What techniques can/do you use to help players improve their mental game in the field or at the plate?
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Read Ken Ravissi - Heads up baseball.
Generic Mental training
www.jaegersports.com
Batting specific mental training.
http://www.qualityatbats.com/
Generic Mental training
www.jaegersports.com
Batting specific mental training.
http://www.qualityatbats.com/
Thanks for the reply. Discovered Ravissi's book a few years back.....good stuff.
The Quality At Bats CD is intriguing.
Haven't looked at Jaeger yet.
The Quality At Bats CD is intriguing.
Haven't looked at Jaeger yet.
Have been to the Jaeger camps and they are good. His stuff is generic mental training - works for both pitching and hitting but probably more pitching focused. I have the book, but since my son went through the program while reading it I am not sure how it translates with out the training.
I don't have any personal experience with Steve's stuff. Looks interesting. If you get it provide some feedback here.
I don't have any personal experience with Steve's stuff. Looks interesting. If you get it provide some feedback here.
By mental game, I'm assuming you are talking about improving a player's overall knowledge of situations and how to be prepared to deal with those situations?
I found over 15 years of coaching 18U that if I really felt like we needed a mental edge, I'd challenge the team to play the game like it was their last they would ever play. I tried, early on, to use this several times a year, but it started to fall on deaf ears. When I would pull it out once or twice a season, it seemed to almost always work.
I found over 15 years of coaching 18U that if I really felt like we needed a mental edge, I'd challenge the team to play the game like it was their last they would ever play. I tried, early on, to use this several times a year, but it started to fall on deaf ears. When I would pull it out once or twice a season, it seemed to almost always work.
Visualization is a great technique that I use. Going over POSITIVE situations in your head helps you focus on doing things correctly. If you focus on what you are doing wrong, you tend to act that way. See yourself hitting the ball wherever you want it: right center/left center. See yourself throwing a hard strike right to the catcher's mitt, and these things tend to translate into your performance. It helps to do these at night, when you are relaxing before bed time. There are many more techniques on how to do these.
The Mental Game of Baseball is great.
The Mental Keys To Hitting is also a good book.
I am currently reading Unleash the Warrior Within by Richard J. Machowicz
The Mental Game of Baseball is great.
The Mental Keys To Hitting is also a good book.
I am currently reading Unleash the Warrior Within by Richard J. Machowicz
Larry,
While that's certainly part of the mental game I was thinking more toward the visualization, self-talk, focus on the process not the result type stuff.
While that's certainly part of the mental game I was thinking more toward the visualization, self-talk, focus on the process not the result type stuff.
quote:Originally posted by Coachdubya:
The Quality At Bats CD is intriguing.
Save your money.
The "CD" is $20 for about a half hour of a guy rambling and name dropping. There are about 4 really obvious concepts (i.e. "focus on quality at bats not batting average") but there is nothing new or actionable that you can use. I did a preview listen and decided that there was nothing that would help my son so he was better off not even hearing it and I ended up throwing it away. Some of the "advice" was (in my opinion) actually dead wrong and would cause confusion rather than help a kid. As much as I wanted this CD to be good and have nothing against the guy personally, it was a total waste of money.
Brian Cain has some great stuff.
Have bought his 10 pack on Mental Toughness.
Also have "Heads up Baseball and The Mental Game of Baseball. ".
What you'll notice is they all get back to the main points...One Pitch at a Time...
1)Control of Yourself
2)Have a Plan Each Pitch
3)Relax and Trust yourself
These books also talk about how to "flush" bad times and quickly get back to the next pitch. Focus on the "process", not the result.
I was also recommend the book "Championship Team Building" by Jeff Janssen.
IMO- All these things correlate and make for much better practice, players, and translate into wins.
Have bought his 10 pack on Mental Toughness.
Also have "Heads up Baseball and The Mental Game of Baseball. ".
What you'll notice is they all get back to the main points...One Pitch at a Time...
1)Control of Yourself
2)Have a Plan Each Pitch
3)Relax and Trust yourself
These books also talk about how to "flush" bad times and quickly get back to the next pitch. Focus on the "process", not the result.
I was also recommend the book "Championship Team Building" by Jeff Janssen.
IMO- All these things correlate and make for much better practice, players, and translate into wins.
I will tell you what I do and it really seems to work with my players.
1)Chart! We chart every tendency that we can possibly think of when it comes to our opponents. We break this down to our players in simple chunks. For example we will shift our defense to a hitter's tendency or tell post a sheet telling the players what pitches to expect in what counts. This mentally better prepares them for the game.
2)We have a quality at bat chart developed by the Rod Demonico that we use to show out players succeeding even though they are not hitting .300.
3)Even though we can hit the long ball we play small ball so the player's know what to expect when they get to the plate.
4)We go over hitting plans with the players.
5)Everyday we run our players through some game like competition that prepares them for the game.
Hope this helps.
1)Chart! We chart every tendency that we can possibly think of when it comes to our opponents. We break this down to our players in simple chunks. For example we will shift our defense to a hitter's tendency or tell post a sheet telling the players what pitches to expect in what counts. This mentally better prepares them for the game.
2)We have a quality at bat chart developed by the Rod Demonico that we use to show out players succeeding even though they are not hitting .300.
3)Even though we can hit the long ball we play small ball so the player's know what to expect when they get to the plate.
4)We go over hitting plans with the players.
5)Everyday we run our players through some game like competition that prepares them for the game.
Hope this helps.
quote:Originally posted by coachjo:
Brian Cain has some great stuff.
Have bought his 10 pack on Mental Toughness.
Also have "Heads up Baseball and The Mental Game of Baseball. ".
What you'll notice is they all get back to the main points...One Pitch at a Time...
1)Control of Yourself
2)Have a Plan Each Pitch
3)Relax and Trust yourself
These books also talk about how to "flush" bad times and quickly get back to the next pitch. Focus on the "process", not the result.
I was also recommend the book "Championship Team Building" by Jeff Janssen.
IMO- All these things correlate and make for much better practice, players, and translate into wins.
The Cain and Ravizza stuff is solid.
matt bragga at tennessee tech talked about the quality at bat cd by steve springer at the tbca clinic. he said it was good.
