Think Outside the Box

Many pitchers at the high school level believe the only way to improve their game is to physically work on it. That’s a common trap we get ourselves into. Yogi Berra once said “ Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.” To a point he’s correct. Everyone preaches to get bigger, faster, stronger but what young players forget to work on is improving themselves mentally. For example, if you're a pitcher that fears where your pitch will end up how can you physically fix that? You can’t.

Here’s a good way to accomplish an improved pitching mentality. Many collegiate and even professional athletes simply read books. The Mental ABC’s of Pitching by author and sports physiologist Harvey A. Dorfman is a great read if you really want to take your game to the next level. Dorfman worked with many professional pitchers like Jaime Moyer, Kevin Brown, and Tom Seaver to enhance their perspective on the mental game of pitching. The book is filled with Dorfman’s experiences with pitchers that came to him to fix their failures on the mound and how he corrected them. The book is only $4.50 so take advantage of it or someone else will! Link for book

Lesson: Be a student of the game!

Photo Credit: law.ucdavis.edu