Author – Geoff Miller
Geoff Miller is a highly regarded expert in baseball psychology. Geoff spent nearly two decades in MLB, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels, and Philadelphia Phillies.
An AASP Certified Mental Performance Coach (CMPC), Geoff holds a Masters Degree in Sports Psychology and currently provides mental skills coaching to professional and amateur athletes, corporate coaching to executives and business teams, and coaching for retiring athletes transitioning into post-playing careers.
Imagine you are a baseball player from the Dominican Republic, and you’ve just signed a contract for more money than you have ever dreamed of, but now you feel so much pressure to live up to that contract that you are a shell of your normal self in the batter’s box.
You feel lost at the plate, you don’t feel comfortable in your surroundings, and you sometimes get so in your own head that you make mistakes on simple plays.
You may be thinking that this sounds like Juan Soto of the New York Mets, but what you may not know is that this happens often when 16-year-old Latin American prospects sign their first professional contracts.
And it could just as easily happen to any young athlete playing travel ball today.
Juan Soto is a potential Hall of Fame hitter, certainly one of the biggest stars in MLB today.
He’s always handled pressure well; from the time he was a teenage rookie to the biggest moments in playoff races and games.
So why is he now struggling to produce in his first six weeks with the Mets?
Hitting a baseball is hard enough when you’re simply focusing on competing with the pitcher, seeing the ball well, and reacting when you see a good pitch.
It becomes impossible when your attention is divided.
The first approach I take with professional ballplayers who are putting too much pressure on themselves is to help them get back to valuing the important processes that make them successful and to separate their performance from the expectations they have to deliver value for what they have been paid.
That need to provide value creates internal thoughts that make it harder to focus on seeing the baseball or can impact decision-making and show up on film as being late to start your swing.
Your focus must be 100% on seeing the baseball.
Any additional thought, even before stepping up to the plate, can change the way you focus.
But you don’t have to be Juan Soto and you don’t have to have signed a $700M contract to feel this same pressure.
I see high school athletes in many sports who are highly aware that their parents have spent thousands on travel, fees, and equipment, sacrificed vacations and weekends for tournaments and showcases.
These parents don’t expect a return on their investments, they just want the best for their children.
But the children feel the same pressure as a high-priced free agent to deliver on the good fortune they have been given.
So, my advice to Juan Soto and to any travel ball athlete is the same…focus on what matters to go play your game.
Measure your success on how well you’re competing in those moments.
You can listen to more of Geoff Miller’s thoughts on needing to perform to deliver value in his short, “The Hidden Pressure of Travel Ball” in the Optimize Mind Performance app.
