Before a game, every kid in our dugout answers one question. Where are you going to hit it?
Not with a shrug. With a pencil. They circle the spot on a field. They draw the flight of the ball from the side. Then they write it out, like this: When I get my pitch, I’m going to hit a line drive between the left fielder and the center fielder. It lands in the grass about ten feet from the fence.
We laminate it. It goes in their back pocket. A copy of every card hangs in the dugout, every game.
Where it comes from
At a press conference in 2015, a fighter pointed at his head and said, “If you can see it here, and you have the courage enough to speak it, it will happen.”
I believe that. I believe it because I lived both sides of it.
In college, at the start of the season, I sat with it. I saw the ball leave the yard, over and over, before I ever picked up a bat. And I hit balls over the fence. Regularly. As the season wore on, I got lazy. Sitting alone with your own thoughts is one of the hardest things there is, and I stopped doing it. My untrained mind let me slip, and I got more and more average. I had fits and starts of this at every level I played, and I can point to each one.
That is one player’s memory. A story illustrates. It does not prove. So here is what the research says, and where it stops.
What the research says
Seeing it helps, and doing more of it helps more. A 2021 meta-analysis of imagery in sport found a medium overall effect (d = 0.43). Imagery improved performance, motivation, and mood. It worked better paired with real practice than practice alone, and the more intense the imagery training, the bigger the effect (Simonsmeier and colleagues). That last finding sounds a lot like my college seasons. A 2020 replication of the classic mental practice research found a smaller effect once publication bias was corrected, but still a real one (Toth and colleagues). Small and real is worth a pencil and an index card.
Saying it helps. A meta-analysis of self-talk in sport found a moderate effect (ES = 0.48). It was strongest for fine, precise skills, and instructional self-talk, words that tell you what to do, beat pep talk on those skills (Hatzigeorgiadis and colleagues, 2011). “Line drive, left-center gap” is instructional. Hitting a pitched ball is about as precise as sport gets.
Writing it specifically helps. Specific goals tend to beat “do your best” (Locke and Latham, 2002), though the effect in sport is smaller than in the lab (Kyllo and Landers, 1995). Plans written as “when this happens, I will do that” are called implementation intentions. Across 94 studies they had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals (Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006). That is why every card starts the same way: When I get my pitch.
Point it at the field, not the body. The card names a gap and a patch of grass. It never mentions hands or hips. Many studies favor cues aimed outside the body (Wulf, 2013), though a 2024 reanalysis found the average benefit small to nil once publication bias was corrected (McKay and colleagues). It costs nothing, so we keep it.
Where it stops
No study shows that believing something makes it happen. The research says seeing it and saying it nudge the odds. Hitting is still hard. The best hitters in the world fail most of the time.
So the card is not a promise. It is a practice. And it trains the one thing that is ours. Epictetus put it this way nearly two thousand years ago: “Some things are in our control and others not.” The pitch is not ours. The umpire is not ours. Where we put our mind before we step in is.
I believe our thoughts are the only thing we truly control. They are also the hardest thing to control. Negative thoughts creep in on their own. Feeling unlucky, feeling not enough, those show up without being invited. Positive ones have to be put there on purpose. That is exactly why we practice it, the same way we practice ground balls.
How we run it
- Print the cards. The Back Pocket Card tool prints four to a page, blank or with names. Each card fits a 4x6 laminating pouch. Players can also fill one in on a phone.
- Draw first, then write. Circle the spot. Draw the flight from the side. Finish the sentence. Kids who can’t write yet draw it and tell you, and you write it down.
- Steer it to line drives. My college card said over the fence. Theirs says line drive. A ball on a line into a gap is a hit at every level of youth ball, and a target that teaches lift is the wrong lesson for young hitters. That is a DugoutLab decision, not a measured result.
- Laminate two. One goes in the back pocket. One hangs on the dugout fence, every game. Teammates read each other’s cards. That is the courage to speak it.
- Before each at-bat: touch the pocket. See it. Say it, out loud or in your head. Then hit.
- Redo it when it goes stale. A new card every couple of weeks, or whenever a player wants a new spot. That timing is our default, not a research number.
- Praise the card, never the result. Nobody gets called out for missing their spot. If a kid hits it, let them tell you about it. If they miss, the card stays in the pocket for next time.
Guidelines & sources this note follows
- Simonsmeier, B. A., Andronie, M., Buecker, S., and Frank, C. (2021). The effects of imagery interventions in sports: a meta-analysis. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Overall d = 0.43. Stronger with more intense imagery training and when combined with physical practice.
- Toth, A. J., McNeill, E., Hayes, K., Moran, A. P., and Campbell, M. (2020). Does mental practice still enhance performance? A 24-year follow-up. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Small but significant effect after correcting for publication bias.
- Hatzigeorgiadis, A., Zourbanos, N., Galanis, E., and Theodorakis, Y. (2011). Self-talk and sports performance: a meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science. ES = 0.48. Stronger for fine tasks, and instructional beat motivational self-talk on them.
- Locke, E. A., and Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. American Psychologist.
- Kyllo, L. B., and Landers, D. M. (1995). Goal setting in sport and exercise: a research synthesis. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Effects in sport are smaller than in lab and work settings.
- Gollwitzer, P. M., and Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. 94 studies, medium-to-large effect.
- Wulf, G. (2013). Attentional focus and motor learning: a review of 15 years.
- McKay, B., Corson, A. E., et al. (2024). Reporting bias, not external focus. Psychological Bulletin. After correcting for publication bias, the average external focus effect was small to nil.
- Epictetus. Enchiridion, section 1. Thomas Wentworth Higginson translation (1865).
Note on certainty: most of this research was done with teens and adults, not young kids. We apply it here by extension. The effects are averages, and averages hide kids it does nothing for. “See it and it will happen” is a belief, not a finding. The card is how we practice the belief without promising the result.