Generally speaking, the term refers to an issue that's very common among young players where they play well during practice but then struggle during games.

 

I've outlined three of the most common performance anxiety issues I see along with some strategies to help address them.

 

Whether a player is overly-worried about winning and losing, worried about letting his teammates down, or worried about disappointing his parents, putting extra pressure on himself will only reduce his chances of success.  There isn't an athlete in the world who performs at their best when under too much self-imposed pressure.   This isn't to say that external "pressure situations" don't exist (2 outs in the bottom of the 6th, a full count with the bases loaded, the championship game...just for example), but rather that when a player starts to put too much pressure on himself for any reason, his chances for success are greatly reduced.

 

The easiest way to deal with this is to simply take deep breaths and try to relax the mind and body as much as possible.  What do you see NBA players do before every free throw?  They take a deep breath!  What do you see PGA tour golfs do before setting up for a big shot?   THey take a deep breath!   What do you see MLB hitters do before stepping into the batter's box?   They take a deep breath?   What do you see the US Olympic Curling do before a big sweep?  (Just kidding, I have no idea what they do but I would bet that...they take a deep breath!)

 

By slowing the breathing down, a player's mind and muscles relax giving him a much better chance to execute his mechanics.  If his brain is busy thinking about all the things that could go wrong, he simply won't be a good mental state to focus on the current play.

 

Nobody likes to fail, especially when other people are watching, but unfortunately in baseball, there's a lot of "failure."   Actually, to start, let's redefine that term for baseball, and specifically for hitting (where I see the most "performance anxiety" issues). 

 

Swinging and missing is not failure; it's simply something that happens A LOT in our sport.  A player can do literally everything right with his swing and completely miss the ball; baseball is just that hard.  Don't believe me?  Turn on any MLB Spring Training game on TV tonight with your son and watch 1 inning counting the swings and misses.  He'll be shocked to see how often the best players on the planet swing and miss.  

 

Swinging and missing in golf, for example, IS failure.  Don't believe me?  Turn on any professional golf tournament with your son and count the swings and misses.   ZERO!

 

Swinging and missing in tennis, for example, IS failure.  Don't believe me?  Turn on any professional tennis tournament and count how many times a player lines up a forehand shot and then completely misses.  ZERO!

 

So the first we thing we can do to help young players is celebrate their aggressive swings and misses in an effort to change their perception that swinging and missing is failure.

 

With hitters especially, we need to embrace the swings and misses if for no other reason than trying to hit the ball is the best way to improve.  The most common reaction when a young player swings and misses is for him to 1) start swinging much slower in attempt to make more contact or 2) to simply not swing at all because "not trying" definitely feels better than "trying and failing."

One of my favorite social media posts ever was when Elon Musk, soon after successfully landing a SpaceX booster for the first time, posted a video of all the times that the booster had crashed in the past, while trying to attempt the same landing maneuver.  To many people I'm sure his video might have seemed like nothing more than a fun blooper reel, but what he was really doing was celebrating all of his own failures, that he subsequently learned from, and that ultimately led to his success.

 

Embrace the failures and embrace the learning process!

 

Now that the games have started, I ask each lesson student as soon as he gets in the cage to tell me about his last game.  Here's how the conversation often goes:

 

Me: How'd you hit the ball in the last game?

Him: Ok, I guess.

Me: Just, "OK?"  

Him: Yeah, I went 2-4 but struck out once.

 

Just as important as learning to productively "fail,", we also need to make sure our players are setting realistic expectations for themselves.

 

Of course, we want all hitters to believe in their heart that they are going to crush every ball they swing at; this is essential for maintaining bat speed and aggression.  But in their head they have to know that they will not crush every ball they swing at and that nobody goes 4-4 every game.  Far from it, if you can go 1-4 everyday in the big leagues you'll make a ton of money and if you can 1-3 everyday in the big leagues you'll end up in the Hall of Fame.

Here's the quick statistical rundown I'm giving my players right now who have unrealistic expectations of themselves.

Do you know how many at-bats Mike Trout (the best player on the planet) had last year?   402.

 

Do you know how many times Mike Trout swung at a pitch last year?  1000.  (I did some loose calculations to come up with this number but for our purposes it's close enough).

 

Do you know how many Homeruns Mike Trout hit last year out of 1000 swings?  33.

 

The best player on planet earth took 1000 swings last season and only had it work out perfectly for him 33 times.

So when an 11 year old gets upset with himself every time he swings and misses or every time he doesn't get a hit, he's setting himself up to basically be upset ALL THE TIME.

 

We need to encourage our players to try to hit every single ball hard, while also making sure they understand the reality of baseball so that they don't mentally go into a tailspin every time they hit a dribbler to the pitcher, a weak pop-up to 2nd, or strike out.

 

The genesis of "performance anxiety" comes from a good place; if a player gets nervous or upset in games it means that he cares and caring is a good thing.  However, we must give our players the tools to harness their desire to succeed and put them in a positive mindset the that will lead to more positive results, more often.

Good luck!