• Take responsibility for your thoughts and actions.
• Commit to a mission: know why you play baseball, what character traits you want to possess and what you want to accomplish in the game.
• Make your daily actions consistent with your mission.
• Play one pitch at a time, confident and focused on each pitch as it is played with disregard for past or future pitches.
• Focus on the process of playing the game rather than the outcomes of your performances.
• Realize that you can’t control what happens around you, but you can control your response to it, and that you must be in control of yourself before you can control your performance.
• Develop your mental skills so you consistently perform near the best of your ability and have “something to go to” when faced with adversity.
• Practice what you are going to do in a game.
• Learn each day.
• Keep it simple.

In order for any of the afore-mentioned concepts to work you must be in the right frame of mind. All outside distractions must be eliminated. This can be accomplished if, at the start of practice or pre-game, you take time to go through a relaxation and visualization routine (this is a mental muscle memory program). Lie down in a quiet space and get 100 percent comfortable. Take off your shoes and loosen your clothing if you need to. Breath deeply through your nose and into your stomach and slowly release your breath through your nose. Do this until you are totally focused on your breathing with the goal of eliminating all conscious thought. This could be done in as little as five minutes with five exaggerated deep breaths once you develop the necessary skills. Breathing is a great calming technique. It is an excellent way to gain control , during tense, late-game situations.

IMAGING

Once you have eliminated all conscious interventions, you are ready to start to image/visualize. Your initial imagery should be in a non-sports emironment since this induces a state of relaxation. Be as detailed as possible in your imagery. Hear the sounds, see the colors, smell the smells, and feel the emotions.

The following are three examples of visualizing in a non-sports environment .

Visualize yourself riding a raft on a river, running clean and cold through a mountain pass. Trust the river and let it carry you and your thoughts. Let go of your controls and let the river make all the turns for you.

You are a leaf falling from high atop a tree. Trust the breeze to carry you down ever so gently. As you float to the ground, allow the feelings of “letting go” immerse you.

Allow yourself to experience the feeling of a pebble thrown into a cold, clear lake. Be the pebble descending slowly and quietly to the bottom of the lake and settling on abed of fine sand. Allow your mind to come to a state of rest just as the pebble has.

After you have imaged “letting go” in a relaxed and peaceful environment, transfer the same feelings of comfort and relaxation to your sports environment

Just like imaging in the non-sports environment, you must make your images as vivid and clear as you can in your sports environment. See the action, feel yourself moving, hear the I sounds, and smell the aromas. Use internal imagery more than external imagery. Internal imagery is visualizing what you will see when you are performing. This is closer to what you will actually experience in a game. External imagery is seeing what other people see when you are performing. It is helpful when you are “focusing in” on your mechanics.

When you are visualizing, see yourself doing things well and having success. Visualize a snow-white ball with bright red laces going down a specific lane to your target. Blacken in background so that your throwing lane stands out. This helps narrow in your focus and eliminate distractions. Image yourself pitching well against the team you are about to face. Play out the entire day from the time you get up in the morning right though the post-game congratulations for your sterling effort. See yourself responding to adversity and turning things around. An excellent technique is to image back into your sports environment after practice or games. Replay the day and imprint all the positives. Correct all the negatives and replay them the way you want them.

When you finish visualizing in your sports environment, exit the same way you started, with exaggerated deep breaths. This is like a warm down and helps you transition back into a state where your mind is totally clear.

SELF-TALK

Self-talk occurs whether you actually say the word out loud or are merely talking to yourself in your head. It is an on-going process. Thinking is a combination of your self-talk and your imagery. The words you say to yourself impact how confident you feel. The most important factor in becoming as good as you can in any area is whether you believe in yourself.

Positive self-talk is critical to performance. What are you saying to yourself when you are “playing your best? Self-talk is a great thing to go to when you are struggling. Say to yourself the things you say to yourself when you are playing your best, whether you feel that way or not. However, much of the time when you are performing well your mind is blank and you are not conscious of any thoughts. Such situations are perfectly valid- you don’t need any self-talk at that time.

Here are a few examples of self-talk statements.

General:

• “I am in control of myself before each pitch.”
• “I am taking one pitch at a time.”
• “I am totally focused on each pitch.”
• “I have ‘paid the dues and I am trusting my ability.”
• “I am in command of myself and my pitching.”

Pitching Self-Talk:

• “Hit the target”
• “Focus on the target.”
• “Stay back.”
• “Let it go.”
• “I’m the man.”
• “Stay closed.”
• “The ball is going right there.”

Mental preparation as a result of a mental training program is an everyday thing. It is no less important than weight training, cardiovascular conditioning, flexibility, pitching mechanics, or pitch development.

GOALS

The mental game involves having a goal or mission which you commit to achieving. You must trust yourself and let go of conscious effort Emphasis is on the process of achieving your goal rather than the actual result or outcome. Make your goals specific and measurable-they should be difficult but realistic. finally, adjust your goals when necessary. Your goals should . focus on the present moment (e.g., this pitch, today’s practice).

BREATHING

A slow steady breath puts your focus on the present moment. It enables you to  ”check in” with yourself to see if you are in control. If you are not in control it helps you get in control. It helps you release negatives and energizes you when you are feeling sluggish. Deep abdominal breathing helps you shift from conscious thinking to unconscious trusting, and helps establish a . routine and sense of rhythm in your pitching.

INTERNAL STOPLIGHT

You need to reference your internal stoplight so you can recognize when you are becoming stressed and losing control (yellow light) or are stressed and have lost control (red light). Once you recognize the situation you need to have a method of releasing the stress and regrouping.

Breathing is a great means of releasing stress and getting back to the present moment. Cleaning off the rubber, picking up the rosin bag and throwing it down, and having a focal point in the ballpark are potential releases that will allow you to regroup and get back to a “green light” mode. When you are unencumbered by stress, you are ready to get back to your performance routine which readies you to respond and execute your  plan with trust.

What follows is an example of a pitcher experiencing a green light and the same pitcher in a· red or yellow light mode. It is a short excerpt from Ken Ravizza and Tom Hanson’s book, and shows how to handle both situations.

The Mental Game

The following is an example of a pitcher whose routine is helping him maintain a fluid, positive rhythm. As he gets the ball back from the catcher.

Self-control: He can feel he’s in a good rhythm and that things are going well. That’s a green light.

Plan: He steps on the rubber (which means he’s ready to go on this pitch), and takes a deep breath. He gets the sign from the catcher: curveball, down and in. He commits to throwing a curve ball , down and in.

Trust: He send his focus out to his target, the catcher’s mitt, and throws the pitch. Same pitcher after giving up a home run. As he gets the new ball from the umpire:

Self- control: The pitcher recognizes that he’s upset.  He had a good inning going and all the sudden he’s behind 1-0. He wants to hurry and get back at the next guy. He’s got at least a yellow, it not a red light. To get himself under control, he turns his back to home plate and walks to the area behind the mound. He looks out to his “focal point,” the flag pole in center field, which reminds him that there’s nothing he can do about the past or future, and that he should relax and focus on this next pitch. He takes a good breath, turns around and walks confidently back up on the mound. Before he steps on the rubber he pauses to make sure he’s ready for the, next pitch.

Plan: He steps on the rubber and takes a deep breath. He then gets the sign from the catcher: fastball, low and away. He then commits to throwing a fastball, low and away.

Trust: He directs his focus to his target, the catcher’s mitt and throws the pitch.

The level of confidence you have in your next pitch is the key to whether you will be successful or flat. This involves trust. You have to trust your stuff and do what you do daily in practice. It doesn’t matter if you have a good or bad stuff or if you only have 80%. Ken Ravizza says that pitchers who are mentally strong have “good bad days.”

Practice is the best place to work on your mental game. The quality of your practice is your responsibility. Have a daily goal or mission, then be focused on the moment . Everything you do in practice is important. There are no little things.

One of the best times to work on the mental game is when you have experienced failure and are feeling somewhat depressed. (Short-term depression is okay.) This is a great opportunity to utilize your mental game techniques to work toward turning things around and regaining control of your environment.

The Mental Game