The Evolution of Players

I’m asked a lot about how players are different today as opposed to when I was younger. My answer is always the same in that I say they’re better and worse at the same time. There is no question that players today are far more advanced fundamentally then when I was in high school and college. With the increasing popularity of private instruction, camps/clinics, and travel ball players today have much more opportunity to improve and are more prepared when they reach the college and professional levels. So in that regard the players today are far better then just 15-20 years ago.

The problem I see is that everything in the game has become too organized. Players today have so much opportunity to play organized baseball, on nice fields, with nice uniforms, umpires, coaches, and fans that they rarely, if ever play a simple pick up game, over the line, or even whiffle ball. In my opinion this is hindering the players today by taking some of the fun from the game and stifling their creativity. Players today are so used to playing in an organized, regimented environment that they’ve lost the ability to just go out and play. This has translated into an increase in the number of players suffering from fear of failure and has increased the stress levels of many players. It appears that very few players today play for the shear joy of the game. From an early age they are constantly striving to reach a higher level of play, to improve, and to reach some level of performance or some long term goal.

It’s important for us to remember that baseball is just a game. One that should be enjoyed and played with passion and joy from the earliest levels of T-Ball all the way up to the Major Leagues. The more we organize the game, the more we rob the players of today of the joy of playing. Instead of worrying about constantly pushing to develop take some time to get back to the pure essence of the game. Go out and play some whiffle ball, play a game of over the line. Encourage young players to get a couple of friends together and play a pick up game. It may not seem like these unorganized games away from parents and coaches are valuable however it helps remind players what they play for. It helps players develop creativity which is where great plays come from. It helps players play freely without the pressure of winning and it helps players take ownership of their own game which develops in them the passion and desire to put the work in to improve.

Slow Your Feet Down

Working with a lot of high school and college infielders I notice a common mistake that increases the likelihood of a bobbled ball or an errant throw. It seems to me that most infielders today are taught to have so much movement in their feet and are schooled that it’s so vitally important to have “quick” feet that they don’t put themselves in good position to catch the ball or to make a good throw. To often high school and college coaches are more concerned with how an infielder looks rather then how an infielder performs. If you watch most Major League infielders you’ll notice how smooth and deliberate they look when fielding the ball. This is due to the efficiency of their movements. Major League players understand that the more efficient they are with their movements they don’t have to work as hard to complete a play. What I notice is that most amateur infielders take twice as many steps to go the same distance as professional infielders. Everything they do is done with a lot of movement and at a high rate of speed. So why is this a bad thing?

First of all, the more movement an athlete has the more the head moves which makes it more difficult to get a good read on a hop and field the ball cleanly. Secondly, when it comes to getting the throw off and completing the play the added quick movement causes the infielder to feel rushed and doesn’t allow him to get his arms in good position to make the throw. As a result he has to take 2 more steps before releasing the ball and when he does make the throw his lower half is ahead of this upper body causing the throwing arm to drag and causing the ball to sail creating more errant throws.

My advice to my infielders is to think about slowing their feet down. Infielders are already quick enough so there is no reason to try to move quicker. What’s the old John Wooden quote, “Be quick but don’t hurry.” That couldn’t apply more to fielding ground balls. Your feet will be quick enough naturally there is no reason to try and be quicker. I tell my infielders to think about taking bigger, slower, more deliberate steps and to take a more direct route to the ball. As opposed to taking the short quick choppy steps the bigger more deliberate steps stabilize the head, allows the body to be in good position when fielding the ball, and allows the upper body to move together with the lower body allowing the player to have a consistent release point on the throw.

So if you’re an infielder do yourself a favor and slow down. Think about taking bigger more deliberate steps. You won’t be too slow, in fact you may just notice that you’re actually quicker by slowing down because you’ll be more efficient.

Infield and Hitting Classes

I wanted to let everyone know about the infield and hitting classes I am now offering at The Brickyard in Lake Forest. Infield classes will be held on Monday nights from 6pm-7:30pm and will not only cover basic infield skills such as footwork, transfer, backhands, and double plays but we will also cover advanced level infield skills such as angles, mental approach, reading bat angle, and positioning.

My hitting classes will also cover the fundamentals of the swing and help you to develop more consistency and power. We will also have the opportunity to get into some mental approach skills as well as learning about mental blocks that might be preventing you from consistently repeating your swing in a game situation and the skills you need to remove these blocks and maximize your ability. The hitting class will be Wednesday nights from 7pm-8pm.

Both classes are $25 per athlete and there is a limit of 10 players per class. Anyone interested should contact me at: Ryan@unlimitedperformancebaseball.com.

Defining Success

In baseball and in life we sometimes have a tendency to judge ourselves by everyone else’s definition of success and rarely our own. We push and strive to get better and achieve a certain level of success and many times we have no idea what success really is. Especially in sports we have a tendency to judge our success based on what the general population considers to be a successful athlete. Getting the D1 scholarship, getting drafted, playing at the major league level, all these things are generally the standard by which we judge the ability of our athletes. The problem is these things may not be right for everyone. Not everyone will be happy at the big D1 school, some guys go to schools because they’re D1 but they are located in some pretty undesirable places to live. Maybe you’d be happy at a small school. Maybe there is a D3 or NAIA school somewhere that offers you playing time, a good education, and a great experience. The point is that we need to understand what it is we truly want and what we define as success.

The same can be said about our performance on the field. It’s easy to judge our performance based on how many hits we get or our stats at the end of the year. But that is using outside influences to dictate if we are successful or not. The problem with that is 1) these are things that are beyond our control and 2) not everyone is at the same place in their career. Maybe hitting .300 is easy for you and you are able to do that year in and year out. Assuming that this means you’re successful is limiting the amount of overall success you could potentially have. If you’re a player who doesn’t hit .300 consistently and you base you’re success on hitting .300 you are limiting yourself as well since you will consistently feel like you’ve failed which won’t allow you to make the adjustments necessary to improve.

In every situation you encounter you need to first define what success is for you. This definition needs to be based on things that you can control. If you’re working on a particular adjustment in your swing you could base your success in that at-bat on wether or not you were able to execute that adjustment. Whatever you decide I encourage you to take the time to really define what success means for you. This will allow you to consistently improve and allow you to become a better player then you ever could imagine. In addition you will be able to recognize when you are successful and that will be based on your definition and not that of others.

Perceptions Shape Performance

I’ve written about this before but it’s something that’s been on my mind lately. Our performance is dictated by the way we perceive the different situations that arise in a game. Why is it some players perform with the game on the line while others consistently come up short? Why is it you might be able to hit well with the bases empty but with runners on you aren’t able to come through? Why is it some players bounce back from adversity quicker and easier then other players do? Quite simply, each player perceives situations and events differently. The trick is to recognize which perceptions are limiting you and then changing your perception to one that empowers you to succeed. When you strike out do you see that as something bad? Or, can you change that perception to see that strikeout as an opportunity to learn about the pitcher you’re facing? How do you perceive pressure situations? Do you see the situation as a fun, exciting opportunity or do you see it as a stressful situation where if you don’t succeed you’ll let the team down? Whatever situation arises you must understand that how you perceive the situation will dictate your ability to perform. If you understand that the mind controls the body, and you understand that in order to perform that you must put your mind in the best possible position to allow your body to execute mechanics then you’ll do whatever you can to make sure that you are not limiting what you’re capable of by perceiving situations negatively.

So how do we do this? It all goes back to the questions you ask yourself in your head. When you strikeout and you ask yourself, “What did I do wrong?” You are putting yourself in a disempowering state. You are replaying negative events in your mind making it more likely for those events to repeat themselves. Instead change the questions you ask by asking, “What can I learn from that at-bat?” “What adjustments can I make?” Doing so will change how you feel about the event and ultimately change your perception and change your performance. When you come up with the game winning run on secondbase and two outs in the ninth inning just change your perception. Instead of seeing it as a stressful, pressure packed, all on your shoulders situation, look at it from a positive stand point. Tell yourself that getting the game winning hit will be fun and that these are the situations you live for and the reason you play the game. What you’ll notice is the pressure is reduced, you’re able to enjoy the situation more, freeing your mind to perform.

Chunking

Many people ask me how it is I develop the swings of my hitters. Many people believe that you can’t teach everyone to have a good mechanically sound swing. They believe that your ability to hit was given to you at birth. While it is true that some people pick up on movement patterns and learn skills easier then others it doesn’t mean that everyone can’t learn them. With proper instruction and the right amount of deliberate practice anyone can become a good hitter. From a physical standpoint, hitting has to do with your ability to execute proper mechanics on hittable pitches consistently. Where most hitters fall short is their inability to execute these mechanics either as a whole or on certain pitches in particular locations. When hitters are introduced to proper swing mechanics they might become frustrated by an inability to perform the mechanics they are trying to learn. In addition they may have coaches or parents that become frustrated as well because the athlete isn’t picking up on or able to execute the desired adjustment. To which many athletes or coaches may simply give up and explain away the athlete’s inability to learn the skill by blaming some lack on inborn talent or not possessing the athletic ability necessary to make the adjustment.

Obviously, if you know me or have been following my other posts you know that I couldn’t disagree with this way of thinking any more then I already do. I feel that the key for coaches or athletes who are trying to make changes in their swing or the swings of their athletes is to not view the swing as a single movement but rather a group of smaller movements pieced together as one. What I do to develop my hitters is break the swing apart into smaller, easier to learn chunks. Small skills that when put together create one, superior movement pattern. When I run into an athlete that may have more difficulty learning the small skills necessary in the swing, I then break the small skill into even smaller chunks and build the skill that way until the athlete is able to grasp the entire movement pattern.

If you are working with hitters or if you’re an athlete trying to make changes in your own swing, break your swing down into easily learnable chunks. If you are still having difficulty making the desired change to your swing then break the chunk into a chunk and keep doing so until you are able to make the change you desire. Begin to think of building the swing as you would building a house. Start with a good foundation, set up the framework (the stance), and then piece it together one brick or one chunk at a time.

Hitting Pitches in Different Locations

One of the biggest misconceptions in all of hitting is that we have to change our swing based on the location of the pitch. You’ll hear many coaches or instructors talk about pulling the hands in on an inside pitch or you may hear them discuss “going with” the outside pitch. What we have to keep in mind is what happens to the barrel when we do this and how that is going to effect your ability to maintain a proper bat path and repeat your mechanics.

As hitters our goal is to repeat proper mechanics as much as possible. However, if we continuously alter our mechanics based on pitch location then we won’t be consistent with our mechanics and won’t be able to have consistent success. Plus, any time we “pull the hands in” or try to “go with” the outside pitch our bat path is greatly effected. Both cause the barrel to drop and force us to drag the bat head through the hitting zone. Ironically our intent might be to shorten our path to the ball so that we don’t get jammed on the inside pitch but we are actually lengthening out our swing and creating that which we don’t want.

It’s important to understand that if you have good, sound swing mechanics and a sound bat path then you are capable of covering both the inside and outside parts of the plate by simply repeating your swing. The only change is where you make contact with the ball in relationship to your body. I always tell my hitters that all you want to do is recognize where the pitch is and then stay disciplined enough to maintain proper swing mechanics. When you recognize where a pitch is that just let’s you know where the hitting zone is going to be. On ann inside pitch the hitting zone will be farther out in front of your body then an outside pitch. Once you recognize where the pitch is you simply wait for the ball to get into the hitting zone and then you execute proper mechanics on the pitch. It really is that simple.

During your next BP round take your focus off of hitting the ball hard and focus on repeating your mechanics as often as you can. Recognize where the pitch is and then once it’s in the hitting zone focus on executing proper mechanics. Watch how consistently you drive the ball. If you can take this same approach into your game, not only will you hit the ball harder and farther but you will do so with greater consistency.

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.

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.