CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL, RHP  Phoenixville, PA
 

Former Minor League Pitcher
 

“I felt as though a blockage was relieved from the back side of my head when working with you. I’m able to control each of the five pitches and the movement on my two—seamer is back to where it was years ago.”
 

Emailed May 5, 2004:
 

Dear Dr. Crowley,
 

“Hello!  My name is Christopher Mitchell I tried sending your survey but there were complications, so I’ll give you some of the traits that I have experienced as a former minor league right-handed pitcher.
 

I used to throw anywhere from 89-93 mph in college ( De Sales University)
my sophomore and junior years My mechanics and velocity were good and
the arm was fluid. Then midway through my junior year I started trying to
throw even harder to impress the 16 or so scouts’ radar guns that would follow me.   And over time, my mechanics mutated. I played one season in the minors and I was released after a year. I believe they thought I would hurt my arm the way I was throwing.
 

The following year I signed ‘with another team in spring training and a coach tried to adjust my mechanics. I never really focused so much on mechanics until that year and I practiced each day doing their form. I started to do it correct sometimes and then I started thinking about it too much to the point where I was pausing the arm with a robotic motion. I would push off too early with my lower half while my arm drags behind. I have since been released multiple times because I can throw well on the side and come game situations I would start the robotic form with mutated mechanics. I sometimes in game situations even drop the bail out behind my back as I break my hands to throw. It is quite embarrassing leaving go of a baseball that early and I knew it wasn’t because my hands were sweaty.
 

I can at times throw harder from center field to home than from the mound to home. When I throw correctly and in the zone my stuff is as good as the top major league pitchers. I’ve signed in the past with 2 major league affiliates and 6 independent teams because of my arm strength on the side mounds and different pitches, but unfortunately I’d change most everything in game settings. I’ve been called the Jekyll and Hyde of pitchers. When I am focused on the batter you don’t want to hit off me, but all too often over the last 4 years I’ve been battling myself.
 

I would like to recapture my fluid arm with the mechanics and speed I had.
Thank GOD I re a strong, healthy arm despite all the unnatural arm slots and movements I’ve put it through these past years. The following are some of the symptoms I feel at times on the mound 1)Inability to feel the release point, 2) Releasing ball too late or too soon, 3)Improvement at practice gets lost during a game, 4) Becoming own worst enemy, 5) SeIf-judging and criticizing, 6) Persistent throwing problems, 7) Pressured meeting expectation, 8) Arm becomes stiff and robotic, 9) Bothered by embarrassing moment, 10) Self-doubting and second-guessing, 11) No fluidity throwing, 12) Over-thinking, 13) No longer throwing hard and firm, 14) Problem focusing and concentrating, 15) Body refuses to do what it’s told, 16) Struggling on the mound, 17) Inconsistent, 18) Play well in practice, tense during a game, 19) Self-confidence issues, 20) Difficulty turning off negative thoughts, 21) Rushing the delivery,  22) Mental blocks, 23) Whipping action problem in wrist/arm and 24) Lost feel for delivery.
 

I need help finding the positive messages and techniques to remove past thoughts of negativity from my game. I haven’t been able to find that zone or focus in years. I am struggling to visualize success prior to my actions.
 

Thanks in advance for any help.” Christopher Mitchell
 

Emailed May 7, 2004: Dr. Crowley, “Thanks a lot for the reply. I have a membership to Baseball America and I saw your ad there. I am not playing
professionally right now primarily for the reasons I mentioned in the previous correspondence. I am on a couple of adult league teams and I even went down to Spring Training in FL for 10 days with a team of players from all over and we scrimmaged a number of Minor League teams like the Phillies, Marlins, Expos, Reds and Detroit. I am 29 years old and realize that the age factor becomes an issue after 24, however, there are some unique stories out there that take place with the game of baseball--(Look at the Rookie).  My primary reason for contacting you is to get back the mental confidence and command that will help me have fun again on the mound. I know I have the stuff and my arm strength is well above average for any pro player. I am not necessarily trying to get back into the Pro ranks because I know that there are never any guarantees and lots of things that I would not control over would have to take place. I just love the game of baseball and I enjoy learning and passing on my knowledge to others. I give mechanical lessons to kids and I know exactly what I need to do to throw strikes. It took me a while to finally understand how to do that, unfortunately it is not correlating to the game mound. Thanks a lot.” Christopher Mitchell   May 9, 2004:  Chris and I worked on such things as his mechanics being worse from the mound during game situations; his inability to feel the release point; thinking too much on
the mound, analyzing himself, and thinking about what people are
thinking about him; his belief that he is his worst enemy; in a battle with himself; and his body’s freezing up.
 

May 13, 2004 Email: “Dr. Crowley, Once again I’d like to thank you for the
session on Sunday. I believe it will help me when I get back on the mound. I agree with you that lots of teammates and coaches in the past would say “Relax and don’t think”, but they didn’t understand how to actually prevent me from thinking and locking up. I felt as though a blockage was relieved from the back side of my head when working t you. A few weeks ago when I was at the Phillies game I was able to meet and hang out with Ruben Amaro, Jr. (Assistant GM) through a friend. I’ll have to pass on your name to some of the people I meet. I’ve been doing baseball lessons over the winter with Joe Calfepietra (New Jersey Jackels - Manager NE League) and Gene Schall (Phillies scout). They would be impressed If you got my head on track.”  Thanks, Chris Mitchell    Note: Chris had a fracture on his foot that shut him down. Even in the middle of July he was still doing physical therapy with the foot and building the muscles and tendons back up to help support the healed bone.  His plans were to still play fall league this year. Chris stayed in touch with me via emails such as this one May 28, 2004: “I have been shut down a little with my foot. I have a walking cast on it for a couple of weeks to see if the fracture will heal. I do look forward to implementing the mental mechanics. I have told a number of my friends and former teammates about your mental mechanics and a number of them agreed about the importance the mind has to do with baseball. The coach I talked to (Barclay Reynolds-former pitching coach at Swarthore University ) doesn’t understand why more teams don’t tap into the mind. Another coach that worked with helping my mechanics agrees with your idea of creating an image to take the fall and creating a positive image. It may be a few weeks or a month but I keep fresh in my mind the images that will help me get back to me.  Talk to you soon.” Chis Mitchell
 

Emailed October 2, 2004:
 

Dr. Crowley,
 

“I have pitched in two games this fall. The first game I got a little tired by the
5th inning, but overall my control was good. The second game I threw all nine innings and struck out 12 while walking 2. I thought the one walk was a strike out, but the umpire saw it otherwise. I did have the ball drop out of my hand once in each game before delivering the pitch. I’m not sure why, but I made the adjustment the next pitch. I guess I wasn’t thinking of Captain Caveman, Tornado, Ocean, or Cannon Bail.
 

I have been able to relax more on the mound in game situations, but I still think I will throw harder once I get even more comfortable with my rhythm. I’m able to control each of the five pitches and the movement on my two-seamer is back to where it was years ago. If not for most of the players using metal bats I probably would have broken about 5 wood bats last game. They had one player use wood and I broke two of his bats, but he managed a weak hit on one of the broken bats.
 

Overall, my foot and side feel good and I am looking forward to pitching again tomorrow. I think the time off combined with my conversations with you improved my approach to pitching. I don’t understand why more MLB teams don’t use your service.”
 

Thanks, Chris Mitchell
 

Emailed October 6, 2004:
 

“I have been talking to some players about your techniques. They have not
seen me pitch as smoothly in the past like I have the last two outings. My nextgame is Sunday in Delaware.”
 

Chris Mitchell
 

Emailed November 14, 2004:
 

“We just finished up the league today, but I did not pitch today because I was a little tender. Overall, I felt pretty good, but I did not get up to the velocity I was looking to. However, that has a lot to do with not throwing in between starts.
 

I will have a better indication in the spring. I may go to FL with a team from
Delaware. The coach has a group of players from all over show up and
scrimmage some single A tens during spring training. They usually go around second or third week in March. Scrimmage the Phillies, Expos, Marlins, Reds, and Detroit.”
 

Chris Mitchell
 

Emailed January 16, 2005:
 

Dr. Crowley,
 

I found out that I will be going down to FL March 1 8th to West Palm, FL.
We will play on Sat. March 1 9th either in Jupiter (Marlins) or up in Melbourne (Nationals/Expos) that day. We usually travel on Tuesday to drive to West coast of FL to St. Petersburg . We will probably play the Phillies and Reds among other teams on that side. We will depart for home on March 27th. I will give more details on the game schedules when I get them, but those are the dates (18-27) for sure.
 

Thanks,
 

Chris Mitchell

 

 

Dr. Richard Crowley

Sportsmaker

dr@sportsmaker.com

Full Transcript and Testimonial of

Christopher Mitchell

RHP  Phoenixville, PA