Ninety Percent Mental Has Lessons That are Helpful for Everybody
Bob Tewksbury was not a name I knew when an intern with a publishing company reached out to us with an opportunity to review an advance copy of his new book, but the curious name is now synonymous with the curiosities of baseball minds, in my curious baseball mind. Tewksbury was a Major League pitcher, who pitched parts of 13 seasons with 6 different clubs. Now Tewks is a Major League mental skills coach, and with his new book, he can add “author” to his resume. The book, Ninety Percent Mental, is available to non-bloggers this days and is a fun read not just full of insights into life at the big league level, but tips, tricks, and methods of approaching struggles in baseball and everyday life alike.
Tewksbury’s authenticity shines through from the opening prologue, in which he recounts an embarrassing trip up a tourist-filled hike. While parts of me wanted to use the story as evidence that pitchers aren’t athletes, Tewksbury and his co-author Scott Miller, use the story to relate the lessons that are about to unfold to the everyday Joe sitting on his couch reading the book. It’s a clever way to open the book, immediately disarming the audience, and demystifying “mental skills.”
Tewksbury spins a tale of his life’s work both as a player and with examples from his more recent experiences helping today’s stars. He often refers to his gig as a coach as his second career, but his time as a Major Leaguer help him as a mental skills coach – it gives him “street cred” with the players he coaches, but it also lends credence that Major Leaguers actually do this mental skills stuff.
But what is this mental skills stuff, anyway? Without giving away all of the tips and tricks that Tewksbury covers in the few hundred pages, the central thesis of mental skills coaching is to get a player in the right mindset to compete and trust their talent. Tewksbury walks through breathing, focused visualization, fostering self-confidence, and pitch selection. The biggest lesson in the book is the power of breathing in establishing focus. Monumental tasks can be broken down and tackled incrementally simply by focusing on the task at hand. It’s simple. Tewksbury reminds us that life is simple.
It’s a book full of lessons for young players. It’s accessible to all audiences and does not require any depth of knowledge in advanced analytics (unlike Off The Bench). The book is funny at times, and it has an honesty that is refreshing. Young players would be wise to read the book and apply its lessons to their game. Adults would be wise to read the book and apply its lessons to their profession, just like the Major Leaguers featured in the book do.
If I had one complaint, it’s the reverence paid to star players. At times, introductions for guys like Greg Maddux or Lou Pinella are too long. The writing is not succinct. It’s not supposed to be; Tewksbury’s Aw Schucks humility shines through in one too many elementary adjectives for my liking. That’s not to say that the writing is wholly simplistic, but that its voice is hardly academic by design.
Overall, it’s very worth the read, even if MLB sportsbooks won’t let you gamble on it.
If you’re interested in the game, or really in how to approach life, please do go buy the book.
-Sean Morash
