When athletes are first introduced to proper swing mechanics they are usually amazed at the increased level of performance they experience. Some experience so much success that when they experience an off game or go through a period where they may not be having the same level of success they were once experiencing their initial reaction is to assume that “something is wrong”. They immediately begin to think that the reason why they aren’t having the same level of success is that something physically must be off. That mechanically they must not be sound and are immediately sending me an email or text practically begging to get a lesson in because they want me to fix them. Usually the fix is something simple but many times it is just simple reassurance that everything looks good or that everything is fine. Upon leaving the lesson they leave with more confidence and usually pick up where they left off and continue to perform at a high level.
I am always interested in what I really did. Did I see a mechanical flaw that no one else could see? Or, did I just calm the mind, allowing what was already there to come out? My belief, especially with my more experienced clients, is that I simply calmed the mind and allowed the mechanics that were already there to come out. To understand what I am saying it’s important that you understand the mental principles behind human movement.
Your ability to perform as a baseball player, believe it or not, originated in your mind. Every movement, every skill, every hit, everything began in your mind and was then manifested in physical form by your performance on the field. Your “talent level” is nothing more than your ability to perform certain movements successfully. The more “talented” athlete is just able to perform proper movements more frequently than an athlete with less talent. Your ability to perform these movements is entirely based on your ability to ingrain the movement into your subconscious mind. Once the movement is imbedded into your subconscious your overall success on the field is determined by your ability to allow your subconscious mind to tell your body what to do.
Every movement your body engages in starts in your subconscious mind. From breathing, to the beating of your heart, to digestion, all of the functions and movements that we take for granted and never think about originate here. The same is true for your ability to perform your mechanics in baseball. Once you have been introduced to proper movements it is then up to you to practice these movements in a way that ingrains them into your subconscious. Once they are ingrained into the subconscious mind the movement become “automatic”. But, even when the movement becomes automatic we experience mechanical breakdown. The question is why?
When a movement, any movement is ingrained in the subconscious mind it must pass through the conscious mind in order to reach the body. Think of it as a smooth flowing river. Most of the time this river flows freely because we don’t stress or worry about the majority of the things that are imbedded here. I mean when is the last time you had to consciously tell yourself to breath in and breath out? Probably never, you just focus on other things and allow your body to work naturally. In athletics and baseball specifically we have much more mental clutter that takes place in our conscious mind. Most of which is caused by our need for success.
Many times our ego is so attached to our performance that we need to get hits or get hitters out in order to feel confident or enjoy the experience of playing. Playing in this ego dominate state produces stress, worry, fear of failure, second guessing, and putting too much effort into your movement (again originates in the mind). Any one of these things will block the smooth flow of information from your subconscious mind to your body. The river becomes blocked, slowing down the flow of the water, so to speak or in extreme cases a dam blocks the river entirely.
As you mature as an athlete begin to look more inward at what might be causing your mechanical breakdown or your reduction in performance. If you went 4 for 4 one day and 0 for 4 the next it’s not likely your body forgot how to perform the mechanics. Instead look at what you were thinking from one day to the next. Monitor your effort level and see if that 4 for 4 caused you to “try” to produce results the next day instead of allowing them to happen like you did the previous day. Remember all movement both good and bad has a mental origin. Don’t assume that something is wrong physically because you made an out. Your thoughts that something is wrong will cause something to be wrong. Understand that your subconscious mind already knows how to hit, pitch, or whatever. Your job is to allow yourself to do so.
