Pre-Pitch Routine

Within Your Control

Playing with Confidence

Body Language

Goals of the Mental Game

• To play ball with confidence.

• To play ball with freedom.

• To play ball with total concentration.

• To play ball with high energy.

• To play ball without fear.

It is about trusting your ability and letting go of negative thoughts so you can play to your potential. These mental strategies do not guarantee success, but they will give you the best chance to be successful. With a strong mental game, you will be focused on the right things.

Baseball is Hard and Self Doubt is Normal

• No ball player is completely confident all the time.

• Self-doubt is normal, but the best players know how to handle those feelings.

• Positive self-talk during competition builds confidence.

• Focus on what to do rather than worrying about what might happen.

• Your approach and response are much more important than the result.

• Failing at a task does not mean in any way that you are a failure as a person.

• Baseball is not life or death.

Two Types of Baseball Players

• Those who have been humbled.

• Those who are going to be humbled.

There are going to be days when you are just feeling it, like Vlad Guerrero Jr in 2022. The dude went 4 for 4 with 3 homers and a double. Do you think he was confident at the plate that day? Do you think he had to grind at all or was it just one of those days where he was in such a zone that the game was almost easy?

Well, what a difference a day can make. The next day, he went 0-fer with 4 strikeouts. Completely on fire to ice cold from one game to the next. When he stepped in the box in the 2nd game, do you think he was doing anything different? Do you think he was confident? If he was doing the same thing, why did he not get a similar result?

Stuff like this happens because baseball is hard. Some days you will play well, some days you won’t. You will have hot streaks and cold stretches, but your season and your career are made by how how you grind in between and how you work through the cold stretches. Good or bad, win or lose, there is always something to learn.

It is all about the process.