Baseball Brains

Is baseball a mental game? If you asked a hundred people, I bet about ninety of them would say yes. If you asked them how mental it was, they would probably tell you that baseball is anywhere from 75% to 90% mental.

These are not guesses, these are the results of a nationwide survey Baseball Brains performed, which asked people these questions. Well, to be more specific, they weren't just people, they were coaches and players who volunteered to fill out a survey about the sport of baseball.

I've just told you about the least interesting part of the survey. I figured going into it that most people involved with baseball would think it was a mental game. The interesting part was what followed. The survey also included the questions; "Do your practices include a sufficient amount of mental focus training?", "Do you believe you have mastered/taught the mastery of the mental game of baseball?"

Questions like those brought to life a new set of facts. Coaches and players believed that baseball was mental, but they didn't work on the mental game in practice nearly enough, and they didn't feel like they were anywhere near mastering the mental side of the game. Furthermore, they didn't even feel like they were headed in the right direction! The question this all begs is easy, why?

The answer to that is stunningly simple, they don't know how. They don't know how to coach or practice the mental aspects of baseball. While most coaches believe that baseball is mostly about focus, concentration, being in the moment, and being fully prepared mentally, their practices are almost all monkey see monkey do physical drills. Hit the ball, catch the ball, throw the ball, repeat a hundred times and go home. Almost none of their practice, when they were honest and truly thought about it, included development in what they admit is the most important part of the game. They simply don't have the tools necessary to coach or learn the mental game.

I did see a lot of knowledge of things like visualization, or positive self talk, but most coaches dismissed those things as too "psychologist like" or not practical to teach to players. One of the strongest arguments was that the coaches only had a small amount of time in a season to teach their players all the skills they needed to teach. Spending time on things like the mental tricks above was time wasted as far as the skills of baseball go, hitting and throwing and so on, in most of the coach's opinions.

I think the conclusion that must be drawn is easy if we all agree on the following premise: Baseball is a mental game, and developing the aptitudes and mental skills of the game is just as, or more, important than any other part of the game. If we agree with that, then we believe that we need a combination of mental and physical. The mental parts of baseball, built into a physical, on the field, training program. A training system that allows players to get out in the dirt and practice baseball in a way that's centered around the important mental realm, but incorporates vigorous and intense physical practice as well. That's exactly what Baseball Brains is.

We'll be posting many more awesome lenses here on squidoo to present our entire system. A lot of them will be fun to read 'top 10 lists' like "The 10 Things Baseball Coaches are Doing That Is Hurting Their Players", "Our Top 10 Baseball Trainers in America", and others. Please check back with us often to make sure you aren't missing anything. Thanks for stopping by!