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9 replies

Mental toughness

T turnin2100+ posts
Let me tell you the situation...I have a talented pitching staff, 4 guys who have 3 quality pitches. When they throw strikes they are borderline lights out...the key word was when. I have never had a group that can lose control so quickly. I have tried calling less location at times, have talked to them about pitches they are comfortable throwing and pitches they arent.

The other night we are going back and forth with a good team, both teams are hitting, fielding, and pitcherds are making big pitches when needed. My starter throws well, 6 SO 65 pitches/51 strikes, no BB. 1st reliever comes in 17 of 18 pitches are strikes. 3rd reliever comes in, get the 1st 2 out on 6 pitches, 1 strikeout, 6-3 gb. Then he walks the next batter on 4 pitches, then goes 1-2 and hits the kid with a FB. After a brief mound visit, he gives up a single, one run scores, the another, a run scores and we nail the 2nd runner trying to score 9-3-2.

This last kid has talent, Jr. LHP, throws 85-86, good CB, great CH, but isn't very tough mentally, but has been VERY successful this year, getting D1 letters. His last start he threw 5 2/3 innings of 2 hit ball, with 6 SO and 5 BB! The others are talented, but I think they lose focus as well. I have shared different things with them, things to read etc. I never had to deal with this as a player and in 11.5 years of HS coaching I've never had a group like this. Does anyone have anything they have used or read to help a kid like this? Or have you had a group like this and found a way to get them out of the funk? I believe its all mental, and I need to get them through this.
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PT Pastime Trnments100+ posts
Wow. You have about the same staff as me. it sounds like. Last year, we took the approach of babying them along. We gave them the Mental toughness book. It is mainly two kids that are mentally not as strong as they should. This approach did not work. They came in just as soft as ever. We have tried to take a much different approach this year. No excuses, I do not care if we boot 8 balls in a row behind you. So far the jury is still out. We have only played one game. I just make them run for every excuse or anything I see deemed as soft. For example today, one came to practice wearing large leather gloves and a hood on trying to play catch. That was a lap. Our running program is designed to push them mentally. I hope it works. This is completly different than anything I have done in the past. But so far so good. Both are throwing more aggresively.

After last year, I feel as if books only work if the kid buys into it. Otherwise it seems just to go in one ear and out the other. I am interested to hear what other people do. Also, interested to see how you approach it. So far for me the running program has made the biggest difference. It is mostly sprints. I feel like I am running a lot of basketball drills and a lot of ab work with little to no breaks.
coach2709coach270910,000+ posts
I think it's almost impossible to teach mental toughness during the season. To me the best time to teach it is during the offseason conditioning. It can be done during the season but it seems pretty tough.

The best way to me to teach mental toughness is to create high standards with reward / punishment outcomes. This creates ownership in performance and hopefully leads to more mental toughness.

If you are doing this in the offseason then I think it needs to be non baseball exercises. Let them toughen up without knowing they are doing it.

During the season put them in tough situations and let them work out of it with a reward / punsihment system. For example - load the bases, give the hitter a 2 - 0 count and 0 outs. Tell the pitcher to get out of it. Help them through the first couple of times but then turn them loose to get out of it or face some sort of punishment.
Ben_08Ben_08100+ posts
Coming from a pitcher, please stop with the punishment idea. The greatest thing a coach did for me mentally was to tell me about 5 minutes before a start that "not one of these guys is as good as you." Rewards and punishment are great for training dogs, not pitchers. Do what you can to build ego's if that makes sense.
coach2709coach270910,000+ posts
Maybe punishment isn't the best choice of words but there has to be a connection made in practice that not getting a job done has consequences. In a game that consequence is losing. Sometimes players don't understand that connection of not getting a job done in practice will lead over to games. I'm not saying that you have to do this every single time but sometimes you can teach with negative reinforcement (doesn't sound that much better than punishment but I hope you understand what I'm getting at).

I'm a big supporter of things like 3 good things for every 1 bad thing. But sometimes you got to say something like "get this job done or i'm going to _______"
C CatchingCoach05100+ posts
Our pitchers went through the same thing a few years ago. We have since introduced methods by Brian Cain and Ken Ravizza.

We utilize the mental "routines" that Cain and Ravizza promote for our pitchers, hitter, and even our fielders. We think it has significantly brought an increase in focus and also has our players focusing on one pitch at a time. Our kids now focus more on the process and not the end results.
Last edited by CatchingCoach05

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