It’s an accepted ideology that being an effective baseball player comes down to making adjustments. Whether they be physical, mental, or emotional ones. A player will do well to understand this fact, learn what they can from it, and apply what they have learned as soon a possible, before it’s too late. The need to make an adjustment comes down to facing a problem or obstacle. For example, the problem may be that you are having trouble hitting the off-speed pitch. You may be experiencing hitting higher velocities as a challenging obstacle.
You can either find a way to push through this problem, or find a way around it. Either way doing so will cause you to make an adjustment. The important part to realize is that as a person we have to experience some sort of transformation before we can make an adjustment or find a solution to this problem.
“Problems can’t be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” -Albert Einstein.
Focus and Expectations
Focus
What you focus on expands. If you find yourself in pain from a cut and I hit your toe with a hammer, you will probably forget all about the pain from the cut and have more focus on the toe right?
When trying to make an adjustment it’s the same. The problem is a player’s focus is on something that will not help them in making an adjustment. For instance, if a hitter has just struck out and his focus is on his batting average, or on what the scouts may be writing in their reports, his focus is entirely in the wrong place, and he probably won’t be making any productive adjustments at this point.
On the other hand, after striking out, his focus is on what he did wrong, what he could of done differently, majority of the time, his instincts will take over and his intuition will tell him what he needs to do to be successful in his next at-bat.
That’s true focus.
Expectations
With great expectations comes great disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, having great expectations for yourself is fantastic, but the game of baseball owes you absolutely nothing, and if you think just because you spent an extra couple of hours in the batting cage last week, you should be hitting .380, or since there are scouts in the stands that have come here just to see “little ol you” play- that you should be lighting up that radar gun, or making web gems.
Sorry, if you have played this game for more than one season, you know that nothing is for certain, and baseball will do whatever it can to knock you down, to see how you will react.
Do yourself a favor and throw away all your expectations, and just except the fact that nothing is written in stone. The moment you do this, the more empowered you will be. Trust me. Having this as part of your daily approach to baseball will allow you to play each game as your last. You will have the focus and discipline to play each game, pitch by pitch, inning by inning. This is how the big boys do it. The best players play each game like it’s opening day. Not worried about numbers, or their performance.
They’re in the moment.
So to will you be………