09/26/2023
Have you ever heard the emotional health saying, “If you don’t address your childhood wounds, your closest relationships will”? Well there is something similar to be said for the athlete that doesn’t get connected to their internal world. I think it would sound something like this, “If you don’t address your belief systems about yourself, the game will.”
The game, as mentioned in my previous post, can not offer you an identity. It can only reveal your identity. If you're looking for logical, factual information about your mental health as an athlete, you will not find it here. Logic tells an athlete that a negative mindset produces a better performance than a positive mindset. Though this information is important and factual, simply knowing this information does nothing for an athlete. The work must be done at the heart level and it is not as easy as faking it till you make it. I can tell you from experience that if you start faking your mental health, the game will reveal the truth at some point in your career whether that’s post athlete depression, getting burnt out or simply breaking under pressure. The game will always reveal the struggle within.
If we are going to get on a heart level then it is time to start answering questions on a heart level. For example, the most important question I would ask any pitcher is “Do you trust yourself with the ball in your hand?” Like most athletes, I would have answered this question either logically, which is to fake it by saying ‘yes’ because I logically knew I must trust myself or to answer ‘no’ in shame, trying to white knuckle my way into right thinking. Neither worked. Truthfully, I did not trust myself and the game had a habit of revealing my insecurity more often than I would have liked. Knowing that brought honesty to the table but basic questions like this one don’t even begin to scratch the surface of what was going on inside me. The reality of my mental game as a pitcher was that I didn’t trust myself but the bigger, more painful question that few dare to explore is “Why?’ and only the heart can answer that question. This is where I coach, in the heart.
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