By Mallory Mattingly
Savannah Bananas star RobertAnthony Cruz, aka Coach Rac, says skipping “positive self-talk” makes a big difference in his career.
“What if you don’t need more positive self-talk?” he asked in a recent Instagram video. “I stopped doing traditional self-talk, and it was the best decision I ever made for my career.”
“Growing up, I was always told, picture yourself succeeding. Picture what it would feel like to succeed. It seems like sports psychology 101, but in my experience, I would picture myself doing it the right way, and then I would get into competition, and everything would fall apart. I’d be nervous, and I wouldn’t play to the best of my ability,” he admitted. “So what should you do instead?
“If you play a sport at a high level, odds are that so much of your identity, where you find your value, comes from how you perform on the field. You have a bad day at the field, and you don’t feel good about yourself. You have a good day at the field, and you feel great about yourself,” he continued. “If that’s true for you, then it means, to some degree, your identity is wrapped up in how you perform on the field, and you can give yourself positive self-talk all day, but it’s not going to fix the root issue of your identity.”
Related: Savannah Bananas Baseball Player Urges Fans ‘Keep God in Your Life’
Coach Rac explained that by shifting his through process away from himself and onto God changed his game for the better.
“Instead of visualizing success all the time, I would visualize myself striking out, making a throwing error, and I would picture myself sitting back down on the bench. Meanwhile, the God who created me still loves me all the same. My parents still love me all the same. My wife still loves me all the same,” he described.
“Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God’s workmanship. We are His masterpieces,” the banana ball player added. “No amount of success or failure in your sport will change how valuable you are as a human being. You have to realize that having your identity in something greater than your sport is the best thing you can do for your mental game.”
Cruz often shares content to inspire his fans’ faith in Jesus.
Over the summer, he posted about the Bananas’ “first ever player-led worship night outside Grayson Stadium home of the Savannah Bananas ❤️”
“May Christ be magnified,” he added.
Earlier this month, Cruz announced that he will spearhead “Sandlot Revival” worship nights at various cities around the country.
“We want to start here in Savannah hosting worship nights and connecting people to their local churches,” Coach Rac explained in an Instagram video. “But we also want to be open to move wherever the Spirit leads. Picture this as we are going to a new city, and we’re going to potentially be playing that weekend. We have a worship night. We connect with some local churches in the area. Maybe we host a baseball camp, I don’t know. [We] want to worship God together in community, because that is where we found true peace and fulfillment and joy.”
It’s inspiring to see an athlete like Coach Rac use his platform to remind his fans to keep their identity rooted in Jesus.
Read Next: Savannah Bananas’ Coach Rac Host ‘Sandlot Revival’ Worship Nights
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