RELAXATION

The Key to Enhanced Performance

Do you ever wonder why you can hit the ball consistently well like on the practice field? The answer lies not in the plane of your swing, nor in the alignment of your grip, but rather the answer is tension. A lack of tension in practice, a subtle, increasing tension at the beginning and throughout a game.

Tension tightens the shoulder and neck muscles, causes motion to become less fluid and subsequently less accurate. It causes vision to blur, focus to become less keen, concentration to wane. And though these effects go unnoticed, they are nevertheless both very real, and very detrimental to performance.

On the practice field it is easy to stay relaxed, to work on the many fine points of the game, to hone those fine motor skills. The environment is non-threatening, there is no one watching, casting critical assessments on what you are doing. But in the game-box things change. Pitches are taken in turn, other players are looking, checking out your game. Look at the hitters on your teams. Who's hitting those monsters shots in the batting cages or in practice? Is she the same one busting down the fences in the games? Or is she the one most likely to hit the "home run in an elevator" shot with two outs and the winning run on third?

In truth, she may be either, because performance in practice is not always indicative of performance under game conditions. (Though again, the axiom is absolutely true: perfect practice makes perfect.) And it is tension - or rather our response to tension, for in truth tension is unavoidable - that makes all the difference. For some - indeed, clearly the majority - disciplined practice produces disciplined at-bats. In fact, it is essential that every ballplayer refine her physical stroke through some sort of practice. For others, however, untold hours on the practice field might yield nothing but the most inconsistent of results. Some thrive on game situations; some let the subtle influences of tensions throw them completely off their games. Learning to deal with tension - or rather, to minimize the effects of tension - is crucial.

Likewise, it is important to realize that no matter how often you take your cuts, no matter how easy it feels in the cages, no matter how fuzzy you feel when you launch your missiles in practice, it is not going to stay that way forever. Everyone who's played this game has had that feeling that suddenly she's found the secret to the universe, the feeling of "if I could bottle this stuff..." But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, we have so much difficulty agreeing on physical mechanics that it is unlikely that we'll ever achieve a consensus on the one key mental approach to hitting.

But this realization will not stop us from believing. And as long as we believe, for that one particular at-bat, for that one particular game, for that one brief, shining moment, we'll be able to relax and perform at our peak.

In the next article, we'll take a look at some of the techniques we can use to help us relax both in and away from the game.