You can’t get around it. Pressure is a part of sports. You can either dread it or embrace it. Not every athlete thrives under pressure or enjoys it. If you don’t, athletics can be a source of anxiety. Every trip to the free throw line or call to pinch hit can be a pained experience. Of course, this is all in your head. There’s nothing inherently negative about putting a ball throw a hoop or swinging a bat. The trouble is how you think about it. The trick is to turn each anxiety-provoking pressure situation into an opportunity to show your strength.
When I played travel ball as a little kid I was mainly a relief pitcher. I thrived on being put into the game in dire moments when the team was on the verge of losing.
My favorite memory is coming into a championship game in the sixth inning (we only played six) with one out and men on second and third. A kid about three feet tall steps up to the plate. Sizing him up I can tell that he is merely on the team to get walks.
All I have to do is throw three pitches in the strike zone and I can move on to the next hitter and avoid a bases-loaded situation. As predicted, the kid didn’t take the bat off his shoulder and I proceeded to throw three fastballs right down the pipe: two outs, men on second and third.
I was nine at the time so I don’t recall how I got out of the inning but I do know that the next batter got out and we won the game.
Does Pressure Make You Thrive or Crumble?
I thrived under pressure as a pitcher for a few reasons. The most basic is that I enjoyed the challenge of being put in a difficult spot and battling my way out. I never thought of the consequences of failing because I never thought of failing. It wasn’t part of my vocabulary as a pitcher.
I went into each pitch knowing what I had to do and how to do it. And I had a routine to stay focused. After checking the base runners I’d zero in on the corner of the third base bag. After collecting myself I’d face home plate and the rest was automatic. Most importantly, I never aimed the ball, I let loose and threw it, trusting in my mechanics to guide the ball where I wanted it.
I gained this confidence in myself through success but also through belief. It’s not that I never failed, never threw a bad pitch or lost a game, but that I never believed I would. I always took the mound knowing that I would get the job done. And because of that, more times than not, I did.
What to Do When The Confidence is Not There?
If you are still building confidence as an athlete and don’t enjoy pressure situations you may need to rely on something else. One of the most useful tools for an athlete is visualization. It might sound silly but it can help a great deal to visualize yourself having success. So, before you step to the free throw line picture your shot and follow-through and the ball swishing through the net.
Before you go down into your stance and the ball is snapped picture yourself making the perfect block. Before you throw the pitch imagine the batter swinging and missing and the crisp sound of the ball smacking into your catcher’s mitt.
Tap Into Your Mind
Your mind may be a more powerful tool than you realize. When you close your eyes and picture running a race, your brain simulates running the race in an almost identical way to as if you were actually running it.
So visualizing your success can trick your brain into thinking you’ve already done what you’ve set out to accomplish. With your brain on board it’s much easier to raise your arms, flick your wrist, and sink the game-winning free throw.
Once you start visualizing you will start to see uncanny results. In a high school baseball game I once came to the plate thinking of how I would precisely swing through the ball and crush it into left field and high over the fence. This is exactly what happened. Why I did not continue this exercise of visualization I cannot say. I wish that I had.
The bottom line is that just because you may have performed badly under pressure in the past does not mean this has to continue. You can build the confidence through experience and learn to enjoy the challenge of coming through for your team when they need you the most. And once you’ve started to use visualization don’t limit it to just before your at-bat. You can use it all the time to bring yourself success on and off the field.
