Energy and Performance

My study’s into the mind and how the mind impacts performance has led me to some pretty interesting areas of research that I never had suspected it would take me. When I started out I simply wanted to know how I could relax more at the plate and become more consistent. As I dove deeper and deeper into the human mind and began to educate myself on what creates true athletic performance I found myself going deeper then just your basic positive self talk or goal setting steps found in most sport psychology books. Just like in my study of mechanics I wanted to know more, I wanted to know why I responded in game situations like I did and why many of those same responses played themselves out in my everyday life. What I’ve come across is the same principles that create success in athletic performance also create success in everyday life.

Maybe many of you have seen the movie “The Secret” or perhaps you’ve picked up a book on the Law of Attraction. Don’t worry, I’m not getting into a spiritual conversation about how you can improve your life or get the things you want in life (I’ll save that for my other website). But, if you have, then you are at least familiar with the idea that we are all energistic beings and we all radiate a different vibrational frequency based on the thoughts we have and the emotions that we are feeling. Okay, okay so how does this relate to baseball and performance. Well, very simply the vibrational frequency you are emanating has a tremendous impact not only on your ability to repeat your mechanics but also your overall strength and ability to drive the ball or throw the ball hard not to mention avoid injury. And, this vibrational frequency is linked to the thoughts you are thinking and emotions you are feeling.

I know this may sound a bit out there however think back to the last time you were in “the zone”. What were you feeling? What were you thinking? I can guarantee you weren’t feeling angry, depressed, anxious, or any other negative feeling. I can also guarantee you weren’t thinking about personal glory, winning or loosing, it’s probably safe to say you weren’t really thinking at all.

There have been studies conducted to show the effect negativity has on an athlete’s strength and performance. In kinesiology we use strength testing to determine how something effects human performance. With strength testing an athlete may be asked to hold something in one hand or even hold a thought in their head. The person conducting the test will then ask the athlete to hold out the other hand and try to resist him/her from pushing the arm down. When the athlete is around something negative or thinking something negative the arm goes week. When the athlete is around or thinking about positive things the arm is strong. I had the privilege to witness and be a part of one such test. At the front of the room there were two sealed manila envelopes. Myself and the other athletes in the room were instructed to hold each envelope separately while the instructor tried to push our arm down. Each athlete was unable to hold our arm’s up while holding the envelope marked “H” while we were each strong with the envelope marked “L”. When the test was over the instructor opened each envelope. Inside the envelope marked “H” was a picture of Adolph Hitler while in the envelope marked “L” was a picture of Abraham Lincoln. To say I was blown away would be an understatement.

In the book “Power vs. Force” Dr. David Hawkins did research to this very thing. He found that athletes who are motivated by negative emotions or are surrounded with negativity will go weak during competition. “The competitor who is motivated by pride, greed, or interested in primarily beating their opponent, will go weak at the moment of the starting gun and be unable to achieve the maximum continued effort necessary for great achievement.” However he found that athletes that were motivated by the shear joy of playing or playing to their own highest potential for the sake of excellence remained strong and performed better.

The point to all this is that you need to be careful with what you are surrounding yourself with. Are you up to the plate thinking negative thoughts? Are you listening to negative music or “pumping” yourself up before a game instead of clearing your mind and focusing on being as efficient as possible? Remember that only you can take responsibility for what’s going on in your own mind. Understand that while you might think that focusing on kicking the opponents ass might be the way to get you fired up to perform in reality you are just making it more difficult on yourself and limiting what you are capable of accomplishing on the field. Surround yourself with more positive people, spend time before each game quieting your mind and visualizing your mechanics. While you may not feel the same pre-game pump up, you’ll find that you will be far more consistent in your performance.

3D Motion Analysis 2 Day Performance Camp

***Limited to the first 20 athletes***

Unlimited Performance Baseball has teamed up with Zenolink and Southwest Health Professional Center to bring you the most cutting edge motion analysis and performance enhancement tool on the market. Zenolink will take a video of your swing or pitching mechanics and use the data to generate a custom performance enhancement program to help you become a more efficient athlete which is the foundation for developing more speed, power, and consistency.

“Unlike your more traditional sports analysis, we apply 3-D Motion Analysis to look at the dynamics of motion,” says ZenoLink founder and biomechanical expert, Chris Welch. “We look at patterns of movement, including the dynamic range of motion and speed patterns. From this analysis, we can evaluate true performance output and root causes of power leaks, inefficiency and injury potential.”

When: Sunday January 30th and Sunday February 6th
Time: 10am-12pm

Where: The Sports Training Complex
1590 S. Sinclair St.
Anaheim, Ca 92806

Cost: $249


Here’s how ZenoLink works:

Step 1: Collect Data. The athlete is filmed in their natural environment, hitting a golf ball, throwing a pitch, swinging a bat, spiking a volleyball or hitting a tennis ball. The process is easy – without the use of sensors, wires or a vest.
Step 2: Data Analysis. The video is made into a 3-D model of the athlete at the ZenoLink performance lab in Endicott, NY. Their biomechanical engineers interpret the movement of the model using specialized software to gather measurements including kinetic linking, joint range of motion, body segment coordination and outcome parameters.
Step 3: Get Results! ZenoLink provides the athlete with a specialized program that targets specific areas to help them get dramatic results toward improving their athletic potential and reduce their chances of injury. Athletes as well as their coaches and trainers can access their results on zenolink.com to incorporate the PST program into their current strength and conditioning routines.


ABOUT ZENOLINK

ZenoLink is a cutting-edge biomechanics analysis and training tool used by athletes of all levels to improve athletic performance – through the power of 3-D! By zeroing in on what’s really happening during an individual’s sports activity, ZenoLink provides athletes, coaches and trainers – primarily in golf, baseball, cycling, lacrosse, hockey, softball, volleyball, tennis and running– an easy and affordable solution that dramatically improves performance and reduces the risk of injury. Using specialized 3-D Motion Analysis, ZenoLink captures data related to functional movement, and turns it into a digital model of the athlete’s motion, taking the guesswork out of identifying flaws or restrictions in coordination. For more information, visit www.ZenoLink.com.

To register or for more information visit:
www.3Dsportsanalytics.com

In Order to Win, Accept Defeat

Let’s face it, nobody wants to lose, strikeout, or make an error but unfortunately these things are part of the game. Regardless of how hard you work, how much you try there is no avoiding these things and sometimes they come in bunches. Unfortunately losses, strikeouts, and errors have become symbols of something much worse then what they really are. From a hitting standpoint I see this a lot. Parents, players, and coaches have turned a strikeout into something much worse then what it really is. We’ve turned it into a direct attack on our ability, a sign that something must be wrong, a sign that you might not be as good as you think you are, or even a sign that you’re up to the plate with a lack of focus or not trying. Worse yet we’ve turned a strikeout looking to be the ultimate insult to our ability. Something that just “can’t happen” and as a result we’ve produced athletes that are petrified of the strikeout. You see at at every level of the game even at the youngest levels. You rarely see an 8 year old cry after a groundball out. However watch him strikeout and the tears start flowing. At the high school and college level I get players who strikeout once, twice, or more in a game or two and it’s time to hit the panic button. “This can’t happen! He needs to go up there and be more aggressive!” the parents will tell me. Really? When is the last time you tried it?

We have this misconception that we can avoid these things if we simply try hard enough, as if they will disappear by shear will power. We simply can’t allow ourselves to fail or look bad. I mean after all, how could our fragile little egos deal with the fact you just struckout, kicked a ball, or even lost a game? Unfortunately what we don’t realize is that our intense desire to avoid these unpleasant parts of the game is actually creating athletes who strikeout more and make more errors. We’re creating athletes who don’t enjoy competing and as a result we are hampering their development because they are afraid to push themselves because God forbid they fail.

Look, in order to begin to change this problem we first have to see these things for what they are. A strikeout is just a strikeout, an error is just an error, and a loss is just a loss. They have no bearing on your abilities as an athlete or what you’re capable of becoming (yes even if you strikeout looking off a pitcher who “sucks”). In my career for example I’ve been lucky enough to get hits off of Major League pitchers and have struckout off of some of the crappiest pitching on earth. Does that mean I’m better then the Major League guy or worse then the crappy guy? No! All it means is that in that one at bat I got a hit or in that one at bat I got out. Nothing more, nothing less.

Secondly, we have to completely accept that these things are going to happen. What I mean by accept it completely is not to just know that these things will happen and do your best to avoid them, but to completely accept the fact that regardless of what you do, or how hard you work that you will get called out looking, you will swing and miss at hittable pitches, you will make errors, and that there is nothing you can do about it. You have to begin to embrace failure, so much so that you begin to look at it as a good thing. As an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve. In my own career for example I made the switch from the outfield (in college) to the infield (in the minor leagues). At first this transition was very difficult. Each day that I took the field I was terrified of booting balls, of making errors, and looking bad in front of the players, coaches, and fans that were in the stadium that day. I wanted so badly for everyone to think that I was a good player and that I could make the transition and yet I hit a plateau in my development. I kept booting balls and wasn’t able to extend myself into more and more difficult plays. It wasn’t until I accepted that I was going to make mistakes, that I was going to boot balls and that there was nothing I could do to avoid it. Not even the hundreds of groundballs I was taking each day was going to prevent me from making mistakes. So what did I do? I actually embraced “failure” so much that each day before I took the field I made it my goal to fail. I actually said to myself, “Today I’m going to make a mistake.” I told myself this before each game and even each practice session. I began to understand that if I wasn’t making mistakes then I wasn’t learning and a funny thing began to happen. I began making less and less mistakes. My learning curve accelerated and over night I started making plays that I had never made before.

What I didn’t realize at the time was by doing this I completely liberated myself from failure. In my desire to avoid it I was putting up a mental block that wasn’t allowing me to perform freely. I was hindering my performance by simply not accepting defeat and making my mistakes into something more then they really were. Martial arts expert Bruce Lee called this “learning to die”. He believed that when a person accepts that they are going to die and they no longer fear death then they are free to live life to the fullest. From his standpoint this detachment from death allowed him to face an opponent free of fear which is the greatest hindrance to human achievement. This detachment meant that he was able to execute his movements freely, without any hesitation which allowed him to perform at a higher level then that of his opponent. Which, for him, prevented the very thing most people fear.

I encourage you to put strikeouts, errors, and losses into a different perspective. To begin to see them for what they really are and accept that they will happen regardless of how hard you work or how focused or prepared you are. Liberate yourself from your fear of these things, embrace them, and begin to watch your development sky rocket to new levels.

“To accept defeat- to learn to die- is to be liberated from it.”
~Bruce Lee

Tiger Day

I was watching “The Haney Project” last night. This is a show on the gold channel that I really enjoy because it features Tiger Wood’s swing coach Hank Haney. Basically, Hank takes on celebrities and helps them develop their golf game. It’s really appealing to me because he essentially does what I do and it’s fun to watch how he develops his athletes. In a recent episode he was working with Charles Barkley as I’m sure some of you have seen, he has the worst golf swing in the world. At the start of the show Hank asks Charles how hard does he want to work. Of course Charles answers that he wants to work hard. So Hank asks him if he wants to do a Tiger day? Which is a typical training day for Tiger Woods. A Tiger day is as follows:

6:00am-7:30am Workout
8:00am-8:45am Breakfast
9:00am-11:00am Hits balls on the range
11:00am-11:30am Putting
11:30am-12:30pm Plays 9 holes
12:30pm-1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm-3:00pm Hits balls on the range
3:00pm-4:00pm Short game
4:00pm-5:00pm Plays 9 holes
5:00pm-5:30pm Putting
5:30pm-6:00pm Finishes by hitting balls on the range

It’s not hard to figure out why Tiger is great at what he does!

New Year, New Opportunities

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is ready to get back to work. The new year brings with it the opportunity to reevaluate where we’re at, start over, and get recommitted to achieving your performance goals. I hope you are all as excited as I am about the upcoming season and are ready to start working hard toward achieving your goals. Let’s get the season started right by putting in the work now. I’ll see everyone soon.

Great News!

We have moved into our very own facility. This facility will enable us to serve our athletes better and take player development to new heights. If you're in Huntington Beach come by and check us out. We are located at 15661 Producer Ln. Suite N in Huntington Beach, Ca 92649.