halskinner
Banned
- May 7, 2008
- 2,649
- 0
Was it Yogi Berra that said ""90% of pitching is 50% mental".
THE BATTER / PITCHER "THING". ã 1999,2001
If you ever played softball, or even baseball for that matter, you know that something happens between the pitcher and the batter. There is a certain "Thing" that happens. It's a head thing, a mental thing; it's a psychological thing. If a young pitcher does not realize it and understand it, it can have a very dramatic effect on their performance.
The batters step up to the batter's box. They take a few vicious swings. They step in, dig in, tighten up all their muscles and take their stance. They have just wasted their time, (and everyone else's) by making that portion of the batting ceremony just as long and drawn out as possible. It did nothing but delay the game a few more seconds and bore everyone to death. Going through all that does them no good at all. None of what they just did is really important.
Once they have gotten that far, now they are ready to do the most important thing that they do when they are in the box.
Now they turn their head and look at the pitcher's face, they go for the eye contact. They try and get that batter / pitcher "Thing" started. They give you their most determined, fierce, intimidating and ugly look that they can give. They want you to see their face and especially their eyes. They NEED you to see their eyes, they NEED eye contact and they need it very badly.
They need to know you have looked in their eyes. They want to see how confident the pitcher is in their own pitching ability and that story is read in the pitcher's eyes.
If you look into the batter's eyes, if you make eye contact with the batter, they win that portion of the battle between the pitcher and the batter. Make no mistake about it, it is a battle. It is not just a battle of physical strength and ability. It is a battle of wits, a mental battle. One of you will win that portion of the battle, one of you will lose. It will all happen before the pitch is thrown or the bat is swung!
Why is eye contact with the pitcher so important to a batter? I will try and explain, see if this has ever happened to you. Let's say you are at school. You are walking down the hallway and you spot someone you know walking towards you from the other end of the hall. You watch them and as they get closer, you look at their eyes and sort of smile as you are waiting for that person to notice and acknowledge you in return. When that person gets to you, they just walked right on past you. When that person passed by you, you turned and glared at them and thought, "Huh, some friend". Now you are wondering if that person likes you or not and how much nerve they had to walk by you and treat you like you don't even exist. It upset you a little, maybe even a lot and it might even ruin that part of your day. You might not be able to get that person off your mind for a few days.
That feeling that you had for that person that did not notice you at school, that is the exact same feeling you want the batter to have when they are in the box. The batter is like you walking down that hallway. You are the other person, the one that is not going to notice them.
You are not going to make eye contact and you are going to let the batter feel slighted, unnoticed, insignificant, and unimportant and not even worth looking at. You want them to feel so unimportant that they will get upset and it will ruin that little part of their day.
You want to make their little insignificant visit to the batter's box as unpleasant as you can. You do not want them to enjoy the time you spend together. Off the field, you must try to be the nicest person anyone ever met. While you are in that circle, that is a completely different story. You must drop that nice person image and you must make sure the other team knows it.
No matter what you might think, if you make eye contact with the batter, the batter wins that portion of the battle.
When they look at you and you make eye contact, if it is too short a time the batter interprets that as fear.
If you make eye contact for too long a time, the batter will interpret that as you displaying a lack of confidence in yourself and your ability.
In either case the batter wins that portion of the battle because now the batter has confidence. The batter is confident that you are either scared of them, doubt your own ability or both. They will be more aggressive and more confident when they swing the bat because you let them have that confidence. You gave them that little edge over you because you let them make eye contact.
You could have controlled them but you chose to look into their eyes. When you control the ball, you control the game and the pitcher controls the ball more than any other player on the team. How you exercise your control will determine how effective you are as a pitcher.
Certain circumstances can exist where it WILL benefit the pitcher to make eye contact with a particular batter. It is an intimidation tactic and you must make absolutely certain how it is presented. There can be no doubt in the batter's mind at all, or it will work against you. It must be accompanied with a very insulting grin and it must be timed and presented so the batter immediately steps out of the box in fear of you hitting them with the next pitch. If you do this and the batter does not step out of the box, you just made yourself appear nervous and afraid. You also just made the batter feel very confident and much more aggressive.
Young pitchers will view it as simply 'a stare down'. That is what they might think because all they understand of it is that the pitcher and the batter are supposed to give each other a dirty look. It goes much deeper than they really understand.
I have seen young pitchers that this has had huge effects on. Some have had trembling spells during the game, some have gotten sick to their stomach, some have gotten so tense that they were not able to breath well. Many of these types of episodes have gone on to the point of the young pitcher quitting the sport all together.
It is normally blamed on being a case of nerves or maturity and is seldom seen for what it really is. It is really simple if you think about it. It is simply one kid looking into the eyes of a bunch of other kids, one at a time. Each of those other kids are looking back as if they hate that kid's guts. Whether that one kid realizes it or not, or admits to it or not, it can have a deep psychological effect that will almost always be explained away as something else.
Be aware that this can happen. It happens far more often than you might think. Any kid that has that many other kids giving them dirty looks is going to be bothered by it to some extent. Sometimes, depending on that particular kid, it can bother them a great deal.
To be a winning pitcher you must understand that there are only 4 people on the field, the pitcher, the catcher, the umpire and your next strike out victim. That person does not have a name. That person does not have a face. They are a statistic in the book and that is all they are, nothing more. If you view them or allow them to be anything more than that, they can have an impact on your mental state while you are pitching.
Get in the habit of staring at your catcher's facemask and only look at that. You might be very surprised just how hard and to what extent the batters will go to try and get the pitcher to make eye contact with them. They will be thinking much more about the pitcher than the ball and when that happens, guess who wins the battle now?
Here is one little secret I will pass along, it's in the form of a question. I will not go into great detail, I want you to figure this one out.
Of all the batters on the other team, which one is the easiest for the pitcher to intimidate? Answer; whatever batter is in THE ON DECK CIRCLE!
THE BATTER / PITCHER "THING". ã 1999,2001
If you ever played softball, or even baseball for that matter, you know that something happens between the pitcher and the batter. There is a certain "Thing" that happens. It's a head thing, a mental thing; it's a psychological thing. If a young pitcher does not realize it and understand it, it can have a very dramatic effect on their performance.
The batters step up to the batter's box. They take a few vicious swings. They step in, dig in, tighten up all their muscles and take their stance. They have just wasted their time, (and everyone else's) by making that portion of the batting ceremony just as long and drawn out as possible. It did nothing but delay the game a few more seconds and bore everyone to death. Going through all that does them no good at all. None of what they just did is really important.
Once they have gotten that far, now they are ready to do the most important thing that they do when they are in the box.
Now they turn their head and look at the pitcher's face, they go for the eye contact. They try and get that batter / pitcher "Thing" started. They give you their most determined, fierce, intimidating and ugly look that they can give. They want you to see their face and especially their eyes. They NEED you to see their eyes, they NEED eye contact and they need it very badly.
They need to know you have looked in their eyes. They want to see how confident the pitcher is in their own pitching ability and that story is read in the pitcher's eyes.
If you look into the batter's eyes, if you make eye contact with the batter, they win that portion of the battle between the pitcher and the batter. Make no mistake about it, it is a battle. It is not just a battle of physical strength and ability. It is a battle of wits, a mental battle. One of you will win that portion of the battle, one of you will lose. It will all happen before the pitch is thrown or the bat is swung!
Why is eye contact with the pitcher so important to a batter? I will try and explain, see if this has ever happened to you. Let's say you are at school. You are walking down the hallway and you spot someone you know walking towards you from the other end of the hall. You watch them and as they get closer, you look at their eyes and sort of smile as you are waiting for that person to notice and acknowledge you in return. When that person gets to you, they just walked right on past you. When that person passed by you, you turned and glared at them and thought, "Huh, some friend". Now you are wondering if that person likes you or not and how much nerve they had to walk by you and treat you like you don't even exist. It upset you a little, maybe even a lot and it might even ruin that part of your day. You might not be able to get that person off your mind for a few days.
That feeling that you had for that person that did not notice you at school, that is the exact same feeling you want the batter to have when they are in the box. The batter is like you walking down that hallway. You are the other person, the one that is not going to notice them.
You are not going to make eye contact and you are going to let the batter feel slighted, unnoticed, insignificant, and unimportant and not even worth looking at. You want them to feel so unimportant that they will get upset and it will ruin that little part of their day.
You want to make their little insignificant visit to the batter's box as unpleasant as you can. You do not want them to enjoy the time you spend together. Off the field, you must try to be the nicest person anyone ever met. While you are in that circle, that is a completely different story. You must drop that nice person image and you must make sure the other team knows it.
No matter what you might think, if you make eye contact with the batter, the batter wins that portion of the battle.
When they look at you and you make eye contact, if it is too short a time the batter interprets that as fear.
If you make eye contact for too long a time, the batter will interpret that as you displaying a lack of confidence in yourself and your ability.
In either case the batter wins that portion of the battle because now the batter has confidence. The batter is confident that you are either scared of them, doubt your own ability or both. They will be more aggressive and more confident when they swing the bat because you let them have that confidence. You gave them that little edge over you because you let them make eye contact.
You could have controlled them but you chose to look into their eyes. When you control the ball, you control the game and the pitcher controls the ball more than any other player on the team. How you exercise your control will determine how effective you are as a pitcher.
Certain circumstances can exist where it WILL benefit the pitcher to make eye contact with a particular batter. It is an intimidation tactic and you must make absolutely certain how it is presented. There can be no doubt in the batter's mind at all, or it will work against you. It must be accompanied with a very insulting grin and it must be timed and presented so the batter immediately steps out of the box in fear of you hitting them with the next pitch. If you do this and the batter does not step out of the box, you just made yourself appear nervous and afraid. You also just made the batter feel very confident and much more aggressive.
Young pitchers will view it as simply 'a stare down'. That is what they might think because all they understand of it is that the pitcher and the batter are supposed to give each other a dirty look. It goes much deeper than they really understand.
I have seen young pitchers that this has had huge effects on. Some have had trembling spells during the game, some have gotten sick to their stomach, some have gotten so tense that they were not able to breath well. Many of these types of episodes have gone on to the point of the young pitcher quitting the sport all together.
It is normally blamed on being a case of nerves or maturity and is seldom seen for what it really is. It is really simple if you think about it. It is simply one kid looking into the eyes of a bunch of other kids, one at a time. Each of those other kids are looking back as if they hate that kid's guts. Whether that one kid realizes it or not, or admits to it or not, it can have a deep psychological effect that will almost always be explained away as something else.
Be aware that this can happen. It happens far more often than you might think. Any kid that has that many other kids giving them dirty looks is going to be bothered by it to some extent. Sometimes, depending on that particular kid, it can bother them a great deal.
To be a winning pitcher you must understand that there are only 4 people on the field, the pitcher, the catcher, the umpire and your next strike out victim. That person does not have a name. That person does not have a face. They are a statistic in the book and that is all they are, nothing more. If you view them or allow them to be anything more than that, they can have an impact on your mental state while you are pitching.
Get in the habit of staring at your catcher's facemask and only look at that. You might be very surprised just how hard and to what extent the batters will go to try and get the pitcher to make eye contact with them. They will be thinking much more about the pitcher than the ball and when that happens, guess who wins the battle now?
Here is one little secret I will pass along, it's in the form of a question. I will not go into great detail, I want you to figure this one out.
Of all the batters on the other team, which one is the easiest for the pitcher to intimidate? Answer; whatever batter is in THE ON DECK CIRCLE!
And as a batter, she has tried to make her routine of taking the batters box look confident and intimidating. "THUMP!" goes the bat down on the far edge of the plate, like she's clubbing a small animal to death while measuring her plate coverage, and then eyeing the pitcher as the next on her list... (I think the only person who winces is me, as visions of shattered endcaps float through my mind.) These things are all fun to her: part of the game. 
