I was on a call last week with a baseball player. He was telling me about some up and down struggles he’s had recently.
Now, that seems typical enough. Baseball is hard. Hitting is hard. It’s natural to have up and down days at the plate.
However, what he was talking about with his ups and downs wasn’t so much about the result of his at bats (though those did go up and down, too).
He was talking more about the ups and downs he experienced with his mindset at the plate.
Some days he felt good – confident and relaxed.
Other days he felt bad – anxious and tense.
This confused him. Why is it that his mindset is so up and down? If he can hit with confidence on some days, why not every day? What creates confidence? And more importantly for him, what creates anxiety and tension?
As we talked, a clear reason presented itself: the expectations he has going into the game.
Expectations that are made worse the more he practices.
How Practice Can Lead to Expectations
How could practice, a core aspect of becoming a great hitter, be causing this hitter to underperform?
And this isn’t the first time I’ve come across this. Many other athletes I’ve worked with in mental performance coaching have experienced something similar.
What ends up happening is that they practice hard throughout the week. Because of this practice, they expect themselves to play better. That expectation, however, tends to have the opposite effect.
Instead of allowing the work they’ve put in to translate to increased performance, the expectation leads to tension and fear.
Fear of playing poorly.
Fear that all the work you’ve put in will have been for nothing.
That’s the exact fear the baseball player experiences and what causes his mindset to go up and down.
He hits all throughout the week. Fine-tuning his swing. He makes it perfect. But do you know what a perfect swing means he should do during a game?
Hit perfectly!
He expects himself to hit better than he’s been hitting.
This invites tension and anxiety. Because one thing that seems to always follow expectations is the fear of not achieving them.
Fear that drives anxiety, resulting in tension, and causing him to have poor at bats.
For the baseball player, hitting throughout the week increases his expectations for himself and decreases his performance.
So what’s the answer?? Is the only solution for him to stop practicing so much and just try to slide by on pure, natural talent?
No, not at all.
Practice and training are necessary. There’s no way to unlock your full potential without practice.
But, if we know practice is currently leading you to place high expectations on yourself, which is hurting your play, we must find a balance!
Three Tips to Keep Practice From Leading to Expectations
The ultimate place to find yourself as an athlete is letting go and trusting your muscle memory during games.
You know you’ve put in the work, so you just let go and play.
That is where you find the flow state.
When you aren’t able to let go during games, you try to force. Forcing is what happens when you place too high of expectations on yourself and say, I have to play well today.
You don’t want to force a good game. You simply want to play a good game.
Something that happens when you learn how to let go and trust.
The three tips outlined below will help you use practice to increase confidence (and trust) and keep practice from leading to unhelpful expectations.
Tip #1: Reduce Your Training
The baseball player I mentioned earlier has seen a positive correlation between hitting less during the week and feeling more comfortable at the plate.
When he hits less, he puts less pressure on himself. As a result, he trusts the skills he already has. He lets go and just hits.
Now, I am a huge advocate for training. The more you train, the better your skills, the stronger your muscle memory, and the better of an athlete you become.
So I don’t want you to think I am telling you to stop working hard.
However, it may be a good idea right now, for a little while, to reduce the amount you are training. Just as a way to step back and take away some of the pressure you feel.
You’re after effective training. Not just quantity. Reduce the amount you’re training. But when you do train, be sure you do so with full intent and focus.
You don’t have to stop training so much forever. Maybe it’s just an in-season thing. Then in the off-season, you double down on the work.
Or maybe it’s just something you need to do for a little while to reset your mindset and let go of expectations. Once you find that balance, you can once more resume the amount of work you’re putting in during the week.
But if right now the amount of practice you’re doing is leading to unhelpful expectations, taking a break and reducing your training can help.
Tip #2: Remember Why You Practice
Why do you practice?
If the answer you thought of had to do with practicing in order to play well in your next game, that highlights the challenge.
When you feel that you are practicing in order to play well in your next game, practice is only useful if you get a good result.
This leads to pressure.
But isn’t the entire point of practicing to help yourself play well in your next game? Isn’t playing well always the goal?
Yes, of course it is!
But are you really playing well right now with all the expectations you’re placing on yourself? If the answer is no, we need a different approach to practice.
Your goal for practice should be improvement. Long-term, consistent, improvement.
This is a mindset shift I saw a lot of success with when working with a young tennis player.
He put tons and tons of pressure on himself to win. So, I had him let go of this idea of winning. Instead, he focused on improving.
Practices were used to improve, as were matches.
What he experienced was a reduction in stress and pressure. Instead of thinking, “I have to win,” he thought, “How can I improve today.”
And the coolest part was…he started winning more!
For yourself, change your mindset when it comes to practice. Don’t think that you’re practicing in order to play well in your next game.
Practice to improve. That’s it!
Tip #3: Use Practice to Build Confidence
When practice leads to expectations and pressure, the work you’ve put in is not being used to strengthen confidence.
But it can be. And it needs to be.
Preparation leads to confidence…if you trust that preparation come game time. If you stress and worry and put pressure on yourself because of your preparation, it has the opposite effect.
You want to work hard going into games to remind yourself of the work you’ve put in. Not as a way to increase pressure, but as a way to remind yourself of why you should feel confident.
Give yourself permission to feel confident because of the work you put in. Don’t stress about it being worth it. Don’t expect more because of it. Simply use it as something to fall back on and a reason you have to feel confident!
Final Thoughts
You wouldn’t think practice could have a negative effect on your play. Yet, it does when the practice you put in results in you also putting more expectations and pressure on yourself to play well.
This leads to tension and stress when you play.
Tension and stress do not lead to peak performance.
If you find yourself placing expectations on yourself due to the practice and training you do, there are three tips that can help: reduce your training, remember why you practice, and use practice to build confidence.
Let practice lead to trust, not pressure.
Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.
