Ninety Percent Mental, Bob Tewksbury, All Star Pitcher & Certified Mental Performance Consultant

By Cindra Kamphoff | January 12, 2019

Bob Tewksbury is a retired Major League Baseball pitcher and current Mental Skills Coordinator for the Chicago Cubs.

Bob has a unique professional resume which combines an eighteen-year professional baseball career with a master’s degree in sport psychology and counseling from Boston University. Bob won 110 major league games pitching for six teams; the NY Yankees, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres and Minnesota Twins and was a member of the 1992 National League All-Star team.

Bob is also a member of the Applied Association of Sport Psychology and is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant. He is the author of the book “Ninety Percent Mental: An All-Star Player Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball.”

In this interview, Bob and Cindra talk about:

  • The struggles he experienced getting to the majors
  • Why it’s important to consider what your ultimate fear is
  • Why adding “so” can help to reduce future-based thinking
  • How positive anchoring statements can be helpful
  • What he means by 90% mental
  • The 3 domains of performance

You can learn more about Bob’s work at https://bobtewksbury.com/ and find him on Twitter @Bob_Tewksbury.

 

“Positive Anchor Statements: If you’re in a boat on a lake, and a storm comes up and you don’t throw your anchor… the boat is going to go wherever the storm takes it. Performance can be like that too. You don’t want your performance to go wherever the challenges take it, you want to be able to anchor down.” @Bob_Tewksbury 
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“At least 90 percent of performance are your thoughts and your beliefs because they led to actions and responses. When you can control them, I think you can control  your performance a lot more.” @Bob_Tewksbury  
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“Don’t ever shut down until they tell you you are out of the game. If you take yourself out, you’re going to get pulled out.” @Bob_Tewksbury
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“By practicing those on a regular basis [your breaths] it becomes more readily available to use when the storms come up in performance. You have your breath there because you have already practiced it.” @Bob_Tewksbury
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