In the fall of 2014 I was enjoying my first month of college. I was meshing with my teammates and classmates, I was becoming active on campus, and I was enjoying some success throughout a small sample size of my fall scrimmages. Prior to college, I was a mid 80’s lefty that could throw 4 pitches for strikes in almost any count. I would usually finish my starts in the upper 60s-low 70s strike percentage. However, after the first month of fall ball that quickly changed. I developed the yips, had a significant drop in velocity, and my secondary pitches were flat and could not be located in the zone.
One thing that I’ve learned when developing athletes is it’s never one thing. Unfortunately, it is tough to find linear causation in baseball development. Meaning, I played well because of X. Or, I threw harder because I lifted more weights. It simply does not work that way. The yips can be combined with poor movement patterns, poor motor control, and “lack of mental game.” I put lack of mental game in quotations because I believe it runs much deeper than that.
Solving the yips is a mixture of assessing athletes and cleaning up their movement and throwing patterns; something that researchers and development facilities have put thousands of hours into to benefit organizations and athletes. Yet, I think one of the most important things when it comes to the yips goes fairly unnoticed and not talked about enough: the psychological stress on a pitcher.
Now looking back on my process of overcoming the yips, I had relatively sound mechanics until the psychological stress came into play. The best way I can describe this feeling was when I got into a situation of competition it felt like I went underwater. There was a glossy film that separated my mind and reality. My heart sped up, I took short breaths, and my mouth would go dry. It felt like I would almost crawl into a shell. Yet, no matter what self-talk I did, I could never break myself out of this feeling. Initially, I thought my mouth going dry and a few other symptoms related back to my preparation. I would think “well I must not have hydrated properly” or something along those lines. It wasn’t until I read Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky did I realize that it wasn’t my preparation. It was the psychological stress that I put upon myself. Sapolsky explained that when you are put under heavy psychological stress for a short amount of time it can actually be good for you. Stress can do things such as: sharpen cognition, alertness and pleasure along with other functions of the body that give you benefits. However, he proceeds to explain that stress over an extended period of time can create chronic illnesses such as Alopecia, insomnia, depression and many other autoimmune system disorders. So how does stress and the yips relate? Often times when I talk to guys who have the yips they all shared common symptoms as I shared before such as dry mouth and their heart rate speeding up. Some of these can be natural prior to competition; I understand that. However, these athletes experienced this feeling during normal catch play in an almost stress free environment. This leads me to believe that the yips are not only influenced by movement patterns but along with chronic stress.
So how do we reduce stress? I’ve not only heard this question but I’ve asked this question over 100 times. And it wasn’t until I talked with Martijn Nijoff and Dr. Tom Hanson did I have a better understanding. You see, my exploration of reducing stress was not actually yips related. In the fall of 2016 I transferred schools to a very intensive academic institution. The workload seemed almost unbearable and for the first time in my life I struggled to keep up academically. Throughout this time I began to notice little pieces of my full beard (I’ve had a full beard since I was 14, yes I was that kid) began to develop little bald spots. Before I knew half of my beard was consumed of these bald patches. This alone was enough to put me over the edge with stress. I tried every medicine I could think of yet it just kept getting worse. I was diagnosed with Alopecia, an autoimmune disorder where your hair follicles are attacked and destroyed. Doctors told me this disease was not curable and it was just something I had to endure. One doctor even said “Yeah buddy, you’re gonna lose a lot of hair, good luck” then patted me on the shoulder and walked out. I refused to accept that answer and kept looking.
It was not until the summer of 2017 where I found my first answer. I was working as an intern at the Florida Baseball Ranch and decided to talk ask Dr. Tom Hanson for some advice. He introduced this method of tapping to me and we worked and talked out this method for over an hour. It looked abnormal but within 6 months almost my entire hair was back on my face. I then applied this method to before starting my games. It gave me a sense of calmness and relaxation prior to my start and I saw an improvement of stats from the prior season. I will post a video on how I tap later.
My second answer was from Martijn Nijoff. After listening to him along with the other members of the Florida Baseball Ranch/ Dutch Skill Acquisition Summit my thoughts and beliefs were challenged and widened. Having the chance to sit down with the entire staff on a personal level was an awesome experience. Martijn introduced me to the book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. After that, I was introduced to the Wim Hof Method. A breathing exercise that has proven to support my autoimmune system disorder and relieve stress. After months of practicing the Wim Hof Method the final patch in my beard was filled.
Stress is something that is oftentimes looked to be solved with a pill. To those athletes looking to elevate their game and continue growing as a person I urge you to never accept answers until you are happy with the results that come with them.