The #1 Key to Success is _________________.

I screwed up.

Twice.

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Before I explain that, thank you to the many people who've written me in response to my question about coaching @12 year olds. I'm shooting a video Saturday and have some short answer, specific questions that I've added at the end of this email. If you work with @12 year olds, please respond immediately.
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A week ago I congratulated a player on being drafted and I mentioned his dad's name instead of his. His dad is a dear friend and one of our planet's best people and I was excited for him, so he was on my mind.

Then I pledged to correct it the next day and forgot.

So first, congratulations to Steven Otterness on being drafted by the Reds. Great job of making your dream come true, Steven.

Steven has done things the right way. He's persisted. He's gotten great grades in a demanding pilot training program at Embry-Riddle, busted his butt for 4 years physically, and has turned himself into a top pitcher.

A professional pitcher. He's earned that title.

He's followed the #1 key to success.

The #1 key to success is to decide you are going to succeed.

For me, for sure, the key to my business success is simply my deciding that I will be successful and then taking action consistent with that belief.

I make mistakes. I do things that don't work.

But I know if I keep going, if I keep my vision at the forefront of my mind I cannot be stopped. Not by anyone or any thing.

Not as long as I take action consistent with that decision.

It can be different for a baseball player, in that his physical gifts may not be there to compete at the highest level.

But the only way for him to know whether he's been given enough is to decide he's going to make his dream come true and act consistent with that belief.

Many, many players are in the Major Leagues who had once been told they couldn't make it. Scott Brocious told me at every level he ever played there were more talent players than he. But he believed and he focused.

And kept going.

Winston Churchill apparently gave a 9 word graduation speech:

"Never give up.

"Never give up.

"Never give up."

That was it. Then he sat down. To say more would have muddied his message.

Irvine never gave up last night, that's for sure.

I used to think I understood this idea. I taught it.

And you might be thinking, "Yes, I know that."

But now I get it at a whole new level. And I'm willing to bet there are several layers of understanding still there for you to peal away.

And chances are with greater understanding of the mental game and expertly guided mental training you can peal them away and rocket yourself toward YOUR dream (you have one don't you?).

Invest in yourself at www.BaseballConfidence.com/Products.html

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

p.s. OK. Here we go you baseball coaching /parents of @12 year olds. I encourage you to be brief b/c it makes it easier for me and it makes you think more. It is harder to be concise than verbose.


1. What is your greatest challenge? (see if you can nail it in one sentence)

2. What should I be sure to cover? (list in bullet format)

3. What elements should the video and program have (e.g. short segments, kids talking, etc.)

Anything else you want to add:


Thank you.

How to Make Your Performances Breathtaking

This is a glorious time of year for us mental game-arians:
college baseball playoffs.

I can see the guys working their pre-pitch routines, taking their pre-pitch deep breaths. (The top teams almost all either have coaches that are into the mental game or they use a consultant to teach the stuff.)

It seems like the players really get that each pitch is important, that they need to really be focused to give themselves their best chance of dog piling on each other at the end of it all.

So you see the breaths in particular. Its sort of a "Deep-Breath-apolooza.

But...

Newsflash: every pitch in a game throughout the whole season is important.

These guys are still playing in part because they get that.
They do it all year. It's not something you "turn on" for the playoffs.

If that's your approach you won't get to the playoffs.

I remember a Single A level player telling me "I can't wait to get to the Big Leagues. You see those guys? They look so relaxed and free."

The short of where I went with the conversation is that they GOT to the Big Leagues by playing that way, they didn't get there and then free up and let go.

"Oh," he said.

So the key is to start now. Elevate your game to where you're focused consistently. To where you're playing free and focused.

This is a learnable skill.

I've watched it be developed in my students and I'm experiencing it now myself.

I've improved my play on my softball team dramatically by applying the stuff I teach to others. As I've practiced and refined my mental approach I've gotten better and better and the games are funner and funner.

For example, since I've been practicing just two of the many ideas I got from Garin Bader in this month's Baseball Confidence Gym CD I'm 9 for 9 with a slugging % of over 2.000. With no HRs (big park).

That's a lot of doubles. 2 doubles, a triple and a walk tonight.

So pick a mental tool and work on it.

And get into each pitch -- the game is so much more fun and the results are so much sweeter.

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

p.s. Much of what the top teams are doing have roots in "Heads-Up Baseball," the book Ken Ravizza and I wrote over 10 years ago.

I've advanced the programs and made them simpler to use. To see the line up go to www.BaseballConfidence.com/Products.html

Click here for more on baseball coaching.

Heads-Up Performance Inc

A Danger in Lessons: from the Mail Bag

From the Mail Bag:

Kate writes...
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"I have a 13 year old daughter who made an elite softball team with older, more experienced girls. While she is very talented, enough to make that team, she is the youngest on the team.

"Her strongest area has always been her batting, right now however she isn't hitting at all and seems intimidated and timid during tournaments with this team. She spent all winter, twice a week with a batting coach who made changes and now is striking out continually.

"I believe it is the mental part of the game, how can she snap out of this? She is in to her 5th tournament of the season with only 5 on base hits. Any suggestions? Thank you!
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Some of the red flags that pop up in that...

1) lots of coaching -- new mechanics

2) new level of play -- she's playing up so the competition is tough

3) she's had some failure so I'm sure she's not thinking productively. The failure doesn't hurt her future performance, her thinking does.

Let's start with #3. She's no doubt pounding herself with negativity bombs 24/7.

Whatever you focus on you get more of.

So spending her time thinking about how badly she's hitting brings about more bad hitting.

#2: When the other girls are older the competition will be tough. She'll fail more and needs to understand that if she is going to have a chance to succeed.

Getting upset about failing makes future failure more likely.

#1 Lessons can be dangerous. Chances are she's got a head filled her with mechanics. That means her head will be deliberately talking to her muscles while she's hitting.

That's not good. (It's like having a 3 year old "help" you paint your bedroom -- a mess.)

The key to success in hitting is focus and trust. Focus on the ball, trust your body. Let it do what it knows how to do instead of trying to help it.

9.3 times out of 10 when a player is going bad he/she will tell you their focus in on their mechanics.

Just as often a player going great will say they are just focused on the ball, or the mitt if she's pitching. Not their mechanics.

Its unlikely the lesson giver was able to teach mechanics without her becoming mechanical -- few can.

So there's lots more I could say about each of these three things, but let's just take the shortest path to turning things around.

The keys to her future are in her past.

Encourage her to pick a time when she was hitting great. Go back and re-experience it. Enjoy it. Let go into the experience so she can feel it.

Then mine it for info. Look for what she was doing then and do those things now.

Easier said than done, I know. But it works if she'll do it.

In the same vein, she needs to shift from an outcome focus:
getting hits, to a process focus: seeing the ball, putting the fat part of the bat on the ball, having a quality AB, or even "having fun," or "supporting my teammates."

Have her choose something she's doing when she's hitting great that she can control and judge her ABs on whether or not she did that thing (stand tall, breathe, focus, etc.)

Also, chances are good she's very focused on herself.
Focusing instead on supporting her teammates can take some of her self-imposed heat off of herself.

I could go on all day with ideas. I've actually got a lot a very useful info in my "5 Steps to Unstoppable Confidence"
f*r*ee course at FreeBaseballConfidence.com.

Keep me posted, Kate

Sincerely,

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson
http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/Join.html

p.s. What I don't like about my answer above is that I'm not a big quick fix guy. Developing mental skills can be lightning fast, but, like physical conditioning true change happens over time.

With conditioning.

That's why my basic program is called Confidence Conditioning.

You condition yourself to be confident just the way you condition yourself to be fit. (Unless you don't, of course. But then you get the consequences: If you don't condition yourself physically you get fat and ineffective. If you don't condition yourself mentally you risk being in the situation the girl in the question is in.)

To get Confidence Conditioning for no charge, join the Baseball Confidence Gym for just a month.

Take your time, as the guy below did. He joined the Gym for a year today and got all the bonuses...

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Dear Tom: "I played pro baseball (minors) many moons ago and now teach athletic training for not only baseball and softball (my 1st love) but I train for all sports.
Three of my 5 kids are very good athletes, so my push to switch to this new career has been hastened a bit, which was probably good since otherwise I would probably have always dreamed but never made the leap.

"I always had that mental edge where the switch would always click when I crossed the white line but I have struggled with being able to teach it to others, especially my kids, outside of the skills/drills, values and work ethic that I have instilled in them since they began to crawl and walk.

"I have spent a good time studying and analyzing many different programs out there and throughout all my travels in book store and the internet, I keep coming full circle back to your program and website.

"So, I finally made the decision that I have exhausted all my research and I believe that your site has the most to offer, so here I am.

Warm regards, Mike Killian Sports Excellence, LLC.
www.SportsExcellenceLLC.com
-----

To check out the Gym, go to

http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/Join.html

For an overview of all my programs, go to http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/Products.html

With new power, I Injured the Pitcher!

I knew it would be good, but I didn't know it would *amaze* me.

Let me set the stage for you before I tell you about it...

When you were a kid, did you ever imagine you were some star player?

I often pretended I was Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva or Rod Carew. (Yes, I grew up in Minnesota in the late 60's and 70's).

When I was Killebrew, I jacked the ball. Period. I was the man.

When I was Carew, I laced it all over the park.

See, I wasn't little Tommy Hanson, I was a dominant Major League player. Future Hall-of-Famers cream wiffle balls all day and all night.

I'd wear out my pitcher/friends (Fish, Nate, High Head and Pits).

There's power in imagination. Big time, transformational power.

And this imagination technique isn't for the young only.

Hall-of-Famer Mike Schmidt said he used to think "Clemente"
as his "last conscious thought" in the batter's box before a pitch.

So one HOF guy was pretending to be another HOF guy. In a big league game.

Einstein has his well-worn quote that "Imagination is more powerful than knowledge."

But to harness that power you need the knowledge of how to do it.

You've seen a hypnosis stage show, most likely. You know, where the guy gets the poor suckers that volunteer to go up there (I've been one of those suckers twice) and do silly things.

Like be freezing cold when the room temperature is normal.
Or make out with a mop like it's Paris Hilton. Or even not see a man standing in plain view.

We know the mind is capable of amazing things, but how do you harness that and use it to create power you can use?

What should you imagine to give yourself maximal power in your pitching and hitting?

To find out, I found I guy whose made a science of harnessing that power his whole life.

I recently interviewed a guy named Garin Bader. You've likely not heard of him unless you've seen his Vegas show on a cruise ship, or in Vegas, or somewhere else.

He's a world class pianist. World class magician. World class martial arts guy.

Generally, a world-class guy.

One of the people I respect most in my life calls Garin a "modern day Leonardo DiVinci."

Over the course of his life Garin's created a system for taping into the awesome power of imagination. He's created a system for powerful, consistent performance that I am jacked up about.

I think this system eventually will make a big impact on the baseball world. My interview with him is the first in baseball.

You have not heard this information before, I promise you.
Garin re-defines what it means to pitch and hit.

As I held a ball and did what he told me to do I felt a power and fluidity in my throwing action I'd never felt.

As I held a bat in my hand and did what he told me to do I felt such a power that in anticipation of my upcoming slow-pitch softball game I said "they'd better get the married men off the infield."

Two day's later I winced as the opposing pitcher was helped off the field.

Seriously. That actually happened.

I smoked a wicked one hopper off the pitcher's knee that caromed over the shortstop's head and into left field.

Earlier that day I'd played in a corporate golf tourney and used just one of the ideas Garin told me and I set a new personal record for longest drive at 305 yards.

Old record, 275.

How did I do it? I harnessed my imagination. I used it in a way I'd never imagined using it before. Imagine that!

But this system, called Core Force Energy, isn't for everyone. You have to be open. You have to actually TRY it.
DO it while you're listening.

If you just sit back and evaluate it -- with a "prove it to me" attitude, you're apt to think it too strange. Please don't waste your time and money.

But they laughed at Columbus when he said the world was round. They laughed at Copernicus for saying the earth revolved around the sun.

They laughed at the idea that a TV network could make money showing only sports.

All I can say is that I'm laughing at the power of the content of this month's Baseball Confidence Gym CD.

Try the Gym for 1 month for $29.95 and get my best selling Confidence Conditioning for Baseball program free, to keep.

Get in now because each Friday you'll get a coaching email from me, and with this amazing topic I'll be fielding questions and coaching you through it.

http://www.BaseballConfidence.com/Join.html

Thank you,

Tom
Dr. Tom Hanson

p.s. I so want you to experience this power that for this month only I'll give you a full refund if you don't feel you got your investment worth. So you get the Gym membership, plus Confidence Conditioning for Baseball (mental game success 101) at no risk.

p.p.s. this could revolutionize baseball coaching.