How to Be Mentally Tough
Adversity is inevitable in baseball and life. Adversity doesn’t discriminate; it strikes every athlete, every team and in every season.
There are many different forms of adversity:
- Injuries
- Reduced playing time
- Conflict with teammates
- Losing streaks
- Slow starts
- Competition mistakes
- Clashes with coaches
- Pressure from outside sources
- Bad Games
- And many more
In addition to adversity, there are multiple responses to adversity.
- Adversity can create anxiety or resolve.
- Adversity can decimate or motivate.
- Adversity can bury you or cause you to dig in.
- Adversity can make you quit or cause you to work harder.
- Adversity can hurt confidence or cause you to learn.
It is important to understand that adversity happens to every baseball player.
How it affects a baseball player or a team depends on your attitude towards and your response to the adverse circumstances.
So, you don’t get beaten by adversity unless you respond negatively to that adversity.
Some baseball players see themselves as unlucky or not able to catch a break. These athletes tend to give up a bit whether it is going through the motions in training or giving a little less effort in competitions.
Some baseball players are challenged by adversity and look for ways overcome their circumstances.
This type of baseball player knows the adversity they are experiencing will help them grow as an athlete, build mental toughness and, eventually, enhance their chance for success in the future.
In fact, championship-level baseball players often credit the mental toughness built through adversity for their success.
For example, the 2019 World Series Champion Washington Nationals credit their ability to overcome adversity all season long as the major reason for their success.
The Nationals beat the Houston Astros in the deciding Game 7 by a score of 6-2 after heading into the seventh inning trailing by 2-0.
The Nationals won the first two games and then lost the next three being outscored 19-3. Instead of allowing their adverse circumstances crush them, the Nationals drew on mental toughness and won the last two games to become World Champions.
Washington right fielder Adam Eaton pointed to early season struggles that helped the Nationals develop the mental toughness needed to overcome adversity throughout the playoffs.
EATON: “We stunk, thinking back to the start of the season. But for us, it’s like you fail early, you come together as a group, you struggle as a group to be able to succeed later. You learn from the mistakes.”
“All of a sudden we start to accelerate and then when our backs are against the wall, it’s like, ‘Well, we’ve done this before.’ We stunk in April and May and everyone counted us out. We’re used to this, this is nothing new.”
Washington catcher Kurt Suzuki echoed Eaton’s sentiments about how mental toughness helped the team continue to fight when trailing 3-2 in the World Series.
SUZUKI: “It’s not a mystery that we just kept fighting to the end and now look at us, we’re raising the trophy and we’re world champs. It feels like we had to come back in every game that we won, especially the elimination games. It just says a lot about this team and the character.”
You can benefit from adversity. When you stay resolute to reach your goals and keep working through adversity, you can triumph.
World Championship-Level Mental Toughness:
In order to use adversity as a springboard to success, you want to respond with the mindset of a champion to adversity.
What are 10 times you faced adversity? How did you benefit from adversity? What did you learn about yourself?
Learning from adversity doesn’t need to be immediate or major. The benefit can be as simple as re-igniting your passion for baseball or committing to develop a stronger mental game.
You always have the choice of how to respond to things that happen to you in baseball. Choosing your attitude every day is an important part of bouncing back from adversity.
Related Sports Psychology Articles
- Justin Verlander: Mentally Tough in The Playoffs
- Mental Toughness is a Baseball Skill
- How to Stay Mentally Sharp While in the Dugout
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Instilling Confidence in Baseball And Softball Players
Confidence, more than any other mental game attribute, is vital for your team’s success. If your players have it and know how to keep it, they maximize their success. Your team cannot reach their full potential unless each player can harness the power of stable and enduring self-confidence–so your team can perform as a confident team.
Your players might possess a ton of physical talent, have great coaching, and train harder or practice more than anyone else in your league, but if they do not have the self-confidence to match, your team can’t utilize this talent.
“Instilling Confidence in Baseball and Softball Players” program consists of one 72-minute audio CD that includes 7 days of confidence-fueling exercises. You’ll also receive a simple-to-follow 74-page coaches’ manual that guides you through the 7 team session you’ll conduct!