In the game of baseball, things happen fast. The higher levels you play, the faster it gets. And at the top, with the big boys in the MLB, things happen almost so fast that you can’t even see it. With pitchers like Justin Verlander, Brian Wilson, and Aroldis Chapman throwing fastballs at up to 105.1 mph, you can quite literally blink and miss it. Couple a pitcher’s ability to blow fireballs past a hitter in .395 seconds with their ability to come back with a changeup that seems to mosey in at 80 mph and it’s clear to see that hitters have their work cut out for them. That’s why so many hitters in the MLB log countless hours in the batting cages, studying opponent pitchers’ tendencies, and doing whatever they can to get an edge. One such technique is pitch recognition, the ability to quickly determine the pitch thrown based on the rotation of the ball and appearance of the laces. But how can players practice such a thing without getting out on the field and facing live pitc...

Amy Purdy experienced what some people would call a disadvantage, but she does not use that word to describe her situation. A better word in her vocabulary would simply be a change. A change that forced her to use creativity to continue participating in the sport that she loved. This change not only impacted her life, but also inspired her to ease experiences of other athletes going through a similar transition. Amy loved to snowboard, but when she lost both of her legs below the knee at the age of 19 to a rare form of bacterial meningitis, she had difficulty even walking. She was lucky to survive, but her determination to adjust to the drastic change of riding on two prosthetic legs, and ability to flourish after her recovery is what makes her story incredible. She could have given up snowboarding after experiencing the pain and difficulty of riding for the first time with her new legs, but she decided to get back on the mountain and find a way to compete all the way up to t...

A recent study conducted on Elite Volleyball players found athletes had increased cognitive abilities compared to non-athletes. The findings revealed athletes had increased speed identifying things in their peripheral vision, enhanced memory recall, and were better able to ignore irrelevant information from distracting them from the task at hand. One particular finding showed a significant advantage women athletes had over non-athlete women at being able to detect changes in background scenes. This study sheds light that athletes may have a distinct benefit of being able to manipulate their cognitive abilities to either aid or deter their behavior based on what is advantageous in the moment. Identifying your skill set and applying how to take advantage of it as an athlete is key to reaching peak performance. Contact Premier Sport Psychology to let us assist you in doing just that!...