How to Actually Work Hard as a Baseball Player

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Athletter

Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is today’s edition of TheAthletter, exploring stories, ideas, and frameworks to be the best Baseball Player you can be.

Throw 100mph Update:

I’m starting to really ramp up my training both throwing and lifting. I’m sharing everything I do publicly through my Instagram. Here’s Day 42:

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My Best Advice This Week:

4 step process to go from improved mobility, developing strength in deep ranges and then transitioning it to the throw. If you struggle with mobility, watch this:

How to Actually Work Hard as a Baseball Player:

“You’ve got to work hard.”

You’ve probably heard this a million times.

The problem: no one ever tells you how to work hard...

Is it grinding for eight hours a day, every day?

Is it forcing yourself to do things you hate?

When you don't feel like it, how do you actually make yourself work hard?

I started thinking about this while reading The War of Art.

The book introduces the concept of resistance.

Resistance is basically your mind saying:

“Hey, you don’t have to do this right now. This is stupid. Hey, this is uncomfortable. Let’s not do this.”

As a baseball player, I know this voice all too well.

It’s the one telling you to:

• go easy in the workout • skip mobility • take a day off

This is what makes working hard, HARD.

So how do you get yourself to work hard?

There are 2 ways:

1. Go Pro

The first way is to treat it like you’re a professional.

If you’re reading this, you might be an amateur baseball player.

You might be in high school, college, maybe even out of college, a free agent-type thing.

And playing baseball isn’t something that you’re paid to do just yet.

But you want to treat it like it’s your job.

Like you're a Professional.

You might be thinking: “Damn, like that'll take the fun out of baseball.”

There’s definitely a fine line there.

But if you do want to become a professional baseball player:

There’s going to be things that suck about it.

So you have to choose your suck.

Would you rather go and do your 30 minutes of mobility every day, go lift, go throw, even when you don’t feel like it...

And that's your suck?

Or would you rather work a desk job and deal with all the suck that comes with that?

You have to choose what you’re willing to suffer for.

Because everything comes with something that sucks.

Being a professional baseball player isn’t all glamorous.

I did it for 6 years.

And so the first step to working hard is choosing your suck.

If becoming a professional baseball player is truly what you want to do, then you have to choose the suck of:

“Okay, I need to go do my workout. I need to go throw, even when I don’t feel like it.”

2. One Step at a Time

You've chosen your suck.

But all of this can feel overwhelming.

The solution?

Break it down into steps.

When I didn’t feel like doing my heavy lift the other day, what helped me was focusing on the next small action:

Step 1: Grab my coffee.

Step 2: Drive to the gym.

Step 3: Put on my shoes.

Step 4: Warm up.

By the time I got to the belt squat machine, I was motivated to crush it.

Breaking the tasks down into small steps makes it way less intimidating.

An it builds momentum.

So instead of thinking about how much doing 2hrs of lower body work is going to suck:

Just put in your earphones.

Just put on your shoes.

As you build momentum, it becomes that much easier to show up.

There’s a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex.

It strengthens every time you do something you don’t want to do.

Think of it as a muscle.

The more you push through resistance, the stronger this mental muscle becomes.

Over time, it gets easier to show up and do the work, even when motivation is low.

This is how you become an absolute BEAST:

Getting sh*t done regardless of how you feel.

Main Lessons:

• Choose your suck

• One Step at a Time

• Do Sh*t especially when you don't feel like it.

Hope it helps.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 

1. Free 9 Week Program: A free generic program for those looking to gain velocity.

2. My Best Thoughts: I upload Youtube videos multiple times a week sharing my best thoughts.

3. ThePitcherLab: Exclusive group of pitchers looking to work 1-1 with us. Our mission is to help you become good enough to get recruited or signed. Full Stack Program, Full Mechanical Breakdown, Daily Feedback. DM me ‘1-1’ for details.