Elite performance is something few people in any field achieve. To even have a shot at being an elite performer you have to dedicate years of your life to deep, focused practice. Along with the physical work this requires there is a significant amount of mental fortitude needed to be great.
For me, the mental aspect of performance has been what has held me back for most of my athletic career. As far back as I can remember I’ve had performance anxiety and I’ve had trouble seeing myself attaining that next level of performance. As I’ve grown in my career I’ve learned to work through this and interpret the anxiousness differently and it’s helped. But, there are still times when it’s difficult for me to imagine myself getting to the next performance milestone.
When I was early in college the milestone I was hunting and couldn’t quite seem to break through was throwing a baseball 300 feet. I could airmail my partner at 280 feet, but when I got a little farther back I’d be bouncing it. It wasn’t a physical issue, it was just that this arbitrary number had gotten in my head. I eventually got past that, and once I did my velocity got a boost from the confidence I gained from having beaten that milestone.
Now that milestone is 95mph from a mound during training. I’ve been 94mph so many times, but haven’t been able to break through yet. But, I think breaking a different milestone from this past week is going to help me get there.
A few weeks ago I was laying out my next training block and decided I wanted to go for a 500lb deadlift. My calculated 1RM is 520lbs, so it shouldn’t have been a huge deal, but the most I’d ever actually pulled was 485 for 3. Again, 500lbs is a pretty arbitrary number, but it was in my head. All week I was thinking about it and when the day came it felt like I was about to pitch in a game. Anyway, I hit my sets leading up to 500, and it was going well. Then it came time to hit 500. I smashed it! I moved it fast. So after that I hit 525, then 540!
So, the point is I had limited myself mentally to this 500lb deadlift, when physically I can do significantly more. I know I’m doing the same thing with mound velocity and this lift just reminded me of that. Going forward I think this lift is going to allow me to push myself to another level.
We all limit ourselves by getting these random numbers that seem unachievable in our heads and psyching ourselves out, instead of allowing ourselves to just go as hard as possible and see what happens.