Dear Readers,
Greg Warburton’s way of discovering what exactly needs tapping on and having the client supply the wording, what he calls ‘pressure off practitioners’ (POP) will help you to help your clients, no matter what you’re using EFT for. Visit Greg’s website.
-David MacKay
EFT Helps Oregon State University Baseball Team Win Back-to-Back College World Series National Championships!
Many have now seen the Jorge Reyes video clips, tapping in the dugout on ESPN, that I released to the EFT world this year. I have never told the entire story of what happened with EFT during the Oregon State University college world series back-to-back national championship years in 2006 & 2007.
I will tell the rest of the story now that all of the players are no longer at the university and I won’t affect their amateur status. The whole story is compelling because it illustrates the power of EFT used for sports performance. The kids from Oregon State in the Pacific Northwest, with bad-baseball weather and the perception that they are less talented than the athletes playing in the sunny southern states, were not expected to even be competitive, let alone go to the college world series three years in a row and win two national championships.
It all began for me at my local athletic club in 2005. An acquaintance, Dan Spencer, was a member of the athletic club where I exercised. Dan also happened to be the pitching coach for the Oregon State University baseball team which had gone to the college world series in 2005, for the first time in many years. They lost two straight games that year and were eliminated from the tournament. As a big baseball fan, I knew I had some new and innovative mental-game tools that the baseball players could learn and predictably have even more success playing on college baseball’s biggest stage. I began mentioning this possibility to Dan when we would run into each other at the athletic club. And then Dan agreed to have me teach EFT to him.
It was mid-season in 2006 when pitching coach, Dan Spencer, scheduled me to introduce to the pitchers and catchers on the Oregon State University baseball team, the body-energy based method, EFT, that I had taught him. I still see that day in my mind’s eye. The players cooperated with their coach’s request by assembling, at the end of a long practice, in the first-base bleacher section of the field. I remember being nervous, wondering about distractions around the field and what energy they had left for listening and learning to something different and totally new to them.
I remember saying to the players, “You probably don’t know what Coach Spencer has gotten you into.” I knew that they had never seen what I was about to teach them and I truly wanted them to listen and learn, instead of thinking I was crazy and indeed wondering what coach Spencer had gotten them into. I would have felt even more pressure had I known beforehand that my presentation would turn out to be a “one-shot deal” that season. Nevertheless, something happened during my one-hour presentation. A couple of key players began using EFT before games. I saw the players occasionally at home games and had just enough time with them to ask, “Are you still using the techniques?” Each time they responded, “Yes.” At one point, one of these players told me that he had also convinced their star centerfielder, who had had a prior hamstring injury that was still holding him back from playing all out, to use the techniques, adding that the centerfielder had no further hamstring problems the rest of the season. I later learned that a couple of players used EFT all season long. Yet, most exciting is that Oregon State University returned to the College World Series in 2006. They lost their first game, and against all odds, then won six elimination games in a row to win the College World Series championship! One of the players I had taught EFT ended up playing very well and threw the last pitch of the championship game to close out the victory! Remember, I had formally taught EFT to these players only one time.
Then came the 2007 season. Pleased with the 2006 results, Coach Spencer agreed to have me meet with the pitchers and catchers on an established schedule. I met with the players 8 times during their regular season. The meetings were voluntary and there were from 3 – 8 players who joined the EFT tapping sessions. In 2007, Oregon State went back to the college world series, went undefeated, winning six games in a row and won their second national championship on college baseballs’ biggest stage.
Practitioner Note: Many practitioners anguish over what to tap for and what language to use. My quick and effective approach to identifying what to tap for takes pressure off practitioners (POP). I teach the courage of self-honesty practice and invite the players to tell themselves the truth about their thoughts and feelings regarding their current baseball performance. I praise them for being self-honest. I give them the preface, “When I tell myself the truth…” to get to the issues to tap for.
And I highlight that a key is to allow the upset if it is there and tap for it, rather than forcing positivity. I teach them that the mental game starts with watching, not more thinking. I teach them that thoughts are energy and they don’t just stay in your brain, so they want to pay attention to what thoughts they are “feeding” their brains. For example, their star catcher, Mitch, was in a batting slump. I met with him and asked, “When you tell yourself the truth, what is one thought you have on your mind?” Mitch said, “The ball looks the size of a pea.” So, there we had our start, and we did EFT tapping for “the ball looks the size of a pea.” He went on to being a star hitter in the post season. Another pressure off practitioner (POP) practice is learning you can ask the athlete, instead of the felt pressure of thinking that you have to have the just right thing to say and/or do.
When Coach Spencer and I reviewed the impact of EFT on player performance in 2007, we were convinced that EFT made a significant difference in many of the pitcher’s performances over the course of the season. It appeared to help them maintain a relaxed body and calm mind. One observation he made was that “it took their heads out of the way so their bodies could do what they had trained them to do.” He also said, “We had 6-7 pitchers out of a 10-man pitching staff using the EFT tapping technique.” Jorge Reyes was a true freshman pitching on college baseballs’ biggest stage. He said, “We just call it tapping out… When I’m in the dugout, I just tap and I tell myself, ‘You’re still pitching great.’ And if you’re doing anything bad, you just kind of tell yourself to flush it out by tapping.”
What nobody knew was that several other key players on those championship teams were using EFT tapping. Several players who used EFT during the 2006 & 2007 championship years were drafted into professional baseball. Eddie Kunz pitched for the New York Mets in 2008. The last time I talked with Eddie he told me, “I’m taking tapping to the major leagues with me.” Joe Paterson is currently pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks in major league baseball. Mitch Canham, the star catcher, was a first round draft pick in 2007 and has made it to the Triple AAA level of baseball, one step under the major leagues. When I had coffee with him and asked if he was still using EFT tapping, he said, “Not consistently, but I know it is like good nutrition; it works, but only if you use it.” Kevin Gunderson, who told me he would tap in the hotel room before games, pitched at the Triple AAA level of baseball. Blake Keitzman, who was another freshman pitcher on the 2007 team, went undefeated in college in 2009 going 9-0 with a 2.08 ERA. I called Blake to congratulate him on his great season. Blake thanked me and said, “I’m still doing it.” I asked, “Doing what?” He said, “The tapping.” Blake pitched a no-hitter in March, 2010, the first no-hitter in his league in six years. He was drafted by the Seattle Mariners and has started his professional baseball career.
And that’s the rest of the OSU/EFT story in a nutshell. Thank you to everyone for your time and interest in my work. Greg Warburton at www.gregwarburton.com.
