Natalie Boozikee retweetledi
Mental Game Monday: Landslide
Different Monday, different song, paraphrased as: I’ve been ‘fraid of changin’, when you’ve built your life around you (when that you is your ability to hit a low/out fastball 250’).
In a previous post, I wrote about training drift - when small deviations from the training form accumulate over time to the point that what the athlete is doing is not the same as what was trained.
This week’s challenge is what happens when what was successful, is no longer successful, even when the performance is consistent with the training.
With the amount of video available on GameChanger and ESPN, scouting is bit easier than in the age of the dinosaur when coaches had stopwatches, a clipboard, and a bucket of coffee when watching games in person. Even with no additional expenses, coaches can chart pitches and gather data on hitter tendencies, when they swing, when they miss, and what they hit - and for pitchers, this can be incredibly frustrating.
If we have a sample size of 35-50 plate appearances we can see emerging trends in the hitters - likes to swing at first pitch, rarely swings on first pitch, loves (or hates) inside pitching. As the season goes on, some teams will have their book on opposing hitters.
So what then is that hitter supposed to do, when the other team knows how to pitch to you - tell yourself you lost the ability to hit, or use the self talk to remind yourself of a couple of things - if you are not seeing a lot of hittable pitches: ‘if they scouted me this much, even the other team sees my skills’ or ‘I trust my training and when they do give me a good one, I know I’ll connect.’
This can also serve as a reminder about outcomes v process: the outcome-focused athlete will see the goose-egg in the box score, and maybe even start telling themself they are in a slump (insert sad trombone sound). The process-focused athlete knows that as the opposing team is allowed to have good athletes too, and by staying true to themselves and their training, which allows the athlete to take advantage of any time the opposing pitcher misses their spot. And as a reminder, the run scored when the batter gets on first by BB, HBP, or a single counts the same. (Reminder: if the scouting report says ‘intentionally walk this hitter when 1st is open with RISP, make sure *none* of those intentional balls are hittable).
So there might indeed be a need for a change, adding awareness to the possibility that the athlete is being scouted, there may not be as many hittable pitches (the last thing a pitcher wants to do is put a ball over the plate when the hitter is ready for it), and there might not be a need to change, other than some self-talk reminders, when the reason the athlete is not getting as many hits is because the athlete had been getting so many hittable pitches.
Tl;dr - if what you’re doing used to work, and isn’t working like it used to, it might not be working because the other team has changed their approach to you. That warrants a different response from the athlete vs training drift.
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