I agree to an extent. As with anything in life, if you do something with lack of confidence, you will probably not do a good job. Don't think you can impress the guy in an interview- you probably won't. But emphasis on probably. Confidence is not everything. It simply isn't.
Excuse me for being so strong on this issue, but most of it has to do with how I got into the game and the teams I've played on. As you may know, I didn't start playing baseball until I was 17, a pretty late start. Going to Yeshiva for college, many of my teammates also got a very late start - even later than me. Now, I love playing for Yeshiva, but there have been some crazy people in that program. Guys who didn't really know how to play the game the right way.
Some people, so damn in love with the mental side of baseball, they would be going around critiquing what people say. "You can't say that! If you even think or say for a second that you might not get a hit - you won't." To me, this is such a loser's mentality. Confidence is not something that shows externally. I don't mean to get cheesy, but it is an internal state of mind.
Take a look at professional athletes. Have you seen the latest SI with the Joe Mauer article? About his amazing hitting to open up his season (batting over .400), Mauer said, "It's probably not going to last forever, but I'll try to hold on to it as long as I can."
He fully understands that his streak will end- it happens to everyone. He knows that he will eventually slump- it's OK to admit it.
And you have to be a realist, by the way. I bet when every batter steps in against the 40 year old Mariano Rivera, they know that even at 39, hitters batted just. 165 against him. You know that all odds are against the hitter- even the best ones. You don't have to walk to the plate thinking you have no chance, but my point is that you can realize that failure is inevitable and saying that things may occur is defeating yourself mentally.
You know you are capable, you use a sound approach, and with this, you are confident that you can piece together a quality at bat- and that is a success.
"...you can realize that failure is inevitable..." do you really believe this? Do you think that when a player like Manny goes into the box against Rivera he actually thinks that he's going to fail. Now don't misunderstand me, I agree that the mental side should be somewhat internal, but there is truth to the external side as well.
ReplyDeleteI think that there is a time when the external side is important but to claim that any player goes into the box thinking of failure seems almost absurd. Sure the batter realizes that he's facing Rivera, but whoever stands in the box must realize that he's one of the greatest baseball players in the world (he made it to the mlb after all)and he deserves to be there. So do you really think he's willing to give up?
Yea, why should he even swing?
ReplyDeleteI never said anybody should give up, I'm just saying you can realize that you will fail a huge percentage of the time. You don't have to pretend that, "every time I'm up, I will get a hit." In each individual at bat you go up confident you can hit, but understanding it won't happen all the time is OK.
But when you express your expectation of failure, it definitely has an effect. You might realize the odds are against you (after all baseball is a game of failure) but if you ever feel like "I just can't play on these guys' level", you won't be able to. If you go up there with the attitude that "We're on the same level, they just might be a little further along on that level" you have a better chance.
ReplyDeleteThank you amp, for stating the obvious. I'm not talking about feeling over-matched or anything. Regular at bats- guys making outs. My main point of this whole post is just putting down the people who are very radical when it comes to the mental stuff. I'm putting down the people who say, "you have to believe you can bat 1.000", and stuff like that. Nobody bats 1.000, don't expect to do it. And you aren't lowering your batting average or becoming a worse hitter by admitting that.
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