Baseball Pitching

Better Baseball Pitching Thru NLP

Baseball Pitching requires a certain mental temperament.   If you are waiting to mentally prepare yourself to pitch when you step onto the mound, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.   Ideally, you should be mentally preparing for the game several days before your start.   Mental preparation is one of the things that is necessary to give repeated top level performance.  

NLP or neurolinguistic programming is used by the top athletes in all sports to allow them to function mentally at a top level.   By using some basic mental exercises, you can dramatically improve your focus and concentration.   This is especially important for baseball players as the season progresses.   Over the course of the season, you will have to combat nagging injuries, soreness, lack of concentration, and a multitude of other factors.   Utilizing NLP can help regulate your mind set so your mind is exactly as it should be before each game.   With proper mental focus, you are able to function well even when you do not have your best stuff.   Here, is an exercise to help with this mental preparation that can be used during the season: 

1.      Visualize yourself on the mound as you would be on that game day.  Imagine the baseball diamond.  Imagine the uniform you would be wearing, how the catcher and batter will look right before you are about to throw the pitch. 

2.      Visualize in your mind throwing a great fastball for a perfect strike.  This is your best pitch and the batter does not have a chance. 

3.      Hear the warm reception.  Hear the applause from the stands for the great pitch.  Hear the approving words from your coach and teammates on how great a pitch it was.  Ultimately, you are to bask in the glow of this achievement. 

4.      Repeat the visualization.  Repeat this visualization several times. 

5.      Mentally go through an inning of play.  From here, you will want to visualize going through an actual inning of baseball in your mind where you pitch very well against the team you are scheduled to play against.  It is also a good idea to sprinkle in some errors that are made where you visually show yourself easily bouncing back from the error. 

6.      Repeat exercise everyday before your start.   Repeat this exercise during the days leading up to your start, should help reduce nerves going into the game and allow you to keep your confidence level high going into the game. 

By using this exercise, you should experience two things.   One it should be easier to prepare yourself before games.   Gone will be the anxiousness or fear of failing.   In its place, will be a more calm demeanor.   This will take place because you know that you are prepared for the game and have the right mental focus.   Second you will be more confident.    Since you have replayed successful moments in your mind, you will expect those to play out on the field.   By gearing your mind towards success, you will eventually get that success.   Setbacks that would have derailed you in the past will seem less significant.   This is because your mental focus is stronger and you realize you can overcome them. 

*To get tips on how improve your strength training, check out training baseball pitchers.