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Mental Game

Confidence, routines, focus, resilience and the ability to compete pitch after pitch.

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Scared After Getting Hit by a Pitch? How Hitters Get Their Confidence Back — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Game · Players & Parents

Scared After Getting Hit by a Pitch? How Hitters Get Their Confidence Back

Being scared after a hit-by-pitch is your body doing its job. Here’s how to earn your confidence back, one controlled stage at a time.

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How to Help a Kid Who’s Afraid of the Ball (Baseball & Softball) — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Game · Parents

How to Help a Kid Who’s Afraid of the Ball (Baseball & Softball)

Fear of the ball isn’t a toughness problem. It’s a protective reflex, and you rebuild trust one safe, successful rep at a time.

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Breathe to Hit — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Approach · Research

Breathe to Hit

Ten days of paced breathing lowered anxiety and lifted a batting score in college hitters. Practice it daily, not just when nervous.

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Why Hitters Choke, and 5 Fixes That Work — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Approach · Research

Why Hitters Choke, and 5 Fixes That Work

A 21-study meta-analysis found anti-choke tools work. Here are 5 fixes for hitters, and how coaches make practice pressure real.

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The Ball Never Changes — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Hitting Processor · Mental Game

The Ball Never Changes

The ball doesn’t shrink, speed up or rise. Moon or aspirin, it’s the same ball. Get the barrel to the right place at the right time.

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October Kiké: What Hernández Teaches Every Hitter About Pressure — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Game · MLB Breakdowns

October Kiké: What Hernández Teaches Every Hitter About Pressure

Some hitters shrink when the lights get bright. Kiké Hernández gets bigger. What October Kiké teaches every hitter about pressure.

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The #1 Common Trait of Elite Hitters — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Game · Elite Hitters

The #1 Common Trait of Elite Hitters

Strength? Fast hands? Pretty swing? Analytics darling? Nope. Irrational confidence is the #1 common trait in elite hitters.

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The 4 Pillars of a Complete Hitter — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Complete Hitter

The 4 Pillars of a Complete Hitter

The swing, athleticism, processor and mental game have to work together.

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How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump: A Better Plan Than ‘Just Relax’ — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Game · Slumps

How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump: A Better Plan Than ‘Just Relax’

Separate results from causes, use a 24-hour reset and return to one simple approach you trust.

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When Your Hitter Is in a Slump: A Parent’s Guide — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Game · Parents

When Your Hitter Is in a Slump: A Parent’s Guide

Hits are partly luck. Good at-bats aren’t. Here’s how to help a hitter judge the right thing and reset fast.

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Coaching the Mental Game: A Team Guide to Approach and Resets — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Coaches · Mental Game

Coaching the Mental Game: A Team Guide to Approach and Resets

Grade the process, teach one reset, give every hitter a plan and make practice pressure real.

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It’s Not Okay: Understanding Athletic Integrity
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Mental Approach · Complete Hitter

It’s Not Okay: Understanding Athletic Integrity

A lot of people gave a lot to get you here. One player’s integrity can hold a team together, or break the chain.

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Embrace the Bully Called Hitting — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Mental Game · Development

Embrace the Bully Called Hitting

Build the mindset to compete in a game designed around failure.

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Bring Back the Sandpaper Guys — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Mental Game · Competing

Bring Back the Sandpaper Guys

Rose, Cobb, Dykstra, Pedroia: baseball’s sandpaper guys were winners. Compete hard, clean and through the whistle.

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What I Wish the Game Was Today — AHD player development and team culture
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Player Development · Mental Game

What I Wish the Game Was Today

Energy. Teamwork. Accountability. Urgency. Joy. The AHD non-negotiables for playing like it matters.

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Austin Hedges Was Never Done — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
MLB Breakdown · Development

Austin Hedges Was Never Done

What one veteran’s rebuild can teach young hitters about owning the process.

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The Power of Belief — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Mental Game · Confidence

The Power of Belief

Belief is by far the most important asset any hitter can have. How it creates confidence and the zone, and why most hitters have to earn it.

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How Good Can You Be? — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Player Development · Complete Hitter · Mental Game

How Good Can You Be?

52 years of playing, coaching and scouting. Less than 1% of players max out. Here are the six things they do.

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Alec Bohm: the error doesn’t get the last at-bat
Mental Game · MLB Breakdowns

The Error Doesn’t Get the Last At-Bat

A late throw in the 7th. A two-out homer in the 10th. Alec Bohm and the short-memory lesson every hitter needs.

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Are You a 500 or a 10,000? — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Player Development · Mental Game · Swing Development

Are You a 500 or a 10,000?

Some hitters build a move in 500 reps. Some need 10,000. Both get there. The myelin science of reps, and why “want to” is a skill.

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We Can Be So Much Better. — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Player Development · Mental Game · Complete Hitter

We Can Be So Much Better.

A brutally honest look at amateur hitting. I see a lot of meh. We can get so much better, and in a hurry.

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Tough. A Winner. Big Hits. — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
MLB Breakdowns · Mental Approach

Tough. A Winner. Big Hits.

A 16th-round pick with a bad eye, a World Series 4-for-4 and a homer for his first hit of 2026. What Tommy Pham teaches hitters.

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The Game Gives You Another Chance — AHD mental game and player development
Mental Game · MLB Breakdown · Player Development

The Game Gives You Another Chance

Even the best hitters in the world struggle. Stay prepared, reset fast and be ready when the game offers another opportunity.

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It’s Not My Fault, But It’s My Problem: an AHD mental approach article
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Mental Approach · Complete Hitter

It’s Not My Fault, But It’s My Problem

Too small, too slow, a bad call, a coach who doesn’t see it. Here is the way out for every hitter.

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Heater, Hanger: Simplifying the Mental Approach
Approach · Mental Game

Heater, Hanger: Simplifying the Mental Approach

A simple plan for competing without overloading the hitter.

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One Swing. One Series Lead. — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
MLB Breakdowns · Hitting Processor

One Swing. One Series Lead.

Cleveland loaded the bases twice and scored nothing. Murakami hit one pitch 440 feet. What hitters learn from ALDS Game 1.

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The Pain of Discipline vs. the Pain of Regret — AHD hitter development
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Mental Game · Player Development · Complete Hitter

The Pain of Discipline vs. the Pain of Regret

Every hitter pays a price. See how discipline now—or regret later—shows up in the swing, strength, processor and mental approach.

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The Greatest Gift Sport Can Give — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Kehoe Going All Kehoe · Mental Game · Player Development

The Greatest Gift Sport Can Give

Not the discipline. Not the friendships. The pure win-or-lose competition, and why you should hold onto it as long as you can.

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The All-Star and the Rookie: A Hitting Story — Backspin Blog by Athletic Hitting Development
Stories · 2015 Archive

The All-Star and the Rookie: A Hitting Story

A star hitter tells a rival rookie catcher his front foot is landing late, then signals from the outfield. A true story about timing and getting the foot down.

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YOUR NEXT STEPPILLAR 4 · MENTAL TRAINING

Train the mental game like a skill

Routines, approach, focus and bouncing back are trainable. Start with Lesson 1: The At-Bat Audit — ten honest questions that show which part of the mental game breaks first.

Find your weakest pillar with SwingChecker™ →

Complete Hitters Aren’t Born. They’re Built… and Earned.