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Aspect Of The Game
Pitching Confidence A pitcher must be confident when ever he takes the field and gets up on the mound to pitch. If he has the mind set of "I hope they don't hit me hard today" or "my arm doesn't feel good today", he will be unsuccessful. On the other hand if the pitcher is thinking "I'm going to throw these guys everything I've got and if they hit it, they hit it" and he is not making any excuses, then they will be successful. A pitcher needs to have this confidence because if the other team sees that they are breaking him down, they will just tear into him and keeping breaking him down. On the other hand if a pitcher keeps up his confidence (even when things aren't going well), the hitters are like "man, when is this guy gonna give up". That is all you can ever ask for. Respect from your opponents. Because once they respect your confidence, they have to respect your pitches. Meaning they can't sit on a fastball in a fastball count because you are a confident pitcher and you are confident in throwing your off speed for a strike in any count. Although confidence is a necessity in the game of baseball and pitching, when you are off the field you should be aware of where you stand on the line of cocky and confident. Even in real life, off the field, it is great to be confident in whatever you do, but you cannot go over board and start being cocky because people don't like that. Be confident, but conduct yourself like a professional and go get those hitters. Pitchers must be mentally tough to survive in the game of baseball. A season will carry a roller coaster of emotions that a pitcher will have to juggle along with his personal life. A pitcher must have a very short memory when it comes to bad outtings and even good outtings. You shouldn't let your lows be too low or your highs be too high. To stay even keeled like this a pitcher must be mentally tough. Not only because it is hard to pitch day in and day out but because it is hard to pitch from pitch to pitch. If a pitcher is not mentally tough, one pitch can change the momentum of the game. A pitcher must not let this happen. Some of you are thinking to be mentally tough just means to be confident. Yes you are right, it encompasses confidence but it is so much more too. To be mentally tough you must be confident, be able to perform under pressure, and be able to handle different personalities like coaches, managers, teachers, etc. That's just the baseball side too. A pitcher then has to take it a step further and seperate his life from baseball and vice versa. Something that may be bothering him outside of the game can't effect him during the game. The same goes the other way. If you lose a game you cannot let it effect your life outside of baseball. Once you hit the showers it is over with. Go back the next day and get the team that just beat you. That's what being mentally tough is.
(Also on this page: Mental Toughness of Pitchers)
Mental Toughness of Pitchers
Pitching 365
Classic Baseball Pitching Instruction
Power Pitching Mechanics