Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber joined Off The Mound with Ryan Dempster to chat about stay-at-home life and how he improved his swing. 

Schwarber is currently in Arizona during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place and has been busy during this pandemic. 

“It’s been a blessing and it is what it is. We just got married this past off-season and it’s been awesome,” Schwarber said. “We’re going out with each other hiking, we’ve been out to the golf course, a lot of Netflix and cooking a lot actually. That’s been the cool thing is we’ve been cooking a lot. It’s been fun and just trying to stay ready for the season whenever it’s possible.”

Since Schwarber has remained active in Arizona, Dempster mentioned how Schwarber had a great 2019, especially the second half of the season. Dempster said “it was a huge year.”

Schwarber described what helped him turn the corner.

“When you’re able to be out there on the field everyday, and you’re just going out there just trying to win, I think that’s the biggest mindset,” Schwarber said. He went on to a story about sports psychologist Kenny Ravizza.

“Him and I were out in L.A., we were playing the Dodgers in 2017,” Schwarber said. “We’re in my hotel room and we’re talking and he goes ‘Hey Schwarber, come here.’ He goes ‘all right, do your routine. Step in the box.’ I go ‘OK, you don’t want me to have a bat?’ and he said ‘no.’ I stand in there and this guy is an older gentlemen. He decides to jump on my back and he yells ‘Swing, try to swing.’ I couldn’t swing the bat. Afterwards, he tells me ‘that’s what you’re doing every time. You’re carrying stuff in your at-bats.’ It was an eye opener for me.”