Reducing the Effects of Game Day Pressures through Stress Exposure Training

Abstract

There is a truism that “you play the way you train,” and like most bits of folk wisdom, this has an element of truth. When most baseball batters train, they hit soft pitches, work in a batting cage, and hit during batting practice, typically in a controlled setting with little to no stress. The problem is that most training takes place without systematic attention to preparing for game day demands, such as the heightened demands of actual competition, game day distractions, and other stressors present in the game day context. The purpose of this article is to describe a stress exposure training approach to prepare players to maintain effective performance under high demands. We discuss the implications of this approach for sports training.