Discipline Yourself to Focus on Basics
Mastering the Fundamentals of the Game
When someone says that the key to a player's game rests in the fundamentals, this sometimes does not sit well with the listener. However, any accomplished athlete will tell confirm that this is the undeniable truth. Once you've learned the fundamentals of the game, all of the rules can be changed to suit your desires. They become your rules and you, as a knowledgeable player, can make them better or break them and perform worse.
Often, coaches and players neglect the fundamentals of the game together- coaches become anxious to develop a player's advanced aspects of the game while players maintain an ignorant (unknowing) urge to develop their advanced skills. Both parties seem to forget that the only path to success is a mastery of the basics, as there is no such thing as advanced skills—only excellence in the basics. When the coach moves forward and leaves behind the basics, many supplementary lessons are wasted.
For the batter, an easy way to master the basics is to watch the mistakes of other players in games and practice. If a coach neglects to thoroughly cover certain aspects of the motion to effectively slam the ball (i.e.: swinging the bat across to meet the ball-- not chopping down-- focusing on the ball-- before and after it leaves the pitcher's hand-- having no doubt that you’ll perform effectively, as trained, leading to your taking of the required, strong, introductory step towards the ball to follow your swing through, with your hips, etc...) then a player should learn from his own mistakes or from those of other players. To practice the correct form is to become
confident in your ability to apply it. Confidence will result in reassurance when the atmosphere is tense and the pitcher and catcher conspire against you, the fans watch, and your mind must become clear and focused.
For the pitcher, mastery of the basics is probably more important than at any other position on the field. This is because with only a few exceptions, only the pitcher knows what he is going to do in his attack of the batter. With the perfections of the right form and technique, the pitcher will learn, know, and apply the necessary behavior to deliver consistently efficient pitches to the opposing team. For instance, many pitchers will see the varying degrees of their ball’s uncertainty, leverage, and speed during the pitch. But, since many pitchers don't understand the basics or the fundamentals of pitching, they can only guess at which measures to take in their efforts to correct their pitching errors. Often times this is just an exacerbation of the problem (unless the player can learn from his own mistakes remarkably well, that is). The pitcher needs to release the ball at the opportune moment. Practice, muscle development, and memory are the only ways to make this happen. The pitcher must learn how to adjust and reapply the basic lessons of pitching and be comfortable doing it repeatedly and with discipline. The more exhaustion a player endures, the more he loses his focus, which places more dependence on his discipline and acquired habits.