Confidence

Confidence is an important aspect of the game of baseball. Since the game has such a high failure rate, you have to be mentally strong to be successful. This brings up some questions, how do you become mentally strong? How do you become confident? How do you gain confidence? What comes first confidence or success?

As children a lot of this stems from your coach. At practice the coaches job is to prepare his players for the game best as possible physically and mentally. If there is a sense of urgency at practice and the players are put in pressure situations they learn to deal with adversity. For example making your pitchers throw with runners on or making your hitters hit with two strikes and runners in scoring position. All of the results should be recorded so that the players can see their progress. Competition at practice is another great way to build confidence because the players get a constant taste of success and failure. The failure is also an important key to mental strength. In order to become a great player you have to b able to overcome failure. Every player has to deal with failure, but you never want a bad swing to turn into a bad at bat that turns into a bad game that turns into a bad month that turns into a bad year. If you can practice overcoming failure then you can stay positive and play your season from at bat to at bat instead of being a hot and cold player. Confidence has a snowball effect. Once you make so many positive plays you become more confident in your abilities which leads to you becoming more successful on the diamond. I think that confidence leads to success because there are many ways that you can gain confidence whether it's from a coach, your parents, a friend, your teammates, etc. Once you start feeling good you start playing good.