There Is No Magic To This
Baseball is not only physically grinding, but mentally exhausting as well. Winning and losing can be determined by a handful of pitches in each contest. Remaining focused is a competitive advantage.
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Toronto Blue Jays’ reliever Jordan Romano has several quirks on the mound. Perhaps the most noticeable is his deep squat he performs right as he’s coming set.
via sportsnet
He added this to his pre-pitch delivery in 2020 after watching teammate Ken Giles go through a similar exercise before throwing. (Giles, in fact, squats twice: one before receiving the catcher’s sign and once as he goes into his set position.) It’s more than a twitch or a quirk. It helps them get into the proper pitching mind space.
“I really feel like when I go down into that squat position and come back up, that’s me being ready to throw. It separates each pitch from one another. It really helps me lock in that pitch,” Romano told the SportsNet. “That’s something I wanted to be better at this year — making each individual pitch and not thinking about the last one as much.”
Baseball is not only physically grinding, but mentally exhausting as well. Winning and losing can be determined by a handful of pitches in each contest. Remaining focused is a significant competitive advantage.
For Romano, the routine clears the last pitch starts the next one. Evan Longoria has a similar trick to focus in the batters’ box. If he takes a bad swing or disagrees with a called strike, he will step out and undo his batting gloves. Releasing the velcro on his gloves is a physical reminder to him to let go and concentrate on the next pitch.
Many of these practices were introduced by Dr. Ken Ravizza, the late, great sports psychologist. Working different organizations over his career, Ravizza recommended activities or actions to a player or team’s routine that helped center their attention in a complex and overwhelming game.
While advising Augie Garrido’s University of Texas teams, hitters were encouraged to think of their batting helmets as a separator from pre-at-bat to game mode. “Make the act of putting on your helmet the start of your at bat by thinking of it as putting on your ‘hitting head,’” Ravizza said.
Switching from one play or one pitch to the next was a key for Ravizza’s practices.
On the field, fielders are encouraged to think of themselves standing near an on/off circle -- not unlike the Madden video game player activation halo. When the players step out of the imaginary circle, they can analyze the situation or review the last play but when they step back in, all attention is directed toward the next pitch.
Likewise, pitchers can do the same on the rubber. When they are off the rubber, they can go over previous situations or sequences but when their foot re-engages with the rubber, it is time to throw the next pitch.
Ravizza used positive mental imagery and even laughter in order to allow the players to relax and perform at their highest levels.
In 2004, the Cal State-Fullerton team was struggling. They had a losing record at the time and were spiraling. Titans’ head coach George Horton recruited Ravizza to help regain the team’s focus. Ravizza added quotes to the walls of the clubhouse and dugout. He introduced small rituals, such as a miniature toilet to the dugout for hitters to flush after bad at-bats, to — in Ravizza’s words — “just let that shit go.” He added stickers on the helmet that reminded players to keep their head’s up. These minor changes helped reset the Titans’ season. They went 32-6 the rest of the way and won the National Championship.
But here’s the wrinkle: While Ravizza worked with Cal State-Fullerton and is credited with helping turn their season around, he was also working with Long Beach State in the same season. And that team failed to make it to the postseason.
“There is no magic to this,” Ravizza told College Baseball News in 2015. “Too many people believe that if you do A, B and C, you will be a champion. That simply isn’t the case.”
There is no magic to this.
None of these actions makes the player or team better. A bad team isn’t going to get better by flushing a little toilet. A player isn’t going to immediately excel by visualizing a halo on the ground. But the purpose behind those action can influence performance — if you can bring everyone into the present moment, results might follow. If you are worried about your last pitch or your last play, your future results are in peril.
The actions behind Romano’s mound squats or Longoria’s batting glove adjustments are no different: they are washing away the last pitch and bringing him back to the present moment.
And that is what high performance baseball is all about: Being present.
Be present. Control what you can control. Stay positive. Have fun.
It’s not magic.
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