themselves.  Considering the failure rate of some of the best hitters in the game, it’s important to let kids cope and respond to it.  
• Create challenges that have immediate feedback.  This includes numbers, scores, exit velocities, batted/thrown ball feedback, and other results.
• Self, others, and unspoken competition do not have to operate exclusively.  Combine these to get the best bang for your buck.  
• Make sure athletes have some sort of adequate skill level before turning it into a competition.  Challenges should be stimulating and push athletes just on the edge of their abilities – not over or underwhelm them.
• Be creative.  No one drill will make or break an athlete.  Designing competition has no limits.
• Use your athletes as feedback.  They will tell you whether the challenge is too hard or too easy.
• Competition brings out an innate quality in human beings that pushes performance to the limits.  If you want to bring the best out of your athletes as a coach, it must be utilized as much as possible.  
• When athletes hang up the cleats for good, they will soon enter the real world where they will have to compete for jobs.  Sports are an incredible platform to teach qualities that will help them compete beyond their playing days.  At the end of the day, we’re trying to build better men and women through sport.  

As always, reach out to us with any questions or concerns. Keep learning and growing.

An important concept you need to teach your players is understanding how to manage the controllables.  In baseball and in life, there are always going to be things we can and cannot control. The key is to understand where we choose to invest our energy and where we choose to let go. We’ll never be able tor each our competitive ceiling if we’re invested into things we can’t influence. We also won’t help kids do this if we worry about the things that they cannot control. 

 

Stressing over things you can’t influence can lead to a snowball effect which degrades performance and can ruin enthusiasm for training.  On the flip side, investing your time and energy into things you can control helps you take ownership of your career by understanding what you can influence. A healthy combination of the two helps lead to a strong mental game, but a lack in either category can send a player spiraling for confidence. How do we prevent this? Well, it starts with understanding the difference between what we can and cannot control.  

 

To start, I think it’s crucial people know what they can control before they understand what they can’t. Jon Gordon does a great job breaking this down (see image below) by saying at all times, we control our attitude, effort, behavior, and actions. This includes how we think, respond to adversity, treat other people, let go of the past, and focus on the present. By process of elimination, anything that doesn’t lie within these four controllables is ultimately something we can’t control!  This includes our environment, adversity, the past, and the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people.    

(Image Credit)

Let’s think of this in terms of a baseball or softball setting.  On the diamond, there are plenty of things we cannot control which include weather, field conditions, how you feel that day, your opponent, and the umpires – to name a few. With this, how often do we find ourselves complaining about how hot or cold it is outside? What about a bad strike three call we got rung up on? Or how about the fact that the mound isn’t made exactly to your liking and you can’t get a great grip? The bottom line is this: If we know that we can’t control these things, why do we spend so much time and energy worrying about them?

 

As humans, we have a limited amount of time and energy that we can spend throughout the day. If we are constantly worrying about things we can’t influence and playing victim to our situation, we’ll lose sight of the things that we can actually control. Is it the tournament’s fault that they scheduled you for an 8 a.m. game and you’re exhausted, or is it your fault that you were up playing video games until 2 a.m.? Was wearing short sleeves a good idea when the forecast for game time read a staggering 38 degrees? Was it the umpire’s fault you struck out on a borderline pitch, or was it your fault for watching the first two right down the middle?

 

It may be brutally cold outside, but it’s not any warmer for your opponent! The mound might not be in great shape, but they’re not rolling out a brand new one for the other team’s pitcher! The same problems you’re dealing with are probably the same problems everyone else is dealing with. The difference? Your opponent is figuring things out by focusing on their controllables. You, on the other hand, are getting worked up over things you can’t control and turning into a victim of your circumstances.   

 

This is part of the reason why it is so huge to have a strong mental game: You have control over it at all times! Only you can control how you breathe, respond to adversity, and get 100% committed to winning the next pitch. Your process and commitment to executing it are always within your control. Sometimes we might not get the result we want, but we always have the ability to regroup and get ourselves ready to win the next pitch. If we’re constantly worrying about the field conditions, weather, or any other distractions we don’t have control over, we’ll never be able to do this.  

How to Implement

Coaches: Keep it simple, get kids to control their attitude, effort, behavior, and actions to become great teammates! If Jonny strikes out, lift his chin up and get him ready for his next at-bat. He can’t control what’s already happened, but he can control his attitude, effort, and how he approaches his next at-bat. If Sam dogs out a ground ball to the shortstop because he’s upset he just missed it, pull him aside and let him know he’s letting his teammates down by letting a poor result dictate how he feels and acts. If Joey can’t throw strikes because the umpire’s zone is too tight, don’t feed his negativity by arguing with the umpire as well. Instead, get him focused on a consistent, attainable goal where he’s going to make adjustments, compensate, and compete so he can give his team a chance to win the game.  

 

On the contrary, commend kids who show up, get after it, and own their controllables! Make sure Jonny knows you love the attitude he brings to practice! Give Sam a pat on the back when he shows great effort and sprints as hard as he can through first base every time he puts the ball in play. If Joey picks up his teammate after he strikes out, recognize it and let him know what a great teammate he’s being! For every action we find that we may not like, find something worth celebrating. You want to create enthusiasm for playing the game with great energy, attitude, and effort – not scolding kids every chance you get because they aren’t “mentally tough.”  

The next time one of your players gets upset at practice or a game, make him ask himself: “Is this something that I can control?” If it is, make an adjustment and get them back on their feet so they can compete and be a great teammate. If it’s not, tell them to leave it where they found it. This game is going to beat you up enough on its own – don’t add to it by worrying about things you can’t control.

There is a strong connection between the physical and mental game of baseball. One cannot practice the mental game without working on the physical game – they are forever intertwined. Just the way your thoughts can influence specific movement patterns,the images in your mind are a great indication of what your future performances will look like. This idea can be practiced through something known as visualization: the creation of strong, mental images that illuminate a future scenario before it ever happens.

 

Research shows that your brain cannot differentiate between real events and imagined events. Whenever you imagine events, your brain stores them as actual memories – hence, something you’ve actually experienced. A great example of this is the physical reactions you have when you experience a bad dream (heavy breathing, sweating). The dream was not real and did not actually happen in real life, but your mind elicited responses that made it seem very real to you.

 

Research also shows that when we visualize an action, we stimulate the same regions of our brain actually involved in performing the action. When the events we imagine are stored as real events, we build and strengthen the neural framework required to perform the action just as if we had physically practiced it. Through this, we’re able to improve a skill without even leaving the comfort of our bed – by vividly performing it in our mind.

 

Many high level athletes and performers claim much of their success to consistent visualization practices. Jon Lester has been using an imagery routine before each of his starts since 2013. Hall of Fame Red Sox player Carl Yastrzemski would visualize the pitcher and pitches he was going to see the night before a game. Fellow Hall of Famer George Brett would see himself hitting line drives gap to gap while he was on the on-deck circle.

 

Outside of baseball, Jack Nicklaus was famous for seeing every shot he ever hit on the golf course before actually hitting it. Former All-Pro Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Ahmad Rashad claimed his imagination was the key to his success. “I got ready for a game by imagining every possible move a defender might try to use and stop me,” said Rashad.

 

Lou Holtz instructed his Notre Dame football team to visualize themselves making great plays before bed heading into their 1988 matchup with the #1 Miami Hurricanes. The Irish defeated the Hurricanes and went on to win the national championship that year.

 

While these are just a few examples of different teams and athletes using visualization, the bottom line is visualization works. Using it to your advantage ultimately comes down to discipline and execution. Visualization is not simply daydreaming when it’s convenient for you. It requires a deliberate effort and consistent practice with complete focus and concentration. Below are some tips on how to put together an effective visualization practice:

 

1. Become a careful observer. Visualization requires great attention to detail. Note what your environment looks like, the relation between objects, different textures, colors, designs, odors, sounds, and other sensations that build a detailed picture of what you’re experiencing.
2. Find a quiet place with no distractions. Turn your phone and all electronics off. Calm yourself by bringing focus to your breath. If you encounter distracting thoughts, address them and return your focus to your breathing.
   1. See Alan Jaeger’s meditation mental training talk and practice for help with this (16:00).
3. Practice visualization by putting together visual images of scenes outside of baseball. Examples include your bedroom, a vacation spot, or a walk around the park.
   1. In the vacation example, see what the beach looks like. Feel the cool breeze on your skin and the water wash up against your bare feet. Feel a handful of sand as you pick it up and it slips through your fingers. Smell the scent of the fresh ocean and hear the waves crash up on shore. Be as creative as possible. The more vivid the better.   
4. Take your practice to the baseball field and visualize a skill that you struggle with. Make it as real as possible.
   1. See yourself approach the task with confident body language, a clear mind, and positive thoughts.
   2. Note what you see, hear, smell, and feel. See yourself having success. If you don’t succeed at first, fix it and try again. Create positive images.  
5. Set aside 10-15 minutes per day to go through your visualization practices. Pick out a specific time to work on them.
   1. Ex: when you wake up, before bed, on your way to practice
   2. If it is difficult at first, start with 5-10 minutes and gradually build on to it as your practice becomes better   
6. Put together a highlight tape of yourself having success on the baseball field. Go through it on a consistent basis.
   1. Visualization is touch to do when we’re in “funks” because all we see in our minds is our most recent failures. Highlight tapes are a great way to reinforce positive images of us competing in our mind. Positive images build confidence, negative images destroy it.

 

The body will always follow the mind. If our mind is cluttered with images of us striking out, giving up bombs, or booting ground balls, we’ll soon find ourselves in similar situations. Having success starts with how we think, see, and feel about ourselves. Feed your mind what it needs to succeed.

 

When you step into the box with the bases loaded, two outs, and the game on the line, you know you’re going to succeed because you’ve already gone through this situation in your mind. You saw the low and outside fastball right out of his hand and your barrel connecting with it to make that sweet sound that feels like nothing. You saw the ball go deep into the right field gap, scoring both runners, and the dogpile that resulted on second base.

 

You know exactly what to do and how to do it. All that’s left is the fun part – bringing your visualization to life.

 

For more information on visualization, see 4 Scientific Reasons Why Visualization Will Increase Your Chances to Succeed, The Mental Game of Baseball, and the Mental ABCs of Pitching by Harvey Dorfman.

 

Keep learning and growing.

Your body and mind work together like a well-oiled machine to keep you safe when faced with life’s challenges. Whether it’s sharpening your focus or using adrenaline to give you the strength you don’t normally have, the mind will protect you at all costs to ensure your survival. If utilized correctly, your mind can take you to places you never could have imagined. There’s a reason behind the Navy SEAL 40 percent rule: When your body feels as if you can’t give anymore, you’ve still got 60 percent left in the tank.

If used incorrectly, the powers of your mind will become your worst nightmare. Your brain will build invisible barriers that you will start to believe. Those barriers are built with help from a small voice in the back of your mind that never seems to shut up when something is on the line. It feeds off negative emotions and manifests a permanent mark on your memory when you find yourself in a similar situation that you once failed.

 

When you’re about to take a math exam and you need a 75 to pass the class, it’s the voice reminding you about the test you failed just two weeks ago. You’re not good at math, it’s too much pressure. There’s no way you’ll pull off the grade you want.

 

When you walk up to the podium for that big speech you’ve rehearsed over 100 times, it’s the voice that makes you forget the first line you thought was ingrained in your brain. Look at all those people out there. Imagine what they would think of you if you couldn’t even make it through your opening sentence without stumbling.

 

When you’re up to bat in the last inning with bases loaded, two outs, and down one run, it’s the same voice giving you every reason why you can’t lead your team to victory. These guys have owned you all day. You’re the worst hitter on this team, you’ll be lucky if you touch anything.  

 

Instead of facing your fears head-on, this voice won’t let you risk the embarrassment. It might be a cool feeling if you succeed, but just imagine how painful it would be to fail. Who cares how much you’ve worked on your swing in the past month. Now it actually matters, and you haven’t found the barrel in your last eight at-bats. What makes you think that’ll change when it actually matters?

 

If you can’t tell, this voice is probably the reason why you get so worked up over something you’ve practiced a million times. It’s the reason why you freeze up in the box in the last inning and choke away your last at-bat because you were too worried about failing. It’s the reason why your mental picture of your math study guide all of a sudden went blank during your test. With each failure, the voice grows stronger and stronger until it’s the only thing on your mind when it comes to crunch time. It’s a vicious cycle that will send you back to the drawing boards searching for answers – unless you take action and put an end to the lies it makes you believe.

 

This is where self-talk comes into play. When you listen to yourself, you hear the fears, doubts, and reasons why you can’t get the job done. When you talk to yourself, you can feed your mind positive thoughts, encouragement, and reasons why you CAN get the job done. Your thoughts are your body’s natural defense mechanism to get you to avoid situations you might fail. Self-talk is how you remind yourself that you’re more powerful than you could ever imagine.

 

If you’re feeling a little nervous before your big biology exam, starve your negative thoughts with positive self-talk. You’ve prepared as much as you could. You’re ready to go, you got this! Before you take the mic and prepare to address your fellow classmates, remind yourself how you’re going to crush it. You’re a great speaker. How exciting is it to finally share with your friends and family how much you’ve worked to master these next 10 minutes. You’re on the mound with two outs, bases loaded, and the other team’s best hitter ready to erase their one-run deficit? Yeah, wish him luck. You’re the man. There’s nobody better for this situation. He’ll be lucky if he touches one of these next three pitches.

 

In life, we are always going to face challenges that test our faith, will, and determination. We’re going to make mistakes and fall on our face when the spotlight is beaming on us. Striking out with the game-winning run on third doesn’t make you a failure, it just makes you human. With the right mindset, a work ethic that doesn’t hear the word can’t, and some positive self-encouragement at the right moments, you will overcome these obstacles and use them to propel your game to the next level.   

 

Our mind fears discomfort. It doesn’t like moments where we’re most vulnerable. It’s a curse that impacts everyone who walks this earth, but the great ones learned how to conquer this by feeding their mind what it needed. When the lights turn on and it’s time to play, you don’t need more reasons why you can’t be the guy. You need the assurance from yourself that you can.  

Don’t let you give up on yourself. Feed your mind positive words, encourage yourself when you’re down, and give yourself the confidence to rise up to any challenge that comes your way. If you’ve put in the work, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t believe you can get it done.

 

Don’t listen to yourself; talk to yourself. You are great, you were born for this, and you can do this.

Next up in our mental game series is the idea of routines.  Routines are consistent habits that players use to get themselves in a frame of mind where they’re physically and mentally ready to compete.  These include what you do before, during, and after competition.  Some routines change and evolve over time, while others remain consistent.  However, it’s impossible to modify your routines if you don’t have any to begin with.

Below are some ways to introduce routines into your training sessions.  Some ideas are more flexible or specific, but all of them are ways to purposely prepare players for training and competition.  Routines are something we can control at all times and are going to be there for us in any kind of situation.  When (stuff) hits the fan – and I assure you, it will – we need something to go back on and help us re-set.  This is where routines come into play.  

Hitting

One of the first things we do with our hitters is address their current routines.  Training sessions are not a race to see who can speed through the bucket the quickest and get the most reps.  Every single rep we take must be done with a purpose, and many times that requires the athlete to simply slow down.  We’re going to get plenty of swings in within a half hour session, so the focus must then turn to the quality of reps we’re taking.

To start, teach your hitters how to step into the box by escorting their feet with their eyes.  If the tee is set up at the front part of the plate, we teach our athletes to line their front foot up with the break in the plate (where the plate starts to angle into a point).  This gives hitters the ability to work behind the tee since we know the average hitter moves forward when they stride.  

We then teach our hitters to tap a part of the plate.  We do this so they consistently know how far away they are from the plate whenever they step into the box.  After they tap the plate, we teach kids to create rhythm by taking their hands towards the pitcher and back.  We then encourage athletes to keep this rhythm by moving their barrel and keeping their body in a relaxed, constant state of motion.  

Some guys do things a little differently, but what we want to prevent is hitters who turn into statues when they step into the box.  We are governed by the laws of physics, and the law of inertia states that a body in motion stays in motion (vice versa).  We want to match the pitcher’s rhythm, tempo, and timing, and that starts by keeping some sort of movement as we anticipate the pitch about to come to us.

From here, we encourage hitters to use their eyes and pick up an area where they want to hit the ball.  On the tee, we set up the baseball so two seams of the ball are facing the hitter and tell hitters to hunt the inside seam.  When we advance to a moving object, we encourage kids to stretch their eyes and pick up where they want to hit the ball.  This could be the screen, back part of the cage, top part of the cage, or something outside like the outfield fence.    

Once a routine is established, it is crucial to reinforce the routine on a consistent basis.  Have the athlete practice stepping out of the box and stepping back in, touching the plate, creating rhythm, and stretching their eyes.  After a bad swing or two, have the athlete step out and re-set by going through their routine. If you let kids get away with it in practice, they’ll never have something to go to in competition when the game starts to speed up.

Fielding

In your average nine-inning baseball game, a fielder will see anywhere between 120-150 pitches.  Of those pitches, as little as 2-5 of them will decide the game.  Since we can’t predict when these pitches will take place, it is absolutely crucial all nine positions are completely locked into each and every single pitch.  You may be locked into 119 of those 120 pitches, but the one you take off could decide whether your team wins or loses that night.

To maintain focus, concentration, and improve reaction time off the bat, we teach our infielders and outfielders to get into a pre-pitch ready position by stepping into the circle.  This can be done by stepping forward with both feet, one foot, or even adding a hop after both feet land.  It is to be done as the ball is about to enter the hitting zone (around when the ball enters the dirt circle).  Following the rules of inertia, we want players to be moving before the ball is put in play so they can get a better first-step read off the bat.

While everyone is different, we highly encourage kids to take a hop step after stepping into their circle.  This move is seen a lot throughout professional tennis (see examples from Andy Murray and Roger Federer)  Considering they see serves upwards of 140 mph, I think their pre-serve actions are incredibly useful to baseball players.   

Here is a video I took of Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres.  Notice how his actions mirror the ones from Murray and Federer.  

If you ever get a chance to attend a baseball game, pay close attention to the pre-pitch actions of all seven fielders.  You might pick up a thing or two from them.  

As a coach, be deliberate in how you teach this to kids.  Draw a circle in the dirt and have kids step in and out of it.  Stepping into the circle is where they lock in and take their focus to the plate, while stepping out is when they can relax and prepare for the next pitch.  Preach it when it’s done, point it out when it’s not done.  It’ll seem tedious, but it will build good habits that will really help kids out when the game starts to speed up.  

Other Notes on Routines

1. Learn how to utilize the breath when performing your routines!  Breathing helps create clarity, calmness, and focus by slowing your heart rate down and getting oxygen to your brain.  For more benefits on the breath, see our recent blog post “Just Breathe!”
2. Teach kids good pre and post training/competition routines.  This includes a proper warm-up, recovery, nutrition, hydration, and journaling.  We’ll get more into these topics in the future, but start with something and be consistent with it.  It’s all about building good habits.    
3. Some routines are built into the game, such as warm-ups in between innings.  Every position should treat these like game-reps.  If you play shortstop for 24 innings in a tournament and get 3 ground balls every inning, that’s 72 opportunities for you to improve your craft.
4. Mental routines are every bit as important as physical ones.  Visualization, simulating at-bats, self-talk, re-set buttons, and other actions to fuel the mind are critical to game performance.  
5. Try different routines, experiment, and figure out what works best for you.  As a coach, give kids freedom to do so – but make sure they are actually developing some sort of consistency.  

These are only a few ideas, so feel free to come up with anything on your own as it relates to routines.  If it can be done consistently and help a kid perform to the best of their ability, use it!  

Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns.  We love to hear what you’re doing!

Keep learning and growing.      

As discussed before, I think most people would agree the mental game in baseball is a crucial skill to help players succeed at high levels of competition.  Due to the long season, the time between action, and a multitude of other factors, players of all abilities are vulnerable to poor thinking patterns which can erode a player’s confidence and hurt their performance.  Having a strong mental game helps players get control of themselves so they can compete in all environments and learn how to deal with failure, manage success, and keep their emotions from ruining their love of the game.  

 

Like anything else, the mental game is a skill and must be practiced for you to get better at it!  Therefore, coaches must find ways to incorporate the mental game into practice so kids can learn and work at it!  Looking at the mental game as a whole can be overwhelming, so over the next several blog posts I’m going to be posting simple ideas that all coaches can use to help train it.  If it’s good enough for Mike Trout, Anthony Rizzo, John Maddon, Manny Ramirez, Derek Johnson, and many more – it’s good enough for you.  

The first step to building a strong mental game is mastering the most fundamental element of life –breathing!  A quality deep breath does wonders for an athlete and should the first step in learning how to manage the game from the neck up.  In the words of Alan Jaeger, “The breath, like the engine to your car, is the key to keeping the body and mind running smoothly and efficiently.”  

As for physical benefits,the breath brings oxygen to the brain to help you think clearly.  This is crucial because the brain cannot differentiate between different types of stress.  In other words, it cannot tell the difference between you on the mound in a pressure situation, or you being chased by a sabertooth tiger!  Both will take an according toll on your body despite being completely different circumstances!    

This may sound funny, butyour brain’s number one priority is survival.  Any sort of threat will turn on the sympathetic nervous system (“fight or flight”) in your CNS.  If you cannot get oxygen to your brain and rationalize the situation, your body will go into the “flight” stage, shut down, and allocate all resources towards keeping you safe.  This is great for when you’re being chased for your life, but not so great when it comes to executing fine motor skills.  Don’t make baseball a life or death situation when you’re up to bat with the game on the line – just breathe!    

 

Along with this, breathing helps release tension throughout the body.  Loose muscles are fast muscles.  Any sort of tension from toes to fingertips will keep you from moving freely, athletically, and will have a negative impact on balance, rhythm, and timing.  Breathing, on the other hand, will do just the opposite.  For players who struggle with this and controlling nerves before/during games, get them to focus on the exhale portion of the breath.  On the contrary, focusing on the inhale is a great way to help increase energy levels.

Another physical benefit to breathing is it showspositive body language.  A quality deep breath should be noticeably different from just a regular breath.  Athletes must learn how to enlarge their diaphragm by puffing their chest and elevating their shoulders.  This expands the lungs and helps counteract bad body language such as lowered eyes and hunched shoulders. Psychologists will argue that up to 70% of your communication is done non-verbally.  Be careful of the message you’re sending to other team.  Hitters are like sharks, and they feast when they smell blood.

As for intangible benefits, the breath is a great tool tolet go of the last pitch and get focused on the next pitch.  There is great freedom is enabling athletes to play with their sole focus on the pitch they are about to see.  If they’re constantly bogged down by the emotions of the last pitch or any pitch before that, their performance will snowball out of control.  Breathe in the emotions, bad thoughts, anxieties – and then exhale them out. Be where your feet are.    

 

The breath is also a great way to “check-in” with how an athlete is feeling physically and mentally during training or competition.  If an athlete is unable to get a complete inhale and exhale without being cut short, it is a sign that they are losing control.  As Tom Hanson and Ken Ravizza say in Heads Up Baseball 2.0, “Your breath is something to go to to determine if you’re in control of yourself, and it simultaneously helps you get control of yourself.”  Awareness is a crucial part of the mental game, and you can’t be aware of how you’re feeling if you’re not aware of how you’re breathing.    

 

Lastly, breathing helps you transition from training to trusting.  If you were to think about your most successful performances, I think most all of you would realize that you weren’t really thinking about anything at all.  This would be known as trusting – letting the work you’ve done unfold on the field without any conscious thought.  Confident and successful athletes keep things simple, minimize thinking, and play with their eyes.  While there is a time and place for training and conscious thought, it is not on the competitive field.  Use what you have, trust the work you’ve put in, and compete with everything you have to win the next pitch.  Oh, and don’t forget to breathe.  

 

Implementing the Mental Game into Practice

 

Coaches – In your practices, keep it simple for kids: get them to first learn how to take a deep, visible breath.  If you can’t tell they’re breathing from the dugout, they’re not doing it correctly.  Also, do not let kids rush the breath – let them take their time on the inhale and completely exhale the breath.  The exhale should be forceful enough so that kids are able to feel the tension being released from their body.  Kids can add to this by shaking their arms, legs, and releasing their shoulders at the conclusion of their breath.  

Another huge point is the breath must have a purpose behind it.  If kids are breathing but putting no intent behind it, they won’t get anything out of it – just like going through the motions in anything.  To help with this, get athletes to notice the air coming in, the air going out, and how each breath makes them feel. Utilizing a quality deep breath is a great way to slow the athlete’s heart rate.  If they still feel tension and anxiety after a few breaths, get them to slow things down and create a purpose behind each breath by bringing awareness to it.  

 

Once you’ve taught athletes how to breathe, get them to incorporate it into their daily practice routines!  Teach them to use the breath in the warm-up and how to exhale as they reach the end range of motion in their body (yoga had this figured out a while ago).  When an athlete boots a ball, get them to take a deep breath and release the error they just made. If a hitter rolls over a ball they know they should have crushed, tell them to step out, look at a letter on their bat, and take a deep breath before stepping back into the box.  Get your pitchers to take quality deep breaths between every pitch – in practices and in games. If you don’t do it in practice, don’t expect it to magically show up in games.  

 

Be creative in how you teach each kid to utilize the breath, but keep the main thing the main thing: When the game starts to speed up, get kids to breathe and slow it down!    

 

For more information about different ways to use the breath, when to use it, and how to improve it, Alan Jaeger’s blog (see Mental Practice: A Daily Routine and Mental Training Talk and Practice) thoughts from Lantz Wheeler, and Heads Up Baseball 2.0 are a good place to start.  

 

Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns!  

 

Keep learning and growing.