Pretty much everyone knows or at least has heard about the Great Wall of China. It’s quite the construction feat, running 13,170 miles using materials such as earth, stone, and brick.

While we think of it as one cohesive structure, it’s actually a series of fortifications built by multiple dynasties. While there are no receipts from Lowe’s to tell us exactly how many bricks were used to build it, researchers have estimated it took anywhere from 3.8 to 42 billion bricks/stones to create the incredible wall we marvel at today.

Now think about this: The Great Wall of China wasn’t just plopped in place whole. Each of those 3.8 to 42 billion bricks was laid in place, one at a time, over a period of 2,000 years. All without the help of any modern powered equipment – just hard, backbreaking manual labor from slaves, convicts, soldiers, and random peasants who couldn’t run away fast enough.

And before they could lay the top parts that people walk along and ooh and aah over, they first had to put the ones along the ground in place. And then the layer above that, and the layer above that, and so on.

The same is true for building skills in fastpitch softball (or anything else for that matter, but hey, we’re talkin’ softball here). All too often I see posts on social media from parents or coaches looking to help a player “add 4-5 mph to their pitching speed” or “give a hitter an extra 50 feet of distance on their hits” in the next couple of months.

Sorry folks, it doesn’t work that way, unless their overall mechanics are so bad that any type of guidance will help them overcome some seriously limiting flaws.

The reality is improvement often comes in unnoticeable-to-the-naked-eye increments on a player who is already pretty good. Maybe it’s a slight relaxation of critical muscles that enable a little extra acceleration or a little better positioning of body parts than was achievable before.

Maybe it’s a little extra strength from workouts that doesn’t show up on a force plate or a radar. But it enables a quicker deceleration or a little more efficient transfer of energy from one segment to another or a little faster spin than was happening before that sets a player up for future success.

Stack enough of those little improvements together, one-by-one, and suddenly, before you know it, you have built them into something that will make people say “wow.”

Where it’s different, of course, is that fastpitch softball players can’t bring in a phalanx of slaves, convicts, soldiers, and peasants to do the work for them while they collect all the glory. They have to do the work themselves, repetition after repetition, whether it’s skill work, lifting, speed and agility, or whatever else they need.

The tough part is being patient throughout this process. We all want to see instant results – coaches as much as players and parents.

Again, though, it doesn’t work that way (at least 99.999% of the time). It would be like carrying a bunch of bricks over to where you’re building your wall and trying to stack them all at once.

The result is probably not going to last for nearly 3,000 years and draw visitors from all over the world. In fact, it probably won’t last a day and the only visitor it will draw is the local building inspector telling you to tear it down and try again.

There are no miracle cures or programs that will instantly take a player from zero to hero. What it does take is time and focused work, doing what you’re supposed to do to the best of your abilities each so that over time those individual efforts pay off into a larger, more effective, and more satisfying whole.

So keep stacking those bricks. And be sure to appreciate and celebrate even the smallest victories – even if they’re just a movement feeling better than it did before.

The journey will be worth it when you see the incredible structure you’ve built.

Great wall photo by Ella Wei on Pexels.com