Pitching Under Pressure

They will also realize that student-athletes are responsible for taking care of their business on and off the field. There was a study that found that almost half of the male athletes and slightly more than half of the female athletes, who were involved in the study, implied that stresses like pressure to win, excessive anxiety, frustration conflict, irritation, and fear affected their mental and emotional health (Humphrey et al., 2000). This is important to know because this can later or even immediately affect a person’s confidence and self worth. Freshmen are not the only class that deals with stress, which will affect their performance. Although these stress factors are brought to their attention early in their careers, most do not seek help nor do they find a solution to their problem. It is important that coaches have sport counselors that sit in and talk with these often to insure they are doing ok. These athletes are psychologically and physiologically hurting and need

Shocked by the home run, the pitcher found it hard to keep his surprising emotions inside his mind.

Not only do players think while on defense, but also, they are thinking while batting. A player may be batting in certain situations where they know they need to hit the ball to a certain place or get a bunt down at a certain place. Again, this is all happening before they step into the box and react physically to the pitch being thrown. Baseball is a very hard game physically and when players are struggling it is very hard to stay positive mentally. It is hard to get enough to hit and when things are going bad our mind becomes evil. This is where baseball players develop to be mentally tough. Baseball is so hard that if you go 3 out of 10 you are considered one of the greats. In basketball, if a player shoots 3 out of 10 from the free throw line they're going to be terrible. This lone statistic right here shows how much failure is in the game of baseball and how hard it is. It is extremely hard for athletes to stay positive in these slumps they may experience when they aren't getting any hits. Another mental aspect of baseball is the fears players must overcome to be successful.

Sports—which involve emotion, competition, cooperation, achievement, and play—provide a rich area for psychological study. People involved in sports attempt to master very difficult skills, often subjecting themselves to intense physical stress as well as social pressure. research has expanded into numerous areas such as imagery training, hypnosis, relaxation training, motivation, socialization, conflict and competition, counseling, and coaching. Specific sports and recreational specialties studied include baseball, basketball, soccer,

Fastpitch softball is a game of mental precision. It has its ups and downs. One game, you may feel as if you are unstoppable. While the following game may send you crying the entire car ride home. Even the rush of hitting a home run or the excitement of pitching a no-hitter, are no match for the mental games that always seem to follow a disappointing play. There are moments in each athlete’s softball career in which this disappointment becomes too much. It swallows them completely and consequently leaves them questioning why they ever started playing the game. It may even cause them to consider quitting.

​ Baseball to most it just a simple game that involves one just throwing a ball, another hitting it, and then another catching it, but it’s much more than that. The ability to hit a baseball three hundred plus feet, that’s coming at you at speeds greater than 85 mph, is hard to attain. Now imagine trying to catch a ball that’s coming at the same speeds, not so easy now right? Apart from the physical abilities needed to play, the mental part of the game is also important. The game of baseball is similar to life if you’re not prepared physically and mentally to go about your business you won’t succeed.

Because of these factors student athletes can be at a higher risk of anxiety and depression.

“Arrieta has shined in pressure situations all season. He has performed marked better than his competitors in the close/late category.” Arrieta shows no emotions on the mound, which is a big deal in the world of baseball. He could be in the worst situation in the middle of a game, but he can’t let the batter know that he has the pressure on him. on the other hand, in the past Clayton Kershaw has shown sings of madness or aggression on the mound when in a tight spot, or when something doesn’t go his way. It is essential to stay calm on the mound in all

the last 3 games they needed to use 8 pitchers, 220 pitches and 38 outs

The worry I had earlier began to slowly dissipate as we headed onward to the next inning. It’s a shame that the worry was only gone for a total of 18 pitches before they had gotten three scores and were ahead of us. When we finally got inside the dugout for our turn to bat, we were pumped to get back ahead of them as fast as possible. We were able to get one run before we reached our three outs and were thrust back onto the field with a tying score. They took two runs from us again causing me to get worried again. They just went ahead of us by two points, and I felt that all was lost. We were finally able to get the last out and we headed inside to the dugout. We were only able to get one run back like last time and I felt that we would lose and then we would be unable to go to the World Series, which is something I had wanted to achieve for sometime. But we were struck out and we went back out onto the field.

The worry I had earlier began to slowly dissipate as we headed onward to the next inning. It’s a shame that the worry was only gone for a total of 18 pitches before they had gotten three scores and were ahead of us. When we finally got inside the dugout for our turn to bat, we were pumped to get back ahead of them as fast as possible. We were able to get one run before we reached our three outs and were thrust back onto the field with a tying score. They took two runs from us again causing me to get worried again. They just went ahead of us by two points, and I felt that all was lost. We were finally able to get the last out and we headed inside to the dugout. We were only able to get one run back like last time and I felt that we would lose and then we would be unable to go to the World Series, which is something I had wanted to achieve for sometime. But we were struck out and we went back out onto the field.

Yogi Berra believed that, “Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.” From my tenure as a college softball pitcher at Point Park University, I learned how imperative being mentally sound is to the game of softball. The legal field is a very demanding field. I know my experiences gained on the diamond will allow me to flourish in a field dependent upon mental toughness.

Have you ever seen a pitcher pitch a one pitch inning. That's 3 outs in one pitch. Ben Jablonski did that in a baseball game over the summer. In the end they were still defeated by a lot of runs.

Our thoughts, diet/nutrition, exercise, rest, environment and physiology have a positive or negative impact on us which affects how well we perform and feel. In the world of sports, this is very easy to demonstrate because the mind/body connection provides you with immediate feedback. When you are positive, your performance excels. When you are negative, your performance is adversely affected. With various types of distress, or

Many athletes would agree that they have felt butterflies in their stomach or a sudden rush of adrenaline before an important game. This feeling can either translate into legendary performances or monumental failures. According to Sharon D. Hoar (2007), to fully comprehend anxiety’s effect on performance, one must understand the discrimination between two unique sets of sources: trait and state anxiety, and cognitive and somatic anxiety. Anxiety symptoms are numerous and unique to every athlete. Hoar suggests that athletes might report cognitive symptoms (eg. Inability to focus), somatic symptoms (eg. Sweaty palms), or both. The author discusses a variety of sources of anxiety and argues that it can have both positive and negative effects