Your swing may look AMAZING or it may look AKWARD but by no means will it be the primary driver of your success at the plate! Each hitter is different but there are 4 things I believe are CRITICAL to success in the batters box;
TIMING, DECISION MAKING, ADJUSTMENTS & CONFIDENCE.
Today is about Confidence (pt.4 of 4)
Confidence is my final component of the TDAC of Elite Hitters. If you are truly going to be the best you can be at a skill as difficult as hitting a softball or baseball you must figure out how to be confident in your ability to execute the skill.
I say figure out because confidence is not an innate feeling or trait. It must be DEVELOPED, LEARNED, UNDERSTOOD ---PRACTICED!
Self-esteem also ties into to confidence so as coaches WE NEED to understand how we affect a players self-esteem If we truly want to get the best out of our athletes.
To keep this blog relatively short I will just touch on two main aspects that I work on with my hitters. I always start with WHERE DOES CONFIDENCE COME FROM? Just about 100% of the time students will give me some source of external stimuli, meaning about past performance outcomes or teammates,coaches, parents telling OR not telling them how good they are. These external forces while VERY IMPORTANT in the process of building confidence are tricky because the player have no ability or control to change them. They cannot make their peers believe in them or go 3 for 3 at plate just because they want to. SO, what becomes EXTREMELY IMPORTANT is that these athletes understand how to manufacture confidence internally rather than externally.
While most kids do not state this from the beginning there do get it --- MANUFACTURING CONFIDENCE COMES FROM PREPARATION, PRACTICE and HARD WORK!
I like to use a school test analogy. I ask the player to imagine a big test coming up in their most difficult subject. They have two weeks to be ready. In that two weeks many distractions come about and on the day of the test, when they sit down at the table and the teacher passes the test out, what are they feeling? Obvious feelings are anxieties, nervousness and regret...regret from not preparing like they know they should have. So now they are tight, opposite of relaxed and have created obstacles on being the best they can be that test day.
ON THE FLIP-SIDE if they studied more than ever, worked with their parents, their teacher and classmates on understanding the material ---then on test day while they will still have anxieties and nervousness they DO NOT HAVE REGRET, so with no regrets they are able to take a deep breath and potentially nail the test therefor boosting there confidence both internally and externally when they receive a letter grade that makes them feel good about themselves.
I do understand this is somewhat over simplification but its a starting point to help athletes gain the confidence they need to reach their potential!
I HOPE everyone enjoyed my TDAC methodology of creating Elite Hitters. Feel free to get back to me with questions or comments!
THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING!
HAPPY HITTING!
Coach JB