With psychologists, MLB teams try to win 'six inches between the ears'
Ken Ravizza claps his hands on the other end of the telephone line, counts to 16 and claps again. The idle time between claps feels endless, even for a quarter-minute. Ravizza claps again, mimicking the approximate interval between pitches.
"All of the energy gets put on the clap — the execution of the pitch or putting the barrel on the ball — but it's those 15-to-20 seconds between pitches where the mental game lives," said Ravizza, a consultant to the Cubs' mental skills program. "The question I ask the guys is, 'When does the last pitch end and the next pitch begin?'"
The answer varies: after a good pitch, a pitcher often moves onto the next one quickly whereas, after a bad pitch, he will want to process some information and make an adjustment.
Ravizza has been working with professional ballplayers for 30 years, with the Angels, Rays and now Cubs and, no, it's not a coincidence that his career trajectory has mirrored that of current Chicago manager Joe Maddon, a vocal proponent of mental conditioning.
"People realize now that we've tapped the physical conditioning aspect," Ravizza said. "We've tapped the mechanics aspect. We're tapping the computer aspect and all the numbers. I think now they're realizing the next edge is the six inches between the ears."
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Within the last decade, several ballplayers have taken time away from the game to seek treatment for anxiety, and every club is required to have an employee assistance program for behavioral health issues.
What's accelerating around the sport is mental training not to treat an illness, but to maximize one's physical abilities.
"The main reason, I think, is that the focus of sports psychology in baseball is much more on performance, on development and improvement rather than what I call 'searching for psychopathology,' like you have a problem," said Charlie Maher, a sports psychologist for the Indians and their director of personal and organizational performance.
When Ravizza started working with the Angels in 1985, his only peer in the (baseball) field was Harvey Dorfman, the industry's godfather, who then worked with the A's. A few years later, Maher started working with the White Sox before moving to the Indians in 1995, where he became the architect of a mental-skills program that has been a model for many other organizations.
Maher, a Rutgers professor emeritus who played collegiately at Montclair State, doubles as the president of the Professional Baseball Performance Psychology Group, which currently counts 31 members across 19 big league franchises; a 20th is expected to join soon. Four years ago, Maher said, the group started at a third of the size; a decade ago, the Indians were one of about three or four teams.
"I would say the last three years, it's just mushroomed," Ravizza said. "If they're not doing it at the big league level, they're definitely doing it at the minor league level."
Only licensed psychologists can call themselves a sports psychologist; the others go by the title of mental skills coach or some other variation, though Maher said their techniques are the same. Ravizza, for instance, is professor emeritus in kinesiology at Cal State Fullerton.
Maher said he stresses three major components of mental training: quality preparation, which consists of a daily routine including mentally parking other concerns when arriving at the ballpark and learning to have a "slow burn" as game time approaches; management of the moment, by recognizing "mental drift" from what happened previously and using breathing techniques and other strategies to avoid letting one's emotions hijack the situation; and accurate self-evaluation, which consists of separating performance from one's self and keeping an even keel.
Mets rookie catcher Kevin Plawecki said his organization's psychologist, Jonathan Fader, taught him to use a deep breath as a reset button, a trigger to stay in control of the moment.
"You can get kind of amped up, and breathing, as corny as it sounds, can really slow things down for you," Plawecki said. "It's helped me out. Whenever I feel things speeding up, I just take a deep breath and refocus."
Reds third baseman Todd Frazier said he mentally reviews each at bat in the dugout but prefers to do so without the aid of a sports psychologist. "We have a guy, but I think I'd mess him up a little bit because I'm a little kooky," a laughing Frazier joked, before adding, "He's a good man. I've talked to him before, but I try to stay away from that kind of stuff."
As Brewers director of psychological services Matt Krug said, "The more down time you have in your sport, the more quote-unquote mental it is. There's a lot of down time in baseball, which allows your thoughts to wander. I think there are some sport-specific skills like bringing the focus back (which) is maybe a little more important in those sports."
While two-thirds of the league employs someone as a mental coach, Krug and Ravizza estimate that there are about eight teams with someone who often travels with the big league team.
"To really be good, they have to develop relationships with players and staff," Maher said. "In order for that to happen, they have to be there. They have to be perceived as part of the organization."
In Milwaukee, Krug is in his 10th year and is fully integrated into the club's medical staff. Krug, who played Division III baseball at Wisconsin Lutheran College, is around the Brewers at home and takes about three road trips per season, while also visiting the Class AA and AAA clubs about three times each.
When on the road with the club, Krug says he'll meet with one or two players at the hotel, usually over a meal, then check in with a few players at the ballpark. It's a balancing act between being pro-active or an as-needed resource, depending on players' preferences.
"It's still constantly communicating with the other affiliates as well — I don't think you can do this job without text messaging, to be very frank," said Krug, who'll send a few dozen texts per day. "So we've got multiple games going on at other places, you check in with players from here, from there."
As a young player in Marlins camp, current Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell remembers working with Dorfman — who even wore a uniform in spring training — who had a powerful message of simplicity. Krug opts for khakis and a team polo but is a fixture around the club and, Counsell said, Krug is as helpful a resource for the coaches as the players.
"Like everything, we're all looking for areas where we can get better, and any area where we can get better, we're going to explore," Counsell said.
When Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash was GM of the Blue Jays, he hired former big league pitcher Sam McDowell as a drug and alcohol counselor before expanding the program into sports psychology.
"There was a certain stigma then," Ash said. "If you were in the dugout and seen talking to Sam, 'well, what's wrong with you?' We've graduated to the point where this is just regular conversation."
As societal attitudes have changed toward mental health, long-tenured professionals like Ravizza and Maher have noticed a great difference in the athletes.
"The players are much more open," Maher said. "They're much more receptive of engaging in other people to talk about the mental side, their emotions, their thoughts, how they prepare, how they compete."
Ravizza said, "This is about being exceptional."
After McDowell, Ash hired former minor league catcher Tim Hewes, who later became a licensed psychologist. Hewes suited up as a coach and worked with minor leaguers, and he also wrote up pre-draft profiles on potential draftees. (Maher said the Indians profile 300 draft-eligible players each year, a key intake in their database of over 25,000 players.)
"We have to find our competitive edge in other areas," Ash said. "We can't outspend anybody, but we can, I think, be better prepared in our decisions and the support our players get, both physically and mentally."
While looking out as his club on the field for batting practice, Ash said he believes there are a couple players who may not have made the majors without the additional support.
"My interest in this is that I saw so many talented players fail," he said, "and so many players who were of ordinary talent excel — why was that?"
Clubs are investing in sports psychology in hopes that with the right mix of coaching — of both physical and mental skills — more of those talented players will succeed.
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