"Across all sports, the one mental characteristic that consistently separates the best from the rest is the ability to quickly rebound from mistakes and setbacks and focus on the play of the moment."

Dr. Alan Goldberg, a noted sports psychologist, feels that where a players mind is in game situations can determine how successful he will be at performing the 'task at hand' The 'task at hand' refers to the physical action you are about to attempt - hitting a baseball, throwing a pitch, fielding a ball. He feels that a reason why a player fails is that his mind is not in the right place. He feels you need to play in what he calls the 'HERE and NOW'.

He explains the 'HERE' this way, "If you've just committed an error and you're thinking about what the coach is going to do with you" or 'if you're at the plate and someone from the opposing team is razzing you and you feel yourself getting upset and angry" or "if you were just called out by the umpire on an obvious bad call and you're still thinking about going up to the umpire and screaming obscenities as you take your position in the field, you are in the wrong place mentally." Your mind cannot be over there on the bench or over there by the stands or over there in front of the umpire. Your game must begin with the task at hand, the HERE, dealing with what needs to be done at that particular moment. HERE if you are on the pitchers mound, HERE if you are on defense in the field. Not over THERE. Because when you play over THERE, you are not mentally HERE,

Dr. Goldberg also stresses the importance of playing your game in the 'NOW'. At any time during a game the mind can be in any one of three 'mental time zones - the past, the present and the future. But he prefers to call the present the 'NOW'.

"When a batter walks from the dugout to the on deck circle its easy to figure out what he is doing physically. He's walking from the dugout to the on-deck circle. But what is he doing mentally? As he is physically loosening up, getting ready for his at bat, his mind can be in one of three time zones." The Past Time Zone is when the player is mentally thinking about his last few at-bats or what happened the last time he was in the field or the last game that he had to face this particular pitcher. The Future Time Zone is when the player is mentally thinking about the end result. Thoughts like 'I gotta get a hit', 'If I strike out and we lose its my fault' or 'What if I ground out again!'

The problem with playing in the past or future mental time zones is that they are detrimental to your performance. They are detrimental because they are a distraction. And why are they a distraction? Because they distract you from concentrating on the task at hand - from focusing on what needs to be done at that particular moment. And what is the task at hand? It's focusing on performance cues. Lets look at hitting. The pitchers release point is a performance cue. Seeing the ball well - on each pitch. Knowing that the pitcher just walked two natters on nine pitches is a performance cue. Knowing the game situation, adjusting your game plan after each pitch are some of the many performance cues you need to focus on.

Future and past thoughts will tighten you up and cause you to play tentative - you lose your confidence. And why is that important? Confidence is defined as a belief, a knowing, and a feeling that the 'task at hand' can be and will be performed successfully. The confident player knows he can make the play. The confident player has total trust in his skills, relaxes and lets himself perform. The confident player has positive thoughts like; "I'm going to rip this guy", "He can't hit me"; or "Nothing can get by me", constantly running through his head.

Players who are not confident have thoughts like, 'I gotta get a hit', "What if I ground out again!' or "If I strike out and we lose its my fault'. These are thoughts of fear - fear of failure. Which is the last thing you want to happen. Do you know anybody who wants to fail? I don't! "Fear is probably the single biggest cause of choking in sports", states Alan Gold berg in his book, Sports Slump Busting.

Future and past thoughts control your performance because they can control the body's physical performance. It's a physiological fact that muscles move more efficiently when relaxed. A tense muscle is a slow muscle. Your swing will be slower and less fluid. It's a physiological fact that when someone is scared or nervous, the eyes tend to 'jump around', shifting rapidly from one spot to another, not focusing on anything for a long enough period of time. How well can you 'see the ball' if your eyes are jumping around?

And what about the numerous articles written by sports physiologists and psychologists that state that the body will do what the mind tells it. For example; in the book, Coaching Mental Excellence, "the human brain communicates to the body through words and pictures. No voluntary action takes place without a preceding thought. Therefore, performance of any kind is preceded by self talk." So positive thoughts are essential to positive performance, just as negative thoughts are cause of negative performances.

Thus, if due to past poor performances or thinking negative end results due to past poor performances, your thoughts turn to; 'I stink!' 'I can't hit this guy" or 'I never play well at this field', you are pre-determining your performance. Or as Dr. Goldberg states; "If you are in the on deck circle and, as you are loosening up physically, you are mentally reviewing your last nine dreadful at-bats you are unknowingly working on No. 10." If you tell yourself you can't do something - guess what? You can't!

An example of what I mean is during a recent practice. To liven up our practice, I sometimes play a soft toss game - JV's verses Varsity. Each team takes their turns defensively and offensively. When they are at bat I stand at home plate and soft toss from the side. One of the JV players didn't want to get up. When it was his turn, he reluctantly got up and proceeded to swing and miss three soft tosses. Nine batters latter he did it again. I found out after practice that this player told the JV coach just the other day that he couldn't hit soft toss. Never has and never will!

To insure your overall performance, your mind must be in the NOW time zone. When the batter is in the NOW he is focused on what he is doing at that moment. He is concentrating on the task at hand - being attentive to the important performance cues. He plays one pitch at a time.

Let me tell you one of the best examples of focusing on the task at hand - playing one pitch at a time. In Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, the Los Angles Dodgers verses the Oakland Athletics, Kirk Gibson hit a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning that has since been called one of the most dramatic plays in sports history. What made it so special is that he was hurt. So hurt that he did not start the game nor did he come out onto the field when they did the pre game announcement of the players as they line up along the foul line. In fact when he was summoned by Tommy Lasorda to pinch-hit, he wasn't even in the dug out - he was in the locker room!

Going into the ninth inning, Dennis Eckersley is on the mound for Oakland and the Dodgers are down 4 to 3. With two outs with a runner on first, Kirk Gibson stepped into the batters box. On the pitches that he swung at he would almost fall down. When he worked the count to 2-2 the runner on first stole second. Miraculously, Gibson worked the count to 3-2. As he was standing in the batters box waiting for the next pitch he called time and stepped out of the batters box. A few seconds later he stepped back into the box and got set for the next pitch. Which, as you may know, he proceeded to send over the right field wall for the game winning home run.

You probably have heard this story before and maybe you have seen the scene on TV with Gibson hobbling around the bases and punching his fist as he rounds second base. It's quite a story - real drama. There are some things we don't know. Like, why did he call time out? Was it to relax, collect his thoughts? Don't know. But what I do know is that when he did step out of the box, at that moment, he remembered something one of the team scouts had said during the pre game scouting reports. "Whenever Dennis Eckersley gets a 3-2 count on the batter he likes to throw a back door slider". I also know that whenever he is asked to recant the story he states that after the runner got on second base; "I wasn't trying to hit a home run, I just wanted to make contact".

What mental time zone was Kirk Gibson in? Was he focusing on how hurt he was or just making contact? Was he thinking 'I gotta get a hit' or was he focused on a performance cue; 'Whenever David Eckersley gets a 3-2 count on the batter he likes to throw a back door slider". It was like he knew what pitch was coming!

To conclude; as Alan Gold berg states; "Most players in a slump flip flop from past to future and back again as they get ready to perform. In order for you to bust a slump and maximize your playing potential your mind has to be in the NOW and nowhere else." So when you are in the on deck circle, when you are in the batters box, think, "THIS pitch is the only one that matters, not the last one or the next one". And when that pitch is over, "THIS pitch is important, not the next one or the last one." Work one pitch at a time.