Pitching Mindset
May 4, 2012 | 
Author Making it to the Major Leagues? It’s an impossible journey. 1=1000
Throwing a complete game? That’s an awful lot of flawless pitching. 1=1000
Writing a book? I don’t even know where to start. 1=1000
Losing 50 pounds? That’d take too much work. 1=1000
Running A Marathon? I think I’d die. 1=1000
Adding 10 miles per hour to my fastball? That’s a big jump. 1=1000
A Journey of A 1000 Miles Starts With One Step.
Life seems unmanageable when you consider the magnitude of any worthwhile undertakings. I want to be a big leaguer. I have to dominate this and every season for the rest of my life to accomplish that goal. That means throwing lots of zeros, giving up few hits, striking out lots of batters, etc. I’d have to outcompete some very talented pitchers. It’s all too much to imagine me, a 26-year old small righthander, being able to machete my way through all of that.
But, as for any athlete, none of that stuff can be accomplished all at once. The impressive body of work is accomplished one microevent (is that a word?) at a time. I can’t accomplish all of those things at once, or even part of it at once. It’s too much pressure to think about throwing up all zeros every time out.
Break It Up. What Can Be Accomplished?
My meditations of late have been focused on my only job, and it’s utterly simple. I can give myself a chance to accomplish all of the above if I take a 1=1000 approach. Specifically, for my sport, the “1″ is each pitch. If I make one pitch effectively, then I’ve done 100% of that which is within my power to accomplishing all of my goals.
My career, at this moment, is comprised solely of this pitch. I cannot change the past or affect the future; I can only make this pitch to the best of my ability.
Understanding this has taken the weight of the world off of me. I don’t have to throw 9 scoreless to keep my ERA desirable to scouts. I don’t have to go 12-0 this season. I don’t have to strike out 12 batters per nine innings. I don’t have to compete with the 21 other pitchers in training camp. I just have to make one pitch.
Rinse and repeat. Don’t look to the future; forget the past – both derail you. All you need is to concentrate yourself 100% on the task at hand, because this task is the only task keeping you from your goals.
Any athlete’s career is comprised of single plays. Make the best of each one, and they add up into great weeks, months, seasons, and careers. The more an athlete can do to segment his or her career into mentally-manageable chunks, the more focused, capable and in control they will feel. 1=1000.
Six weeks ago I was in Southern California at Alan Jaeger’s mental training camp. I was among 15 or so fellow professionals, most of whom were younger than I, higher up in baseball than I, and maybe hadn’t experienced as much failure as I have along the way.
I reached out to Alan and read his book as a result of the worst half-season in my life. I pitched with a double-digit ERA for about 3 weeks; it was terrible. Rather than continue to rehash how poorly I threw while in Fargo last season (profoundly poor), I’m going to elaborate on what I’m doing about it. My failure was clearly mental – I started doubting the ability that had brought me to that point – a Low-90s fastball, a curve and changeup that are both plus pitches when on, and mechanics that are repeatable. I have the physical, but lacked the mental. I found myself remitting to the fact that I was going to walk a hitter, that I was unlikely to locate my pitches, and generally felt out of control on the mound.
Alan’s book, Getting Focused Staying Focused provided me with most of the knowledge, but not the push to get it done. I read the book, put it on the shelf, and didn’t take care of business. I didn’t get better. Chances are, you’re going to click the “read more” link below, but you’re not going to finish this article. You’ll see a mountain of text and get bored. If you’re a ballplayer or coach one, YOU NEED TO READ THIS. I’m a strength coach by trade, and I’m telling you that there’s much more than just the physical; that should tell you something. Read the rest of this entry »
A pretty simple way to conceptualize how velocity and location affects a hitter.
5 Things Really Good Hitters Do….it’s my newest article for Cornbeltbaseball.com!
I’ve had the privilege of pitching to and under some very smart people this summer. My catcher, Todd Jennings, has AAA experience and has caught some very big name Major Leaguers. My coaches have given me lots of instruction in becoming a more intelligent pitcher, and pitching to my strengths.
I got a little dugout demonstration that I thought was very insightful, a great visual presentation of why some pitchers can throw effective high fastballs and some can’t. I downloaded a nice sketch App from the Mac App store so that I could give you a beautifully crude rendering of a pretty simple, but important concept.
“Barry Zito made 100 million dollars throwing high fastballs.” Why was he able to do this? Because his big-breaking curveball starts high and breaks sharply down low, and looks like a high fastball out of his hand. Thus, when he drops it in for strikes consistently, he can freely mix in fastballs high in the zone that deceive the hitter. They chase balls up that would get hammered if thrown from the hand of a slider/sinker type pitcher. Here’s how it looks:
Anyone who has been around the game has heard managers, pitching coaches, fans and players all gripe about a common enemy: the walk. I wholeheartedly agree that walks are destructive to a team’s chance at winning, but I question the old adage that “walks almost always score.” I question this not because I want to convince pitchers that walking hitters is OK – it isn’t – but rather because it doesn’t make sense to me that simply because a batter reached base via four balls, he becomes more of a threat to come in to score. There have to be other reasons that allow walked runners to score at a higher frequency, if in fact they truly do score more often. Let’s reason our way through this in conjunction with a few common stats to see what conclusion we can come up with. Read the rest of this entry »
An athlete’s state of mind when in competition greatly affects how he or she performs in sport. Those who enter competition fearing defeat and negative outcomes welcome just that – defeat.
To the aggressor go the spoils. In all sports, the dynamic of the game is largely and decisively influenced by the confidence and aggressiveness of competitors. Those who believe, TRULY believe, that they cannot be beaten, steer their bodies with such a swagger. They instill fear and timid action into their opponents while breeding courage and strength.
Ask any sports psychologist about the power of positive thought, and he or she will tell you that it is utterly essential. Creating images of victory in the mind allows an athlete to see success and know success is not just possible, but probable. Yet, these thoughts must be truly believed for them to take root and grow into on-field confidence.
“Psyching” oneself up for competition is a common practice of athletes, especially in the modern days of the iPod. Heavy Metal and the aggressive beats of many genres of music are absorbed prior to games in an attempt to boil the blood before battle. Does this practice work? Is this as far as is necessary for one to go to ensure he is full of mettle by time gameday arrives?
I believe that creating permanent changes in on-field behavior start with positive thought and visualization in an athlete’s downtime. These thoughts must be realistic, take into account the athlete’s specific skillset, and be frequent and intense enough to elicit a legitimate physiological response.
If you don’t feel flustered, angry, hormonal and aggressive after visualizing your performance, then you’re not sufficiently setting yourself into the experience, and it won’t overtake you when you enter competition. You’ve got to use some of the behaviors that your body already instinctively uses when in peril. Let’s explore some of these things that you can do, while sitting around, to legitimately increase your physical performance via a confident, aggressive mind.
You Don’t Want to Be: Dr. Jekyll
You DO Want to Be: Mr. Hyde
One of the biggest reasons why I love baseball so much is the mental side of the game. At any given point during a baseball game there are countless small mental battles occurring within the larger context of the game itself. As a catcher, I need to be constantly aware of these cranial skirmishes and try to use the information I have gathered to try to outsmart my opponents. Oftentimes, I’ll do things for no other reason than to mess with a batter’s head. One of my favorite things to do is to give the pitcher a couple of shakeoff signs in an obvious fastball count and then blast the batter’s hands with an inside heater. Sometimes I’ll “tip” a pitch location by making a lot of noise setting my feet on a few pitches in the early innings so that later in the game I can make a bunch of noise setting up on the outside corner, then silently slide inside and watch the hitter’s beloved $150 Sam Bat get obliterated by the pitch he swore to God was going to come in on the outside half.
Not unlike this bewildered gentleman
Really, anything I can do to make the hitter start thinking and second-guessing his instincts, I’ll do it. A confused baseball player is a worthless baseball player. Even more worthless than a confused baseball player is an intimidated baseball player. Every athlete knows that if you “play scared,” you’re destined to lose. Therefore, part of your job as an athlete is to try to scare your opponents and make them fear you. If a batter is afraid to face you, there’s no chance he’ll succeed when he timidly steps into the back far corner of the box. Read the rest of this entry »
The season has been starting for high school baseball, and college ball is now well underway. With the youth and pro seasons looming, every ballplayer will soon be feeling the early-season jitters, whether on the mound or at the plate. I pitched in front of some big crowds (for me) last year, and coping with it was a completely new experience. The more you find yourself in those situations, the better you’re able to deal with it, but it all comes down to your mindset, focus, and ability to calm yourself when things get out of control… Read the rest of this entry »
I remember seeing a news story a long time ago about a car that crashed through the window of a convenience store and came to rest on top of a young girl, just to be lifted off her by a passerby. There are similar stories across the country, including this one here about an ordinary father who did the same thing. These people are admittedly not Olympic powerlifters, nor do they throw around huge weights everyday at the steelyard. Rather, they are ordinary people, able to summon extraordinary strength because of the nervous system and hormonal changes that occur when one is placed in an extremely stressful or dangerous situation. Ever been chased by bees? You probably ran faster at that moment than you ever will again.
From Where The Strength Comes Read the rest of this entry »
Last year I was hanging out with my cousins, one of whom was big into heavy metal. He was close with a band and we went to watch them practice one night. It was an interesting experience, because I got to see all of their band members dressed in street clothes, acting like their everyday selves. I particularly remember the bassist, who was an average height, very skinny, kind of dorky dude. He was a nice guy and pretty soft spoken, and we talked about his career so far in music. He looked like any other wallflower except he had long hair he kept in a ponytail.
This was basically the guy I talked to
But a few days later, the band performed live at a small venue. Few people showed up, but the band was in full GO. The same guy I had talked to had his hair braided into cornrows – which was probably his reason for keeping it long – a black shirt, super baggy JNCO style jeans with tons of metal chains hanging off, thick-soled black shoes, I think a dog collar and a spiked black leather wrist guard. I was completely thrown off by what he was, up on stage. He slapped the bass and banged his head harder than I could believe. It was a total 180 from the guy I had spoken with.
And he transformed into something like this when it was GO time
Read the rest of this entry »
Confidence is huge in sports, and I just came across a great article on the Wall Street Journal that everyone in the sports or business world needs to read. If you don’t read The Journal, I highly suggest setting it as your homepage, as it will provide you with poignant, well-written articles, something you don’t find on Yahoo or the rest of those pop-culture news site. Click the link below, and let me know your thoughts…
Pitchers throw the ball. Catchers catch it. That’s it, right? Not quite. Read the rest of this entry »
The season is winding down, which means I’m now spending a lot of my spare time reflecting on how I’ve done, how I could have done better, and how I intend on improving for next season. I’ve thrown more good pitches than bad, but success doesn’t inspire the need to change; rather, looking back at some of the pitches yielding hard hits, runs and losses has been a way for me to grow as a pitcher. The most drastic the outcome, the more indelibly the pitch has been scarred into my mind. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s the 5th inning, and your starter hasn’t been overly thrifty with his pitches. He has 1 out so far in the inning, and just threw his 88th pitch. What is the fate of this pitcher on this hypothetical day?
If it’s 2010, chances are that a reliever is stirring in the bullpen, and this starter won’t see the 6th inning. Why? Because he will have exceeded his 100 pitch limit by the end of the 5th, or would too greatly surpass it if he went back out the following inning. The 100-pitch barrier proves the undoing of his fun. Read the rest of this entry »