Managing Expectations

Managing expectations at a high level is such an important thing for athletes as a whole, but specifically for pitchers. So often guys start to struggle mentally simply because their expectations are wrong. We live in a social media driven world where everything we see is the best version of that person. The struggles that everyone goes through rarely gets seen by the public. This creates a false reality in our minds that can be extremely detrimental. This is a big picture view of managing expectations, but I want to go into detail with it as well as I see a lot of what and how players think affect them in a training sense too.

Starting with big picture expectations, one of the most important things I wish I could get athletes, especially young athletes, to understand is that development the vast majority of the time happens over a long period of time. To piggyback on the effect social media has on our expectations, a lot of pitching development we see are pitching coaches or facilities promoting themselves by showing off a specific athlete who made giant gains. Seeing this over and over influences players into thinking that if they just find the right magic cue or drill, they will increase their velo by 5mph or will add a nasty offspeed pitch. While big jumps happen from time to time, they are not the norm for everyone. Nobody has a secret sauce that works for everyone. Understanding that the road of improvement is different for everyone and when large jumps happen, that athlete's situation is just right for them to be able to make those jumps. Development is not a linear process. There are gains, plateaus, even drops in performance from time to time. While it is hard for an athlete to completely trust that, instilling the trust in the work and giving them a good foundation in their training can be invaluable. It is extremely hard for a 15 year old to even start to grasp thinking about what their career might be like in 5 or more years, but the more we encourage that, the better off they will be. If we can get the athlete in a good mindset like this, the grind and monotony of training will be handled in a much more positive way. 

While the big picture is very important and sets the stage for the short term, the day to day expectations and choosing what to mentally focus on is another fantastic skill to develop. As I talked about in explaining the DNA move, it is important to have a goal that we are chasing that is as “right” as possible. A good coach is able to lay out a path for each athlete to travel. When we are going about our throwing training, how many different thoughts can someone have at any given time? I would say probably an infinite amount of them including their best shot at having no thoughts at all. This means that a coach providing direction on what each athlete should be focusing on, given the time is very important. If I gave 10 athletes the same drill to do, the drill is going to be executed in 10 different ways. A few of them might execute it well, but most will execute it in a sub optimal way based on how they interpret what they are supposed to do. Can I, as a coach, get each player to focus on what they specifically need to do per the drill/throw? This is often more important than the drill itself! Our body follows our brain so providing direction on what each athlete should be thinking about/focusing on can be a game changer. A big picture example of this that I see frequently would be if a player has a 30 pitch bullpen, would it be a good use of their time and training economy in trying to add a fourth pitch to their arsenal when they struggle to throw their change up in the strike zone? In most cases, the answer is a resounding no. What they chose to focus on was not going to help them improve as much as possible. They did not attack the lowest hanging fruit of their personal development. A more in depth example of this would simply not being focused on the drill they are doing in the moment enough. If we are choosing to do a certain plyo drill, they need to be executing that drill to a high level. Once they get on the mound, is what they were trying to do in the plyo drill applicable to what they should be focused on while on the mound? Answer could be yes or no. We want to make the focus as clear as possible so the athlete is fully invested into their current throw and can more easily maximize each and every throw they make. Coaches should guide athlete’s through this so they can maximize the benefit they get out of training to the best of their abilities day in and day out. 

A third but different example of this would be the reaction to what would be considered a “bad” throw. Relating back to building towards each athlete’s DNA move, I hope that each athlete is building on their journey of knowing what they do well and what they need to continue to work on. When a pitcher makes a mistake or has a “bad” throw, missed location, pitch shape, etc, what they think causes that mistake is very important in the mental game. If the athlete has a misguided view of what caused the mistake, this can spiral into more flaws or bad habits. This is obviously not a desired outcome. Similar to the other ways a coach can help an athlete mentally, giving them guidance and direction as simply as possible on what causes a certain mistake can be vital for them continuing their path towards their DNA move. Journaling after bullpens and outings can play a big role here. If an athlete has poor command in an outing but slept for 5 hours the night before and didn’t eat well, is there something wrong mechanically that needs to be fixed immediately, or do they just need to take care of their body better? Preventing an athlete from this negative mental spiral by simply shifting their mindset is one of the best things you can do as a coach and a really important skill for an athlete to develop!

In short, we all know that the mental side of baseball and more specifically pitching, is important. Are we taking enough time in our training to help athletes develop their mental skill? While managing expectations and choosing what to focus on like I talked about here is only part of the mental side, I find these are very important in continuing an athlete down their path to reaching their maximum potential.