baseball training articles
Beating The Baseball Slugging Slump
A slump is one of the worst things any baseball hitter will experience. Between the lack of hits, and the self-doubt about your ability to perform, it is one of the most mentally taxing experiences players are faced with in the game today. We all have been there when it starts with a swing and miss on pitch you expected to hit 400 feet. This is typically followed by, ?Why did I miss that, what am I doing wrong?? Next thing you know, you 1 for your last 25 and you are still searching for the answer. The good news is, that ends today!
If you have decided to join me today, then you will never have to answer that question again. By the end of this article you are going to have a sure-fire plan to end your baseball batting slump for life! Believe or not, most batting slumps are not a result of anything mechanical. Mechanical adjustments are relatively easy to make. A few baseball batting training sessions, and wha la, you have a better swing. Saying that, a player?s confidence level and psychological state can send even the best players into hitting droughts.
For starters, I want to let you know that it doesn?t matter what level of play your player may be at. Several prominent professional like Alex Rodriguez who has had abysmal performances in the playoffs up until late, or Tejada who threw his bats over the dugout a few years back suffer from these same issues . On the personal side of things, a minor leaguer who is loosing confidence after 9 very successful seasons in the pros recently contacted me. With that in mind, it?s safe to assume, that those who aren?t at the professional level, little leaguers, high school players, and college players are struggling with the same batting battle.
The long and short of a baseball batting slump comes down to two mental states and the wrong type of focus. Let?s start with focus and work backwards. Everywhere you look players are judged based on their statistics. As a result, players are taught from a young age, that good day at the plate involves a hit, regardless of how they got that hit. On the contrary, a bad day at the plate is going 0 for, even if every time up they hit a hard line drive. We want to see high numbers in the stats column, and as a result, a player?s confidence is derived from seeing the results instead focusing what it is they need to do to get there! This is precisely why so many players love to get a hit in their first at bat, because they no matter how they perform the rest of the game they at least got one hit!
If a player doesn?t get a hit in his first at-bat, the pressure begins to mount. Each successive at-bat piles on top of each other and before player?s have a chance to take a breath, each at-bat becomes the make or break moment of their career. Whether they begin swinging at every pitch they see, or take pitches right down the middle because they are afraid to get out, they enter a emotional state and loose their ability to make good decisions.
Which leads me to our first baseball batting slump breaker; create positive proactive action steps for every thought that enters your mind. The mind can only be in one of two states at any given time, emotional or logical. In short, the emotional state leads to result based focused and is more reactive than proactive. The logical state is the more intelligent state where you will be able to see all angles to the issues, and choose the path that will lead to the best results. If you want to get a hit, how will do it? If you don?t want to get out, what can you do to take a better swing?
Unfortunately for most players, they spend the majority of the time trying to force results that they can?t control! Sorry to say, pure determination doesn?t cut it and simply believing you are going to get a hit is an old wives tale! What will help, is telling yourself in a positive proactive manner how you are going to get that hit! Besides the obvious benefit of continuously solving your batting mistakes, it keeps your emotions down because you are always focused on a positive solution instead of a negative reaction. What action steps could you take on the very next swing to help you achieve the goals that you are looking for?
Continuously create sayings of what you need to do better, or what you need to repeat on your very next swing! Just like muscles, the mind must be trained to be positive. Whenever you catch yourself focusing on the end result, take the time to refocus and define exactly how you are going to accomplish that result. This also holds true for season goals. Season goals cannot, and will not be accomplished with focusing on your ?now? goals which brings me to Mental Baseball Training Technique #2: make your season goals your now goals.
I understand that hitting .300 with 10 home runs and 40 RBI?s would a great statistical accomplishment, but do you really think it is a good idea that the only way to measure if you have reached your goal is to play an entire season? The only way to reach any season goals you have for yourself is by accomplishing your goals on each and every swing you take. I would suggest three ?now? goals for each and every swing. What are three, proactive action step goals that you would like to accomplish now? How about now? Learn from the past to be better in the present. If you do this consistently, you will begin to program yourself to become a positive, self-confident hitter because each swing will determine it?s own outcome and 0 for 1 doesn?t mean 0 for the day!
If this seems incredibly simple then you would be correct! However, simple does not mean easy. Humans are mentally programmed to be negative, which means you are fighting an uphill battle! The good news is your mind is just like a muscle and can be trained the same way. The more positive phrasing you tell yourself, the more positive you will naturally become. The real key is seeing each previous at-bat as a learning experience and not a success or failure. If you are able to remain in the now, and continuously-proactively set your ?goals? for you very next swing you will remain a dominant consistent hitter that will be able to perform under any situation!
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