If you’re a young Baseball Player

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Athletter

If you’re a young Baseball Player, read this…

Let’s see if this describes you:

You’re a baseball player. You’ve got dreams. Maybe it’s to go and play for your dream school, or to make it to the MLB.

You give it your all in practices and games.

Yet… you lack confidence in yourself.

Yeah you feel good about yourself after a good game or two...

But as soon as you have one crappy day:

You’re back to doubting yourself.

So you work even harder.

Maybe… if I put more effort into practice, I’ll gain confidence.

Let me tell you a secret:

The confidence you’re looking for isn’t coming from the stuff you do on the field.

It comes from the things you do off the field.

Yeah throwing harder, hitting further and getting your a*s kissed by your teammates and their parents will help.

The truth: This is temporary confidence.

And it’ll go away as soon as you surround yourself with people who are better than you.

I would know.

I threw 95 in a country where people thought baseball was a different version of cricket.

Was I confident? I definitely thought so!

But that went away when I signed my professional contract.

Now everyone around me threw 95 - I was no longer special.

What I realized in this moment: All that ‘confidence’ was fake…

It was external validation from people around me.

All that time I spent on training to throw harder:

Made me throw harder.

But it didn’t lead to any growth in me as a human being.

I was still an introverted, insecure boy who threw 95+.

My message to you is simple:

Yes, train as hard as you can.

But also take time to grow as a human being off the field.

Instead of grinding CoD - Read a self improvement book.

Instead of being bored - Develop a cool hobby.

Instead of being scared - Ask the girl out.

The goal is to feel like a bad ass.

To prove to yourself you’re someone who can overcome fears, achieve goals and be disciplined.

This… is real confidence. This is confidence in yourself as a person.

And it’ll show on the field.

If you’re lacking confidence, look at what you do off the field.

You might find your answer there.

Hopefully this helps in a small way, and I wish you all the best in your career.

Josh

That’s it for today, thanks for reading!