Now that the Little League season has officially started here in Southern California, I'm spending more time in lessons talking about the mental side of the game as players work to recreate what they can do in practice in a game setting.

During the roughly 60 lessons I did last week, I had more than a few parents tell me that in the first game, their son looked nothing like player they have seen in pre-season practice or lessons, and I had more than a few players tell me how nervous/anxious they were on Opening Day.

Being nervous during games is extremely common, and a constant challenge for athletes at all levels is to feel as comfortable, confident, and relaxed in games as they do in practice.

For Little Leaguers, this means trying to focus on 2 things during a game: 1) The Process and 2) The Positives. In this blog I'm going to talk about The Process.

1) The Process vs The Result
There are so many things we can't control during a game and unfortunately, it's these uncontrollables that often cause the most nerves (fear) in younger guys. For pitchers it sounds like this: "I'm worried he's going to hit the ball" or "I don't want to hit the batter" or "The umpire has a small strike zone." For Batters it sounds like: "I didn't want to swing and miss" or "I didn't want to strike out" or "I was worried about getting a stinger."

These are very common fears at the little league age and by focusing on The Process, rather than The Result, your player will start to feel more comfortable in game settings. Here's what I mean:

After the pitcher releases the ball from his hand, he no longer has any control over the results of the pitch. Whether the batter swings and misses, swings and hits it, the defense makes the play, the defense makes an error, the umpire says "ball" or "strike" etc is not up to the pitcher. So, by focusing on correct mechanics with the ONLY goal being "THROW A STRIKE," pitchers will be more successful because they will have far less fear and nervousness as a result of feeling in control of the situation. At its core, not knowing the result of their actions is what causes nervousness and focusing entirely on The Process as a measure of success and failure will lead to more confident and comfortable ballplayers who are capable of reaching their full game potential.

For hitters, the fear of swinging and missing, striking out, or simply making an out, can be completely debilitating. In practice, players do not feel nervous because they are less worried about The Result. They think if they swing and miss in BP or a lesson - who cares? And guess what? They're right! By not being fearful of the result (easier to do in non-game settings) young players have more confidence, feel more comfortable, and as a result, perform better. So the solution in a game is to focus on The Process of hitting. This means re-framing "success" and "failure" by believing that a successful at-bat is one where they took fundamentally sound, aggressive, and competitive swings - that is what should define a good at-bat, not the result. Once hitters feel they have control of their at-bat (The Process), the fear of failure - and therefore the nervousness - disappears and they will start seeing better results as a natural byproduct of their new attitude and focus.

Before your next game, talk to your son about what he wants to accomplish in terms of The Process and after the game, have him analyze his performance in those terms and not in batting average or ERA.

Here are a few examples of good "Process Goals:"

"I'm going to take at least 7 aggressive swings today."
"I'm going to be ready to swing at the first pitch of every at-bat."
"I'm going to keep my head still when I swing."
"I'm going to throw at least 50% strikes."
"I'm going to make sure my glove stays in front of my heart through the delivery."
"I'm going to keep the ball down in the zone."

I'll discuss "The Positives" next week.

Good luck!