Do You Master the Mental Game? Today, Ken Ravizza arrived in Vegas for a few days to work withthe team. He is the mental training consultant for the CanadianOlympic Team. For those of you who don't know who Ken Ravizza is, he is considered by most to be the leading sports psychologyconsultant for baseball and softball. He has been around a longtime. He has also co-authored the best-selling book "Heads-UpBaseball" which by the way EVERY softball player and coachshould have. It's THE bible of sports psychology for baseballand softball. To read more about Ken Ravizza, go to:[http://www.kenravizza.com/] So, he came in late afternoon and ran a session with the teamtonight. While the players where working on a team missionstatement, he sat down with the coaching staff for more thanan hour. After the session, we were dropped off at our hotel (playersand coaches are staying in rented houses) but consultants likehim and I that are only here for a couple of days are stayingat a hotel across the UNLV softball field. As we were both hungry, we went to a Mexican cafe and had a quick bite and chatted for another hour. It was great toexchange with a master of the mental game specialized inour game. I thought I would share of the key messages that came throughhis sessions with the team, the discussions with the coachingstaff and our diner together. - You have to train "competitiveness" in practices throughdrills and game simulations - Players have to take ownership of the values, the goals, andthe mission statement of the team. If it only comes from thecoaches, their not as likely to buy into it. - Holding each accountable for achieving our common goals andmake sure every body works hard and has the right attitudeis very important. - You have to learn how to win and take control of the field - Your thinking must be about "achieving something, not aboutavoiding something". For example, you want to hit the ballhard and select the right pitch and NOT thinking avoidinga strikeout or not swinging a bad pitch. - Players need to learn how "verbalize" what they feel andlive inside - You can't maintain a 100% intensity and focus all the timeat practice; it's not humanly possible. - You have to learn when to be in "game on" mode and be reallyfocused and when to be more relaxed and focusing on learning. - A positive training environment is required for the playersto feel like they try and fail which is the part of thelearning process. If the environment doesn't give them"permission to fail" in order to learn, then they willdevelop a fear of failure and will do things with a mindsetof "not screwing up" rather than accomplishing exceptionalthings. - Guessing pitches at the plate is one of the worst thing youcan do and is often a sign of slump. You can look for pitchesbut not guess them. - Every failure must be a learning experience. You learn a lotmore from losing and failing than you do from winning becausewhen you win, you tend to sweep under the carpet the thingsthat didn't well or you don't pay as much attention to whatneeds to be improved. I will try share more with you over the next few days. Play hard. Marc Dagenais"Your Personal Softball Peak Performance Coach"  For more tips, go to my website: [http://www.softballperformance.com|http://www.softballperformance.com/]