Baseball Psychology - 5 Things To Improve Your Mental Approach

By Bill Bathe

In the game of baseball, you need to understand the psychology that is involved in order to take your game to the next level. Here are 5 things that will assist you and help prepare you to rise above the competition.

Pre-game routine- have you ever wondered how to prepare for a baseball game besides just taking batting practice and infield? If you really want to take it to the next level, you need to have a pre-game routine. It all starts hours before you even show up to the ballpark. When I played in the major leagues, my routine started at home after getting up for the day. And as the day progressed, I slowly started to slip into my mental preparation or pre-game routine. The closer it got to going to the ballpark, the more I concentrated and visualized who I would be facing. You should have an idea of what you are going to be dealing with and you slowly prepare for it as the day goes on.

Understanding the opposition- This goes along with the pre-game routine. As you are concentrating more and more, you are focusing on the opposition. Are they throwing a hard throwing pitcher that day? Or is the pitcher someone who likes to throw a lot of off-speed pitches?
This means you need to be focusing on taking the ball the other way. This would start in your pre-game routine of visualizing, then carry onto the field when you start taking batting practice. Understanding the opponent will help you immensely in your preparation.

Mental preparation, putting it all together. You woke up today and you know that you are facing a hard throwing opponent. You are focusing your attention on what you need to do to be successful against him. You start visualizing being short to the ball (short swing) and you start visualizing how you are going to practice before the game. You see yourself being a little quicker to the ball and shorter to the ball. In other words, you are mentally preparing for the game the right way!

Visualization- one of the key elements to baseball psychology and success. I cannot say enough about visualizing your success. Have you ever seen yourself being successful at something? How did it feel? Have you ever heard of someone describing a big hit they had? You will often hear them say it was like they already saw it happening as it was happening. This is visualization. You see yourself hitting someone in a key situation before it happens and you are instilling success! Learn to visualize. All the great players use visualization to see the end result.

Understand the "whys". What I mean is you need to comprehend what is happening when you are playing. I will give you an example. You take a swing at a pitch that was right down the middle and you foul it straight back to the backstop. The crowd is yelling load at the mighty swing. You are excited and you think to yourself that I just missed that pitch. You know what? Here is the difference between a 350 hitter and a 250 hitter. The 350 hitter will understand the why. The great hitters after just fouling off the pitch, will step out of the batters box and figure out why they missed it and make the correction right on the spot. They will visualize themselves hitting that same pitch again only not missing it this time. They will take a practice swing with the right mindset this time, step back in the batters box and absolutely rip the next pitch if they throw it again. Did you see the difference and what happened? They understand the whys involved. And so can you.

These are five good examples of how you can improve your game immensely and take it to the next level. Baseball psychology plays a big role in your development on the field but is one the least things addressed. If you apply these five examples you will undoubtedly improve your game and prepare yourself for success.
 

Bill Bathe - former major league ballplayer who played for the Oakland A's and S.F. Giants and played in the 1989 world series. To learn more about baseball psychology, visit Baseball Psychology or to learn more about the mental approach, visit The Mental Approach
 

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Baseball Coach for Kids: 5 Smart Tips That Will Help You Get the Best Out of Them

By Adam C Moore

One of the major demands of parenthood is responsibility. When you bring a life into the world, it is your responsibility to sustain and nurture that life, from an infant to a teen. Do not forget to give yourself a pat on the back when the child reaches adulthood. During the course of our parenting life, there are many deals that are thrown in our direction. One of them might just be playing coach to a bunch of baseball crazy children. It does not really matter if you have never played the game. But it does help if you know what doing and get to become the cool coach. Looking forward to coaching baseball to kids? Here are 5 smart tips that will help you get the best out of them.

Never Show Up in a Shirt and Tie

Never turn up in a shirt and tie. What this implies, is that you would rather be somewhere else and not really 100% committed to the cause. Shirts and ties belong to work. When it is time to play with the kids, turn up in jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball cap. Come down to their level and be part of the gang or you will never get the best out of them.

Make it Fun

You are not gunning for the World Series. So it is really about bonding and having fun with the kids. Ask for suggestions about what name should be given to the team and any ideas they might have about the mascot. Let them work together and realize the importance of group activity and team building. When your coaching skills resemble a military drill, kids tune off and would rather be found doing something else. Expect most of the kids to defect.

Forget the Mumbo Jumbo

Teach them the basics of baseball in a way they would enjoy and understand. Use everyday things to explain how to play baseball. Kids learn faster in between the giggles and the laughs. And will easily pick tips and strategies, if you use things they are familiar with. Do not use gaudy grammar or weighty words. Make it look to serious and its school all over again, maybe even worse.

Do Not Embarrass Publicly

Children do not have thick skin. So despite things not going as planned, never verbally bash a child in public or in private for that matter. If a child has an attitude problem or is not exactly playing his position, call him aside and tell him what he's doing wrong or how a change in approach can make everything much better for the team and everyone else.

Man of the People

Do not set your sights on the kids alone. Also try to parley with their parents. Encourage them to come and watch their children play baseball. Be friendly with the kids. But you can play boss with the parents, by knowing when their kids are coming for practice or when they will be going home. If there are any issues, meet in person, never talk over the phone. It could compound whatever situations that might arise.
 

As a former baseball players & coach, some of my other hobbies include creating websites on the sports. One of my newest websites is this website dedicated to the best bbcor baseball bats available. Come take a look!
 

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Parents, Cherish Every Baseball Moment

I knew this time would come but I didn't expect it to arrive so quickly. My son is coming to the end of his high school baseball career.   There are basically 35 scrimmages and games left.  He's likely to go on to play club baseball in college but you never know and if he does I'm not sure I will be able to travel to see him play.

Coaching him and watching him play over the past decade has been an honor and pleasure.  I can tell you this. I'm going to cherish every pitch of every inning remaining. He's dedicated himself to the game over the years and has become an excellent player. He loves the game and understands it better than I could have ever hoped. I'm very proud of him.

He's learned many things that will translate off the field as well. His sense of fair play is rivaled by no one. His work ethic is one to be admired. His love and respect for his fellow players an coaches is greater than I could have hoped for.

I'm thankful to those who helped him along the why. Those that have shown him both what to do and not to do. My only wish is that I could have slowed down time somehow.   But we know that's impossible.

So to those parents who have kids playing at the youth level my advice to you is to cherish every moment.  Realize that before you know it you'll be watching the last season.  And remember that the important things are sometimes different then they seem while they're young.   If the game can help a kid grow into a young adult with a positive attitude/frame of mind, then the game has accompished it's goal.. and you've accomplished your goal as a parent.

Coach Bob

Teaching Baseball Instinct and Running

By Jim Bain

In order to teach baseball running instincts and skills, one must learn the skills and mental strategies which create these instinctive reactions, themselves.

Every baseball team, especially a youth baseball team, has a certain amount of raw natural skill levels built into the players. Some teams I coached had an abundance of power hitters, others strong defensive players, some over powering pitching, but one thing in common all the teams had was Baseball Instinct when running the bases.

I'm sure it happened, but for the life of me I do not remember one single player of mine being thrown out attempting to advance an additional base, not including a straight out steal attempt, due to the base running skills they were taught.

There are far too many variables to discuss in one article, but let's exam a few of the basic elements of developing good instincts on the base paths.

1. Reaction must be immediate, as any hesitation, no matter how slight, will jeopardize your chance of success.

(A) Players on first base were taught to immediately take off for second base the instant they saw the pitched baseball hit the ground. It didn't matter if it was a 55' curveball, hitting 5' in front of the plate, or a ball that hits home plate.

Ninety nine percent (99%) of the time if a catcher does not cleanly receive a pitch he will not be able to locate, properly grip and get into a good throwing position to throw a runner out at second base, especially if the runner has average or above average speed.

2. Runners on second base are taught to crow hop the second they see the ball hit the ground, which is different from immediately running to third base, but still puts their body into motion. There's nothing worse in running than being caught flat footed.

(A) Should the ball skirt to the catcher's right, towards first base, regardless of the distance, the runner is to immediately take off for third base. The catcher's momentum is carrying him away from third base, which means he must stop and reverse momentum once he grips the ball, plus every step he takes chasing the ball is increasing his distance he must throw.

(B) Balls which skirt to the left or out in front of the plate, unless more than 3 or 4 feet, most likely are too close to advance on, although that is subject to the runner's speed, lead off and reaction time. This is where the runner must be aware of his own skills, as the coach doesn't have time to help.
3. Immediately attempt to score from 3rd base the instant you see the catcher's back. Assuming the backstop is not 4 feet away or has a wooden board across it which creates a ricochet back to the catcher, should the catcher be required to turn his back to the plate in order to retrieve the baseball, chances are excellent for success.

I know certain baseball people would possibly argue everything I have explained by questioning what if this happens or this, but what if the world ended today?

I guarantee you implementing these base running instinct skills will result in your runners being safe, while advancing on a wild pitch or muffed ball, 99% of the time. That's an average I can live with.

Jim Bain, former Minor league baseball player and member of "Baseball Coaches of America" shares his advice on baseball coaching baseball drills on his exciting info packed website: http://www.learn-youth-baseball-coaching.com
 

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