Orioles looking to win mind games
Mental skills coordinator helping team in new ways
None of the 150 Orioles minor leaguers exiled from spring training last month need much coaxing to maintain their baseball skills during the indefinite shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Fortunately for Kathryn Rowe, hired this offseason as the organization’s first mental skills coordinator, they don’t need to be told how important this new aspect of their player development plans is, either.
Over the past few weeks, Rowe, 28, shifted the curriculum meant to serve as a spring training introduction for the Orioles’ minor leaguers on the benefits of mental skills to video platforms, teaching confidence-building tactics such as self-talk, mindset work, energy management and visualization that she and the Orioles hope will enhance on-field performance when baseball resumes.
“I had a coach say to me today, ‘We have this downtime and it’s so beneficial that you can still do this,’” Rowe said Tuesday, a day when the minor league pitchers went through their weekly mental skills session. “It gives them something to look forward to and do. I haven’t had to say [anything]. … I think they’re intrinsically motivated to improve their game.”
“When we think about this, athletes spend hours and hours working on their physical performance,” said Michelle Garvin, director of clinical and sports psychology services at the University of Maryland.
“They get a lot of information on nutrition and fueling, coaching, plays, all of those things, and not a ton of time historically has been dedicated toward the mental component. That’s really what this program is about, and this is something great to do when you’re not playing.”
The program was one of many set up last year by assistant general manager Sig Mejdal, who reached out to Jessica Mohler, a clinical sports psychologist at the United States Naval Academy. Mental training, she recalled him saying, was “how he saw the future of development in this organization.”