FOR: Nick RE: Weekly Motivational Piece - May 17, 2012

Greetings Nick!


Many times we have talked before about the word “confidence” and how much you need to exercise your “mindset” to the point where you are cleansed from any and all negative thoughts. When your Mind is fully in tune with your body down below, it is only then that your true skills on the field will be unleashed and or enhanced from perhaps a level you’ve never seen.

Take Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers. We all know he just put together one of the greatest opening months in baseball history at the plate before an aggravated hamstring strain sidelined him last weekend. Looking back at his first five big league seasons, Kemp batted over .300 once and flirted with the triple digit plateau a few more times before he absolutely bottomed out in 2010 with a .249 mark and a career high 170 K’s.

Some blamed it on his Hollywood romance with singer Rihanna as a distraction. The man you may consider to be one of the two best players in the game today (with Josh Hamilton) was verbally beaten down by his own Dodgers’ organization. So much so that Kemp actually dreaded going to work to play the game. His mindset just wasn’t there. Evident to everyone. He was being labeled one of the biggest underachievers. His own coaches (Bob Schaefer and Larry Bowa) were very open in their disdain, thinking he cared more about the Hollywood scene than baseball. Manager Joe Torre benched him. GM Ned Colletti even called out Kemp in a radio interview.

"That was a bad year (2010)," Kemp says. "Everything was just so out of whack. It's hard to play well when you're not having fun or you're not happy. I wasn't happy at all that year, and it showed." He was gaining a label as a problem child. Motivation was questioned. Attitude was a concern. "I expect to have a good year every year, and if I don't, I'm disappointed, like (2010)," Kemp said. "But I looked at that year as a learning experience. The game is very humbling, and I was humbled. This game is based on failure, so you have to be mentally strong. I don't play this game to be mediocre. I don't want to be just all right. I play this game to be the best. That's not being cocky. That's just being confident."

How did Kemp rebuild his confidence and overcome the dark days of 2010 and even some years before when the game didn’t click in as it seems to now? He moved to Arizona in the winter following that slump-ridden season, re-dedicated himself and entered a rigorous six-day-a-week training program. Kemp worked out with a running coach at Arizona State to improve his base-stealing and with a personal hitting coach to eliminate the at-bats he felt he gave away in 2010. He hired a Chef to improve his diet after reading that NFL star Ray Lewis did it, lost 20 pounds but firmed up.

He came to the 2011 spring training focused and with a different mindset. Former major leaguer player Junior Spivey, a friend of Kemp’s, said: "He went back to what that got him there, and being the Matt Kemp that was so hungry. He's a fighter, and that dude does not like losing. He wants to win more than anyone."

Now, to maintain that confidence, Kemp wakes up every morning to study videos of the day's opposing pitcher. Shows up early to the stadium and puts in the work in order to be successful. "He's a monster, that's the bottom line," says Colorado Rockies’ manager Jim Tracy, who managed Kemp in the Dodgers’ farm system. "To see what his character has become, and his energy on the field … I didn't see that two years ago (2010) in him and even before.”

I want to reprint the comment I posted last week from David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals. In many ways he echoed what Matt Kemp stated: “You have to understand that the game of baseball isn’t going to run away from you. You have to attack the game, and ‘Confidence’ is a huge part of baseball or anything in life.”

Fellas - Rededicate yourself now to your craft. All successful people no matter what walk of life you choose have never found success by working 9-5. You have to put in the time and develop a plan just as Matt Kemp and the many others before him. It all started when Matt’s mind spoke to his body. That’s the key!

All the best this weekend! Keep believing in you always! Cheering for you my friend!

Jim Loria

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“Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world” – stated by Helen Keller, author and first person - deaf and blind – in history to earn a college degree

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“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment” – stated by Jim Rohn, self-help author

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“Always remember, you accomplish victory step-by-step, not by leaps and bounds” – stated by Lyn St. James, Indy Race Car Driver

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Jim Loria
E-Mail: loria@sfstampede.com