George Horton, College Baseball Coach (Cal State Fullerton and Oregon)
“We want our guys to play at their pace and to treat every game like a practice, and every practice like a game so that nothing changes. Our goal is to play baseball and let everything else take care of itself….If we can do that with a focus on the process, in the present moment with a positive mindset, we are giving ourselves the best chance to be successful.”
“Our staff had been intact for a long time and we had always been big believers in the Mental Game, but often got caught up in the day to day operations of a baseball program and sometimes did not re-enforce or talk about the Mental Game as much as we probably could or should have. In 2004, we really made a conscious effort to re-enforce the techniques that Ken was talking about.
We would spend more time talking about each of our player’s routines and the importance of taking that good deep breath as the pitcher comes set, or as the hitter gets into the batters box. I think as a staff we also did a better job of letting go of the negatives and getting back to the next pitch. As a coach you need to model what you want you players to be doing, I think that is the best type of reinforcement.”
“I think our guys work as hard day in and day out as anyone in the country. We take a lot of pride in getting better everyday. We also work very hard on the fundamentals. We emphasize the little things everyday. Bunting, base running, execution, those types of things that we rely so heavily on in games, we must do in practice everyday.
We also try to make our practices as game like as possible. When we scrimmage, we often start with runners on base and use the scoreboard to make the game more realistic.”
“…if you focus on the results and loose sight of the process you will find yourself carrying the weight of the world and not playing up to your potential.”
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