Prep Baseball Report Minnesota is excited to team up with- The Mindstrong Project. Our goal in this endeavor is to continue to provide the most up-to-date pertinent information and resources to the baseball community in the state of Minnesota.

Periodically, The Mindstrong Project will be providing content for the Prep Baseball Report Minnesota website; as they continue to work to build human performance through education while building an awareness of how the mind and body work together to sustain a consistent confident approach to game performance.

In this month's installment; The MindStrong Project poses the question......

Do You Own Your Routine? Or Does It Own You?

Hope all is well, and the baseball season is going well. 

Some of you are still playing in your high school seasons, as others may be transitioning to summer baseball. Either way, it is a great time of year to be playing baseball! 

For today’s article, we are going to put a focus on routines. Routines are a common philosophy we touch on as performers and don’t be mistaken, this is very important for your baseball career. It is also very important for your life. As humans, we are creatures of habit and we want to have built-in routines that can be trusted. Commonly we think of routine as something that prepares us for what is about to happen. Example being: morning routine before school, evening routine before bed, warming up before a practice or game. We are constantly seeking ways to be efficient with our routines so we can attack life with a consistent approach to accomplishing our daily tasks.

Again, all of this is important. Although, the concept of this post is to align ourselves with principles instead of tools. We must realize that everything we use in our performance ultimately becomes a tool. If you use weighted balls for your arm strength then you are using a tool. The weighted balls are tools for your evolution as a player. The weighted balls serve as a tool that allows you the opportunity to understand what you need to succeed. As most of you know, we often speak about breath work and how it can enhance your baseball career. Breath essentially is also just a tool. Your mental game plan is also only a tool. These tools are meant to be a part of our systems that help us sustain growth. With tools we have the ability to feel prepared and with those tools we can build routines that set us up for success. But, if you need to use weighted balls every time to be prepared then you have now become owned by the tool. If you have to meditate for 30 minutes before every game, then you have become owned by the tool. We have too much stimulus that we cannot control in our life therefore we cannot allow ourselves to be owned by the tools to convince ourselves we are prepared.

If the tools you use become the answer then you lose the ability to adapt. You lose the ability to evolve and most importantly you lose the ability to learn. Curiosity becomes one of our greatest allies as a performer, but if we don’t establish principles then we never build a foundation we truly trust. So now the question becomes: What are your principles? What tools can you modify if needed? How well can you compete in the moment? What are your core values? What type of player are you? 

These are all great reflection questions to ask.

In conclusion, this post is to bring an awareness to avoid what we call the “band-aid” fix. Too often, we become owned by our routines and when we change scenery, move schools, transition to different teams we meet new obstacles. Too often, we become obsessed with our routines that we don’t allow ourselves to evolve and adapt to our new surroundings. We don’t allow ourselves to learn and we stay close-minded in what has worked in the past. 

As everyone begins a transition period into the summer, we challenge you to keep adapting and keep learning.  Figure out what has worked and what can be improved. Free yourself from the anchors of believing you have to hit every checklist on your routines to be prepared to compete. Allow yourself to flow with the ups and downs of the environment around you. Build an understanding of the tools you’ve developed and use them as needed. Continuously improve upon those tools, but don’t forget that it is principles that sustain you…..NOT TOOLS!

 

Best of luck to you all,

Harvey Martin

 

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