THE NORTH STAR
Why Great Hitters Need a Place to Come Back To
Every great hitter has a North Star. They may not call it that, but they have one — a fixed point they trust when things get noisy, confusing, or emotional. It’s the place they return to when they’re not sure what’s working, why something feels off, or what adjustment to make next.
If you don’t have that place, the game will hand you one: panic, frustration, guessing, forcing the swing. That’s when everything speeds up. That’s when hitters get emotional because they’ve lost clarity.
The North Star is how you get it back.
Confusion Creates Emotion — Clarity Kills It
A lot of players think they’re emotional because they “care too much.” But most of the emotion you see in hitters — the frustration, the self-judgment, the spiraling — it’s coming from one place:
Confusion.
Confusion about:
what happened
why it happened
what to fix
or who to listen to
When a hitter doesn’t know where they are or what they’re anchored to, the emotions take over. They’re not broken — they’re lost.
The North Star gives them a direction.
It gives them a home base for understanding what’s happening in their swing and how to adjust without blowing up the entire system.
The North Star Is Not a Cue — It’s a Belief System
A cue lasts for a rep.
A belief system lasts for a career.
Your North Star isn’t “keep your hands up” or “stay through the ball.” Those are moments. They fade fast.
Your North Star is bigger. It’s your trusted source of truth.
It’s the combination of:
the concepts you believe in
the movements you understand
the feelings you trust
and the teacher or system you return to
When the lights get bright, the game speeds up, and your swing starts lying to you, your North Star brings you back to neutral.
It reminds you:
“You’re not broken. You’re just off. Here’s where to look.”
Elite Hitters Don’t Search — They Return
Average hitters start searching the second they struggle.
Elite hitters return.
They know:
their foundation
their language
their sequencing
their patterns
and their windows
They don’t solve problems by adding new stuff. They solve problems by coming back to what’s already true.
The North Star keeps the player from becoming a collector of cues.
It protects them from getting coached out of who they are.
What a North Star Looks Like in CEO Hitting
For our hitters, the North Star almost always includes the same anchors:
1. Control your mass
Your center of mass is your truth-teller. When it gets ahead, behind, or disconnected, everything else gets messy.
2. Stay behind the Magic Wall
If the mass leaks forward, your timing, adjustability, and depth disappear. Staying behind the wall restores order.
3. Rear-launch bias
This is leverage, speed control, and adjustability. If the hitter starts pushing or lunging, the North Star puts them back into a launch pattern they trust.
4. Sequencing over style
They don’t need a new move — they need the right order of moves.
5. Awareness before emotion
Self-grade. Observe. Don’t judge.
These are not tips.
They’re orientation points.
They don’t tell a hitter what to do.
They tell them where they are.
Why Hitters Need Faith, Not Certainty
Mike says this often:
“Players won’t always understand everything we teach right away. And that’s okay.”
The North Star requires a little bit of faith.
Not blind faith — earned faith.
Faith that comes from:
reps
clarity
consistent language
watching your swing hold up under pressure
knowing the system works even when you don’t feel perfect
Hitters don’t need to master everything overnight. They need one place they can trust while they learn.
The North Star is that place.
The Hitter Without a North Star Is Always in Survival Mode
They can look talented.
They can look athletic.
They can even look great for stretches.
But when the storm hits — new velocity, new pitch shapes, frustration, slumps — they’re exposed.
They try a new cue every week.
They switch approaches daily.
They reinvent their swing mid-season.
They treat symptoms, not causes.
They chase the feeling instead of the understanding.
They’re working hard — but not toward anything.
The North Star gives the work direction.
Confidence Is Not a Feeling — It’s Orientation
You don't “feel” confident first and then hit well.
You understand, you orient yourself, and confidence follows.
Confidence comes from:
knowing how to reset
knowing what matters
knowing what doesn’t
knowing where the truth lives
and knowing how to return to it
That’s the North Star.
It’s not hype. It’s not motivation.
It’s stability.
Great hitters aren’t calm because they’re built differently.
They’re calm because they know where to go.
Build Your North Star Before You Need It
A North Star isn’t created mid-slump. It’s created in training.
In the reps.
In the conversations.
In the quiet moments when you’re learning what matters and what doesn’t.
In the simplicity of movements that hold up under pressure.
Build the North Star now, so when the chaos hits, you already have a place to go.
Because the game will test you.
Velocity will expose you.
Emotion will challenge you.
Every hitter gets lost.
The great ones don’t stay lost.
They know the way home.