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Play Big: Mental Toughness Secrets That Take Baseball Players To The Next Level
A young baseball player is frustrated beyond belief... and on the verge of choking away a dream... when a mysterious man appears and offers coaching beyond the player s wildest imagination.
As the drama unfolds you ll discover... How to make total confidence as easy as ABC The hidden Law right now governing your success in everything How to eliminate negative thoughts and feelings in 5 minutes or less What really causes you to under-perform... and how to fix it 5 simple steps to breaking through to the next level
Dr. Tom Hanson is on the leading edge of sports psychology. His knowledge goes way beyond the conventional and traditional. His teachings have been extremely helpful, not only in my career, but in my life in general. Carlos Pena, First Baseman, Chicago Cubs
As the drama unfolds you ll discover... How to make total confidence as easy as ABC The hidden Law right now governing your success in everything How to eliminate negative thoughts and feelings in 5 minutes or less What really causes you to under-perform... and how to fix it 5 simple steps to breaking through to the next level
Dr. Tom Hanson is on the leading edge of sports psychology. His knowledge goes way beyond the conventional and traditional. His teachings have been extremely helpful, not only in my career, but in my life in general. Carlos Pena, First Baseman, Chicago Cubs
251 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 8, 2011
55: ABCs = Act Big; Breathe Big; Commit Big.
62: Pre AB Routine; Green Light Routine; Yellow Light Routine.
66: Ideally when you're in the box, your mind is free and clear. As long as you're focused on the ball, of course, and not the "nobody home" syndrome. The closest thing to nothing is one thing. So pick one thing to have your last conscious thought before a pitch, and then let that thought fade into nothing. "See the ball" is a good one. "fat part of the bat" is another. "right back at em" or "see the ball, trust my hands" can work. You need to find what works for you at the moment. Find what puts your mind in the best position to trust and react.
127: Playing Big Energy = Positive, Expanding, Light, Free, Focused. Playing Small Energy = Negative, Contracting, Heavy, Blocked, Fractured.
147: So if you want conditions around you to change, change your feeling to the way you'd feel if they already changed.
156: When you're in "The Bigs" it isnt' that you've added things on to you. You haven't added confidence and enthusiasm. It's actually that you've dropped your emotional baggage. You aren't loaded down by any negative emotions or distracting thoughts about what other people are thinking about you. You're just...you.
164: Our focus is like reins on a trained horse. If the reins are pulled right, the horse goes right. If the reins are pulled left, he goes left. You might intend to go straight, but when your eyes and focus go right, your body goes right. So to be successful you've got to take hold of your brains reins and focus on what's most important at the moment. For a hitter, the ball is what we call the critical variable. Thats a fancy way of saying the most important thing to focus on. When you're hitting great you're 100 percent focused on the ball. You don't have to think about what to do, you just do it. But when you're in a slump your focus is on your hands, your feet, your shoulders, your swing plane, your average, what the coach thinks, something else, or all of the above, and those interfere with your play.
176: Performance = Potential - Interference. When you have no excess tension and you're totally focused on teh critical variable (the most important thing such as the ball or your pitching target), you play to your potential.
186: Your cells must each be certain that I'm okay no matter what happens and that the game is just a game. Something to enjoy. And that baseball is a vehicle for you to enjoy yourself and expand yourself, not a courtroom where your worth is on trial.
187: Simple Wins.
232: There are two ways to use the tapping. Both are done the same way, using the same basic tap lap process. The first and most powerful is to go through your past and clear out the negative experiences stuck in your system. Everybody has some unprocessed negative events clogging their pipes. Second you do during or just before a game to deal wit hthe emotions you have at the moment.
240: Talk to Musial, Aaron, Williams, Carew, Rose, or almost any great hitter and they'll tell you their focus was "put the fat part of the bat on the ball". In other words, their mission at the plate was simply to connect the fat of the bat with the ball. The fat part of the bat is the sweet spot, the best part of the bat. The ball is the most important thing to focus on. if you aren't all in with your focus on the ball you won't hit. The game is the same for you in all aspects of your life; take the best part of you, your sweet spot, The Bigs, and focus it on the most important thing. That may be the ball if you're hitting, but also a single question on a test in school, the person you're in a conversation with, the teask you're doing at work. Whatever you're doing, identify the 'ball', the most important thing right now to focus on, and go all-in on it. If you want to be a success at anything, find a way to bring the best of you and connect it with the most important thing.
246: Law of Attraction = that like attracts like and that the experiences that come into my life are a vibrational match for what I'm broadcasting into the field/world.
62: Pre AB Routine; Green Light Routine; Yellow Light Routine.
66: Ideally when you're in the box, your mind is free and clear. As long as you're focused on the ball, of course, and not the "nobody home" syndrome. The closest thing to nothing is one thing. So pick one thing to have your last conscious thought before a pitch, and then let that thought fade into nothing. "See the ball" is a good one. "fat part of the bat" is another. "right back at em" or "see the ball, trust my hands" can work. You need to find what works for you at the moment. Find what puts your mind in the best position to trust and react.
127: Playing Big Energy = Positive, Expanding, Light, Free, Focused. Playing Small Energy = Negative, Contracting, Heavy, Blocked, Fractured.
147: So if you want conditions around you to change, change your feeling to the way you'd feel if they already changed.
156: When you're in "The Bigs" it isnt' that you've added things on to you. You haven't added confidence and enthusiasm. It's actually that you've dropped your emotional baggage. You aren't loaded down by any negative emotions or distracting thoughts about what other people are thinking about you. You're just...you.
164: Our focus is like reins on a trained horse. If the reins are pulled right, the horse goes right. If the reins are pulled left, he goes left. You might intend to go straight, but when your eyes and focus go right, your body goes right. So to be successful you've got to take hold of your brains reins and focus on what's most important at the moment. For a hitter, the ball is what we call the critical variable. Thats a fancy way of saying the most important thing to focus on. When you're hitting great you're 100 percent focused on the ball. You don't have to think about what to do, you just do it. But when you're in a slump your focus is on your hands, your feet, your shoulders, your swing plane, your average, what the coach thinks, something else, or all of the above, and those interfere with your play.
176: Performance = Potential - Interference. When you have no excess tension and you're totally focused on teh critical variable (the most important thing such as the ball or your pitching target), you play to your potential.
186: Your cells must each be certain that I'm okay no matter what happens and that the game is just a game. Something to enjoy. And that baseball is a vehicle for you to enjoy yourself and expand yourself, not a courtroom where your worth is on trial.
187: Simple Wins.
232: There are two ways to use the tapping. Both are done the same way, using the same basic tap lap process. The first and most powerful is to go through your past and clear out the negative experiences stuck in your system. Everybody has some unprocessed negative events clogging their pipes. Second you do during or just before a game to deal wit hthe emotions you have at the moment.
240: Talk to Musial, Aaron, Williams, Carew, Rose, or almost any great hitter and they'll tell you their focus was "put the fat part of the bat on the ball". In other words, their mission at the plate was simply to connect the fat of the bat with the ball. The fat part of the bat is the sweet spot, the best part of the bat. The ball is the most important thing to focus on. if you aren't all in with your focus on the ball you won't hit. The game is the same for you in all aspects of your life; take the best part of you, your sweet spot, The Bigs, and focus it on the most important thing. That may be the ball if you're hitting, but also a single question on a test in school, the person you're in a conversation with, the teask you're doing at work. Whatever you're doing, identify the 'ball', the most important thing right now to focus on, and go all-in on it. If you want to be a success at anything, find a way to bring the best of you and connect it with the most important thing.
246: Law of Attraction = that like attracts like and that the experiences that come into my life are a vibrational match for what I'm broadcasting into the field/world.
January 24, 2020
Do you ever find yourself drowning in self-doubt and can't seem to catch a break? Well, "Play Big", by Dr. Tom Hanson is for you! Dr. Tom Hason does a great job explaining the mental game of baseball. If you're looking to take your game to the next level this book is worth a read. The book teaches you how to overcome a hitting slump and prepare for an at-bat. Hanson does a great job using a relatable example to get his message across.
Baseball takes a lot of attention to detail. More than that it requires the right kind of mind-set. "Play Big" highlights all of the basic fundamentals including the correct techniques that will help any baseball player play the game: Stay alert, play your position well, hit that ball out of the ballpark. Practice! Practice! Practice! Listen to what the coach is saying. And along the way be sure to have some fun.
Although I found this book to be a little bit corny, I would recommend this book to many of my friends who play baseball, especially when they are having a rough time playing the game.
Baseball takes a lot of attention to detail. More than that it requires the right kind of mind-set. "Play Big" highlights all of the basic fundamentals including the correct techniques that will help any baseball player play the game: Stay alert, play your position well, hit that ball out of the ballpark. Practice! Practice! Practice! Listen to what the coach is saying. And along the way be sure to have some fun.
Although I found this book to be a little bit corny, I would recommend this book to many of my friends who play baseball, especially when they are having a rough time playing the game.
February 27, 2019
The book Play Big: Mental Toughness Secrets That Take Baseball Players To The Next Level by Tom Hanson, is one of his most helpful mental toughness books for athletes at all levels. Reading this book really helped me understand some of the wrongdoings I have had as a student-athlete. This novel has made my playing experience so much better now that I understand some of the big topics that are covered in Hanson’s book. This book has made me understand my own values in so many different and unique ways in the short time that I have been reading this book. I have begun to understand why I act in certain ways after a play compared to others because of some of the things that this book point out to its audience. For example, when Hanson points out, “An untrained person typically focuses on what he fears. . . and so he attracts it” (140). In the book this is known as the Law of Attraction. I have turned this law into one of the main values I have for myself: If you put out something good to the universe, then the universe will give you something good back. Things like this, is what make this book so good for any aspiring athlete. It makes them look at the world in a few different points of view, so they can perform at their highest level.
December 29, 2015
I really like how the book was written in a fictional way, a story telling way that allowed me to get into the story and experience things right along with the character. There are other mental books out there but this one was really enjoyable to read once I finally got into it(lots of other books on my plate when I started this one).
March 1, 2013
This book helped me a lot for my hitting. My hitting has been not very good for a while. It has helped me a ton.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews