Reddit mentions of The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance

Good luck with everything! My uncle is a psychiatrist and a baseball fan and he often has people read the book The Mental Game of Baseball. I read 2 pages from it everyday now. Really helps me keep perspective and everything. http://www.amazon.com/The-Mental-Game-Baseball-Performance/dp/1888698543

Visualization is a theory/method of becoming better at something. The theory is that the mind can't really tell the difference between thinking about doing something and actually doing it. For instance you can implant memories of the past that didn't actually happen, but since you've thought about it, your mind accepts it as fact.

I played a lot of competitive baseball in my life and read The Mental Game of Baseball 3 or 4 times. They go into visualization a lot. One anecdote (I don't know if I can call it a study), is they had people shoot free throws with 3 or 4 different groups. The people who visualized and practiced shooting had the highest percentage of shots made. People who only visualized shooting and people who only practiced had the same percentages.

Another one was a body builder/weightlifter who visualized lifting heavier weights in addition to actually lifting. He was able to lift more in half the time (sorry the description is vague, it makes a lot of sense in the book).

Despite what the movies say, no one "wins" every case. Juries do stupid shit all. the. time. It's just the way the ball bounces. (And sometimes the jury ball bounces in your direction).

I liken it to being a successful MLB pitcher. You just have to take things one "pitch" at a time, and have a short memory.

If you'd like some light reading on the subject, and I know this sounds weird, but try this book by Harvey Dorfman.