Hello again!  It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog for our website.  I was inspired to reach out to all of our athletes, parents, and coaches by a graduate class on Sports Psychology that I am currently enrolled in.  

I think it is important for each individual to have a specific set of goals in purposes towards their sport, and what they hope to achieve.  In order for us to achieve what we want to in sport, or anything in life, we must know how we are going to achieve it.  It is important to focus on the moment at hand on a consistent basis to achieve long-term goals and purposes. 

If we want to establish a fun environment in sport, we must find a way to make sure that we are providing a fun environment on a daily basis.  The same goes for any other objective that we seek to achieve.  We cannot simply say that we want to establish a purpose on the first day of practice, and then put it in the back of our minds for a few weeks.  We must make a conscious effort to let our actions correlate with what we want to accomplish.  Our daily activities become our habits, and it is our job to make sure that our daily habits reflect our values and beliefs. 

To me, two of the many purposes of sport are discipline and determination.  I believe that these two aspects are exactly how we all achieve our goals.  Certainly, there are differing circumstances with each individual which can lead to, or prevent, success.  But, in examining the things that are within each individual’s control, discipline and determination are constants. 

As stated by my professor and Sports Psychologist, Dr. Richard McGuire, almost nothing done in sports is instinctual.  But, all athletes train tirelessly to try and make their actions seem as though they are instinctual.  A pitcher does not have a natural instinct to cover first base when a ground ball is hit to his first baseman.  But through repetitive practice and training, we make it become as instinctual as we possibly can.

It can be easy for each and every athlete to only focus on what they want to accomplish one year, two years, or even three years down the road.  But, in order for each athlete to achieve what they want to in that time span, they must first set a series of attainable short-term goals that will allow them to build up to their ultimate goal. 

In talking about short-term goals, I believe that one can even benefit from setting daily goals.  This includes wanting to get something accomplished on each day and at every practice. 

If you are a baseball pitcher, don’t be satisfied with improving your pick off move by the end of the week.  Improve your pick off move today, and then improve it again tomorrow.  By the end of the week, your pick off move will be that much better than if you had put off a goal that could be accomplished immediately. 

In making our habits and actions as instinctual as we possibly can, we put ourselves in position to react and adjust to anything that is thrown our way. 

Failure is a part of sport, and a part of life.  All of us will encounter it many times.  When failure occurs, we must find our own way to get back into a successful mindset. 

The way that we can quickly reacquire the feeling of success is by trusting in our routine and letting that push us through our failures and setbacks.  But, in order to rely on our routine, we must first establish one.  It must be one that we trust and believe in to put us in the best position to succeed.  The rollercoaster of emotions that occur in sport can be difficult to overcome if we try to react separately to each situation.  But, in creating a constant, positive reaction to failure, we establish consistent success.

For all of us, talking about doing a task is much easier than actually doing that task. 

We can all talk about what we want to accomplish with sport.  But, none of that will carry any weight unless we are willing to take the necessary steps to put it into action.  In order to accomplish our goals we must allow ourselves to not only become creatures of habit, but creatures of positive habit.  By that, I mean that we must become regimented in habits that will allow us to fulfill our established goals and purposes.

Topics: Baseball, daily goals, goals, mindset, positive habits, purposes, Sports Psychology

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