How to Get Ahead of 99% of Baseball Players

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Curious Competitor

Up until I was 18, I was a non-prospect.

I believe embracing a couple (not all) of these competitive advantages got me to where I am today.

Here are 10 ways to get ahead of your competition:

1) Relentless Consistency

Show up everyday.

Whether it’s:

• Mobility

• Recovery

• Throwing & Lifting

"Consistency is rarer than talent"

Personally I find myself being inconsistent with the ‘boring’ actions that can make me a better player.

Throwing and lifting is easy, they are ‘sexy’.

Consistent 'Boring' actions bring about the 'Exciting' outcomes.

2) Cultivate a Growth Mindset

Failure is inevitable in baseball.

Failure becomes Learning.

Learning becomes Improvement.

Run toward failure, not away from it.

I came across this concept through ‘Mindset’ by Carol Deck.

I believe this can be an unlock for many players.

If we change our relationship with failure to see it as a positive learning experience:

We would improve at a faster rate.

3) Double Down on your strengths

Each one of us has unique strengths.

• High spin rate

• Unique arm slot

• Banger breaking ball

Find them, combine them to create your "bear riding a unicycle"

Personally I supinate and spin the ball extremely well.

I also have a unique, low arm slot.

I maximize these by throwing a lot of cutters and sweepers:

AKA my ‘Best Sh*t’.

4) Play the Long Game

Meaningful improvements comes from compounding in the long term.

Don’t aim for:

• Gaining 5mph next week.

• A D1 offer next month.

• Big Leagues next year.

"Impatient with Actions, Patient with Results."

When I was younger I would change my throwing program frequently.

If I didn’t see my velocity increase, I implemented a new throwing protocol.

Looking back, I realize that most programs work.

They just require consistency and patience.

5) Stay Curious

• Read.

• Ask questions.

• Rabbit hole into topics.

It’s hard to beat someone who is constantly learning.

6) Know your fears

As baseball players, fear can be our biggest enemy.

The way to overcome it?

To understand what you're scared of, then dealing with that fear.

We don’t become fearless overnight.

It takes work.

7) Antifragility

A Hydra in Greek mythology is a creature with multiple heads.

If 1 is cut off, 2 grow back.

The baseball journey is chaotic.

Rather than being discouraged by the chaos:

Come back stronger.

For pitchers chaos can come in the form of terrible outings.

It sucks.

I didn’t get out of an inning 3 times this year.

But I try to remind myself that this experience is preparing myself for greater things in the future.

8) Care less about what others think

People don’t care about you as much as you think.

When I first signed my contract I cared too much about what other people thought of me.

• Teammates

• Coaches

• Scouts

It was a big burden, and I played below my potential.

Everyone is too tired of thinking about themselves, let alone about you.

9) Focus

The Texas Rangers won the World Series in 2023.

The mantra from our mental department was:

“Focus on the Right Thing, at the Right Time.”

The ability to filter out the distractions - and truly focus on the task at hand:

Is extremely powerful.

10) Enter the Flow State

Over-thinking is a killer of optimal performance.

Flow state reduces thoughts to increase focus.

Enter flow by:

• Listening to a dedicated ‘flow’ playlist

• Create a Mental Highlight Reel

Boom. That's it!

10 ways to get ahead of 99% of baseball players.

These are hard to implement:

However applying a couple of these could change the direction of your career.