Did you know that less than 1% of the athletes who are currently playing high school and college baseball will ever get an opportunity to play professionally? Pretty amazing statistic isnt it. The odds are stacked heavy against those who have this dream of playing high level baseball down the road. At surface level this is a very discouraging statistic.

Its not my intent to share this information with you to try to bring you back to reality if you are attempting to fulfill your own dream of playing professionally. Instead, let me tell you that most high level athletes and success-minded people never look at failures or statistics in this way. Most big time performers see these stats as an extra motivator because they know that many will fall off the path early because they cant get past the odds. This only reduces the competition and increases the chances for themselves. I know this is the attitude I used as I progressed through high school, college, and into pro ball. So lets look at how this attitude is developed a bit more.

If youve spent any amount of time playing the great game of baseball, did you ever think about your percent chance of hitting a home run while you were up at bat? Of course you didnt. The reason is that you didnt have time, or brain space to think about a statistical calculation while you were trying to crush the ball. This principle is how great athletes view their career. They are too busy working on improving to ever stop and think about what the chances are that they ever get to play professionally. Little Leaguers use this same strategy unknowingly. To these young athletes everything is a learning experience, baseball is fresh, and failure and negative stats havent had time to beat their mentality into the dirt.

So the real question here is how do we as experienced coaches and athletes prevent the reality of failure to cripple our progress? Its a real challenge and unfortunately is what causes thousands of athletes every year to quit this great game of baseball. The main contributing factor in this is that they have chosen to allow a combination of failures (low playing time, poor performances on the mound or at the plate) to create this false reality that they cannot achieve because of how the past has gone for them. Therefore, instead of fighting through this, they find something else to do with their time.

If you will never let your mind go down that road, but keep persisting, you will find that you will achieve more than you ever thought you would. This thinking will undoubtedly transform your vision as you learn how to play baseball and develop your goals.