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 talks about Just A Game......

Hey everybody,

Can you feel it?  Spring is in the air.  I don’t know about all of you, but I’m excited that we’ve almost endured yet another Minnesota winter – a rather mild one, albeit.  We’re not completely out of the woods yet, though.  Either way, it hasn’t been hard to feel the energy changing the last couple of weeks as we head into March and the ground begins to thaw.  With that… BASEBALL SEASON.  I think I can speak for the majority of us when I say,

Let’s. Freaking. Go.

In the words of the infamous Billy Beane, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”

In this month’s article I hope to gently remind all of us that, alas, baseball is just a game.  There will be wins, and there will be losses.  There will be slugfests, and there will be pitchers duels.  There will be errors, and there will be sparkling defensive plays.  There will good swings, and there will be bad swings.  Some teams will perform to their potential, some will not.  Some teams will vastly outperform their expectations.  Players will rake, and players will slump.  Players will dice/shove/carve/paint, and players will get shelled.  Tempers will flare and benches will clear.  Ejections will happen and suspensions will be given.  All of these things WILL happen. 

Again, I’m here to gently remind everybody that baseball is just a game.  “But Hano, people spend their whole lives working at this, how dare you reduce it to just a game and discount our hard work.”  To that, I would say “Exactly.”  When somebody wins the World Series, does that mean they’ve solved life and “win” the game of life?  No.  Baseball is indeed just a game.  This game is but a platform for the rest of our lives; which is the beautiful irony of the late great Augie Garrido profanity-laden rant during his time with the Texas Longhorns.  “THIS ISN’T ABOUT SOME *gosh darn* GAME, THIS IS ABOUT OUR LIVES!  …DON’T YOU GET IT?”  If you’ve yet to see the roughly 3-minute clip, I’d suggest you to watch it (with no kids in the room, maybe).  In that moment Coach Garrido was not merely upset because the Longhorns lost the game, he was upset with human beings that had mentally and physically not given their best effort; that young men he was in charge of had displayed such poor discipline and focus; that apparently they had somehow missed the point of the beautiful game of baseball.  To summarize, my advice is that we make sure to use our platform in a way that elevates both ourselves and the rest of the world.  Otherwise, we’ve sorely missed a real great opportunity to make an impact; which at the core of being a human being, is what we all desire.

 

Life & Death Mentality into Non-Life & Death Game

Now that we’ve (hopefully) agreed upon the fact that baseball is just a game, let’s break that down from a mental standpoint.  Our brain is inherently wired for survival, so it takes a life-and-death approach by default.  This happens even more so when we are stressed, under pressure, nervous, scared, or struggling.  However, as we all have come to understand (hopefully), baseball is a non-life-and-death game.  Therefore, we have no reason to truly be scared, nervous, stressed etc.  If we take a non-life-and-death approach into baseball, we effectively sort of neutralize the part of our brain that spirals us into slumps, walking the house, or throwing a tantrum.  Furthermore, if we just remain curious, we can play free from fear.  If we play with the curiosity to see just how good we can be that day, everything becomes a learning experience; and if we love to learn, then we aren’t as afraid to fail; and if we aren’t afraid to fail, then that should give us a heck of a lot of confidence.  Now I can play the game aggressively and have all sorts of fun.

The above paragraph boils down to this:

“I’m going to see how good I can be today..” sounds a whole lot better than “I hope I play well today..”

That subtle spark of curiosity can be all the difference in playing for fun rather than playing with fear.  I know which guy I’m taking…

 

Trust Your Training

When the game starts, the time to think has come and passed.  This offseason was the time to prepare, train, and improve.  Hopefully you’ve done that.  Some will say that you fall to the level of your training.  I think there’s a ton of truth to that.  We ultimately are only as good as the work we’ve put in (along with our ability, of course).  So, what’s my point?  Here it is:  On game day…it’s simple; you have what you have.  Play within yourself.  For sure, believe in yourself and your ability to do things you’ve never done before.  However, take that with a grain of salt.  If you can’t throw 95 that day, then you can’t throw 95 that day.  If you can’t hit home runs, you can’t hit home runs.  That is, of course, until you do. 

The point is that we will only get the best out of ourselves when we play within ourselves and use our strengths.  No need to try and do too much.  The ego serves little purpose and has little place in a game that requires so much humility.  So, just play.  Notice how the word play doesn’t involve the word think.  When we just play, we release the tension and play loose.  Get your thinking out of the way beforehand.  Prepare like a champion with mental game plans and visualization; and when the time comes to play, just do it.  Use your breathing and your thoughts to clear the mind and enjoy the moment.  When we think too much, it gets in the way and we don’t allow our physical ability to play.  Remember, you have what you have – use it. 

 

Reflect & Adapt

Finally, take each opportunity to learn about yourself/the game and use it to build on in the future.  As humans, it is not the smartest, the strongest, or even the fastest that survives – it is the one who can adapt (If you’re late on a pitch, do you make an adjustment or keep doing the same thing? See in dictionary: Insanity).  Remain curious about what you’re capable of so that errors, bad at-bats, and mental mistakes become lessons we learn from rather than failures.  Here’s a simple way to keep things light and positive while also focusing on improvement; it’s called the 3-2-1 method.

3 Things I/We Did Well:

2 Things I/We Learned About Myself/The Game:

1 Thing I/We Want To Improve on or Make My/Our Focus For Next Game:

At the end of the day, baseball is just a platform and a metaphor for life.  Sometimes we strike out, sometimes we hit a home run, sometimes we get in a rut, sometimes everything feels like it’s going smoothly, sometimes we feel like nothing can stop us, and other times if feels like nothing is going right despite our efforts.  Alas, remember that it is not the events in our lives that shape our path, but rather our response to those events.  Our understanding that baseball is, in fact, just a game should (hopefully) make it a vastly easier for you all.  Have a great season, everybody.  I’m excited to get outside and watch this beautiful game.

“There are more things, Lucilius, that frighten us than injure us, and we suffer more in imagination than reality.” – Seneca

 

The MindStrong Project helps athletes, teams, and organizations in leveling up performance in multiple avenues.  We coach mindset training, breath work, and sauna/ice training.  Message us to learn more about our work with high school, college, and professional athletes or to have The MindStrong Project speak with your athletes:

 

Email: [email protected]

Austin Hanson: (218) 770-4907

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