The Baseball Observer - Mental Skills Issue
In only a short time of practicing, you will be able to combine body parts. Here are the body parts to combine:
• Legs and feet combined
• Chest (by itself)
• Arms and hands
• Shoulders/back and face combined
Once you get the hang of doing progressive muscle relaxation you can do the above mini-exercise in a minute or two anytime you want stress relief in a hurry.
One simple example of using relaxation in a real situation
You’re at the plate and you just swung at a terrible pitch and you notice you say to yourself “Why did I swing at that!”, and you’re a little pissed.
Step out of the batter’s box, close your eyes and take a belly breath while at the same time squeeze your free hand (the one not holding the bat) is gradually making a tight fist. Pause, exhale and release the tension in your hand at the same rate as the exhale. While getting back into the batter’s box say to yourself “Ok (insert your first name), all you have to do is just watch the ball out of his hand.”
Simple and takes no time to do. Your tension is released a bit. Your focused back in-the-moment and you have a process oriented suggestion to hit the ball.
In this short time you have incorporated four mental skills techniques:
• Belly breathing
• Mindfulness
• Muscle relaxation
• Self-talk
The more you practice, the better you will get at these techniques and the easier it will be to experience relaxation on demand.
Yoda was only
partially correct
"Do or do not. There is no try."
There are two types of trying:
First Type (not good)
Usually when someone says they will try, it becomes an emotional distancing when they think they will fail. They have an expectation of failure and they try to comfort themselves ahead of time. “Oh, I’ll just try it.” So really they are going into it with the attitude of failure. They have already resigned to the "fact" it won't work. They usually give up and new neural pathways are never given a chance to be made in the brain
Second Type (good)
They are the ones who truly try with the expectation of success knowing all the while frustration and failure will probably happen first. They understand they have to move out of their familiar comfort zone to grow. That every failure is one step closer to success. By continuing to try in this manner, it allows for new neural pathways to be made and strengthened in the brain.