As most of you know, there are plenty of strategies, tools, techniques, and theories that exist today to help athletes.  With that in mind, I would argue that the most important thing for players is the understanding and mastering the mental game in sports.

To handle the inevitable ups and downs of sports, and life, what you need to know is that a circumstance (a win, loss, teammate, coach, the past or future) cannot cause you to feel a certain way.

“Your feelings are solely connected to your thinking. When your head is clear, you’ll feel good. When you’re head cluttered, you’ll feel bad. Anything on the outside is actually neutral.”

Does that sound different?  As Garret Kramer states, it’s normal for it to appear that a circumstance has the power to make you feel anxious, frustrated, or even happy. But your mind, like the minds of all human beings, doesn’t work from out to in—it works from in to out. That’s why, if you’re a hitter, sometimes you’ll feel insecure when looking at all of those runners on base or all of the fielders out there, and sometimes you won’t. The base runners aren’t driving those feelings, its the added pressure of knowing that if you don’t score them, you will feel some form of failure.

The player’s cognitive perspective (level of clarity or clutter in the moment) is driving  this.

From my perspective, make sure tell your kids to relax and have fun.  I know that sounds cliche, but let them know that the reason they are out there isn’t to please parents or their coach, but to please themselves.  Youth sports should be joyful, not overly stressful.

Source: Garret Kramer’s The Mental Game

Young Athletes (and Parents): Here’s the Only Thing You Need to Know To Master the “Mental Game”

I’m a huge fan of Dr. Patrick Cohn and subscribe to his twitter feed (@Peaksports) for great insight on the mental side of athletic participation.  He has put together a great piece on performance anxiety for athletes.

One of the biggest obstacles for players is pressure – how to want it and how to deal with it.  I’d suggest reading this post from Dr. Cohn so you can get a better understanding of how to actually practice and simulate these types of situations.

When you practice under game-like situations, you build confidence in those situation. So when you are in competition, you are doing what you have practiced often.

This type of practice doesn’t eliminate anxiety, nor does it guarantee that you will make every game-ending play, goal or shot.

Specificity practice increases confidence which helps you perform in anticipated situations.

As Cohn says, Villanova head basketball coach Jay Wright knows the value of being mentally prepared in critical situations. He credits mental preparedness for his team’s ability to produce in the clutch:

“We do practice that. We have certain plays with less than four seconds, from four to seven seconds. Every coach has this. Zero to four, four to seven, seven to 12. We have plays. So we know what it is. We practice it every day. I didn’t have to say anything in the huddle. We have a name for it, that’s what we’re going to do. Just put everybody in their spots.”

Dr. Cohn is right on in stating that If you anticipate and prepare mentally for different game scenarios, you will have a feeling of “deja vu” instead of being overwhelmed by the unexpected.

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Overcome Performance Anxiety With This Practice

Attention Hitters – Stop Evaluating a Pitch Out of the Hand

I’m a big fan of Justin Dedman’s blog, “Hitting Mental”, as he does a fantastic job of highlighting the cognitive side of hitting.  I’d highly recommend that you visit this post on how hitters should treat each individual pitch.

Many hitters try to evaluate pitches out of the hand instead of thinking about hitting it. Of course, we don’t want to be swinging at pitches out of the strike-zone, but our brains must think “Hit! Hit! Hit!”, not “Is it good? is it good? is it good?” 

“Waiting to see a pitch out of the hand is foolish. Even the best hitters in the world cannot recognize spin until 10-12 feet out of a pitcher’s hand. At this point, a 90 mph fastball will be on top of you in less than three tenths of a second. That’s the amount of time it takes for you to blink. To then take the barrel to the baseball with an aggressive swing is nearly impossible. We end up with a lot of near-misses, or in reality, near-hits. Weak contact. Foul balls. Strike two. Ahhh, just missed. Yes. Yes, you did just miss. And that is all you are going to get in this at bat.”

Hitters need to be committed to the pitch they believe is coming. As Justin says, “This isn’t guess hitting. This is hitting.”  Be ready for the next pitch and stay loose.  Make a decision and get your body and your mind ready to attack that pitch where you can drive it

Source: Justin Dedman’s “Hitting Mental” Blog