The most effective way to improve yourself as a baseball player is to work on the two most neglected and underdeveloped parts of your game. Because hitting and pitching mechanics, fielding and running is so deeply entrenched in our practice plan we forget that there are other areas of the game that need attention. Specifically, I believe that the two most neglected areas are also the two most important parts of your game: The Mind and The Arm.

My name is Alan Jaeger and for the past 12 years, I have been reminding players that there is a lot more to this game that needs to be addressed. These players included over 80 professional players (including Mike Lieberthal, Ken Caminiti, Barry Zito, Glendon Rusch, Erik Hiljus) and hundreds of high school and college players.

In 1994 I released my book, "Getting Focused, Staying Focused" to address the mental side of baseball (and life). In 2000, I released the video, Thrive On Throwing, to address the nature of arm care, arm strength, arm conditioning, and most of all arm health. The purpose of this article is to raise your level of awareness about the two most underdeveloped parts of your game. As a baseball player, your mental approach toward performance and your ability to keep your arm healthy and strong can ultimately make the greatest impact on your future.

The Mental Game

Based on my experiences I have found that most coaches or ex-players will tell you that the "mental game" is comprised of 80-90% at the High School level, 90-95% at the College level, and above 95% at the professional level. If this is the case, why are we spending 90-100% of the time on physical skills? Granted, physical practice is very important but doesn't it seem as if our numbers are out of proportion?

Ask yourself this question: What areas of your (mental) game would you like to improve? Confidence, relaxation, discipline, and concentration? If you feel that you could improve on (or at least be more consistent) these skills, then you must earn them. Period. If you want to learn how to hit the ball to the opposite field, you better practice that skill. The same can be said for your mind. It needs attention, it needs development and any skills that you want to improve on takes practice. Consistent practice.

This is what mental training is about.

If you have never practiced some form or relaxation, visualization or meditation, this is the forum that you need to participate in to develop these skills. It's your career and the sooner you realize that your mental skills, and not your physical skills, is what is going to help you maximize your potential, the greater chance you will have to realize your goals.

Your mind is what "allows" your physical preparation to take over in game situations. Most players don't realize that the mind is relaxed in practice situations, but dramatically changes in game situations. Whether it's the pressures, the consequences, or the distractions, the mind tends to find itself in "foreign territory" in game situations and that which was "natural" in practice can easily get "forced" in performance. What was "fluid" in practice can get very "mechanical" in game situations.

So the physical skills are prepared for game situations, but what have you done to prepare your mind. Can you really just expect it to be calm, relaxed and confident in a game situation when all of a sudden you've added all of these variables of pressures, distractions, etc.

If you want to remove the variables of foreign territory and make game situations "familiar territory" you must put time aside each day to develop these mental skills (i.e. confidence, relaxation, concentration). How you do that is one of the major themes of my book, "Getting Focused, Staying Focused".

Your Arm Is Your Life Line...Don't Take It For Granted

Though the mind is the engine to your car, the arm is next in line of importance. Though I know that hitters want to talk about hitting, pitchers want to talk about pitching and position players want to talk about fielding, it's all for naught if your arm breaks down. Put rather simply, if you can't throw a baseball, you can't play baseball.

Sounds so simple, yet baseball players tend to take their arms for granted and typically find out after a major arm problem how much they wish that they took care of their arm. In the 2001 Major League Draft, two pitchers in the first round and four pitchers in the second round were on my arm strength and conditioning program. The reason why they were drafted so high was because, 1) They were very talented, and 2) They stayed healthy enough to remain eligible for the draft! Now this may sound a little funny, but can you imagine how many players who were very talented and were never drafted (and you may never have heard of them) because they had a career ending injury.

Arm soreness, irritation and injury are avoidable. However, just as in the case of the mind, if you don't work on developing your arm through a surgical tubing program (before you pick up a baseball) and a long-toss program (120-300 feet), you are playing with fire. Throwing a baseball is an unorthodox motion that can make the shoulder very vulnerable to injury.

If you are the player that prides himself on being a great pitcher, hitter, fielder or base runner remember that if your arm breaks down, the rest becomes irrelevant unless you can hit 50 homers a year in the Big Leagues.

Heed the call. Don't just take my word. Stop and think about it. How important is your mental game? What impact will it have on you over the long haul? Similarly, how important is your arm? How far in this game will you go if your arm is a liability rather than an asset?

Your mind and your arm are there to support you and your performance. Now, what are you going to do on a daily basis to support them?

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