Three Tips to Help Baseball Players Overcome Anxiety and Fear During Competition

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Article Title: Three Tips to Help Baseball Players Overcome Anxiety and Fear During Competition
By Mike Posey

Athletes become nervous during competition, it's a natural pat of the learning curve. The best performers learn how to relax and deal with their anxiety. What are some of the common fears players deal with during competition? The fear of losing, the fear of letting the team down, the fear of disappointing a coach or dad/mom are just a few common examples. Mixed in with this is the fear of the unknown, such as a pitcher that throws hard or the fear of injury.

My oldest son played eight years of professional baseball in the minor leagues. He was a 6'5 left -handed pitcher and growing up he had good arm strength. But he also was tall, awkward, and lacked good body control at a young age. This lack of body control caused him to struggle with controlling his pitches. Due to his wildness in youth leagues some kids were afraid to bat off him, but at the same time he was afraid of hitting a batter or even causing injury to one of his peers. One opposing coach asked him politely to not "throw so hard", but that only caused him more fear. Until he began to trust his mechanics and develop some confidence, those fears kept him from reaching his potential. Fortunately for him, he matured in his early days of high school and was able to experience success.

How can young players overcome their fear and anxieties? Here are three tips that can help.


Self Talk - Players can use self talk to help regain concentration and change their focus from fears to the goal at the time. For example, simple phrases like "I want the ball" or "this batter is mine" can be repeated to themselves (when no one is listening) and will help the player focus on the task at hand and drive out negative thoughts. It's amazing how well this works.
Mental Imagery - Players need to have a good image of themselves accomplishing the task at hand. This can be accomplished off the field using several techniques. First, by watching video of themselves to develop a mental image of what they look like during the activity. Second, watch video of others that are doing it right and try to emulate them. Third, playing mental images of themselves completing the task successfully, such as hitting the game winning home run (or hit) or striking out the side to win the game. This can be done by the player when laying in bed at night and playing a mental movie screen on the ceiling above the bed. In the imaginary movie the player is always successful. Also, a good imagery technique is for the coach to show short video clips of championship games where the game winning hit is celebrated or the players rush the field after winning the championship.
Hustle and Encouragement - When players loose their confidence they stop hustling and lose energy. This lack of energy (or negative energy) is contagious with other team members Players must practice hustling at all times and encouraging others, even when things are not going well for themselves. Amazingly, this positive energy will translate into confidence and results.

Mike Posey "CP"
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