Ryan Pratt's Blog

      The generation we live in always wants a quick fix to get better at something, and it happens all the time in baseball. Players believe that one lesson or a quick drill will help them perform better but in reality, it takes time and a lot of repetition to get better at whatever you want to improve at. The saying I always go back to is Tiger Woods when talking about how he got better is that you have to "dig it out of the dirt". This means he took rep after rep in golf to improve while also having a great mental game and this is why Tiger became one of the best golfers of all time. Tiger never looked for a quick fix because as most of the greats do he earned his improvements every day through trial and error.      In baseball to improve at times you have to be willing to try things that may not work initially but once you find out what works for you personally the biggest skill that you need to improve is consistency. The player that hits 5-6 days a we...

      The mental game in sports is one of the most talked about these days but isn't something players know how to practice daily. You can have all the talent in the world but you need to have a process to win in your mind to be a successful athlete. This is something that I can relate to a lot because as an athlete I didn't always have the best mental process and it caused me to fear failure more when performing than actually having a mindset that would have me play my best on the field. The mental game needs to be practiced outside of the game just like anything else in sports to develop and get the most out of your skills. The first step that should be done in this process is researching people who are experts on this subject and practicing some of the steps they outline. A lot of it involves quieting the mind either through meditation and making yourself live in the present moment instead of living in the past or overthinking the future. Keeping the mind clear and try...

      Baseball has always been a sport of failure, whether at the plate, pitching, or even in the field. Nobody in the history of baseball has been perfect, but coaches have some notion that practices should be perfect and easy for players. Players need to be challenged in practice to get ready to succeed in game situations but this strategy only works if they aren't criticized or afraid to fail in practice. One example would be the way hitting has been practiced for so long with easy drills off the tee, flips, or slow batting practice. These drills have some use but give players an easy success rate while in the game they are swinging and missing not barreling everything up and failing more often than succeeding at the plate. This is why there is a great use for challenging bp, or pitching machines that challenge hitters more at a game velocity speed. The speed they face should result in some swings and misses in practice because that is realistic for a game environment ...