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It’s easy to take an old-school stance, roll your eyes and disregard the idea of training mental performance as some new-age, Gen-Z overthinking. If you’re from the “rub some dirt on it� era, when you weren’t actually injured if you could still walk, then you probably just chalk that mental performance stuff up as nonsense or players being soft.

Myself? I’d taken the stance that if the athlete believes in it, then that’s really all that matters. If they think it helps and makes them more confident, comfortable and ready to compete, that’s enough.

But even that viewpoint doesn’t attempt to understand why or how this “mental work� helps a Major League Baseball player, for example, improve.

It’s a bit of an abstract notion. It’s certainly not as quantifiable as an increase in velocity, hard-hit rates or sprint speed. If anything, it’s more of a seeing-is-believing proposition.

Well, Cardinals left-handed remains quite visible at 6-foot-4, 215-pounds. He’s kind of hard to miss. He also serves as the tangible example of “mental work� in action.

Oh, let’s get this out of the way: None of this disregards or ignores the physical work Liberatore has also put into his improvement, from putting on weight and getting stronger to refining his pitch mix and pitch usage.

That all still matters. That’s all part of what prompted the Cardinals to give him another shot at starting this season after a strong performance in the bullpen last year.

But when Liberatore hit a bump in the road during his first start of the season at Busch Stadium and allowed a three-run third inning, it wasn’t weight training sessions or pitch design discussions that allowed him to “reset and refocus.�

Liberatore pitched three more scoreless innings, allowed two hits and faced one batter more than the minimum in his last three innings.

Asked about how he refocused, Liberatore talked about taking a breath, “finding� himself in the dugout and flushing what had already happened, then moving on with the mindset that he wasn’t pitching for himself. He was pitching for his teammates and to not force the bullpen into a bad spot by having to enter the game early.

But how does a guy work on that?

“There’s a lot of mental stuff that goes into the routines I’ve kind of crafted for myself,� Liberatore said. “A lot of it is journaling stuff. A lot of it is visualization stuff. Giving yourself routine things to say and tell yourself, eventually they become habit.�

Curious to understand more about how journaling and talking to yourself helps performance, I reached out to performance coach Brian M. Cain of Brian Cain Peak Performance.

Liberatore mentioned Cain by name as having helped with his mental work.

Cain, who also and has various videos and interviews online on the subject, has worked with numerous amateur and professional athletes as well as teams.

So what’s the genesis or basis for this approach, the journaling and talking yourself into better performance?

“We all talk to ourselves... and we do it all day long,� Cain responded via email. “That ongoing conversation for you as a performer, especially a MLB Pitcher can either be to your significant advantage or disadvantage. Learning to talk to yourself and not listen is essential.

“Talking to yourself with intention, such as ‘Fastball in, under his hands’ vs. ‘fastball in, don’t leak it over the plate’ is a very different pitch. Teaching pitchers how to talk to themselves can really help them pitch with more aggression and have more conviction in their stuff.�

Cardinals followers may recall this is the exact thing that jumped out from Sonny Gray’s first bullpen session as a member of the Cardinals in spring training 2024. Gray didn’t just direct the session and his catcher, but he talked to himself out loud about the intention he had with each pitch.

How does writing something down impact an athlete’s ability to control his performance?

“It’s how you get reps at talking to yourself,� Cain replied. “You write down the mindset you want, the affirmation until it becomes your primary thought process. Just like any physical skill requires repetitions to master, the mental skills you need on the field require the same training. As a mental performance coach I give players the drills to do, to develop the skills they need to create the mental toughness or mental performance mastery skillset.�

That makes sense. After all, the question I posed to Liberatore was how do you work on that stuff. It’s not like you can practice going through a rough inning.

However, you can reinforce the mindset and thought process that gets you through the tough inning and back on track.

So far, no mumbo jumbo.

OK, but what does repeating a message or set or messages to oneself do to affect execution in a high-stress environment?

“It’ gives you something to go to so that when under stress you are still in control,� Cain replied. “You know the stress is coming, it’s MLB, everybody is good. When you compete at the highest level you better anticipate adrenaline and adversity and have tools you can use when both of them show up.

“The breath that you will see Libby take before each pitch is one of those tools. He is one of the hardes(t)-working athletes I have ever worked with. He has a bright future and as good as he is on the field, he is equally good off the field. ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ has a winner in Matthew Liberatore ... It’s only a matter of time.â€�

It’s clear there’s very real work Liberatore has done, and there’s logic behind it. The Cardinals pledged to give Liberatore a chance to pitch through his growing pains and a “long runway.�

We’ll all get a chance to see and potentially become believers.