Transcription:

 Brandon Kramer:

 

Have you suffered any form of anxiety?  

 

Bruce Kuntz:

 

I have my whole life and I still do now. 

 

Brandon Kramer:

 

So during your baseball playing career, have you ever at any point struggled mentally with, depression or anxiety that revolved around your sport?

 

Bruce Kuntz:

 

Not just at any point, pretty much all the time. It's a constant battle for me. Baseball is a game of failure and I'm not somebody who was particularly God given, gifted with a ton of talent. And so it's always been a battle for me. And even as. You battle the physical things. I think the mental side of baseball is as hard as anything.

 

And it's certainly an obstacle that I've always had to deal with. And there's been times that it's dragged me down and there's been times when it's boosted me up if I am having a good stretch and I can feed off of that. The thing that I've always tried to live by the mantra in baseball is don't ever get too low or too high.

 

So just try to stay grounded as often as possible. And when things get tough, as they have many times in my baseball playing career, it certainly does get dark and it's tough to struggle through that. 

​

Brandon Kramer:

 

Could you maybe detail some of the things you struggled with?

 

Bruce Kuntz:

 

To be honest, luckily my baseball struggles have never driven me to a point.

 

For me, mostly the anxiety and the struggles that. Impacts my ability to perform on the field. That's, I think, the main impact rather than taking it home and struggling. Certainly, I do that, but not to a point like where it's serious like depression and stuff like that.

 

It's more about my whole life I've struggled with. Like when I step in the batter's box, the anxiety of being on the field and trying to worry about having a good at that and trying to perform for my teammates, all of that stacks up and it affects the way that I perform. Really bigger than anything else.

 

When I am doing well, it's when I'm playing with my shoulders down, relaxed and not worried. And when I'm struggling, it's when I'm pressing and I'm anxious and I'm worried. And that really over any mechanical changes, over anything physical. It's all about whether I'm comfortable or not. And the anxiety is something that's dragged me down for a long time as a player.

 

Brandon Kramer:

 

"Have you ever noticed times when overthinking affected your mechanics — whether it was throwing, hitting, or another part of your game? Maybe not a full case of the yips, but have you experienced moments where overthinking caused a disconnect from your usual muscle memory?

 

Bruce Kuntz:

 

Yeah. I'm a different player when I'm anxious and I'm. Up there worried about it. I'm a completely different player. It can come in the form of something as little as when I'm so worried about whether my load is on time or whether my foot's landing early enough. Then I forget to watch the baseball and actually just see the ball and hit the ball.

 

And that's all stuff that's born out of the anxiety and the struggle to just go up and be myself and trust myself. I think it's a. When I feel like I'm struggling, then I go up there and in the box I'm worried about performing and I'm not able to just trust that I'm, able to do it.

 

It's thoughts of am I good enough? Can I compete with this guy? Can I catch up to this fastball? Those kind of things that just cloud the mind and hitting in such a difficult thing in the first place that if you're thinking anything. More than the bare minimum of sea ball hit ball and having a basic hitting plan, you're not there.

 

There's not enough brain space to do it. So that's something I've always struggled with.

​

Brandon Kramer:

 

When you were dealing with anxiety, did you ever feel hesitant to talk about it with your teammates? Did you feel like you had to keep everything bottled up, or was there someone you felt comfortable reaching out to?

 

Bruce Kuntz:

 

I had somebody, but I certainly felt the pressure with people around me on the team, teammates, coaches.

 

I've always been lucky to have my dad, who is a baseball guy through and through, and I've been able to go to him. With all of my struggles with the mental side of the game, and he gets it better than anybody else I could talk to anyway. But especially like when I've played on teams in high school and things like that when I don't have my dad around it's something I definitely feel pressured for.

 

My high school coach was not a forward-thinking guy by any means, and the whole culture around my locker room and my team in high school was not one that you could step up and say, I'm struggling right now. With anything other than, Hey, come fix my mechanics. If you stepped up and said something was wrong mentally, and you're gonna get looked at like you're weak.

 

And that's something that I've definitely felt the pressure of throughout my life. And when you're playing that way and you feel like you can't talk about it, it just compounds it and it becomes a, a. Ball rolling downhill. That just continues to gain speed. And it's a harder hole to dig yourself out of.

 

The more you feel like that you're caved in and you can't talk about it. You can't really seek an avenue to improve the mental side or improve the anxiety, and you feel like you're just trapped. 

 

Brandon Kramer:

 

Why do you think it's important nowadays for athletes to speak out?

 

Bruce Kuntz:

 

So why do you think it's important, just, not just in baseball, but athletes of all sports. Why do you think it's important for them to use their platform and speak out about mental health issues? So I think it's most important to de-stigmatize the idea that you can have mental health issues and you can still be a great player.

 

You can still be an extremely tough player and you can still struggle. And so to try to. Make that as publicly perceived and accepted as possible is why it's important for players that are at the top of their game to go out and speak out about the fact that they're struggling too. I think that there's oftentimes with the people who don't have forward thinking mindsets when it comes to mental health and sports the thought can be that you're only gonna have those mental struggles if you're not good or if you're not good enough to get the job done in the first place.

 

And so the more. Professionals and high profile players that speak out and acknowledge the fact that they struggle to helps de-stigmatize that idea and help people accept the fact that everybody who plays sports can struggle with these issues. 

​

Brandon Kramer:

 

If you were in charge of an MLB team, what steps would you take to better support athletes’ mental health?"

 

Bruce Kuntz:

 

There would be an entire section of the organization that would just be mental health coaches and counseling that would run all the way from the major leagues all the way through every level of the minor leagues to make sure every single player has somebody to go to.

 

And I think that I might even bring it as far as to say there would be mandatory counseling sessions for everybody in the organization, because I think that even if you provide the avenue for a player to speak up when they're struggling, even confidentially, that still is a very hard thing to do yourself as a player when a lot of these guys have grown up in situations and surrounded by teammates and coaches that have.

 

Pounded this idea into their heads that you're weak if you speak up about this kind of stuff. So if I were in control of an organization, I would make it as easy as. It could possibly be for a player to seek help for these kind of things, because I think then at that point, not only you're helping your team win by making these players better, but you're helping the individuals be the best versions of themselves as well.

 

And I think that when every organization has the nutritionists, the hitting coaches, the pitching coaches at every area of the game is completely covered except for the mental side. And I think that's the last place that really could see some growth.