Geoff Miller

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The Complete Mental Skills Manual

In Tips for Improving Performance on May 18, 2010 at 3:11 pm

I’ve posted segments of my mental skills manual on the blog over the last few months and I thought it would be helpful to have the links all on one post, from beginning to end. Below the links to each chapter are my final summary thoughts on developing mental skills.

Part I: Introduction

Part II: Self Knowledge

Part III: Comfort Zones, Confidence, and Keeping it Simple

Part IV: Introduction to Goal Setting

Part V: Goal-Setting, continued

Part VI: Dealing With Failure

Part VII: The Role of Luck

Part VIII: Developing a Routine

Part IX: Breathing Techniques

The Mental Skills Manual is based on two central themes: knowledge and performing under pressure. The concepts outlined in these sections are meant to provide you with a structure for developing a strong mental game and, ultimately, for achieving excellence and realizing all of your potential.  I offer a short-term approach to dealing with pressure that should be used until you have an understanding of your individual sources of pressure.  Use breathing, visualization, and routines to help minimize stress and pressure both on the field and off the field.  And as you continue your development, begin the long-term process of knowing who you are, knowing what you want, and knowing what to do when you don’t get it.

Knowledge and performing under pressure…know what to do and do it when it counts.  When you think about it, these two go hand in hand.  Think about how focused, confident, and committed you feel when you know what you’re doing.  Think about how easy and comfortable your actions are when you have all the answers.  And think about the opposite, how unsettling and tense you can be when you don’t know what to do.  Or how unfamiliar you feel in a new city versus zipping through shortcuts on autopilot in your hometown.  What will your performance be like when everything you do on a baseball field is as comfortable, familiar, and automatic as going home?  Maybe that is why we DO go home instead of going to “fourth base”.   Wishing you success and happiness as you round your own individual bases and touch home.

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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Mental Skills Manual Part VIII: Developing a Routine

In Tips for Improving Performance on March 4, 2010 at 9:18 pm

Routine

A routine is a developed set of behaviors that is followed and practiced on a regular basis so it can be relied on as automatic once it becomes permanent.  This definition fits perfectly with our goal to know what to do without thinking about it and to be able to do it when it counts.  You practice a routine so you can count on it to feel comfortable in the toughest of times, when you need to get the most out of your ability.  You should have three different kinds of routines to help yourself perform under pressure:  In-Game Routines, Pre-Game Routines, and Off-Field Routines.

In-Game Routines

Every player should have a routine that he can use between pitches or innings to help him through pressure situations.  An in-game routine should include taking a centering breath to reset and relax, doing a quick visualization to emphasize the process and take focus away from results, and should be paired with a key word or phrase that helps the player reinforce the play he wants to make.  This routine should take three seconds or less and should be able to be performed while standing behind the rubber, with one foot in the batter’s box, or a step behind your normal playing depth in the field.  The routine should be practiced as often as possible until it becomes second nature and then should be used whenever it is needed, if not on every pitch.  The sequence of breath and visualization may be different for different players.  Try different combinations until you get a comfortable feel.

In-Game Routine examples

Pitcher:

  1. Get ball back from catcher, take deep breath while looking at the ground to wipe slate clean.
  2. While exhaling, think about key word (eg. Easy, slow, loose, on top, etc) that is most important to getting the process right.
  3. Your key word should create an image that you can see and feel of executing a perfect pitch.

Hitter:

  1. Get sign from third base coach.
  2. Use key words to prepare for the pitch (eg. Quick hands, read and react, etc.)
  3. While settling in to the box, picture the pitch that you can drive in your zone, take a deep breath, and relax grip on the bat.
  4. Focus on pitcher’s release point by the end of the breath.

Infielder:

  1. Between pitches, step back a step or two from where you normally position yourself.
  2. Take a deep breath and look at the ground to reset.
  3. Picture the play happening the way you might anticipate from the pitch sequence and history of the hitter and pitcher match up.
  4. Use key word to prepare for the play to happen.
  5. Look in for sign and make adjustment as you get to ready position.

Superstition vs. Routine

Superstition is a part of the game of baseball.  Everyone knows that you don’t step on the foul line or that you don’t talk about a no-hitter while it’s in progress or that you keep wearing the same shirt if it gets you out of a slump.  There can even be some genuine merit to having a superstition or two.  For example, if wearing your lucky shirt helps you stay in your comfort zone, then it’s a good thing.  But a routine and a superstition are not the same.

A routine is process-oriented, can be practiced (and therefore, strengthened), and has enough flexibility to it that you don’t have to depend it to be successful.  Superstitions have more to do with randomness (like our discussion on luck) and the danger in having a superstition is that you end up building it into a self-fulfilling prophecy…it comes true because you believe it will come true.  If you believe that you can’t hit without your special batting gloves and you don’t have your special batting gloves, then you are going to talk yourself into not hitting in order to prove that you need those special batting gloves.

There is nothing wrong with having a few superstitions, but make sure you know the difference between developing a routine and depending on something other than your ability and effort to determine your success.

Pre-Game Routines

Another name for pre-game routines might be PREPARATION routines.  Any routine that a player uses from the time he arrives at the ballpark to the time the game starts should be considered a pre-game routine.  And relief pitchers and bench players who enter the game after it has begun should have their own “pre-game” routines to help them prepare to join the action.

Pre-game routines help players get the most out of their early work, their BP, their sidelines, and their strength workouts. Every player should develop a routine that includes thinking about what he expects himself to do in today’s game, what he needs to do to be ready to play, and what he wants to accomplish in his work leading up to the game.  Remember that our mental game equation is: Know what to do and do it when it counts.  By structuring pre-game routines, you give yourself a better chance to know what to do when it counts.  Your pre-game routine is like studying and the game is the test.

The exact elements of a routine are not as important as having one that works for you.  Coaches will provide direction for structured routines within a sideline session or a round of BP, but every player should take 5-10 minutes before leaving the clubhouse or find a quiet place where he can take some centering breaths and think about what he wants to accomplish.

Off-Field Routines

Every one of us has a life that goes on outside the game.  We all have family, friends, relationships, and finances to deal with and sometimes our personal lives can interfere with our professional lives.  More appropriately, it can feel like our jobs are distractions that keep us from dealing with what’s really important when a crisis comes up.  Developing an off-field routine can help create some separation between baseball and everything else.  Here are three strategies that can be used to stay on top of personal issues and remain focused on baseball while at the ballpark:

1. Set Boundaries

The best scenario for setting boundaries is to completely take care of your personal matters away from the field.  Tell family and friends that you can’t take calls after 3pm on game days or tell them not to call you at all on days that you pitch if you find that you’re not able to fully concentrate on your start.  Turn off your phone when you get to the park and don’t turn it on again until the game is over.  If you have a real crisis on your hands, check your phone once after BP and then set a pre-game routine to help you transition back into game mode.

2. Make Transition Time

Just as you’ve set boundaries for focusing on your profession, you should fully involve yourself in your family and pressing needs when you’re at home.  This makes is easier to tune out the outside world when you’re playing.  But you need a routine to help you transition so you’re ready to work when you get to the park instead of thinking about other things.  The simple act of spending 10 minutes doing nothing before you leave to go to the field or sitting with your eyes closed and taking slow, deep breaths can help you start your “work day” without bringing baggage to the field.

3. Create an iPod Playlist

This should go along with your transition time or could be the first pre-game routine you have when you get to the clubhouse.  Or it could be both.  Create a playlist that gets you focused on playing ball or one that just helps you relax before you leave for the field.  You might listen to a favorite song or two to signal that your personal time is ending and then start thinking about the game as you drive or walk to the stadium.  Or you might get to the clubhouse and listen to a song or two at your locker before getting dressed.

Click Here for Part I of the Manual, which offers an Introduction.

Click Here for Part II of the Manual, which begins the unit on self-knowledge.

Click Here for Part III of the Manual, which discusses Comfort Zones, Confidence, and Keeping it Simple.

Click Here for Part IV, introduction to goal setting.

Click Here for Part V, goal setting continued.

Click Here for Part VI, Dealing with Failure.

Click Here for Part VII, The Role of Luck.

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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Breathing Techniques

In Tips for Improving Performance on February 11, 2010 at 7:44 pm

“Take a deep breath” is a common saying in sports whenever someone is facing a pressure moment.  Whether it’s before a game-winning field goal, a critical free throw, or a par-saving putt, we’ve all seen great athletes inhaling and exhaling deliberately before they clinch a victory.  But why does this simple technique always seem to work?

Benefits of Taking a Deep Breath

Physical

Mental

Gets oxygen to the muscles

Lets you RESET situations

Relieves muscle tension

Gets your focus back to center

Slows heart rate

Slows the game down

Allows adrenaline to pass

Turns the page to what’s important

Lowers Center of Gravity

Quiets the voice of doubt

Taking a deep breath has physical and mental benefits.  When you feel pressure, your adrenaline helps you kick in the “fight or flight” response, a reflex that helps us survive danger by either defending ourselves or getting as far away as possible from the source of trouble.  We feel this response in our normal modern lives as “stress”, and on the baseball field, it kicks in when we are facing an 0-2 count or a bases loaded jam.

When you take a deep breath, you allow the rush of adrenaline and all the other physical and mental stress reactions to subside.  Most of us don’t realize when we are feeling pressure until it’s too late.  So the more you can include slow, deep breaths in your routines between pitches and even before you come to the ballpark, the better off you’ll be when you are asked to execute in the toughest spots.

Two key words to remember as part of the importance of breathing:

CENTER and RESET

Breathing as a technique for performing under pressure is also called CENTERING.  Centering refers to physically lowering your center of gravity (important for good balance at the plate, on the mound, or in the field) and mentally returning your concentration to that comfortable place where you can focus on what’s important instead of on negative thoughts.

That returning of concentration to center can also be thought of as hitting the RESET button in your head.  When you’re playing a video game and you have a bad start, the first thing you want to do is hit the RESET button.  When a computer gets stuck and can’t process any more information, it must be reset before it can be of use again.  The same goes for baseball players.  There are moments in every game that can take us away from trusting what we know.  Taking a deep breath and telling yourself to RESET allows you to start fresh with a new count, a new at bat, a new inning and helps keep one mistake from leading to others.

Taking a deep breath to reset yourself is

the way to play the game ONE PITCH AT A TIME.

Using Breathing on and off the field

On the Field

Off the Field

Before facing a hitter

To lower general stress level

While coming set

As part of daily routines

In the On-Deck Circle

To help fall asleep

Before stepping back into the box

Keep calm dealing w. family/friends
If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information on Winning Mind programs for individuals and teams, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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Mental Skills Manual Part VII: The Role of Luck

In Tips for Improving Performance on January 21, 2010 at 12:05 pm

The mental skills manual series continues with a discussion of luck.  This is another concept that falls under the “dealing with failure” portion of the manual, so it’s another way to help you know what to do when you don’t get what you want.  Remember that we base good luck and bad luck on how things have turned out so determining your luck is a results-oriented approach.

Luck

Luck = Hard Work + Opportunity + Randomness

Luck and failure have more to do with each other than you might think.  If you are going to be good at dealing with failure, you’ve got to understand the role that luck plays in performance and have the right perspective on how to get more of it.

How many times have you overheard a player in a slump say something about not having any luck or not being able to buy a break?  Every hard hit ball is right at someone.  Every call is going against him.  Every time he gets the double play ball he needs, an infielder mishandles the throw.  But you don’t hear a lot of players talk about how lucky they’ve been when they are playing well, unless it’s in the name of trying to be humble.

If you view luck using the formula listed at the top of this section, then you can eliminate the negative thinking and helplessness that keeps people down when things are going bad.

Components of Luck

Hard Work: The harder you work, the more prepared you are to put yourself in a position to have something lucky happen to you.  This gives you more opportunities to be lucky and it removes the feeling that you have to wait around for your luck to change.

Opportunity: What we are talking about here are the odds.  There is an element of luck possible in every play, but a much greater chance that you will succeed on your own merit if you just give yourself the opportunity to execute your skills.

Randomness:  There is an entire section of social psychology devoted to the study of people finding patterns in random occurrences.  Your perception of how you are affected by luck can help you sort through your failures. There will always be lucky plays in all sports, and baseball is no exception. Balls land on the line instead of just foul, they bounce just over the low part of the fence when there is a runner on first who would have scored easily had the ball stayed on the field.  You can decide that those are simply random occurrences that have nothing to do with your involvement in the plays and you can change your luck instantly.

Making a commitment to believe that your hard work creates opportunities and knowing that random acts can keep you from getting the results you wanted even if you do everything right is the key to using luck to your advantage instead of letting it keep you from succeeding.  And this is why it’s so important to stay focused on process goals to achieve your outcome goals.

Good Play vs. Good Luck

Good play: Process was correct and outcome was successful.
Good luck: Process was incorrect and outcome was successful.
Bad luck: Process was correct and outcome was unsuccessful.
Bad play: Process was incorrect and outcome was unsuccessful.

How successful do you think you’d be with good luck and bad processes?  Stick to the process and aim for good play instead of good luck.

Click Here for Part I of the Manual, which offers an Introduction.

Click Here for Part II of the Manual, which begins the unit on self-knowledge.

Click Here for Part III of the Manual, which discusses Comfort Zones, Confidence, and Keeping it Simple.

Click Here for Part IV, introduction to goal setting.

Click Here for Part V, goal setting continued.

Click Here for Part VI, Dealing with Failure.

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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Mental Skills Manual Part VI: Dealing With Failure

In Tips for Improving Performance on December 10, 2009 at 9:22 pm

Dealing with Failure

Know what to do when you don’t get what you want

The first question players must ask themselves in this section is whether they are optimists or pessimists.  Dealing with failure is very different depending on whether your glass is half empty or half full.  And the way we perceive the presence of “luck” has something to do with dealing with failure, as well.  This section will mostly be about the concept of framing and strategies that you can use to develop a positive attitude, even in the worst of times.

Key ideas:

  1. Optimism vs. Pessimism
  2. Silver Lining and  “movie editing”
  3. Luck = Hard Work + Opportunity + Randomness

Optimism vs. Pessimism

The simplest way to find out how a person will deal with failure is to find out if he is an optimist or a pessimist.

The Optimist sees the glass as half full.  Optimists naturally have positive attitudes and they will notice the good things that happen in their lives.  They may notice when bad things happen, but they don’t dwell on them.

The Pessimist sees the glass as half empty.  Pessimists naturally notice the bad things that happen in their lives.  They may notice when good things happen, but they don’t generally attribute those good things to themselves, often referring to luck and wondering when it will run out when things are good.

It is easy to tell the difference between an optimist and a pessimist.  Ask a few simple questions about how someone’s day is going, how they are playing, how the season is faring and you can know all you need to know.

Building Optimism

Dealing with failure is important in baseball because there is so much of it.  There are tons of clichés about failing 70% of the time and going to the Hall of Fame and so on.  And anyone who has been around professional baseball for any amount of time can get a sense for how drastic the difference can be from the amateur game.  One of the biggest adjustments that professional players make is learning to deal with failing much more than they did in high school or college.  And the difference between the big leagues and the minor leagues can make you feel like you are completely starting over in what you know about the game.  Our first strategy for dealing with failure is to build as much optimism as possible.

  1. Get a notebook and start writing down three things you did well every single day, no matter how bad that day turned out.
  2. This might be extremely difficult at first, but keep doing it every day and it will get easier.
  3. As you continue writing things, you start looking for them all day long instead of just being able to remember them at the end of the day.
  4. Every few weeks, review your notebook to see how much progress you’ve made at noticing the good things and just how many of them happen to you on any given day.

Framing

In my classroom session on framing, I use two movie trailers from The Shining to demonstrate this point:

we decide how we remember our experiences in baseball and in life.

The first clip provides an accurate depiction of the movie, complete with haunting music, dark footage, bloody violence, and general horror.  The second clip is the complete opposite.  It’s a parody of the movie, challenging viewers to think about what it would be like if it had been made as a happy story about a foster father who takes his family up to the mountains to rediscover themselves.  The trailer is sunny, has upbeat music playing, smiles from all the characters, and Jack Nicholson pouring his heart out for his son.

EVERY bit of footage in the happy clip is an authentic clip from The Shining.  Someone pieced together enough bright, feel-good moments to turn the story into something else.

And that’s the challenge that we face in our daily lives…to find the good parts of every story we encounter.

Framing is nothing more than demonstrating a positive attitude.  The optimist has no trouble framing because he is already looking to find the best spin to his stories.  For the pessimist, framing is an exercise that needs to be undertaken so when we fail, we don’t keep playing the horror movie in our heads.  And making that feel-good movie isn’t as easy as just grabbing the good memories and tying a ribbon around them.

For the pessimist who naturally sees the glass half empty, he will need practice at slowly starting to see that there is plenty of water left in the glass and nothing he can do about the water that is gone.

The first instinct for the pessimist is going to be to notice everything that has gone wrong when he is unsuccessful.  So he is going to have to REFRAME in order to make progress until he gets better at building his optimism.

We Frame in the Style we Know

When I first presented this lesson, players were asked which of the two clips they liked better.  One player said he liked the original version, the horror plot, best.  When asked why, he said,

“Because that’s the version I know.”

This simple statement sums up the tough obstacle that we all have to overcome at some point in our lives…our experiences shape how we look at the world and how we deal with the future.  Your comfort zone isn’t always built around things that are good for you.  And venturing outside your comfort zone can prove to be difficult, even when you know that you would be better off if you did.

Movie Editing

“Movie editing” is another strategy that can be used for dealing with failure.  When a movie is being filmed and an actor fumbles a line or makes some other kind of mistake, the scene keeps rolling and the actors just start over where they messed up.  When they get the scene right, they move on to the next one.  And sometimes there are lots and lots of retakes of the same scene. But when you watch the finished product, you only see all the good scenes and the bad ones have been edited out.

Your brain has the ability to edit movies, too.  Here’s how:

  1. After you’ve had a bad day, allow yourself some time to think about the mistakes you’ve made. This first step shows what a tremendous learning opportunity players miss when they “just forget about today and move on to tomorrow” as they so often say they do when quoted in the papers.
  2. Decide what you would have done differently if the cameras had kept rolling and you could have had a do-over.
  3. Make a specific image of those plays done right in your head and really see them play out. If you hung a slider, then replay the pitch and see yourself executing it properly.  See it going to the right spot and getting the outcome you had hoped it would produce.
  4. Edit out the bad play in the sequence and then watch your edited movie from start to finish.
  5. When you’re done, you’ve just seen yourself execute successfully, and you’ve had a chance to fix the plays that didn’t go your way that day.  Now you’re ready to move on and think about the next day’s game.

In my next installment of the manual, I’ll discuss the role that luck plays in dealing with failure.

Click Here for Part I of the Manual, which offers an Introduction.

Click Here for Part II of the Manual, which begins the unit on self-knowledge.

Click Here for Part III of the Manual, which discusses Comfort Zones, Confidence, and Keeping it Simple.

Click Here for Part IV, introduction to goal setting.

Click Here for Part V, goal setting continued.

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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More Goal Setting: Mental Skills Manual, Part V

In Tips for Improving Performance on December 2, 2009 at 8:07 pm

Letting Go

A big obstacle that gets in the way of people getting what they want is the tremendous need to be in control of our destinies.  It is difficult for an intelligent, ambitious person (the kind of person who sets lofty goals and expects them to be attained) to be okay not knowing how every step along the way toward that goal will be taken.  This is an unrealistic burden and it is compounded by another obstacle:

we have a hard time saying “I Don’t Know”!

It’s not good enough to tell yourself that you’re going to get to the big leagues…you want to map out every promotion, know how you’re going to adjust your swing, develop your change up, learn to anticipate hitters’ tendencies, etc. and you want to know when these things will happen consistently.  Traditional goal-setting encourages the micro-managing of the how and when of accomplishing a task.  My approach for setting goals follows a formula that does not ask you to know how or when you will get what you want.  And this should relieve a tremendous burden that keeps many people from realizing their full potential.

Set the Bar as High as You Can

Follow this formula to achieve your goal:

  1. Make a Declaration (Formally State What You Want.)
  2. Acknowledge that you don’t know HOW and WHEN you are going to get what you want.
  3. Decide on the FIRST simple thing you need to do to get you closer to achieving this goal.
  4. Start working hard on this ONE THING until you feel like you’ve mastered it.
  5. Decide on the NEXT simple thing you need to do.
  6. As you continue this process, the next step will make itself clear.

This formula has elements used in The Secret and in a concept created by Jim Collins (author of Good to Great), called a BHAG.

BHAG:          Big Hairy Audacious Goal

Sample BHAG:  John F. Kennedy declares to the people of the United States that we will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

You might not have any idea how you are going to achieve your goal at step one.  You may not even know what step three will be when you’re at step one, but by the time you finish step two, your next step will emerge.  Allowing yourself the freedom to work on mastering the simple goal that you find yourself on in the present is the letting go you need to find the answers along the way.

Sample Goal Script

Goal:  Make it to the big leagues

  1. I have no idea HOW or WHEN I will make it to the big leagues. But I KNOW that I will.
  2. I know that the first thing I need to do is to develop better fastball command.
  3. I am going to work on throwing my fastball to both sides of the plate in my bullpens.

Click Here for Part I of the Manual, which offers an Introduction.

Click Here for Part II of the Manual, which begins the unit on self-knowledge.

Click Here for Part III of the Manual, which discusses Comfort Zones, Confidence, and Keeping it Simple.

Click Here for Part IV, introduction to goal setting.

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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Setting Goals: Mental Skills Manual Part IV

In Tips for Improving Performance on November 30, 2009 at 7:32 pm

Goals

Know what you want

The Mental Skills Manual is meant to teach players how to answer the following:

1. Know who you are

2. Know what you want

3. Know what to do when you don’t get what you want

4. Know what to do in the meantime before you’ve mastered these concepts.

Step two involves helping you understand what you want and why you want it.  Of course everyone wants to get to the big leagues and of course everyone wants to win 20 games or hit .300, but there is something deeper and more meaningful behind those aspirations.  This section is not about traditional goal-setting, although it will describe differences between process and outcome-oriented goals and will explain how to set simple, measurable goals that can be 100% controlled.  The section is about gaining clarity on what you want and letting go of a limiting factor in achieving success… the need to know HOW instead of just knowing WHAT.

Key ideas:

  1. What do you want?
  2. Letting go.
  3. What is the first thing you need to do in order to ultimately achieve this?

Today, my post is only focused on the “what do you want” part of this equation.  I’ll follow up soon with letting go and taking first steps toward achieving your goals.

What do you want?

When you set a goal, you are recognizing that you want something and making a decision that you’re going to get it.

With so many statistics driving the culture of baseball, it is easy for players to set a number in a statistical category as a goal.  Players at all levels set goals to hit .300, collect 200 hits, hit 30 home runs, win 15 games, strike out 200 hitters, and on and on.  And when young players become professionals, their measurement scales are usually way off.  For example, high school hitters who have hit over .500 their entire careers expect that hitting .300 will be a breeze.

Traditional approaches warn against setting goals that are too lofty and guide the athlete to set measurable and attainable goals based on a process, not an outcome.

Process vs. Outcome Goals

Process goal: Is achieved by measuring HOW you execute your skills.  Process goals help players stay focused on the little things they need to do in order to get the results that they want.  They are 100% controllable.

Examples:

  • Take a deep breath before every throw playing catch.
  • Get a good first step on ground balls to my right.
  • Improve my two-strike approach.

Outcome goal: Is achieved when a desired result is recorded.  Outcome goals give players objects of motivation upon which they can focus their efforts.  They are typically not 100% controllable.

Examples:

  • Hit .300 with 20 HR and 85 RBI.
  • Be named to the All-Star team.
  • Sign a long-term contract.
  • Win the World Series.

There is a place for this approach, but it should be in support of what you really want, not what you think you can get.  How will you know how good you can really be or how far you could actually go if you don’t aspire to want the very best for yourself?

Every player should set the loftiest, dreamy goal he can imagine and let that become the “outcome” that he wants to achieve.  Then he should set specific “process” goals that he can focus on day in and day out that will get him closer to his outcome.

This strategy can work to help people maximize their potential ONLY if they apply both the process and outcome goals together.  Process goals without outcome goals will result in ordinary results.  Outcome goals without process goals are nothing but empty promises.

To be continued very soon…

Click Here for Part I of the Manual, which offers an Introduction.

Click Here for Part II of the Manual, which begins the unit on self-knowledge.

Click Here for Part III of the Manual, which discusses Comfort Zones, Confidence, and Keeping it Simple.

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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Athletes Who Need To Be Tougher on Themselves

In Tips for Improving Performance on November 19, 2009 at 8:34 pm

How do you get your players to critique themselves when they are getting results, but you know they have work to do if they are going to continue to get those results? A reader submitted this comment and I’ve made some suggestions in this post.  I’ve hit a few main points, but have left some openings for others to contribute their thoughts as well.  I’d like to hear from coaches out there who have dealt with players like Thomas suggests.  Thanks for reading and will look forward to more discussion.

While I appreciate your desire to keep things simple, I believe that there is much more to being mentally tough than you suggest….I have found that one of the biggest problems is knowing what to do when you have some success. Often times success reinforces bad habits. Lots of ballplayers have big unwieldy egos that have actually helped them. Other athletes use insecurity to help motivate them. How do you deal with the athletes who have had reasonable success, who think they have all they need, who have been reinforced for sub-optimal values and psychology but who are arguably not playing as well as they could be if they made some key adjustments?

– Thomas Lerener

Hi Thomas,

I agree that there is a lot that goes into being mentally tough and I believe that everyone’s fight for mental toughness takes its own unique path.  That’s why I’m interested in teaching people how to ask the right questions of themselves instead of following a step-by-step process that might not be right for everyone.  I believe that by asking yourself to find answers to “know who you are, know what you want, know what to do when you don’t get what you want, and know what to do in the meantime while you figure those things out” there is simplicity and also lots of room for individuality.  And I’ve often told players that having a strong mental game is “simple”, but it isn’t EASY.  Taking a deep breath is simple.  So is reviewing your performance every night.  For that matter, throwing a baseball and swinging a bat are simple processes.  But they aren’t easy to repeat unless you work at them.  The same is true for being mentally tough.  It takes practice and it takes a willingness to keep things simple even when our minds are complicating things for us.  How many clichés have you heard about getting “back to basics” or “doing the little things right” when a big game is coming up or someone needs to break out of a slump?

Your question about dealing with athletes who have had reasonable success could be a very interesting discussion topic for our readers and I’d like to encourage everyone to submit your comments on this one.  There are two points that I think are important in dealing with athletes as you’ve described:  to emphasize the review process and to teach honest and accurate self-evaluation.

Review Process

I don’t believe that baseball players review their performances often enough or do so in the right way. When someone has a good game, that’s usually what you’ll hear from them if you ask how they did:

Coach or Parent: How did you do today?

Player: Good.

You might hear the player talk about how many innings he threw, how many strikeouts he had, how many hits, runs, RBIs, etc.  What you don’t hear enough of is a review of how the player did from a process standpoint.  And if the player had a bad game, I commonly hear him say that he doesn’t want to think about it or that he’s just going to turn the page and move on.  By skipping the review process when we don’t get good results, we lose valuable opportunities to learn.  If you ask your players to conduct a full review of their performance on a weekly basis or after each game, you help them develop a sense for critiquing themselves.  In addition, by engaging in post-game review, you can help players eliminate a common thought process that goes on during the game…over-evaluation. When players are struggling on the field, I’ve found that they start asking themselves what is going wrong.  They tinker with their mechanics, they compare each pitch after they have thrown it instead of preparing to throw the next one. When I tell players to save their review processes for after the game, they often find themselves less distracted during the game.

Self-Evaluation

I have found that most people are either too tough on themselves or not tough enough on themselves.  It is rare to find someone who knows how to balance the two.  I would put an athlete as you’ve described, who has had some success and doesn’t think he needs anything else, in the category of not being tough enough on himself.  But I think that self-evaluation can be taught to help athletes on either side of this spectrum.  When you think a player isn’t aware of where he can be better, you need to tell him what you see and then expect him to start looking for opportunities to improve himself on his own.   Here are two simple questions you can have each of your players answer to engage in a review process and develop balanced self-evaluation:

  1. What did I do well this week?
  2. What do I need to improve?

Don’t let any of your players write “NOTHING” as an answer for either of these questions.  If you monitor their answers, you can see which players are taking this exercise seriously and which are either unable or unwilling to engage in honest self-evaluation.  You can also easily see which ones are too tough on themselves and which ones aren’t tough enough.

Ultimately, your players are going to have to want to be the best they can be and to want to do whatever it takes to be that good.  Whether they are scared to admit that they have weaknesses or simply inexperienced and unable to recognize that there are lots more levels they can reach if they fine tune their games and continue to work hard, self-evaluation must be taught for most people because they don’t do it well on their own.  You might expect your players to recognize what adjustments they should make and you might expect them to have their own desire to seek out those adjustments, but if they don’t, then tell them what you see and hold them accountable for telling you what they see in the future until you’re both on the same page.

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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Comfort Zones, Confidence, Keep it Simple: Mental Skills Manual Part III

In Tips for Improving Performance on November 17, 2009 at 10:01 pm

The Mental Skills Manual is meant to teach players how to answer the following:

  1. Know who you are
  2. Know what you want
  3. Know what to do when you don’t get what you want
  4. Know what to do in the meantime before you’ve mastered these concepts.

Part III is a continuation of developing self-knowledge.  In order to “know who you are”, you must be able to understand your comfort zones and keep it simple.

Click Here for Part I of the Manual, which offers an Introduction.

Click Here for Part II of the Manual, which begins the unit on self-knowledge.

Know Your Comfort Zone

Your comfort zone is simply defined as that place in your head where the game slows to the right pace, you feel relaxed, confident, and adaptable.  It’s the psychological feeling that you have when you are in control of your thoughts, emotions, and actions.  Some people have a wide comfort zone and others feel uncomfortable unless they have everything they need working for them.

These two figures show how comfort zones can give us information on how to manage intensity and develop confidence.

Figure 5: Intensity Comfort Zone

In this figure, you can see that performance is best with just the right amount of intensity.  If you are tired, bored, or don’t care about what you are doing, you won’t have enough energy to compete.  And if you have too much intensity, your strengths turn into weaknesses and you get inflexible.  This inflexibility comes from recognizing that you are outside your comfort zone.  If you can’t be comfortable because you’re too amped up, at least you can make yourself comfortable by behaving in your tried and true ways.  The control freak has to be the one driving when he is stressed out or late.  The introvert wants to be left alone when he feels pressure.  And the extrovert wants someone to talk to in that same pressure situation.

You’ll see these characteristics get magnified when intensity goes up.  And you’ll notice that those same people who were flexible under normal conditions “need” to have their environments right in order to deal with added intensity.  It’s important to know where that threshold is on the high side so you don’t turn your strengths into weaknesses and on the low side so you can stay alert and energized throughout the daily grind of the baseball season.

Figure 6:  Building Confidence by Expanding Your Comfort Zone

Imagine that you are riding a bike downhill along the slope of the line in Figure 6.  At the beginning of your ride, you’re feeling comfortable and confident, just breezing along.  By the middle of the graph, you start to pick up some speed and you’re recognizing that you’re not quite sure how you’re going to stop yourself at the bottom.  And then you reach the really steep part of the hill, go even faster, and start careening out of control.

This example demonstrates an important difference in comfort zones that can be used to build confidence.  Most people mistake the feeling of discomfort with the true recognition that they are in physical danger.  We all have felt that sinking feeling in the pit of our stomachs when we are outside our comfort zones and it can feel like we are actually in harm’s way.  But the truth is that most of the time, our bodies are reacting to a stressful situation that isn’t dangerous.  Recognizing the difference between discomfort and danger is the trick to learning from experience.  The biggest benefit of experience is that we’ve been there before, and we know the situation that we’re facing.  As you gain experience, you get more comfortable with what you’re doing and your confidence increases.

Keep it Simple

This final section on the topic of Knowledge is a reminder to keep it simple.  The discussion of knowledge immediately gets people thinking about becoming smarter, which it should.  But getting smarter doesn’t necessarily mean being more analytical, especially when translating this knowledge on to the field.  There is a danger in overloading yourself with too much information or engaging in too much thinking when you set a goal to increase learning.

Remember, our ultimate goal is to KNOW what to do WITHOUT thinking about it.  So keeping it simple reminds us that we are still playing the same game we all have known since we were young.  We are just adding more of what we know to that equation so more and more of the game becomes automatic.

One simple note on why it is important to keep it simple:

Player Drafted from: Learning Style Too Much Info Keep it Simple
A. Plus Ivy League NCAA Analytical Overcomplicates Back to Basics
F. Minus Rural High School Slow Overwhelms Comfort Zone

The chart above shows that keeping it simple is the best strategy for slow learners and analytical brains.

  • For the slow learner, more than simple bits of information will be overwhelming.  Keeping it simple keeps this player in his comfort zone.
  • For the bright mind, more information leads to complication.  In a pressure situation on the field, thinking should be minimized.  Reminding the analytical type to keep it simple helps him get back to basics.

To be continued…Part IV will begin discussion of the next section, which addresses how to “know what you want.”

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information on the mental skills manual please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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Staying Focused for 27 Outs

In Tips for Improving Performance on November 16, 2009 at 11:04 pm

I thought I’d take an opportunity tonight to answer a question from a professional coach on a topic I know is a popular one. I’d like to hear what you think about these suggestions and would appreciate hearing from others if they have ideas for helping players to maintain or regain focus over the course of a game.  And please keep the questions coming as I believe this is a great way to address topics on the blog.

Pro Coach: Geoff- We have had issues with keeping players focused for 9 innings.  I’m looking for a suggestion to try to keep them locked in.  We talk all the time about 27 outs and focusing on the task at hand but we just have found ways to make stupid plays at inopportune times.  Feedback, thoughts are appreciated.

GM: Thanks for your question, coach. Ultimately, staying focused is about desire and a willingness to pay attention to what’s important.  That’s why I believe it’s so important to find out so much about what motivates players as well as their learning styles and styles of focus.  For some players, if you give them too many details, they tune out.  For others, if you don’t give them enough, they tune out.

Without knowing more about the specifics of what your players are like, here are two simple generalities that might be helpful:

1.  ”Call the Game”

If you have players that find their minds “drifting” during games, they can reduce this by simply trying to stay focused on describing the details of the game like they would if they were radio broadcasters.  If you have an outfielder who isn’t making good decisions because he isn’t paying attention in the field and then when the ball is hit to him he doesn’t know what to do with it, he might stay locked in more often just by telling himself what’s happening.  It might sound something like this if he said it out loud:

Okay, there’s a man on first base, he’s their number two hitter in the lineup and looks like he can steal a base.  Their best hitter is at the plate, he’s someone who likes the ball down and when he gets it he hits it in the gaps.  The pitcher comes set and checks the runner and here’s the pitch…

By describing the action to themselves, they might stay in the game more and be more alert when the ball comes their way.  Calling the action keeps a player outside his head and keeps him from thinking distracting thoughts.

2.  Have a Routine That Gets You Back on Track

Before and during pre-pitch set up, make sure that whatever the player is thinking about between pitches has a chance to be “cleared”.  I believe that it’s close to impossible to keep your thoughts on exactly what you’re supposed to for three hours.  So rather than hoping that your players will do that, I’d rather have you have ways for them to get re-focused than to stay focused.

A deep breath is a simple thing and it’s a total cliché in sports, but if it’s used to tell the player “okay I was drifting and this breath is my reset button” then it can be a good way to get guys back on track.  You might go through a pre-pitch set up with a player and add in a deep breath to help them start over between pitches or between hitters.

The same could be true for separating between offense and defense or for preparing yourself before you go pick up a bat.  Most guys are more focused at the plate than they are on the bases or in the field because that part of the game means the most to them.  They take the most pride (and are most easily measured) on their hitting so they are focused there.  That gets back to my point about desire.  If you care about something, you are much more likely to be focused than if you don’t care.

Remember that these are just two simple suggestions for helping players maintain focus.  The best way to help players focus is to know them well and to be able to have honest conversations with them about what helps them stay focused, when they struggle with staying focused, and what works best for them to get them back on track.

If you would like to receive new posts from The Winning Mind in Baseball by email, please CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact Geoff Miller at miller@thewinningmind.com.

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