Player Confidence

a.axum581 -
it's confidence and control...those 2 elements will set the path to a successful season...

To paraphrase a line from my favorite movie...don't think, just hit. Easy for me to say, I know.

There is a book called "The Mental Keys to Hitting" that has some strategies that might help you. You can find it at Amazon.com.

a.axum581,

It may help you to get in front of some audiences not on the ball field to help build your confidence. Try the following:

Go to a little league field or s****r field and do a little coaching.

Go to a boys and girls club or YMCA and volunteer to work with a group of kids.

If you attend church volunteer to get up front and do a reading or prayer.

Ask some of your teachers if they will let you do a presentation.

All of the above things are not on the baseball field, but will help your self confidence. My son volunteered every Sunday morning for three years with a wheelchair s****r team. He gave them encouragement and friendship but they gave him back much more.

Just some thoughts. Please come back and let us know how you are doing.

IMO...there's 2 types of baseball self talk...
1. Postive - Self promo you thoughts, be optimistic, and focused
2. Negative - It's self defeating. Period!

Look at the opportunity as a challege and be a contibutor to the team...you'll succeed!

I am taking your post literally "Almost every time...". Does that mean there are times during a game that you aren't nervous at bat? If this is true then what is different about those situations. ie runners on, full count, 2outs. Everyone is nervous when batting it is how they focus those nerves that makes the difference.

You are relaxed in practice. You are not thinking about failing in practice. You are capable of performing up to your ability in practice because your not letting your fear of failure get in the way of success. So you have to learn to not fear failure in games. Fear of failure results in failure. Hitters have to block out every emotion when they are hitting and simply hit.

You have to have the chance to fail so that you have a chance to succeed-- you cannot walk on the field or step in the batters box concerned with failing--you just go do what you can do

Backstop-17
What great suggestions. LeftySideSon heads a free baseball clinic for our area Boy's Club. It is something he started on his own during his sophomore year when he wasn't as comfortable on the mound as he is today. His teammates were able to see him in a leadership role. Heading up that endeavor made a world of difference to how his teammates viewed his role both as a leader and player.

TR and Coach May also hit the nail on the head. You have nothing to fear but fear itself. The more you get in front of others either on or off the baseball field, the easier it gets.

I agree that backstop has some great suggestions. Confidence is just like anything else physical - it has to be practiced in order to succeed. There are some people who are born naturally confident just like there are people who are born naturally able to play baseball, basketball, football or whatever. But almost everyone else have to work at anything to be successful.

Another tool which helps is visualization. Sit there and see yourself succeed in various different situations. It's like muscle memory for the mind. See yourself do it enough then you are able to relax enough to do it. Of course visualization is worthless without the other tools to be successful.

If it makes you feel any better, the pitcher is probably nervous too!

Remember, baseball is a battle against who will win the at bat, the pitcher or the batter. If you show signs of being confidant, you might win the battle.

You might want to find a ritual that makes you feel comfortable, adjust your gloves, your helmet, your crotch, take a deep breath and let it out, whatever, watch MLB hitters (pitchers have them too), most have this ritual they repeat over and over and that is what brings them into focus.

Similar to what Coach May suggests, my guess is when you go up to the plate during a game, you're thinking about a desired result; that is, getting a hit. Try walking into the batters box without any thought about a result in mind, just clear your head and go up there and have fun.

At a more advanced stage you will hear people talk about tips to help you "slow the game down" which will help you focus and perform at a higher level. (If you listen to professional hitters talk about hitting slumps often the slumps are prolonged for reasons similar to your concerns. There's too much thinking going on and self imposed pressure.)

At your age I would suggest you walk in the batters box with a smile on your face and have fun. Stay positive. Good things will happen. Good luck.

Also I just re-read your post and I admit I had to laugh when I read, "I have another big problem." Baseball is first and foremost a game of failure so you might want to get use to it. The most important thing is to stay positive while you work on the things that need to be worked on.

Nice post igball. I think its alot like life. If you wake up thinking your going to have a bad day because you had a bad day yesterday your very likely to have a bad day. In fact it has already started out bad because your already thinking its going to be a bad day.

If you go into the batters box believeing your going to fail , worrying that you might fail , thinking you might fail , your more than likely to fail. And your fears will be realized and validated by your failure. Your fighting yourself.

The exact reverse is also true. If you wake up believeing your going to have a great day then your working in a positive mental state. Your expecting good things to happen to you so good things happen for you. Its already a good day because you have started it off with a positive mental state.

When you get in the batters box believeing good things are going to happen then you are more than likely to have a good ab. Understanding what a good at bat is will assist you in this as well.

Be positive and expect good things to happen. If you have a bad ab flush it and continue to expect good things to happen. The odds are in your favor when you take this approach. Confidence that you will fail will result in failure. Confidence that you will succeed will result in success. Just make sure you understand what success actually is so you dont believe you failed when you actually had success.

I have coached hitters that if they had a bad at bat in their first plate appearance of a game they were done for that game. And that same player if they got a hit in their first ab they were destined to have a great day at the plate. This is a direct result of them feeding off the positive of that first ab or feeding off the negative of that first ab. Then there are guys that can be 0-3 with 3 terrible at bats and you would never know it by looking at their approach in the box , in the field , in the dugout. Or the same guy could be 3-3 and you would never know it either by the way they acted. They were just as good in that 4th at bat regardless of what they had done in the previous at bats.

This is where you want to get to. Hitting is something that you must approach with a flat line approach imo. Remove the emotion and put 100 percent of your focus on that pitch right then and there. Anything that takes 1 percent of your focus away from where it should be needs to be flushed from your system. That includes instruction from the coaches box , stands , dugout. Good luck.

I would suggest you speak with your coach about this problem. A good coach always knows how to keep his players loose and relaxed. IMHO lack of confidence is just a lack of focus.

My high school coach and this was many years ago had a little thing he would use to help us focus. The batter who had the most strikeouts in a game the following practice would have to wear a pink helmet during BP. Now you can imagine what kind of poking the player got that had to wear that pink helmet during BP at practice. It was all in good fun though.

In the dugout the guys would be poking at each other about who was going to have the honor of wearing that god awful pink helmet the next practice and coach brought it to every game LOL. Also each time you had to wear it you also had to sign your name on it. Surprisingly enough coach and the thought of that helmet kept us focused and loose at the plate.

Guys. I have another theory that may explain why he's "shaking" in the batter's box; simply put--He's maybe terrified of getting hit by the baseball.

and if this were true... just man up and play. This isn't a game just for anyone.

Out of the few years I've been playing and watching the game of baseball I've never seen a guy shake of nervousness just because of competition or the size of numbers of scouts/people in the stands.

The only time I've witnessed this was when the kid was just afraid of the pitcher.

Nonsense. People get torqued up and nervous about all kinds of things (I am guessing that you don't play golf yet =)). Congrats for rising above it yourself, but show a little forebearance for those that are still trying to.

a.a581, I would suggest the following; find a swing thought and focus on that. For example, instead of trying to think about everything that goes with having an at-bat, focus only on staying inside the ball (on your pitch, of course) and driving it. Only that. A lot of times, the process of clarifying what you are trying to do makes it simpler. Good luck, OBC

Try thinking "what's the worst thing that could happen to me during this at-bat?" The answer would probably be that you could pop up or strike out, and you have survived those events before, and lived to tell about it, right?

Even the best players in the world have bad at-bats about two-thirds of the time! My son likes to use focusing techniques similar to Evan Longoria's; when Longoria gets upset or nervous at bat, he focuses on the left foul pole intently and it helps him calm down and clear his mind. I think he explains how he does it in an ESPN interview that may be on youtube. Good luck this season!

quote:

Originally posted by Ole Ball Coach:
Nonsense. People get torqued up and nervous about all kinds of things (I am guessing that you don't play golf yet =)). Congrats for rising above it yourself, but show a little forebearance for those that are still trying to.

a.a581, I would suggest the following; find a swing thought and focus on that. For example, instead of trying to think about everything that goes with having an at-bat, focus only on staying inside the ball (on your pitch, of course) and driving it. Only that. A lot of times, the process of clarifying what you are trying to do makes it simpler. Good luck, OBC

Well I'm just saying. If you want to play football but you're terrified of getting hit and tackled, then the sport isn't for you. By the way, I feel that criticism does a hell of a lot more good in some cases.

It definitely has helped me. Coaches aren't going to baby you about that kind of stuff. The best way to learn something is to work it out yourself.

And you might be right; I am only going off what I read originally.

I do know this, even longtime pros get a little nervous when the pitcher is throwing gas and is a little loose with the control; its just human nature. What is it that they used to say about Randy Johnson? He was, on occasion, "effectively wild."

What I have observed is that pressure and nervousness are things that the athlete puts on him or herself. From wherever it comes (fear of getting hit, playing in front of a scout, trying to impress your folks) it is real for the athlete so he or she needs to figure it out and do something about it.