I recently asked my readers “What is your most important question about the mental aspects of baseball?”
 
Two clear themes emerged from their questions:

1. Many of them are coaches looking to enhance the mental game skills of your players
2. Gaining confidence is the number one topic of concern.

 
In 111 tally marks made, 28 were about coaching and 28 were about confidence. So if you are coach that asked about building and maintaining confidence, you are not alone. I’ll see what I can do to help you.
 
Focus issues came third at 12, and re-focusing after a set-back fourth at 7.
 
More questions than I expected had to do with players aged 13 and under.
 
Most of the questions require more depth than I can cover in this newsletter. But I’ll chip away at them with articles here at Webball.com.
 

One person asked: “What is the single most important aspect in the mental game of baseball? That is, if you were to tell players only one thing, what would it be?”
 
As important as confidence is, I’d say focus on your target. You can lack confidence but focus and succeed.
 
Your challenge as a player is to stay focused on your target or goal no matter what. Your challenge as a coach is to compel players to focus on the critical variables at the critical times.
 
Step one is to discuss with them what their “target” is and get specific about it. Don’t assume they are all on the same page with this.
 
Next, after the pitch or play, ask them questions that reveal what they focused on, such as:
 
What did you notice about the ball as it was coming toward you?
Responses might include: color, path, shape, shadow line, spin, speed, release point, location, timing, etc.
 
Infielders can count the hops a ball takes – saying out loud “bounce” or the number of bounces at the precise moment the ball hits the ground, and then say “catch” the instant the ball hits the glove. This compels focus. You can’t do this drill without focusing.
 
I’ll have more help for you on that in the coming weeks, but if you want to read some great stuff on it get The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey and translate it into baseball.