Staying Calm While Hitting Under Pressure

Learning to stay relaxed under pressure or stress while playing baseball is crucial for having a successful performance while either hitting or fielding. Being able to stay calm while you are the bridge between a win or a loss for your team is pretty challenging to do. I have personal experience of doing the exact opposite of this. I noticed some things that I do when I'm under pressure while hitting. My hands become sweaty, my grip on my bat is tighter than usual, and I start thinking too much. "What if I screw up?...What if I don't score the run?... What if I let down my team?...". According to Dorfman and Kuehl, the authors of the Mental Game of Baseball, "A relaxed player is a confident player. Confidence and a positive attitude result in the lowering of anxiety, and thus lessens interference due to antagonistic muscle tension or the loss of the ability to direct and control attention" (249) They say that the anxiety from stress is normal and that it causes muscle contractions and stiff movements (which is exactly what happens to me).

Dorfman and Kuehl offer some guidance to lessen the anxiety caused from stress:
1. Get away from the source of the pressure

2. Talk to yourself outloud
3. Use movement
4. Stretch
5. Visualize (previous blog topic)
6. Muscle contractions
7. Focus your eyes on an object in the distance
8. Relax the face muscles
9. Control your breathing
(256)

I have not been able to try these tactics out in game because the 2016 season hasn't started yet. However, I have made a list of these stress relieving ideas on paper so that I am able to try them while under real pressure. I have not performed my best many times due to anxiety from game situations. I hope that I am able to successfully use these tactics in the future and ultimately create a better baseball player out of myself.

What is the most pressure you've ever felt from a sporting event?
Dorfman, H. A., and Karl Kuehl. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance. Lanham, MD: Diamond Communications, 2002. Print.