Do You Master the Mental Game?

[softballperformance]

Do You Master the Mental Game?

Today, Ken Ravizza arrived in Vegas for a few days to work with
the team. He is the mental training consultant for the Canadian
Olympic Team.

For those of you who don't know who Ken Ravizza is, he is
considered by most to be the leading sports psychology
consultant for baseball and softball. He has been around a long
time.

He has also co-authored the best-selling book "Heads-Up
Baseball" which by the way EVERY softball player and coach
should have. It's THE bible of sports psychology for baseball
and softball.

To read more about Ken Ravizza, go to:
http://www.kenravizza.com/

So, he came in late afternoon and ran a session with the team
tonight. While the players where working on a team mission
statement, he sat down with the coaching staff for more than
an hour.

After the session, we were dropped off at our hotel (players
and coaches are staying in rented houses) but consultants like
him and I that are only here for a couple of days are staying
at a hotel across the UNLV softball field.

As we were both hungry, we went to a Mexican cafe and had a
quick bite and chatted for another hour. It was great to
exchange with a master of the mental game specialized in
our game.

I thought I would share of the key messages that came through
his sessions with the team, the discussions with the coaching
staff and our diner together.

- You have to train "competitiveness" in practices through
drills and game simulations

- Players have to take ownership of the values, the goals, and
the mission statement of the team. If it only comes from the
coaches, their not as likely to buy into it.

- Holding each accountable for achieving our common goals and
make sure every body works hard and has the right attitude
is very important.

- You have to learn how to win and take control of the field

- Your thinking must be about "achieving something, not about
avoiding something". For example, you want to hit the ball
hard and select the right pitch and NOT thinking avoiding
a strikeout or not swinging a bad pitch.

- Players need to learn how "verbalize" what they feel and
live inside

- You can't maintain a 100% intensity and focus all the time
at practice; it's not humanly possible.

- You have to learn when to be in "game on" mode and be really
focused and when to be more relaxed and focusing on learning.

- A positive training environment is required for the players
to feel like they try and fail which is the part of the
learning process. If the environment doesn't give them
"permission to fail" in order to learn, then they will
develop a fear of failure and will do things with a mindset
of "not screwing up" rather than accomplishing exceptional
things.

- Guessing pitches at the plate is one of the worst thing you
can do and is often a sign of slump. You can look for pitches
but not guess them.

- Every failure must be a learning experience. You learn a lot
more from losing and failing than you do from winning because
when you win, you tend to sweep under the carpet the things
that didn't well or you don't pay as much attention to what
needs to be improved.

I will try share more with you over the next few days.


Play hard.

Marc Dagenais
"Your Personal Softball Peak Performance Coach"