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The Importance of Silence

Sometimes it seems that the more progress we make in the physical development of athletes the farther we get away from the importance of the mind and the recognition of the mind/body connection. If you’ve read any of my earlier blogs you know that I’m a big believer in the mind/body connection and my teaching is based on the fact that all physical movement and physical skills originate in the mind. Your ability to execute and repeat your mechanics is 100% due to your ability to eliminate any resistance and mental clutter from your mind to allow your body to execute the skills you’ve learned. Without knowing it however today’s athletes routinely fill their mind with mental clutter inadvertently creating inconsistent performance.

I was thinking about this the other day when I was watching Matt Garza of the Tampa Bay Rays pitch. During the game they showed what Matt does to prepare for his start. Sitting alone Matt has his head plugged into his iPod with loud music cranked up to get him “pumped up” for his start. Now I would never argue about Matt’s ability or say that he doesn’t posses lights out stuff. The problem with Matt is throughout his career he has demonstrated that his performance isn’t as consistent as the great pitchers in the game today. One day he’ll have no hit type performances (like he did a couple weeks ago) and other days he’ll resemble a AAA level pitcher.

Watching his pre-game routine made me think back to my own career. Back in college I too listened to loud music to get me “pumped up”. I had the belief that success in baseball was directly related to my level of effort. That if I got fired up, went out and tried hard, and wanted it more then my opponent that I would achieve the success I desired. Unfortunately I experienced the same inconsistent performance that Matt Garza has. I didn’t understand what the proper mechanics were or how to prepare my mind to enhance my performance. It wasn’t until I started to study the mind and the mind/body connection that I realized how powerful silence really is.

In today’s fast paced society where we have the opportunity to be constantly stimulated athletes don’t spend very much time (or any time at all) in silence. Today’s athlete can wake up in the morning, turn the tv on, eat breakfast, shower, jump in the car, turn the radio on, and basically go through their entire day without ever experiencing a moment of silence. If they are in a position where they might be forced to be silent they can plug their into their phones or iPods and distract themselves even further. The problem is, this constant stimulation doesn’t allow our mind to quiet itself and allow the free flow of information from our subconscious mind to our body which is necessary for repeatable, consistent performance.

If you look back in history samurai's would go into deep, silent, meditation before battle. These warriors were masters of movement and understood that a quiet mind was a necessity for them to execute their skills efficiently. Personally, as I got farther along in my career I began to employ silence and meditation into my pre-game ritual. The results I experienced were amazing. Executing my mechanics became easier and almost effortless. I had much more control over my emotions and I stayed on more of an even keel mentally and emotionally.

I would encourage you to begin to use silence in your pre-game routine. Put away your iPod and don’t think about getting “pumped up” for the game. Instead think about putting yourself in the best position possible to consistently execute your mechanics. Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Many times this can be done in your car in the parking lot before the game. Close your eyes and just listen to yourself breath for 10-15 minutes. Control your breath by utilizing slow, deep breaths. If your mind begins to wander just gently bring your focus back to your breathing. At first your mind may object by creating it’s own mental clutter. Understand that this is all very normal, you are just becoming aware of the clutter and resistance that you were never aware of before. Over time your mind will begin to quiet itself and the resistance that has been preventing you from achieving your desired level of performance will begin to disappear. You will begin to notice not only improved performance but more consistent performance as well. Do yourself a favor, eliminate some of the stimulation, and quiet your mind. You will be shocked at how this simple mental technique will improve your physical performance.

Effort Levels and Why They’re Important

One of my favorite things to see as a hitting instructor is when an athlete begins to produce far more power then they ever have with very little effort. The look on their face when they hardly swing and yet crush the ball is absolutely priceless. They can hardly believe that for all these years they have been trying much harder and getting much less of a result. As I’ve discussed in the past elevated effort level effect us both mentally and physically as effort comes from doubt or our ego neither of which isn’t a good place to be mentally and physically it creates added muscular tension which doesn’t allow the body to execute the mechanics properly and it slows the athlete down. However most athletes are stuck in the believe that increased effort equals increased speed and power. One way to look at it is increased effort doesn’t give you increased speed but rather it increases your output of energy essentially giving you the sense that your working harder which you interpret as moving faster.

However this increase in effort creates muscle tension throughout the body and while we are increasing the amount of energy expended we are not increasing our speed or efficiency. Bruce Lee describe it best in his book, Tao of Jeet Kune Do, “Before movements can take place, there must be a change of muscular tension on both sides of the joints to be moved. The effectiveness of this muscular teamwork is one of the factors which determine limits of speed, endurance, power, agility, and accuracy in all athletic performances.... When rapid motion takes place, as in running or throwing, the muscles closing the joints shorten and those on the opposite side lengthen to permit the movement. There is still tension on both sides, but on the lengthening side, it is considerably reduced... Any excessive tension in the lengthening muscles acts as a brake and thereby slows and weakens the action.”

Do yourself a favor and lower your effort levels. Begin to think about being more efficient, focusing on the execution of your skill and not trying to muscle through to produce a result.

Baseball is a SKILL Sport

Many of my clients wonder why it is that I have studied martial artists, musicians, and athletes in other sports as well as baseball players and their mechanics. Quite honestly I’m not that interested in many things outside of baseball however my interest in these other pursuits are what I use to learn about skill and the development of skill. The people involved in these other areas have done much more research on the development of skills then we have done in baseball over the last 100 years. Martial artists have been developing amazing athletes for centuries and it doesn’t appear as that is going to slow down anytime soon. Yet in baseball we cling to the natural talent theory and yet ability in baseball isn’t about natural ability, size, or strength which so many people inside the game would have you believe. It’s a skill sport, a sport where the best athletes execute proper skills more often then athletes of lesser ability. Like martial arts the skills it takes to become great can be learned. Unfortunately most people involved in baseball over the years have lead the rest of us to believe that baseball is a sport where you either have it or you don’t. Primarily because the people in charge of baseball development were either too lacking in the knowledge it took to improve the athletes with which they worked or they were just too lazy to try. Either way it became much easier to focus on the more advanced athlete and throw everyone else out the window because they “just weren’t born with it”.

Adding to this theory is that most athletes don’t know what they need to do to develop the skills they need to be successful or they don’t have the patience or drive to perform the mundane drills and exercises necessary to develop these skills. It’s fairly common for me to get rolled eyes or slumped shoulders when I start my athletes with body drills and slow motion work. As a result of our addition to instantaneous gratification many athletes simply jump in a cage and hit off a machine or get their Dad or buddy to throw to them or jump on the mound and start with a bullpen because it’s far more enjoyable then standing in front of a mirror by yourself going through your mechanics in slow motion making sure each movement is correct while you are trying to program your nervous system. But make no mistake about it, hitting, throwing, or pitching a baseball is a skill and these skills can be learned. You may be in a different place developmentally then another athlete and it may take you longer to get where you desire to be however that doesn’t mean that skill development and ultimate skill mastery is impossible. If you truly want to reach the levels of performance that you desire to reach then it’s imperative that you take the time to learn about and employ the steps necessary to develop the skills you need to be successful. Think of it this way, you’ve already learned and mastered the most difficult skills you’ll ever learn. Learning to walk, write, type, all take much more skill then to swing a bat but the difference is you learned these skills at a younger age, long before you had the ability to decide that learning these skills took too much time and were too much work. You don’t need a thousand swings a day but rather consistent, detail oriented, focused work. Move slowly at first and then gradually increase the speed of the skill you’re trying to execute. Over time you will achieve a level of mastery over that skill and you will be able to have the success you desire to have. Keep in mind that everyone is different. For some it takes more time to master the skill. Just keep at it, and remember the Japanese theory of Kaizen, which stands for never ending daily improvement.

Success in baseball is no mystery. Your overall success is based on your ability to execute proper mechanics consistently. Everything from you mental and emotional state, to your training, to the thoughts you consistently think effect your ability to do this. Don’t let anyone tell you that you just weren’t born good enough. The fact is you just need more time to develop the skills you need to be successful. It’s not a matter of genetics or natural selection it’s a matter of programing movement patterns into your nervous system and subconscious mind. It may take time, it may take some effort, however with patience and consistent practice these skills can be learned and mastered.

“Training for skill is purely a matter of forming proper connections in the nervous system through precision practice.”
~Bruce Lee
Tao of Jeet Kune Do

You Gotta Have Fun!

It seems like this almost goes without saying. I mean baseball is a game and we started playing this game because we love it and it’s a lot of fun. The problem is that the farther we progress up the ladder and the farther we get away from the innocence of our childhood we tend to forget why we play this great sport. It starts to become more about other things. Our ego (or how good we are or how good our kid is), making a particular team, reaching certain performance goals, getting a scholarship, winning a championship, or any number of other things that takes us away from the game in it’s most natural and purest form. All of these things take us away from the real reason we started playing in the first place. We have this belief that I’ll enjoy it when I reach this level or that level or I’ll enjoy it when I get a few more hits or reach a certain statistical plateau. Parents will say they’ll enjoy it when their child gets to college or signs a professional contract. The problem is this way of thinking prevents us from ever enjoying it or having fun when we play. As Dr. Wayne Dyer says it puts us in a state of, “striving yet never arriving.” There will always be another level to reach, higher stats to obtain, all star teams to make, hits to get, and so on. Parents and athletes alike forget to have fun and enjoy where they are at in this moment and as a result the playing career ends and we’re left looking back wishing we could still play thinking we should have enjoyed it more. Wether your career is over at 18 or 45 if you don’t take time to have fun and enjoy it right now you never will.

This mentality can affect performance as well. When we are in a state of joy this is the most optimal state of allowing. In this state the subconscious easily communicates to the body and allows the athlete to play “in the zone”. In this state athletes are completely free from negativity that hampers their performance. So not only will you enjoy playing more but having fun will actually increase your performance giving you the ability to repeat your mechanics more often. As a wise man once told me, “You don’t have fun because your having success, you have success because you’re having fun.” At your next game make your goal to have as much fun as possible. Tell yourself that regardless of what comes your way during that game you are going to have fun, enjoy every moment of getting to play and watch how your performance increases.

The Two Strike Approach

Many times I hear athletes and parents alike wanting us to work on the hitter’s two strike approach. Usually this occurs when the hitter has been striking out and they mistakingly believe that doing something different when the hitter has two strikes on them is going to help them cut down on their strikeouts or become a better hitter. The way I see it however is that strikeouts occur earlier in the at bat, well before the hitter even gets to two strikes. When I hear of one of my athletes striking out consistently everyone wants to tell me what happened with two strikes. They tell me about the umpire, or the pitch the hitter swung at, or they blame it on the hitter being too passive. All of this is fine and good but they are missing where the strikeout really happened. Sure strike 3 is what sticks out in your mind but the question they should be asking is what happened earlier in the at bat that allowed the hitter get to two strikes? Was the hitter’s approach bad? Did the hitter not trust their approach? Did the pitcher make some good pitches? Did the hitter get balls to hit but broke down mechanically and fouled the pitches off? These are the questions the hitter, coach, and parent should be asking. I mean, once you get to two strikes hitting is a difficult thing to do. According to www.theoleballgame.com major league hitters hit just .187 last year with two strikes. These are the best hitters in the world and their numbers drop drastically in ALL two strike counts. If you want to cut down on strikeouts then its imperative that you put more balls in play earlier in the count. Watch the best hitters in the major leagues. Doesn’t it seem like they almost never have two strikes on them? Doesn’t it seem like the less accomplished hitters almost always have two strikes on them? This is because better hitters have a better approach and better mechanics. So when they get a pitch to hit they usually put the ball in play.

That being said it is inevitable that you are going to get to two strikes in certain at bats throughout the course of your season. So once you do what should you do? Should you choke up on the bat? Should you “shorten your swing”? What changes should you make in two strike counts? My answer might surprise you but my answer is: NOTHING. Don’t change a thing. Don’t choke up, don’t “shorten your swing”. Take the same swing you normally take, after all your goal is still the same. You’re trying to put a mechanically sound swing on a hittable pitch. Sounds crazy right? But think about it, how many times with less than two strikes do you really swing and miss? I would venture to say that if you’re like most hitters you swing and miss more often at two strike pitches then you do at pitches with less then two strikes. You probably got to two strikes by fouling pitches off or taking pitches, and now you have two strikes on you and you swing and miss. So basically, in our effort to not miss we are actually creating the result we don’t want. I once heard Tony Gwynn (who was one of the toughest players in history to strikeout) interviewed about his two strike approach. While I don’t remember his exact words he was asked what he changed with two strikes? He said, “Nothing. Why would I spend all this time practicing to hit one way and then when I have two strikes on me do something completely different?”

The strikeout has been completely vilified. It’s the ultimate shot to a hitter’s ego. Most hitters would rather get their bat sawed in half then strikeout. We’ve seemed to forget that it’s just another out. We’ve also forgotten that there is another player out there 60 feet 6 inches away whose job it is to get us out. Whose out there intentionally trying to not allow us to hit the ball. Sometimes he’s going to do his job, sometimes you are going to do yours, it’s just the nature of the game. But because the strikeout is so damaging to our ego we do everything we can to save face. As a result we tense up and don’t allow our swing mechanics to be executed. Subsequently we swing and miss more often and create the result we were hoping to avoid. This season in fact the Tampa Bay Rays were determined to cut down on their strike outs. They hired a new hitting coach and one of the things Manager Joe Maddon liked was that the hitting coach believed that strikeouts weren’t bad. As a result he has eliminated some of the player’s fear of striking out and so far this season their strike out totals are far lower then where they were this time last year.

Similarly, striking out looking has become this thing that we just can’t have happen. We are taught from a young age that whatever we do just don’t strikeout looking. Onlookers tend to assume that a hitter who strikes out looking didn’t have any fight in him. They have this attitude that hitting in a game is as easy as hitting in batting practice and that you can just reach out and make contact with any pitch thrown at you. As a result hitters are afraid to strike out looking and have a tendency to expand their zones with two strikes too much. They flail at pitches way out of the zone because after all, “I didn’t go down looking.” I’m not saying that if a player is consistently striking out looking that it isn’t a problem. If most certainly is, however if that is happening then there are issues going on earlier in the at bat as well. But people it’s not as big of a deal as we make it out to be. Sometimes the pitcher will make a great pitch with two strikes. I mean if he can make a great pitch that freezes us with one strike why couldn’t he do it with two? Sometimes the umpire will expand his zone or give a pitch to a pitcher. There are many reasons why a hitter could strike out looking so everyone needs to relax. Parents and coaches who make too big a deal over this either A) don’t know the game or B) played the game but have forgotten just how difficult hitting is (I always think it’s funny how when parents and coaches get older and further removed from their playing career how they seem to have always struck out less and less. A crappy former high school player will say things like, “I never struck out looking.” Yeah sure guy. I remember seeing video of one of my coaches playing and he would freak out when we struck out looking. In the game we saw he struck out twice in the same game looking. He seemed to be more relaxed after we saw that video).

In order to cut down on strike outs we need to no longer fear it. We need to maintain our approach throughout our entire at bat and make adjustments to it when we see how pitchers are pitching us. Once we get to two strikes however we need to stay consistent with what we are trying to do. Understanding that even though we are now looking for a pitch in a bigger area our goal remains the same. Allow the pitch to enter the hitting zone and execute a mechanically sound swing. If you are striking out consistently don’t focus on what’s going on with two strikes, focus on what’s going on before you have two strikes. Make your adjustments there and you will put more balls in play earlier in counts which will ultimately reduce your number of strike outs.

Swinging at the First Pitch Breaking Ball

It’s one of the first things we’re taught as hitters as we begin to move up the ranks. Never swing at a first pitch breaking ball. God forbid you pop it up, or ground out when you could have waited around and hit the fastball. In fact not much seems to send coaches into a frenzy as much as when one of their hitters makes an out on a first pitch breaking ball. “What are you swinging at!” you’ll here them say, as they jump around in the third base coaching box, “What kind of a hitter gets out on a first pitch breaking ball!!?”

But, is it really as bad as everyone thinks? Could it possibly be beneficial to swing at a first pitch breaking ball? While it’s pretty well known that pitchers aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer they are smart enough to have figured out that hitters don’t generally like to swing at first pitch breaking balls. So they view it as an opportunity to get an easy strike especially on the more accomplished hitters. I tend to see this in my hitters every year. They start out at a certain level of performance. Usually pretty good hitters but are still getting a good number of fastballs. As they grow and develop and ultimately begin to produce better and better results they start to get a good diet of breaking balls. Usually they get in a hole early with the first pitch breaking ball then tend to chase the only fastball they see which is usually intentionally thrown out of the strike zone and are then finished off with a number of breaking balls. Unfortunately this is the price of success. This is what happens when you become a great hitter. So for hitters who have reached this level of performance I recommend looking for and swinging at the first pitch breaking ball.

Remember that there is a distinct difference between an 0-0 breaking ball and a 2 strike breaking ball. Since the pitcher views it as an opportunity to get an easy strike he’s not going to risk throwing that pitch out of the zone (pitchers get in trouble for throwing first pitch breaking balls for balls just like we get in trouble for popping them up). As a result that first pitch breaking ball is going to be a looper. Something with a little bend in it that is going to drop right down the heart of the plate. It’s not going to have nearly the bite that the two strike breaking ball will have and the pitcher usually feels pretty comfortable throwing this pitch since he knows that the hitter will read breaking ball out of the hand and since the count is 0-0 will immediately give up on this pitch because we’ve been taught to never swing at a breaking ball 0-0. Now the count is 0-1 and we are pretty much at the mercy of the pitcher. 0-1 and 1-0 are very different counts. The first pitch doesn’t just buy you one pitch but it buys you two since if you are up 1-0 you know that he’s not going to want to go 2-0 and will give you something to hit. If he doesn’t and you get back to 1-1 you are still feeling pretty good since 2-1 is not a count a pitcher wants to be in either. On the flip side is the pitcher gets you to 0-1 he has two pitches to work with. He can afford at that point to get a little nastier and take more risks as a 1-1 count for him can easily go to 1-2. If he starts 0-1 it gives him the feeling that he’s in charge just like a 1-0 count does for us. So if you are consistently taking a first pitch breaking ball you are most likely always starting your at bat down 0-1.

Remember that the first pitch breaking ball is just a slow looping pitch so it is usually screaming “hit me, hit me”. If you begin to see the pattern that pitchers are trying to start you off with a first pitch breaking ball feel free to go up there looking for it and swing at it. Eliminate any idea of the fastball from your mind and once you read breaking ball hit that thing hard. You will only have to prove your willingness to hit this pitch once as once you do pitchers won’t want to loop one in there first pitch and you will go back to getting more fastballs. Don’t allow the pitcher to get the upper hand simply because your stuck in old patterns of thinking. It’s okay to swing first pitch breaking ball as long as you were looking for it and as long as that’s what your approach was.

How to View Your At Bats

As hitters we have a tendency to only view our at bats in the terms of success or failure. When we get hits we feel as though we had success and that everything is okay and we don’t get hits we feel like we failed and that something must be wrong and need to be fixed. Unfortunately viewing our at bats in this way doesn’t allow us to grow and develop as hitters. If, for whatever reason, we are consistently getting hits we get easily lulled into a sense of false confidence. We take the hits at face value and assume that everything must be working. Our swing and mental approach must be sound since we are having success. We aren’t motivated then to look deeper at our performance and as a result don’t learn, grow, and fix minor flaws that could come back and bite us in the future.

The flip side is viewing our inability to get hits as failures. With each at bat that we don’t achieve the goal of getting a hit we place more and more pressure on ourselves and as a result become more and more mentally blocked which takes us further and further away from achieving the success we desire. As frustration builds it negatively effects our confidence until we simply assume that our lack of success is a direct reflection of our level of skill. As a result we are not in a position to learn and make the simple adjustments we need to make to create the results we desire.

It’s important to understand that success and failure don’t exist. They are nothing more then labels we place on the results that we produce. Every at bat, wether it’s a home run or strike out is nothing more then a result you produced. They’re nothing more then an opportunity to learn, adjust, and grow. In order to become the hitter you desire to become it’s imperative that you resist the urge to label your at bats as successes or failures. See your at bats as opportunities to learn more about your opponent and yourself. Viewing your at bats in this way will eliminate the emotional fluctuation that comes with success and failure. This will allow you to develop as a hitter at a much faster rate. Remember that there are millions of reasons as to why you could be getting hits or not getting hits. None of which are directly linked to your current skill level. Seeing you at bats as an opportunity to learn will allow you to increase your level of performance and become a far greater hitter then you could ever imagine.

The Importance of Your Base

There's a lot of confusion out there about just how wide a hitter's stance should be. Some believe that a player should have a wider stance, some believe it should be more narrow. But then why is it a wider or narrower stance works for some players but not others? I mean if wider or narrower is better then shouldn't it work for every player? The truth is the width of your stance or your base is different from player to player. There are many factors that determine just how wide your base should be. Your height, weight, center of gravity, age, overall body strength, all go into determining what the proper base for you is. So that's why we can't just have players widen up their stance or narrow it up, it's all based on finding that optimal width for each player.

So why is this important? Well, first of all the proper base allows a hitter to be in their strongest position at the point of contact. When the bat gets to the point of contact the body and the bat will merge as one as long as the body and the bat are in the right position. This all starts with the base. If the base is weak then the hitter won't be nearly as strong at the point of contact which obviously affects a players performance. The second reason that the base is important is it allows the hitter to repeat their swing more often. A weak base makes the hitter more susceptible to mechanical breakdown. Think of the foundation of a house, it the foundation is weak then it really doesn't matter how well built the structure is, if the foundation is weak then the structure is weak as well. The same is true about your swing. If you have a weak base you will be less likely to repeat your mechanics. As a result you will experience inconsistent performance. So how do you determine what the right base is for you. Attached is a video describing a simple test you can do to determine your proper base. Anytime you begin to experience a drop in performance immediately check your base first. Sometimes the most basic fix will get you back in the groove.

Albert Pujols and Mark McGwire

Attached is a great video of Albert Pujols and Mark McGwire discussing hitting. In the video you can hear Albert talking about a couple of great points. First of all you can hear him talking about "staying inside" which I believe is one of the most over used terms in hitting because to creates a lengthened out bat path. You can hear him say that he is more focused on going down to the ball as opposed to "staying inside". The other thing he says that I really like is when he is talking about moving a runner over. Too many times coaches and hitters a like simply give up at bats by thinking that a groundball to the right side is what you are trying to accomplish in that situation. It's important to realize that a groundball to the right side should be considered a worst case scenario. What a hitter should be trying to do is drive the ball into the gap in right center. You can clearly hear Albert discussing this in the video. Finally check out how even when Albert is demonstrating his bat path to Mark how he uses and really extends with what is his top hand. To me this shows how important Albert considers this hand in the swing. This video is great because many proponents of the "rotational hitting theory" who want a hitter to swing in an upward plane use Albert as an example. However this video clearly shows that during his swing Albert's intention is to drive down to the ball.

Opening Day 2010

With Opening Day on Sunday we get the opportunity to watch the greatest players in the world perform over the next 6-7 months. One thing I’ve noticed with many of the athletes that I work with is that they don’t take the time to really sit down and watch the game. I would highly encourage everyone who is interested in becoming a better player to make watching games a habit. A player can really learn a lot by watching games but you really have to know what you are looking for. Many times when players watch games they’re just looking for homeruns or how hard a particular guy might be throwing. But the game of baseball has so many nuances to it that there is so much more to watch. Begin to watch how the players carry themselves, notice their effort levels, their positioning. Watch how pitchers pitch guys in different situations, see if you can pick up a pitcher’s tendencies, what pitch do they go to when they are ahead in the count. Watch how quite hitters are at the plate, see if you can pick up their approach. Watch how their approach changes during different situations. Begin to watch more games and when you do try and pick up on these different nuances. Watching and beginning to recognize these things will help you improve as a player.

Extreme Athletes: The Greatest Athletes in the World

Over the past few years I’ve become increasingly interested in extreme sports. Like most people I enjoy watching some of the daredevil type acrobatics that these athletes are able to achieve. Athletes such as Tony Hawk, Laird Hamilton, Travis Pastrana, and Shawn White have come along and completely redefined our perception of what is possible. Being that I rode dirt-bikes growing up and currently surf I have some vague idea of the level that guys like Pastrana and Hamilton are reaching and even though I have almost zero interest in skate or snowboarding I am still glued to my tv when Tony Hawk and Shawn White are performing. In fact watching Tony Hawk’s 900 at the ESPN X-Games or Laird Hamilton’s ride at Teahupoo ranks right up there with some of the greatest athletic moments I’ve ever seen.

So how can a guy who has no interest at all in skateboarding rank Tony Hawk’s 900 as one of his favorite all-time athletic moments? When I initially saw Tony Hawk’s 900 I was blown away by the perseverance it took to accomplish this feat. You could see the look of determination in his face, the single pointed focus he had, and what he was doing to focus his mind to accomplish what many had deemed impossible. This single even launched my fascination with the extreme athlete. As I had done to so many athletes in the past I began to study how these athletes thought, trained, and viewed their sport. The more I learned the more I gained a greater appreciation and admiration for these amazing individuals. So much so that I now believe that these athletes are the greatest and most complete athletes in the world. They have found what most major sports including baseball is lacking. The have found that in order to be successful and take their sport to higher levels that they must train their body, mind, and spirit. Why? Quite frankly because their life depends on it!

Unlike in baseball where a mechanical flaw, a cluttered mind, or an ego centered spirit will lead to a hitter striking out or a pitcher giving up a homerun, extreme athletes must deal with the reality that a mistake or lack of focus might equal death. In addition I love how these athletes are continually rewriting our perception of what’s possible. This has lead me to study their training techniques and use these techniques on myself and my athletes. I always think it’s funny how people in baseball are quick to call something impossible. They’re quick to say you can’t teach a person to hit as if mastering the physical skill of hitting is some mystical, God given ability. Yet here we have extreme athletes learning complex physical movements on a regular basis. Once someone accomplishes the “impossible” these athletes then take the impossible movement even farther. Obviously they know something we don’t. Obviously they have figured out how to get their body and mind to do what they want and then perform these skills time and time again.

So what can we learn from them? What is it that we can apply to our sport that will enable us to take our personal game to higher levels and at the same time raise the level of play of baseball across the globe?

• A lack of egoic thinking- Oh sure these athletes are driven to be the best and it can be argued that they walk around with a certain level of arrogance. However unlike most baseball players many of the world’s best extreme athletes see their performance as serving something more, something greater then themselves. Maybe it’s because they’ve been striving for so long to make their sport mainstream but it seems as though they feel a certain level of responsibility to their sport. Many of them in their interviews can be heard saying that what they just accomplished is great because it helps their sport gain more exposure. At the same time they appreciate the feats of their fellow competitors. While they are driven to be the best and genuinely want to win their event they also appreciate when their competitors take the sport to higher levels. You often see professional skateboarders applauding their opponent’s performance. Unlike in baseball where many times we are more concerned with our stats, our results, our playing time these athletes see their sport as bigger then themselves. Sometimes they even take it a step further and feel like great performance was a gift given to them by some higher power. They feel gratitude that they were able to perform at such a high level which ultimately allows them to continue to perform at this level and allows them to continually be blessed with great experiences. Many times after a great game we are quick to think that we did it, that we are the man, and it’s because we are better then everyone else that we were able to produce such an amazing result. In the movie Riding Giants Laird Hamilton was asked about his ride at Teahupoo and his response was, “I was honored to be given the opportunity to have such an amazing experience.” Clearly an absence of egoic thinking, playing for something more then yourself, can lead to higher and higher levels of performance.

• A Holistic Approach to Training- Unlike many of us in baseball or other mainstream sports these athletes have discovered that in order to reach for and beyond the impossible you must train your entire self. They understand that we are only as strong as our weakest link and physical skills are meaningless without a strong mind and spirit. They understand the power of connectivity and how everything is connected, weakness in one creates weakness in another. Many times you can find these athletes engaged in meditation to clear and strengthen their mind, visualization so they can see and mentally practice a new trick or skill (you often hear them comment that, “You must first see the trick in your mind long before you can ever do it physically”), weight training to strengthen their body and allow them to handle the pounding that they must go through, and yoga to maintain or increase the body’s flexibility so they can gain greater range of motion and more control over their limbs. They don’t leave anything out and as such are some of the most well balanced athletes on the planet.

• Detailed, Step by Step, and Progressive Approach to Skill Development- Since the skills these athletes perform are so dangerous and so complex they take the time to break their movements down in easily manageable and safe parts. They take an entire skill break it down into parts, practice and master each part individually, and then put the whole thing together. Compare that to how we tend to learn how to hit or pitch. In hitting we’ll get on a tee or off of a machine and take full swings. Then you get a coach or even yourself to tell you what adjustments to make and you then try to make that adjustment and master that part of the swing while you are engaged in performing your swing in it’s entirety. If you aren’t able to learn it you are then, “just not a born or natural hitter.” Crazy right? In the grand scheme of things a mechanically sound swing or good pitching mechanics are far easier to learn then Shawn White’s Double Front Side 1080 you just need to break the movement down and master it one step at a time. Since poor head position, or a flaw in your posture is enough in extreme sports to get you docked major points or even cause you to be unable to pull off a trick these athletes are very detail oriented and very aware of what their body is doing at all times. Unlike baseball where we have a tendency to not pay attention to what our body is doing or where our posture is in space these athletes know what their body must do in order to pull off their particular trick. Once again they see the connection between poor head position and their body’s ability to perform. Finally they are progressive. They take their time gradually increasing the difficulty of their movements and slowly pushing the limits of their sport. They don’t have a time table like we often do in baseball. We have this belief that if we aren’t so good by such and such a date then we’ll never make it. This adds unneeded stress and negativity to our game and as a result inhibits our development. When Tony Hawk pulled off the 900 he had been trying to land the trick for approximately 20 years. Laird Hamilton didn’t just wake up one day and say, “Hey let’s go surf a 60 foot wave.” He had been in the water his whole life, gradually increasing the difficulty of his skills until a 60 foot was the logical next step. In our sport when we place deadlines we create frustration, comparison, and stress, all of which will slow and prevent your overall development and performance.

• They Perform in “The Moment” and are Process Oriented- In baseball we have a tendency to focus on outcomes. We concern ourselves with our numbers, getting hits, getting strikeouts, but rarely do we take the time to focus on the steps necessary to produce the results we desire. Extreme athletes have figured out that great performance is nothing more then an accumulation of single moments strung together. Why is this? Well once again, if they don’t focus on the moment, if they allow their mind to focus on the future or the past, looking forward to an outcome, or back to a failure, they might die! When Laird Hamilton rode his wave at Teahupoo he was 100% focused on what the wave was doing at the precise moment. As a result he was able to spontaneously come up with what he needed to do in order to stay on the wave. He had to do something he had never done before or had never even practiced before but being focused on the moment allowed his mind to remain clear which allowed him to create and execute the movement. The end result of surfing one of the toughest and most dangerous waves ever ridden was just the accumulation of these singular moments. If we applied this same mentality to baseball not only would we perform at higher levels but we would perform with far greater consistency. How many at bats it’s been since your last hit wouldn’t matter, what a particular hitter has done against you in his career would be meaningless, a bad call from an umpire wouldn’t effect an at bat, and you would be focused on executing the mental skills and physical movements that produce success and wouldn’t be focused on the success itself.

These are just some of the things I have learned from watching and studying extreme athletes. In my opinion due to their approach to their training, to their sport, and by the simple fact that failure results in serious injury or death these athletes are the greatest athletes in the world. Don’t make the mistake of believing that just because they don’t play a sport that has a ball that they aren’t as athletic as we are or that we can’t learn from them and apply these lessons to our sport. I believe that if we did we would not only experience greater personal success on the field but the state of our game and how it is played would be greatly improved. If you want to take your game to higher levels begin to watch and learn from these athletes. Maybe something they do or say will enable you to play at levels you once only dreamed of.

The Application of Knowledge is Power

With the start of the high school season I’ve had the opportunity to get out and watch some of my athletes in game situations. The more games I attend and the more I speak with my athletes I’ve found that rarely to they use many of the mental skills we work on during our sessions. Frustrated by this I’ve thought a lot about why an athlete wouldn’t consciously decide to use the physical and mental skills we work on? Why, when it’s left up to them do they just assume that success will just magically happen? They almost have this idea that success on the field is left up to chance. They go into each game with the intention and hope of performing well but when it’s game time they don’t take the steps necessary to allow themselves to produce the results they desire. The more I thought about this the more I began to realize that the reason that they aren’t able to translate the knowledge they learn in our sessions is that they are stuck in their old way of thinking. It’s easy for them to see the improvements that they’re making but once it’s game time they have a difficult time thinking like the new player that they’ve become.

You see, before a player is introduced to proper hitting or pitching mechanics their entire game is left up to chance. They have flaws in their fundamentals so there are certain things they can’t do and they don’t have the knowledge of what steps they need to take in order to become successful. Once they are exposed to the knowledge they need to be successful they are still stuck in the old way of thinking and as a result have a tendency to believe that the knowledge they have obtained and the work that they’ve put in is enough to translate this knowledge out on the field and magically create the level of performance that they desire to create. But what they don’t realize is success is a process. Success is not something that just happens but is a result of steps you take and the application of the knowledge you’ve gained.

Too often players get into a game and become reactionary. They “see ball, hit ball” and react to whatever comes their way which puts the athlete in a constant state of feeling defensive. When in this defensive state they feel unsure, they lack confidence, and become tense. This tension prevents the athlete from executing the new mechanics they’ve been working on. It’s important that athletes realize that success is not created by chance, fate, or good luck. Success isn’t created by “natural talent” or some kind of God given ability. Success is a creation of physical and mental processes. In order for an athlete to achieve the level of performance that they desire they must be able to detach themselves from their reaction mentality. They must not allow the stress of the moment to cloud their thinking and stay focused on going through the process that leads to success step by step. Athletes must begin to apply the knowledge that they gain in their lessons and practices if they ever hope to achieve success. They must focus on what they need to do to create the success they desire and avoid hoping that they’ll succeed. When an athlete begins to become process oriented and apply the knowledge they’ve learned their performance will skyrocket and become much more consistent. If you find yourself in a game hoping that you will be successful take a step back. Remember what you’ve worked on and begin to apply this knowledge to your game. Don’t get so caught up in the moment that you forget what you’ve learned and just leave your success up to chance. Remember, success is a process and you have the ability to choose to take the steps necessary to succeed.

How Much Does Strength Training Really Help

I was in Vitamin Shoppe the other day and saw a couple players from a local high school shopping for the newest and latest supplement that will to transform a mere mortal into superman. Instantly taking these athletes to high levels of performance. It reminded me of my own career. I, like everyone else, believed that if I busted my butt in the weight room and became the strongest guy on the field then that would mean that I would be the best hitter or the best player. I took all the hot supplements at the time, I took my protein, my creatine, and considered taking andro. I got strong, really strong, and yet my performance on the field never improved. I didn’t hit the ball any farther or harder, I didn’t throw any harder, I didn’t really run any faster.

I see this today with some of the athletes I know. Athletes who workout at the gym I workout at who don’t invest their time in learning proper swing or throwing mechanics. I see these athletes transform physically. They make huge gains in strength tests in the gym, they put on weight, and hardly resemble the athletes they were just a few months earlier. Yet they don’t hit the ball any better and they don’t throw any harder. The question then becomes, Why? Why is it that this strength isn’t translating to better and better performance? The answer has to do with their mechanics. If you are not mechanically sound then gains in strength and size will not help very much if at all.

One of my own athletes proves this all the time. He is small, very small. He might be 135 pounds soaking wet, doesn’t lift weights consistently, yet he produces the most power of any of my athletes. Why? Because he is the most mechanically sound. His bat gets into his strongest possible position at the point of contact. At that moment he and the bat become one. Allowing all 135 pounds and all of the energy he’s created up to that point and all of the strength that he has to instantaneously meet with the ball at the same time, producing much more power then his larger teammates. You compare that to one of my strong, 200 pound athletes and maybe they aren’t as far along developmentally. They don’t get into the same position at the point of contact and as a result maybe they only use 100 pounds of their weight at the point of contact, plus their energy and strength is wasted because they never get to that strong position and the bat and the body never merge as one. Think of a 120 pound person hitting a baseball with an aluminum bat while a 200 pound person hits a baseball with a whiffle ball bat. The 120 pound person will hit the ball farther because the bat is harder and more dense where as the whiffle ball bat doesn’t have any strength behind it. It doesn’t matter how big the athlete is or how fast their bat speed is. If they are swinging with a weaker bat the ball still won’t go anywhere. Essentially what I am talking about is the same thing. If a bigger, stronger athlete never gets to that optimal position at the point of contact they are basically hitting with the whiffle ball bat.

So am I saying not to workout? Absolutely not! There are some tremendous benefits to strength training. Being stronger does allow you to run faster and explode faster. It will help you stay healthy throughout the grind of a season and it does help develop your athleticism. It will also allow you to get away with more mistakes. You might be able to “muscle” a few balls through the infield when your swing breaks down. What I am saying is don’t sacrifice your mechanics for strength. Don’t think by spending hours in the weightroom that this is sufficient to helping you develop as a baseball player. Don’t ignore developing your mechanics simply because you think lifting is going to help. Begin to think of baseball more like golf instead of football. In football being bigger, stronger, and faster clearly helps you, but baseball is a skill sport like golf. Being able to execute skills is far more important then being buff and strong. So if you have to decide between developing your mechanics or developing your muscles choose mechanics. Ideally the combination of both is what will help propel you to higher levels of performance but don’t think that taking creatine is going to get you to the levels you desire to reach. It is only through physical and mental mastery that we can reach the highest levels of performance. Strength training is a good supplement to help us get there it’s just not the answer. Do you need to work hard in the gym? Yes! Just understand that if you are not mechanically sound you won’t gain the benefits of your hard work. Make mastering your mechanics your priority and you will find that you won’t be wasting the hard work you put in the weightroom.

Development Requires Patience

I get asked all the time, “When are the mechanics going to translate into a game?” My honest answer is “I don’t know.” Everyone has a different development schedule. Some athletes are able to learn a skill very quickly while others it takes a while. However it’s important to remember that when you are trying to learn hitting, pitching, or anything else in baseball that you are essentially only learning a movement pattern or skill. Just like every other movement pattern or skill you’ve learned throughout your life, so if you were able to learn those skills then there is no doubt you can learn and master your mechanics. So when I’m asked “When are the mechanics going to translate?” I really don’t know. However, I do know that with consistent deliberate practice it WILL happen, I just can’t tell you when.

What inhibits our development?

What we tend to do as parents or athletes is look at the other athletes on the field and compare them to ourselves or our child. If another athlete happens to be farther along developmentally we then classify that athlete as “more talented” and we then expect to be able to ascend to their level of performance quickly and when we can’t we blame it on our genetics, our ability level, or any other excuse that takes our focus away from our development. You need to remember that athletes can be farther along for a number of reasons, maybe the other athlete was exposed to the proper mechanics at an earlier age, or maybe they for whatever reason they just naturally executed proper mechanics, whatever the reason it has absolutely nothing to do with you or your athlete’s “natural ability”.

Consider the “Ten Year Rule” that is discussed in Geoff Colvin’s book “Talent is Overrated”. Studies have shown that it takes approximately 10 years of deliberate practice to reach the “expert” level of mastery over a skill. Unfortunately some athletes aren’t exposed to proper mechanics at a young age and even though they may have been practicing their sport for years they haven’t been deliberately practicing and as such their 10 year clock hasn’t even started yet. Think of two athletes: The first athlete is 15 years of age and the second athlete is 5 years of age. They both begin working with me at the same time and as such are both exposed to the same information, drills, and correction, they work with me for 10 years and by the time the first athlete reaches 25 he has achieved mastery over hitting and is one of the top major league hitters. While the second athlete reaches the same level of mastery at the age of 15. Now the 15 year old isn’t as physically mature as the 25 year old however he is dominating his high school competition and is being looked upon as a future first round pick. If you were to compare these two athletes at the same age the second athlete would be much farther along then the first and would probably start being called a “natural”. People would assume that the second athlete is far more gifted then the first but is this true? Reality is that they both started at the same place and got to the same place in the same amount of time. One isn’t more talented then the other, one just had the benefit of learning the skill at an earlier age. I tell my clients to think of this whenever they begin to feel as though their mechanics won’t translate. They aspire to play at a certain level and even though they’ve practiced all of their life they haven’t really practiced until they started seeing me and learning the proper mechanics. So if it takes 10 years from that point then how can they ever expect it to be perfected after only a month or two.

Another common thing we do to inhibit our development is putting time limits on it. Many times athletes and parents feel that the athlete must reach a certain level of performance by a certain time or they can kiss that D1 scholarship goodbye. While this might be true there is nothing you can do to speed up the athlete’s development so worrying about it is counter productive. Maybe you are in the unfortunate situation of learning the proper mechanics at an older age. While this sucks it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to realize your dream of playing in college. First of all, there are so many colleges out there, just because Texas isn’t banging down your door doesn’t mean you won’t get the opportunity to play in college. It’s important that you relax and give yourself the time necessary to develop. If you have to go to a JC for two years then fine, give yourself that time, if you have to go to a smaller school then fine. Do whatever you need to do to allow yourself time to develop and if you do that and focus on developing and mastering your skills everyday there is no reason why you can’t end up in the big leagues. Remember it doesn’t matter where you start it only matters where you finish.

I know this from personal experience. I worked and worked and worked my entire career but was never exposed to the proper skills or mechanics. As a result I never experienced the performance I knew I could experience. Then I began to figure things out at the tender age of 27 and so for the past 5 years I have been finally practicing deliberately. The development I’ve made over that time has been remarkable, to the point where I have become far better as a hitter then I had ever even imagined. The exciting part is I still have 5 more years before I reach the “expert” level of mastery. This couldn’t of happened until I made development my focus. I stopped placing time tables on my development and just focused on improving and achieving mastery over my body and mind in order to become the hitter I wanted to become. If you apply the same mentality to your career there is no limit to how good you can become. Remember that developing as a baseball player is like growing a plant. You plant the seed, water the plant, and give the plant sun light and just relax and wait for it to grow. You don’t rush the growth of the plant, you don’t get up and stress out each day because the plant hasn’t grown yet, you simply do what’s necessary to allow the plant to grow and allow it to develop in it’s own time.

Our Perceptions Shape Our Performance

It’s funny sometimes to see and listen to how different individuals perceive different situations. On the baseball field it’s no different and many times I’ve discovered that it’s these perceptions that lead to both good and bad performances and how athletes approach different situations on the field or how they approach their work habits. Take some of the best athletes of all time, the Kobe Bryant’s, the Derek Jeter’s, and the Tom Brady’s of the world. What allows them to perform in situations that cause other athletes to fail? The situations are the same but they simply perceive the situation completely different then say a lesser athlete.

So where am I going with this? Well, I want to challenge you to look at the way you do things on the field in a completely new light. I want you to change the way you see things in order to maximize the infinite potential you have. Many times simply changing the way you look at things will completely change your ability to execute mechanics, it can change the way you feel (eliminating fear of failure, etc.), and it can drastically improve your athleticism.

We live in a “doing” society. What I mean is we have this belief that people who are currently experiencing more success than we are must be doing more then we’re doing. They must be working harder, trying harder, or playing harder than we are, I mean what else can explain their extraordinary level of success? This belief then shapes how we practice and play. We begin to play harder, try harder, or work harder. We put more effort into what we are doing in the hopes that this will allow us to reach the same level of success that the other person has reached. We use words and phrases that confirm our perceptions. We say things like, “He really stepped it up!” “That guy raises his game to another level in clutch situations!” and “They just wanted it more then we did!” All of this leads us to believe that the great athletes have another level. That they choose to try just a little harder in pressure situations and that is enough to propel them to their levels of success. As if the guy on the other side doesn’t want it or isn’t trying. These perceptions lead to numerous athletes trying hard, working hard, and playing hard and when they don’t reach the levels of success they desire to reach they try harder and harder and harder only producing worse and worse results.

Just for a moment lets consider that our perceptions are completely wrong. Let’s try and see the other side of the coin. What if players who excel in clutch situations aren’t taking it up another notch at all? What if everyone around them is trying harder and working harder and they simply stay the same? What if instead of the clutch athlete speeding up they actually slow themselves down? I know, I know, “But Ryan we see these guys move faster and perform better then everyone else on the field.” Yes, I know, but I’m asking you to ask yourself, “How is it they’re able to do this?” Consider for a moment that clutch players don’t speed up, they slow down in an effort to keep their muscles and mind relaxed. Maybe everyone around them is speeding up, exerting more effort, and as a result becoming slower and more inefficient. Maybe the clutch athlete stays the same as they are in practice while everyone else is trying to take it up a notch.

Sounds crazy right? But think for a moment about your own performance. Why is it that in a cage with no one around you can hit like Albert Pujols but then can’t translate that to the field? What has changed? The goal is still the same, you still need to execute your mechanics the same, but yet you’re unable to have the same level of success you had in the cage. The only thing that has changed is your perception of the situation. Maybe scouts and recruiters are around and you want to show them that you can play at the next level. Maybe your coach is around and you want to show him that you deserve to start. Whatever the case might be, the only thing that has changed is your perception of the situation. In order to perform at the same level that you are capable of all you need to do is change the way you perceive the situation or change the way you perceive how you need to handle the situation. Instead of trying harder make a conscious effort to slow yourself down. Take your focus away from “doing” and bring it more toward “allowing”. Allow yourself to be successful, allow your mechanics to work and produce the results that you desire.

I encourage you to try and question the perceptions you have created. Try and see the other side of the coin. Maybe the reason you aren’t having the success you desire is not because you aren’t “doing” enough, maybe it’s because you are “doing” too much. Be willing to change the way you do things. Remember one of my favorite quotes, “If you do things the way you’ve always done them, you will get the results you’ve always gotten.” ~Tony Robbins

The Benefits of Yoga

For the past year or so I have been practicing yoga. As most athletes I was a little skeptical at first but was motivated due to my lack of flexibility. I was interested in yoga to help me loosen up my hips and shoulders primarily so it would feel better when I ran and threw. I couldn’t have predicted just how much I would enjoy and ultimately become addicted to yoga.

From the first yoga class I took I immediately felt better then I had ever felt in my life. My shoulders, hips, hamstrings, and low back all opened up more then I had ever experienced in my life. When I threw the ball I noticed that my shoulder felt very free and I could throw with far less effort and didn’t fatigue as quickly. My immediate thought was that I had just found the missing link in my training. It was like yoga bridged the gap between my training and my performance.

Like most athletes I like to train hard. I like to push myself with running, weights, or any other training method I can come up with. The downside has always been that training this hard left me feeling tight, bound up, and un-athletic. Yoga immediately increased my range of motion far greater then it had ever been. The strength gains I made with weights began to translate on the field better because I felt like I could move. I felt like I could move effortlessly and started to see greater control over my body. When I would run my hips were more open which allowed me greater range of motion when I ran. This allowed be to put more force into every stride effectively utilizing the strength gains I had made in the weight room.

When it came to hitting I noticed a jump in my power production because of the greater range of motion in my hips. I was able to generate more hip separation which leads to greater torque and greater force generated into the ball. Defensively I felt like I could make more acrobatic plays due to how open my entire body was. I was no longer limited by the range of motion in my joints and as such could make plays I once only dreamed of.

Aside from the physical aspects yoga helped me develop many of the mental skills I teach in my lessons. It taught me how to slow my breathing, stay in the moment, and clear my mind. The ability to clear one’s mind allows for mechanical repeatability which only benefits you on the field.

Overall Yoga has been an amazing experience. I feel like I can perform at higher and higher levels, I sleep better, and am able to handle day to day experiences much better. I would recommend yoga to everyone but especially for any athlete looking to take their game to high levels.

UPB Development Pyramid #3 (Specific Physical Development)

The third level of the UPB Development Pyramid is called Specific Physical Development. At this level athletes have a good idea of what they need to work on and have a specific plan to address those issues during their practice session. They don’t mindlessly go through their practice sessions just performing repetitions but rather their repetitions have a purpose. They may perform less repetitions however their practice sessions may be longer in duration because they are focused on each repetition.

When an athlete reaches this level in their practice sessions they are beginning to develop a good level of mastery over their physical skills and their practice sessions are geared to make finer and finer adjustments. While the athlete will begin to use their mind to aide in their development by simply focusing more and having a plan they are still not using their mind fully to help maximize both their development and their performance. They may still cling to the idea that they are limited and their performance (while they can improve) is somehow based on natural ability.

These athletes are more focused however and as a result more engaged during their practice times and private lessons. When these athletes take private lessons they listen and take ownership over what’s being taught. They then go home and try to apply what they’ve learned by performing the drills they’ve been taught and they start to think about what they are doing and make adjustments on their own. The great thing about athletes at this level is that they are starting to use their minds and are usually able to climb to the next level easily. Athletes found at this level are usually elite college players and top professional prospects.

Clearing Interference

Many times the way we respond in a given situation is entirely due to the questions we ask ourselves both consciously and subconsciously. If we have a tendency to respond in negative and unproductive ways we can usually eliminate this by simply changing the questions we ask. The questions we ask direct our focus and the results we produce are directly linked to what we focus on. So you might be thinking, “How does this apply to baseball?” In baseball we are judged by our performance which as an athlete is producing an external result. As a result when we don’t perform at the level we think we should we immediately begin searching for an external cause. The questions that I’m routinely asked are the same questions that the athletes are asking themselves, “What’s wrong with my swing?” “What am I doing wrong?” and so on. Our minds tend to immediately go to an external cause for our external failures.

The problem with this is that these questions put us in a negative and unproductive state. It leads us to be constantly thinking about and focusing on “what’s wrong” which then causes us to produce more and more of “what’s wrong”. This of course leads to inconsistent performance not to mention a reduced level of confidence in the athlete.

So how is it that we can rephrase these questions and begin to shift your focus on something more positive and productive? What question can we ask that will really get to the root of the problem and allow us to experience more success? Well, before we get into that it’s important for you to understand how your subconscious mind effects your body. Maybe even more important is how your mechanics are planted into your subconscious mind and what it is that causes mechanical breakdown.

After you are introduced to proper physical mechanics and have time to perform proper repetitions they become stored in our subconscious mind. Often what we refer to as muscle memory is nothing more then proper movements or skills becoming stored into our subconscious. Now the subconscious stores all of our skills that we perform day in and day out without any thought. Walking across a room, the beating of your heart, typing on the computer, and your breathing are all stored here. When you want to execute a skill for example such as getting off the couch and walking across the room the subconscious mind sends your intention to your body and your body performs the skill, usually easily and effortlessly. The very same process takes place when we decide to throw a pitch or swing at a pitch. But if our proper mechanics are stored in the subconscious then what is it that causes so much inconsistency in the execution of our mechanics?

Unfortunately the information being delivered from the subconscious mind to the body can become blocked or somehow distorted by negative thoughts or focusing on the external. Don’t believe me? Well, have you ever see someone have an anxiety attack where they exhibited signs of having a heart attack? Negative or stressful thoughts in their mind created a block between the subconscious mind and their body. As a result they began to show the signs and symptoms of having a heart attack. Now if negative thinking and stress were powerful enough to block the subconscious mind from telling the body to beat the heart (something we never think or worry about) then why couldn’t it cause breakdown or inconsistency in your ability to execute your mechanics? In fact what is commonly referred to as “The Zone” by athletes is nothing more then short lived experiences where there is a complete absence of interrupting thoughts and therefore the information from the subconscious mind is clearly communicated to the body allowing for abnormally high levels of performance.

Unfortunately we think of “The Zone” as fleeting and something that you may only experience once or twice a career. We have the belief that while we are experiencing this state that we are “playing above ourself”. As if this isn’t our true level of performance. The truth is that “The Zone” is our natural state. This is the level of performance we can achieve all the time if we were only aware of how to create this level of performance and what prevents it from happening.

So when an athlete asks themselves “What wrong?” they are unknowingly creating more and more roadblocks, preventing the correct information from going from the subconscious to the body. Over time frustration builds, more and more negative, stressful thoughts are created and ultimately a new movement pattern is stored in the subconscious. Which is what we would call a “bad habit”. At this point even when you have a clear mind you have now created a poor movement pattern or skill for which to call upon and your overall performance is diminished.

So what can you do? The first step involves becoming aware of the questions you are asking yourself when your mechanics breakdown. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong?” consider that your swing or pitching mechanics or whatever are already perfect and that they only way for them to breakdown is that something interfered with your subconscious’ ability to communicate your mechanics to your body. Instead ask yourself, “What interfered?” If you ask this question your focus will be directed more inward and you will find the real culprit of your less than desirable performance. You will begin to notice that maybe your effort levels were too high (trying too hard) or that you weren’t focused and were thinking about something else. Whatever it is, you will find it will be far easier to refocus and allow your mechanics to be executed instead of becoming panicked over the possibility that you have a major mechanical flaw.

“If you make a swing that falls short of perfect (for you) don’t get down on yourself or try to fix your swing. Instead, direct your awareness to reflect on what might have interfered. The basic point is: Don’t change your swing, change your mind.”
~Dr. Joseph Parent
Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game

Focusing on Mechanics

We hear it all the time, “Focus on what you can control” but for most of us we really never understand what that means. We’re told that if we focus on the process of success then success will happen naturally. Great! The problem is most of the time the people telling us this have no idea what the process to success really is. As a result we get into this mode of trying to do everything we can to succeed. We develop a mentality that is focused on everything external, we focus on trying to create a result, trying to hit the ball as hard as we can but we don’t have the knowledge or ability to focus on what we need to do to create that result. Fortunately for those of us who work for or work with the guys at UPB we are able to gain the knowledge and develop the skills that we need to create the results we desire to create. The hard part is trying to break our old mental habits and actually begin to focus on the process.

In baseball just like in life there are certain laws or rules that produce success. Success in hitting and success in pitching can be broken down into specific physical and mental skills that have been proven to produce superior results. Over the course of my career I have been on a quest to discover what these specific rules are. As more and more things were revealed to me it was then necessary for me to change my way of thinking. To try and think like the new player I was and not continue the same mental habits that I had as a player with lesser ability. I didn’t understand at the time how difficult this would be, however for the first time I understood what it meant to, “Focus on the process”. Like most athletes I had been told to, “Focus on the process” but just like most athletes nobody had told me what that process was. I was receiving mixed signals, on one hand I was being told that success on the baseball field was in large part due to my genetics, my natural born ability, and then on the other hand I’m being told to focus on the process. WHAT??? I mean how is there supposed to be a “process” of success if we are either born to succeed or born to fail?

Fortunately I didn’t buy into the belief that my success was in some way related to my genetics or natural born ability (If you still think it does I recommend two books, Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin and The Biology of Belief by Dr. Bruce Lipton). Over time I was able to gradually change my thinking and what I found was when I focused on simply executing proper mechanics my success took care of itself. I began to take the focus off of external results such as hitting the ball hard or getting hits and began to bring my focus more inward and focus on executing proper mechanics. What I found was not only greater success but success with far less effort. Now when I do my tee work or take batting practice I don’t necessarily concern myself with where the pitch is. Oh sure I recognize where it is, whether it be inside, middle, away, up, or down, but once I recognize where the pitch is my focus is then totally on allowing the pitch to enter the hitting zone and then just executing a good swing.

Once you have been exposed to and have learned proper physical mechanics I would recommend that you take your focus off of outward success and place it on executing good sound mechanics. Pitchers, once you get the sign from the catcher don’t concern yourself with getting the hitter out but rather focus on executing good mechanics which will allow you to execute a good pitch which will allow you to get the hitter out. Hitter’s sometimes we get too caught up in the “see ball hit ball” mentality. We go up to the plate with the attitude that we are going to hit the ball hard and as a result our mechanics leave us because we exert too much effort. Instead make your goal to execute a mechanically sound swing on pitches inside the hitting zone. Recognize the pitch type and location and once you do allow it to enter the hitting zone and simply put a good, mechanically sound swing on it. Taking this approach will help relax your mind, you will feel in more control over your performance and you will find more power production at the plate and you will begin to experience far more success.

New UPB Service!!!

I am really excited to announce a new service that we at UPB are offering. We are now offering video analysis of your hitting mechanics. However this isn't just your run of the mill video analysis. Here is how the UPB analysis is different. You will receive a personalized DVD with your swing brokendown by UPB Founder Ryan Dambach. In addition to the analysis the DVD will also contain a personalized, step by step program to help you develop your swing mechanics. This program will include videos of each of the drills you are to perform with explanations of all the drills, plus the frequency in which these drills should be performed. If you've always wanted to take private lessons from the guys at UPB but maybe you live too far away or it might be too expensive this is a way for you to receive the high level of instruction that UPB offers in the comfort of your own home.

How does it work? You basically have two options: 1) You can schedule an appointment to have your swing captured on film by one of the UPB instructors or 2) You can send UPB video that you have shot or your own swing. After that the guys at UPB will analyze your swing, put together your DVD, and then send it out to you. It's really that simple.

How much does it cost? For current UPB clients who are looking to supplement their individual lesson program the cost is $75. If you are not a current client or live out of the area the cost is $125. This is just slightly more then 1 one hour session with our highly trained UPB instructors.

If you are interested feel free to contact either UPB Founder Ryan Dambach at: Ryan@UnlimitedPerformanceBaseball.com or UPB Director of Pitching Instruction Tom Oldham at: Tom@UnlimitedPerformanceBaseball.com

Common Hitting Flaws

During this past weekend’s showcase/skills camp I was responsible for morning player check in and to throw batting practice in the afternoon. One of the deals I made with the director of the camp was that my hitting coaches and myself could evaluate each hitter and then use those evaluations to entice some of the players to take private lessons. As the day progressed I began to notice that almost every hitter was suffering from the same 3 or 4 flaws.

I was blown away almost every hitter, most of which have private hitting coaches, all suffered from the same 3 or 4 flaws. The hitters who didn’t have these flaws in their swing were the hitters who looked like they had never played before. So not only did they share the same 3 or 4 flaws that the other hitters had but they had a whole list of other problems as well. But I just couldn’t believe that every athlete had the same problems. That none of their hitting coaches could recognize where these athletes could improve and then make the necessary adjustments to their swing.

Like I’ve said before I believe much of this comes from coaches who just don’t know but also It has to do with the fact that if a player’s numbers are good then we have this belief of, “If it aint broke don’t fix it”. The problem is that regardless of what your numbers or accolades are it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have mastered the skills necessary to succeed at the next level. There is always room for improvement. You can always produce more power, more consistency, more repeatability. You can always improve your mind which will greatly improve your performance. There is always something to be worked on. So don’t assume that just because you hit .400 or were all this or all that, that you’ve got hitting mastered.

A couple of other theories that prevent coaches and athletes from striving to find higher levels of performance is the “Natural Born Talent Theory” and also the belief that, “Everyone’s different”. We have this belief that one thing might work for one person but it might not work for another. Unfortunately this is looking at it from an extremely limited perspective. Sure everyone is different and somethings work better for some than they do with others, but the main reason behind that is that they may have different flaws. Most corrections from hitting coaches merely cover up other flaws. They don’t fix the real problem. So in that regard one “fix” might work for one but not another.

If you look at hitting from a biomechanics perspective then everyone, whether they are 5’8” or 6’5”, are biomechanically the same. If you want to generate power it’s important that you do certain specific things to ensure that you are in the strongest position possible at the point of contact. Look at coaches in other sports. Take sprinters for example: There are specific ways of using your body to get the maximum speed out of it. Sprinting coaches don’t tell one athlete to run one way and another athlete to run a different way just because, “everyone’s different”. There has been proven ways to generate speed and maximize efficiency and coaches teach their runners accordingly. The same is in weight lifting. When you are working out there are specific mechanics you must perform in order to avoid injury and maximize strength. It is the same in hitting. If you want to maximize power and consistency then there are specific mechanics that need to be performed.

Unfortunately most athletes never learn these mechanics and as a result success is left up to physical size, strength, dumb luck, or anything else that might lend credibility to the “natural talent theory”. So what were the flaws each hitter was suffering from? What was it that each hitter could do better to drastically increase their level of success?

Base- I didn’t see a single player that had a strong base in their stance. This is primarily due to the “weight shift theory”. Most, if not all hitters are taught to rock their weight to their back leg during the stride and load phase and then it will transfer slightly forward during the swing. This has caused most hitters to have a weak base. They believe that the weight shift back and then forward produces power. The problem is it puts them in a weaker position at the point of contact. When a hitter has a strong base their swing is more repeatable and they are able to produce more power with less effort.
Hip Separation- In addition to a strong base there wasn’t a single player at the camp that got sufficient hip separation. This is an aspect of the swing that not many people talk about. Oh sure, we know that the power comes from the hips and that we must turn our hips to swing but what many fail to realize is that there has to be separation between the hips and hands in order to maximize power production and enable you to maximize your bat path. So more than just turning your hips make sure that you are getting separation between the hips and hands.
Bat Path- The bat path is one of the most difficult thing for the untrained eye to see. Most hitters believe they have a “short” swing but what they don’t realize is just how much shorter and direct they could be. My belief is that this is due to the old teaching technique of “get the hands inside”. While this is good advice what most coaches don’t realize is just how to accomplish this goal. As a result most hitters pull the bat through the zone trying to force the hands “inside” the ball. This forces the bat head down, lengthening out the swing, putting the hitter in a weaker position at the point of contact, and causing the hitter to produce top spin. In addition a small fluctuation in the degree of the bat path creates a massive result in what the flight of the ball will be. Understand that just because you may have a “short” swing doesn’t mean you are as direct as you could be. Worry less about being “inside” the ball and more about being direct to the ball.
Extension- Finally I didn’t see a single player who had good extension through the ball. This is primarily due to the bat path. If you bat path isn’t where it should be then you won’t be able to extend through the ball as well as you should. Most hitters cut themselves short and finish their swing shortly after they make contact. Using the analogy of a punch think of a boxer finishing his punch immediately after making contact with his opponent. The boxer wouldn’t hit his opponent very hard as he wouldn’t be transferring all of his available energy into the body of his opponent. The very same thing is true in hitting. When a hitter finishes his swing too early then he doesn’t transfer all of his available energy into the ball. Which limits the amount of power he is able to produce. This is important not only for hitting home-runs but also for producing more hits. The more energy transfered into the ball, the faster the ball exits the bat, the faster it gets through the infield or shoots through the gap.

In order for the game to change and become better then it’s up to us as players and coaches to pay more attention to the details that create success. There’s an old saying that if we do things the same way we’ve always done them then we’ll continue to get the same results. Our game has become stagnant, it isn’t open to new techniques or new ideas and as a result it lends more credibility to the “natural talent theory” leaving success up to luck or size or strength. Unfortunately many athletes aren’t living up to the potential that resides inside them and even sadder still is that they won’t realize all of their dreams. If you want to perform better, if you want to reach the levels of performance you know you can reach then you must pay attention to the details. Don’t be satisfied with your current level of performance or just try and explain it away by making excuses about your size or genetics. Change these four aspects of your swing and you will begin to produce results that you once didn’t believe were possible.