Life Lessons
Life Lesson #52: Coaching Confidence
Youth baseball coach meets sports psychologist
Self-confidence is the most important, non-physical component of the pitching motion. How else can an athlete stand center stage, amongst thousands of roaring fans, and execute such a fine physical movement? While confidence proves to be one of the most important character traits of a successful pitcher, it remains one of the most difficult skills to teach.
When faced with a specific struggle, there are five clear steps towards establishing confidence:
- Identify what may have gone wrong.
- What did you see? Where did the pitch miss?
- Determine what the cause was for error.
- What do you think caused the specific miss?
- Identify necessary fix.
- What have you worked on in the past to fix such a miss or trend?
- Execute next pitch with adjusted effort.
- Incorporate desired change.
- Evaluate results.
- What do you see now? Did you make adjustment? Did it work?
Let?s use these five steps in a specific example to see how confidence can be maintained. In this situation, a right-handed pitcher is missing up and in to a right-handed batter. Instead of losing confidence and giving in, this athlete follows the steps listed above:
- Identify what may have gone wrong:
Missing up and in to right-handed batter
Location is high
- Determine the cause for error:
Release point is back behind body
Arm is probably dragging
- Identify necessary fix:
Get release point out in front
Assist this by keeping weight back
- Execute with adjustment:
Use conscious effort to stay back
Get release point out in front of the body
- Evaluate results:
Ball is now down in dirt
Adjustment was made, now need to battle to find accuracy with release point out in front
In the previous example, the pitcher was able to identify what was causing his location to consistently miss up and in. Additionally, our athlete had such a tremendous knowledge and understanding of his mechanics that he was able to determine what a possible fix may be. After executing this fix, or adjustment, the athlete could see that a definite adjustment had been made, even though it did not lead to immediate strikes.
This process provides a path to follow to make sure that struggles do not turn into confidence destroyers. With the help of a watchful eye and thousands of repetitions, an athlete is able to truly identify what happens when the body throws a baseball. It is with this understanding that an athlete is able to stay on top of his game. He can miss all day long, never losing confidence because he understands the ?why!? Even though the athlete may not be able to execute the correction immediately, he can see that the adjustment is working.
Over time, this process becomes entirely subconscious - a series of mental steps and physical adjustments constantly occurring to keep the engine running smoothly. Simply put, self-confidence is knowledge. |
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