Minnesota Blizzard Baseball

Hello Athletes!
 

The MindStrong Project is excited to be back with the Blizzard Baseball Academy this winter for our next round of the MindStrong Project Academy, taught by MindStrong Breath and Wellness Coach, Austin Hanson. The Academy begins January 21st for both in-person and online (zoom) instruction. 

We have been working with organizations and college and pro athletes across all sports since 2017. We are always excited to work with Blizzard because of the culture they have built around human performance. Our expertise is in the field of human performance specializing in mental performance, recovery and unique movement practices that enhance the way you breathe, think, perform, and manage stress and anxiety. 

We always begin by focusing on the breath, as it is the lowest hanging fruit of performance. Not only does it control the mind and how we sustain focus and attention, it controls the motor skills and balance of an athlete. If you can't breathe in a position you don't own it. 

The inner workings of performance come down to your ability to increase your self-awareness and understand the choices you make when it matters most...Looking forward to a great off-season and getting to know you all over the next five weeks!

The objectives:

1. Understand the role the breath plays in improving mental and athletic performance.

2. Learn the proper breath mechanics for optimal cognition

3. Understand the role breath plays in calming or awakening anxiety and stress or maintaining a calm, collective state of being.

4. Develop a basic understanding of the MindStrong Breath Protocols and be able to implement them into your daily or weekly training plan.

5. Learn to use the Breath Protocols to increase in-game decision making, maintain a calm-state of being, and improve training, recovery, and performance outcomes.

6. Walk away with concrete exercises to utilize on a daily basis to continue to enhance your own human experience.

Who is this meant for?
 

Any athlete is eligible to register for MindStrong Academy.  The Academy is not limited to baseball players.  All we ask is that any athlete who registers is committed to learning more about both the mental game and their own personal/athletic development.

Why?

We can last weeks without food and days without water, yet we can only last minutes without breathing.  This is the importance of breathing - at the core of all human function, both physically and mentally, is breathing. The cells in our body don’t function optimally if we don’t breathe right… and most of us are doing it POORLY.  This leads to chronic inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation is an athletes worst nightmare, as the impacts on health, fitness, and performance can be severe. 

Chronic inflammation can lead to chronic fatigue, injury, anxiety, depression, digestive issues, cancer, heart disease, emotional reactivity, chronic stress, brain fog, poor sleep, and so much more.  All this is to say: we can’t expect to become the best version of ourselves, let alone perform our best on the ball field when the pressure is on, unless we unleash the power of sound breathing.  

This is the next frontier in continuing Blizzard Baseball Academy as the most comprehensive baseball experience in the region. We spend so much time and energy on the physical side, but forget how important the mental side is – leaving one of our most valuable tools up to chance.  Most, if not all players struggle with focus, confidence, emotional control, direction, nerves accountability, discipline, attitude, consistency, identity, etc. at some point.  If they don’t struggle, maybe they simply wish to improve in these areas.

Questions?
 

For any questions related to the Academy, please contact Austin Hanson at austin@mindstrongproject.com