If there was one thing that college baseball has taught me, it was how important the mental side of athletics was to success. When you get to college, there are at least twice as many teammates compared to high school fighting for the same 9 positions and no matter how hard you work or how well you perform, some things just are not going to work out. These struggles could hinder the success of an athlete at this level if they just focus on the failure and think it’s their fault when, in reality, it might not be.
The major key to not letting those setbacks negatively affect you is just focusing on “controlling what you can control.” When you face failure, it’s so easy to get caught up in the statistics, the depth chart, or whatever reason you tell yourself why the coach isn’t playing you. You will never find success by dwelling on negatives that you don’t have complete control over.
By focusing on “controlling what you can control,” you can create a more positive mindset that can help build confidence and eventually increase your success. It’s ridiculous how much of the actual sport of baseball is out of our control. In the instance of a pitcher, he only has control until he releases the ball and after that, anything could happen. By ignoring what could negatively affect you, you can change your thought process to be more intrinsic.
For example, you throw a perfect fastball on the black knee-high away, but the batter puts a good swing on it and drives it off the right-field fence for a double. It’s really easy to get frustrated by the result and let the double negatively affect your confidence going into the next batter. However, what you don’t realize is that you just executed your pitch to the best of your ability and the batter just beat it. The pitch being hit has nothing to do with your ability to execute, so at that moment it’s important to realize that you succeeded in controlling what you can control, which is the pitch being released and put in the right spot.
This “control what you can control” mindset also works at improving your performance outside of a game. Being hard-working, showing effort, and having a good attitude are all attributes that you have complete control over no matter what is going on around you. These attributes are vital in improving your own skills, being the best teammate, and helping achieve the goals of the group. No coach has ever said “this kids work ethic is too over the top” or “he’s giving too much effort.”
Overall, the “control what you can control” mindset can help you create a more positive outlook on your performance. Baseball is such a fast and reactive sport that by the time you start having negative thoughts, you’re already a second behind everybody else. By focusing on just controlling what you can control, your mind will stay put on the task at hand, which allows you to build the confidence you need to play this game to the best of your ability.
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