7 Ways to Flip Your Inner Voice From Fear to Confidence

Pressure finds you in baseball—the question is whether your mind helps or hijacks the moment. We pulled back the curtain on the inner voice that shows up with two outs and the game on the line, and shared a simple system to turn stinking thinking into calm, repeatable execution. Drawing on lessons from Ken Ravizza, Patrick Cohn, and the performance habits of pros, we translate sports psychology into crisp tools players can use today.

We start with the two voices every athlete hears: the fear voice that says don’t and the focused voice that says do. From there, we show how language drives pictures and pictures drive movement, why the brain doesn’t process negatives well, and how specific, instructional cues like see it deep or soft hands free your body to do what training built. You’ll learn how positive self-talk reduces anxiety and improves performance, and why chasing perfection in a sport of failure only feeds panic.

Then we get practical. We map out between-pitch reset routines—breath, focal point, cue word—that keep attention anchored to this pitch instead of the last miss or the next worry. We cover simple swaps that matter under lights: don’t chase becomes wait for your pitch; don’t make an error becomes secure the catch. We tie mindset to leadership, showing how your body language sets the tone for the dugout and how neutral thinking stops negative spirals before they snowball.

If you coach or play high school, travel, or college baseball, this is a blueprint for mental toughness you can practice like mechanics. Try one cue in your next practice, build a reset you trust, and watch pressure turn into clarity. If this helped, subscribe, leave a quick review, and share it with a teammate who needs a steady voice in big moments.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

What if I told you the most powerful tool in your baseball arsenal isn't your bat, your arm, or your glove. It's your mind. Today on Baseball Coaches Unplugged, we're going inside the mental game and teaching you how to silence the doubt and unleash the champion within. Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

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This is the Ultimate High School Baseball Coaching Podcast, Baseball Coaches Unplugged, your go-to podcast for baseball coaching tips, drills, and player development strategies. From travel to high school and college. Unlock expert coaching advice grounded in real success stories, data-backed training methods, and mental performance tools to elevate your team. Tune in for bite-sized coaching wisdom, situational drills, team culture building, great stories and proven strategies that turn good players into great athletes. The only podcast that showcases the best coaches from across the country. With your host, Coach Ken Carpenter.

Pressure At-Bat And The Two Voices

From Fear To Focused Self-Talk

Practical Cues And Reset Routines

Contagious Confidence And Team Energy

Final Challenge And Weekly Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged is powered by the Netting Professionals, Improving Programs One Facility at a Time. The Netting Professionals specialize in the design, fabrication, and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, BP turtles, screens, ball carts, and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, and cubbies. The netting pros also work with football, soccer, lacrosse, golf courses, and now pickleball. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That is 844-620-2707. Or you can visit them online at www.nettingpros.com. Check out Netting Pros on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. If you enjoyed today's show, don't forget to hit the subscribe button, rate the show, and leave us a review. Also, don't forget to follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, at Athlete One Podcast. That's at Athlete the Number One Podcast. Now, to today's episode about the voice in your head mastering your inner game. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Today I want to talk to the players directly. So if you got your team gathered around, or if you're listening to this in your car on your way home from practice, this one's for the players. Let me paint a picture. Bottom of the seventh, two outs, runners on second and third. Your team's down by one. The count's two-two, and you're standing in the batter's box. And right there, in that moment, you hear it. That voice, your voice. The one that lives in your head. But here's the thing. This is what separates the good players from the great ones. That voice. It can either be your greatest weapon or your worst enemy. And today we're going to talk about how to control it. Those two voices. See there are two versions of that inner voice. The first one sounds like this don't strike out. Don't let your team down. Don't make a mistake. Everyone's washing watching. You can't mess this one up. Notice something. Every single thought starts with don't. It's focused on what you're trying to avoid. That's fear talking. That's your brain trying to be protect you by preparing for failure. The legendary sports psychologist, Dr. Ken Revisa, who worked with everyone from the Angels to the Cubs, and wrote the book that Aaron Jubge keeps on his nightstands, Heads Up Baseball. He called this stinking thinking. And you know what happens when your brain is focused on not striking out, your body tenses up, your swing gets tight. You're not playing baseball anymore. You're playing don't mess up ball. And that's a losing game every single time. But there's a second voice, a different voice, and this one sounds completely different. I'm ready for this. I've done this a thousand times in practice. See the ball, trust my swing. This is my pitch. Let's go. Feel the difference? This voice isn't running from something, it's running toward something. Dr. Patrick Cohn, one of the top mental performance coaches in the world, who work professional athletes from every major sport, talks about this shift from negative to positive self-talk as this foundation of mental toughness. And research backs this up. Studies have shown that positive self-talk can improve athletic performance by 10 to 15%. And that's huge. That's the difference between a ground out and a line drive in the gap. Why does this matter in baseball? Baseball is cruel. Anybody that's played the game knows this. You can be the best hitter on your team and still fail seven out of ten times. The greatest players in the history of game have made more outs than they've got hits. So if you're listening to the first voice, the one that's terrified of failure, you're going to be in a constant state of panic because failure is built into the game. But here's what mental performance experts will tell you. Players who make it aren't necessarily the most talented. They're the ones who've learned to control that voice. Jim Lower, who wrote mental toughness training for sports and work with Olympic athletes for over 30 years, says mental toughness isn't about something you're born with. It's learned. It's a skill. Just like you practice your swing mechanics or your footwork in the field, you can practice your mental game. Tom Brady, seven Super Bowls, said football is so much about mental toughness. Aaron Judge keeps a copy of Heads Up Baseball with him and reads it when he's struggling because, in his own words, the mental game is what separates the good players from the great ones. The next question is how do you flip the switch? How do you do it? How do you turn off that negative voice that can turn on the positive one? First, you have to catch yourself. Ken Revisa talks about learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable. When a pressure hits and it will hit, you need to recognize that negative voice, the moment it starts talking, the moment you hear, don't mess up, need to stop, hit the mental reset button. Here's a technique from the research. Use what sports psychologists call instructional self-talk combined with motivational self-talk. That's a fancy way of saying tell yourself what to do, not what to avoid, and pump yourself up while you're doing it. So instead of saying don't swing at a bad pitch, try wait for your pitch. See the difference. One's focused on the fear, the other's focused on execution. Instead of don't make an error, try trust your glove, soft hands. Instead of don't let the team down try, I've got this, my teammates trust me, it's time to deliver. The power of belief research shows that this is powerful. When you use positive self-talk, your brain actually performs better. Studies in sports psychology journals have shown that positive self-talk reduces anxiety, increases confidence, improves focus, and leads to a better actual performance outcomes. But negative self-talk, it does the opposite. It increases your anxiety, creates tension in your muscles, pulls your focus away from your task in hand, and predicts the worst performance. Think about it like this. Your brain is incredibly powerful, but it's also incredibly literal. If you tell it don't drop the ball, all it hears is drop the ball. Your subconscious doesn't process negatives well. But if you tell it secure the catch, squeeze the glove, now your blind your brain has a clear instruction to follow. Dr. Raveza used to say, you need to focus on one pitch at a time, not the last pitch you missed, not the next pitch that's coming, this pitch, this moment, and this moment, you get to choose what voice speaks to you. Your team needs a positive view. And here's the last thing I want you to understand: this isn't about you. When you're standing in that batter's box or it's shortstop, your teammates are watching, and your energy is contagious. If you're radiating negativity, if your body language screams, I'm afraid to fail, if you're slamming your helmet or hanging your head, guess what? That affects everyone. Your pitcher feels pressure, your outfielders tense up. The whole dugout feeds off your energy. But if you step up with confidence, if your self-talk is, I'm ready, I trust myself, I believe in us, that's contagious too. That's the kind of energy that builds championship teams. That's the kind of mental toughness that fourth quarter comebacks are made of. Trevor Mawad, a mental conditioning coach who worked with Russell Wilson, wrote a whole book about getting to neutral, about defeating that negative spiral. The best athletes in the world have learned this lesson. You can't always control the outcome, but you can control your preparation, your effort, and your mindset. So here's my challenge to the players. The next time you're in a big moment, and trust me, that moment's coming. Pay attention to that voice. Catch yourself. If it goes negative and make the conscious choice to flip the script. Replace, don't mess up with I'm ready for this. Replace what if I fail with I prepared for this moment. Replace fear with trust. Replace doubt with belief. Because here's the truth. You put the work in, you've taken thousands of swings, you fielded thousands of ground balls, you're more ready than you think you are. The only question is, will you trust yourself in the moment that matters? Ken Revisa used to teach his players that the essence of mental toughness is learning to be comfortable, being uncomfortable. The pressure isn't going away. The big moments aren't going away, but you can learn to thrive in them instead of shrink from them. Your inner voice is the most powerful tool you have. It's been with you every single pitch of your baseball career, and it will be with you for every pitch to come. So treat it with respect. Train like you train your body. Make it your ally, not your enemy. Because when that voice believes in you, truly believes in you, there's nothing you can do on that field. Remember, trust your training, trust your teammates, and trust yourself. Be sure to tune in every Wednesday for a new episode with some of the best baseball coaches across the country. Today's show is powered by the Netting Professionals Improving Programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at www.nettingprose.com. As always, I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.