The Hitting Mind
Become An Adjustment Making Machine.
In my experience the greatest
hitters are tremendous at making
adjustments.
Nothing frustrates a coach
more than a player who can't
make an adjustment.
Some of the best coaches will
have patience with player
development. Even the most
patient coaches grow less patient
with a player who can't adjust.
Why do some players have a
terrible time making adjustments
quickly in a game?
1. They don't train adjustments.
The best place to learn how to
adjust is during training.
If the environment does not
encourage you to figure it out
on your own, then you will never
figure it out on your own.
I find most players who are bad
at making adjustments also lack
awareness during practice.
They don't really know their own
personal tendencies when they struggle
therefore can't adjust.
Awareness in itself is step 1.
2. Coaching dominated lessons doesn't help.
Baseball lessons in general don't
prepare players for making adjustments.
I have been in the baseball lesson business
for nearly 20 years and I have seen
what private lessons do for players.
The coach always has the answer. He
has positioned himself as the expert.
The best instructors don't give the answers
they guide the player to the answer.
Great coaches will SHUT UP and allow
the player to fail in order to give a chance
to make an adjustment.
3. The environment created by Mr. Coach
discourages the player from making
aggressive mistakes. Once you
lose aggressiveness you don't have much left.
Great Hitters, Are Aggressive, Period.
You can have all the lessons in the world, it doesn't
replace the importance of aggressiveness.
If I had to choose I would rather have an aggressive
athlete than a mechanically perfect athlete.
If a hitter is afraid to make mistakes, this kills
aggressivness.
Here are a few tips when it comes to creating
an adjustment making machine.
Hint # 1 Start with the Mind
(not the mechanics)
Too many want to make mechanical adjustments
and this creates too much thinking. When we begin to
analyze (especially during competition) the brain starts
getting in the way.
Instead at Fastball USA Training Center in Chicago
we have our players do do one of two things:
A. Re-New or Re-Commit your focus on hitting
a desired target as aggressively as possible.
B. If the current target is not working, change
the intended target. Work away from your failing tendency
or weakness.
Create a new target, and commit 100% to hitting the ball
into the new target area.
Why? The mind drives movements. A change in goal
will slightly alter your movement pattern or mechanics.
Practice these concepts during training.
Commit yourself 100% to your intended
goal or target. If your heart and head is behind what
you're trying to do, then success is more likely to happen.
Practice -
* Visualize and see yourself hitting your targeted area.
Almost like it's already a done deal.
* Then athletically and aggressively do it.
5 Take Aways:
1. Always be training yourself to make
adjustments especially in practice. If you
make adjustments in practice, game adjustments
become easier.
2. To make an adjustment clearly identify a
target. Commit 100% to hitting the ball into the
target while being as athletic and aggressive as
possible.
3. See yourself do it first. Visualize it as it's
actually happening. Even revert back to when
it has happened before. See it, then do it.
4. Be willing to alter the goal or target if needed.
Let the results dictate if you need to just re-new
your commitment to your current target, or simply
slightly alter your target.
5. Mechanics will get you thinking. Once you begin
thinking about mechanics as a hitter you're done.
STOP reaching into the mechanics bucket for the answer.
Instead - Simplify.
Create a clear and simplistic goal. Hit the ball hard,
at the targeted area and be as aggressive as possible.
For Parents - Is your kid prepared?
Think if you dropped your kid off on an island and he was
going to play baseball against good competition for 2 weeks.
You left him there. Nobody is around to help. Not even his coach.
How would he do without you or his coach around?
Could he handle failing?
Could he make quick adjustments?
Or....Would he be looking to you or a coach for the answer only
to find nobody is there to help.
THE MASTER OF MAKING ADJUSTMENTS NEEDS
VERY LITTLE GUIDANCE FROM PARENTS OR COACHES.
Mike Ryan
Fastball USA
www.fastballusa.com
www.mikeryanbaseball.com
