In 2019, Corbin Burnes was demoted to the minor leagues after an atrocious first half of the season in which on July 14 his ERA was at exactly 9.00. At that time he had given up 16 home runs with 11 of them coming in his first four starts. He was healthy and mechanically in tune, so he met with mental-performance coach Brian Cain. Cain’s first assignment for Burnes was to start making his bed.
Corbin Burnes’ path to greatness started with the simple task of making his bed.
The idea here is that when you wake up and make your bed, you are starting your day with an easy win. It also was to help establish a routine, emphasize discipline, and attention to detail. Improvement in those three areas in daily life could be replicated while on the mound.
Corbin Burnes was a mess in 2019. He couldn’t fix it. Then he talked with someone who told him that in order to be his best, he needed to start making his bed.
The story of how a physically elite athlete got a mental tune-up and found greatness at ESPN+: https://t.co/eSKtB4s0Cf pic.twitter.com/v0uCYVoRNK
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 2, 2023
Mental-performance coach Brian Cain clearly was successful in helping guide Corbin Burnes. When Burnes’ broke through in 2020 and earned Cy Young honors in 2021 he commented numerous times on how much his mental game had improved since that disastrous 2019 season. It’s crazy to think that it all started with the simple task of making his bed.
Of course another big contributing factor to Burnes’ ascension has been the development of a cutter. He has almost entirely ditched throwing a 4-seam fastball and now relies on a 95 MPH cutter as his primary pitch. This has been one of the most deadliest pitches in all of baseball since 2020.
The full article on Burnes’ ascension that was written by Jeff Passan can be found here.
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