Dr. Curt Ickes is retired. Sort of.
He is a Professor Emeritus at Ashland University, but still maintains an office on campus.
He works with the Eagle baseball and softball teams on the mental side of the game.
And the sixth and seventh books in the Play Like Champions series,
Just Win This Pitch! The Complete Mental Game System for High School and College Baseball and
Just Win This Pitch! The Complete Mental Game System for Fastpitch Softball, have helped him to sell 100,000 copies of the series.
"I just wrote these two books. They published in February," said Ickes, 65. "So my wife, who likes traveling and everything, she tells me, 'Hey, that's it for '26. We're going to go here, here, here.'"
The forward for the latest baseball book was written by Eagle head coach
John Schaly.
Ickes began working with the Ashland baseball team on the mental side of the game in 2008.
"As I go through every season…I say, 'Hey, how much mental game training do you use?' Very little," he said. "I was noticing that these college guys, they would get so much better from August to the time we're playing in April and May, in the mental game.
"I can see it work. I thought to myself, 'What if I could come up with a way to start teaching kids at 8, 10, 12 years old, and create a series of books that they could follow through?"
The results have been three baseball books and four softball books, spanning ages 8 through college.
"So now, I have over 1,000 teams using them for team training," Ickes said. "It's been really, really fun.
"Somebody asked me, 'How are you able to write these characters that kids can relate to?' I said, 'Well, it's because I was that kid.' I was that 10-year-old kid who loved baseball and wanted to play well. I identify with those players, because that was me."
Ickes said his two latest books are workbooks, what he teaches at the college level. He works with teams on narrowing the focus from let's win the game to let's win the inning to let's win the pitch.
"Because baseball games, softball games, are won and lost one pitch at a time. Right here, right now," he said. "The book teaches players these eight skills that get rid of the interference, so they can play. Under pressure, mental clutter increases, and physical tension increases, and it makes it tough to perform your best.
"You've just got to get your mind out of the way, and just play. So that's the real premise of the (latest) book. No fluff, no preaching – this is how you do it."
A golf book is on the way, using the same mental game premises as baseball and softball. The book will be written with pro golfer Gary Christian, who works for ESPN.
That book, however, won't come out until 2027 – after the family travel.
"I'll just keep writing," Ickes admitted. "But retirement's fun. Almost every day, I do something with it. It's fun when you hear the coaches' stories, or you get kids who will send you hand-written letters."
