Author Archives: Ken Krause
Overcoming Playoff Game Day Jitters
Guest post by Heather Henderson,Associate Director of Internet Marketing at RIP-IT Sports
Almost every athlete will tell you that they get game day jitters before any big game, especially if it’s an all-star or playoff tournament. Sometimes the nerves will set in a few days or just a few hours before the beginning of the game and then either two things happen: 1) the nerves will get the better of the player and result in inconsistent play or 2) the jitters will inspire the player to really step up and compete at their best. Noted sports psychologist Jacqui Louder has said, “Good nerves are when our feelings and thoughts assist us positively to perform and complete the task or performance to a level we are happy with,” and today we will discuss a few drills (and tips) to turn playoff game jitters into “good nerves” and the best playoff performance possible.
A Few Days Before the Game
Many athletes will experience anxiety a few days (typically between 3 and 5) before a big playoff tournament or championship game. This anxiety is often called “pressure to compete” and leaves players feeling worried and nervous at the thought of participating in the game. Players who feel the jitters a few days before the playoff game often bombard themselves with negative questions like, “Will I let my team down?” “Will I play inconsistently?” “What if the team loses because of a mistake I made?”
These questions are not helpful and acclaimed sports and life coach Tony Robbins has recommended that asking the right questions can change a person’s outlook on the game and their performance. Instead of worrying if you let the team down, instead focus and ask yourself how you can lead the team to victory. Robbins also suggests that our physical state can impact play and suggests taking your energy level to a more efficient level, “The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.”
Tips for Jitters a Few Days Before the Playoff Game:
• Ask Questions- Avoid negative, self deprecating questions and ask constructive questions that help you envision a positive outcome.
• Change Your Physical State– This is done through smiling, standing upright and breathing confidently. Doing these things will change your state and provide a confident feeling as well as more personal/athletic energy.
On Game Day
If you are one of the lucky athletes who only experiences championship jitters a few hours before the game, the tips listed above are also helpful leading up to the first inning. But other ways to remove game day jitters can include process centered thinking, pre-game rituals, mental acceptance and meditation.
• Process Centered Thinking
Instead of thinking about a win or loss, center your thoughts on the process. Visualize a play point by point and engage in mentally focusing on the positive aspects of that play as well as how it could be improved. Countless studies have found that mental imagery (visualization) in combination with physical practice can produce incredible results on the diamond.
• Pre-Game Rituals
Almost every athlete at all playing levels has developed some type of pre-game ritual. Whether it is performing a warm up routine exactly the same, visualizing an outcome, listening to your favorite song or gripping your fastpitch softball bat a certain way, it is important to stick to that routine during the post-season. The brain often relaxes with routine and continuing a pre-game ritual will help the brain relax and prepare for optimal play in the big game.
• Mental Acceptance
Some of the best athletes in the world say they became professionals in their sport once they accepted the fact the pre-game jitters were a fact of life and that they usually did better when they were a little nervous. The mental acceptance of jitters can be ground breaking in actually focusing on the game at hand instead of worrying about the butterflies in your stomach. Also accept that there will be some things you cannot change on the game day… don’t fret yourself with the weather, the opposing team or the umpire, and instead focus on what you can change, which is your level of play and the outcome of the game.
• Meditation
Performing deep breathing exercises or listening to calming music are excellent ways that many athletes will relax/meditate before an important game. This is also an excellent time to ask the right questions (mentioned above) or to visualize the tournament’s overall outcome.
Transforming Game Day Jitters Into Good Nerves
Good nerves can result in better play and championship wins, which is why we suggest implementing any of the tips listed above to transform your game day jitters into positive play. We wish you the best of luck this post-season and the best playoff performance possible.
About the Author Heather Henderson is an Associate Director of Internet Marketing at RIP-IT Sports and loves dedicating her free time to volunteer with the Special Olympics organization’s softball teams. She also enjoys reading, the batting cages and spending time outdoors.
Muchera – a different type of sliding pants
The other day in my email I found an interesting note from someone who has invented a new type of sliding pants. These pants, under the brand name Muchera, combine traditional sliding pants with knee and shin protection.
That’s an interesting concept. Back when I started coaching in the 1990s, sliding pads were a big thing in fastpitch softball. Of course, the players wore shorts then, so if you didn’t have some sort of knee/shin protection you’d end up with some pretty nasty-looking scrapes and bruises. They also wore slider shorts – some padded, some not.
This new idea combines the two of them. Given that almost all female fastpitch teams these days are wearing regular baseball pants it makes sense. You can throw these on underneath and no one will be the wiser. No more hassling with trying to remember if you packed your slider after the last game or not. (Incidentally, for you slow pitch players they have them in men’s sizes as well.)
They’re not quite ready for purchase yet – the inventor is working on getting the first 300 pairs made. But be sure to check it out, because any aggressive baserunner is likely to want a pair of these pants!
NOTE: This post was edited because of a change in the plans for bringing the pants to market.
Pro athlete Kevin Durant shows amazing class
I don’t follow the NBA much, but I heard a cool story on the radio this afternoon and just had to share it. It’s about Oklahoma Thunder player Kevin Durant.
Apparently, shortly after the tornado tore through Moore, OK earlier this week, Durant donated $1 million of his foundation’s money for disaster relief.
We hear so much about the selfishness of professional athletes these days, how they only care about themselves and what they can take. How great to hear Durant sees himself as part of the community and chose to make that donation. I’ve also heard he’s been helping out in the community, speaking with people, lifting spirits and helping out where he can.
If only more pro athletes were like Kevin Durant.
A way to explain the power zone in hitting
Earlier today I was working with a 12U player named Sydney on softball hitting. She’s a lot of fun to work with because she’s very intense and focused, and really tries to absorb everything we’re working on.
As I was throwing front toss to her, I could see she was ahead of a lot of the pitches. I tried to explain the importance of timing to her, how she wasn’t hitting the ball as hard as she could because her bat was already slowing down by the time she hit the ball.
Part of that explanation was drawing a bell curve, with the optimum spot to hit the ball being at the top of the curve. I showed how if you’re too early, or too late you’re further down the curve, and thus have less power. It made sense to me, and Sydney dutifully nodded her head as I said it. But I doubt it really made much of an impression, or much sense to her.
As I walked back out behind the screen I had a sudden inspiration. I told her to imagine a banana. I asked her what the best color is to eat a banana. The answer was yellow, of course. I then told her that swinging too early was like the banana being green, and swinging too late was like the banana being brown. That seemed to help her visualize it better, and she started hitting the ball harder.
A banana is something pretty much everyone can relate to. We’ve all seen them green, yellow and brown (disgusting). It helps players visualize time, or rather doing things at the right time.
As a postscript to this story, when I asked Sydney whether the banana analogy helped, she informed me that she doesn’t really like bananas. So while I worked with her we changed it to strawberries – green for early, red for right/ripe, and brown for late. That worked better for her personally.
If you have a hitter who’s having trouble with the concept of timing, give this one a try. And let us know what explanations you’ve used to help hitters understand the importance of getting the bat to the right place at the right time for maximum power.
Learning to slap is an off-season project
I was talking to one of my softball hitting students the other day, and she was telling me how her high school coaches have been having her hit from the left hand side. Now, understand that in theory it’s a good idea. She’s very fast, and would probably benefit from being that extra couple of steps closer to first.
The problem is, no one ever said a thing to her about it during the off-season, or even hinted that she should learn it. They just sent her up to the plate and told her to hit from the other side.
That’s just insane. To get an idea of how difficult that is, try eating an entire meal with your opposite hand. Then try doing it with chopsticks. Then try doing it while someone moves the plate around while you eat.
Learning to slap from the left if you’re a right-handed hitter is an off-season project. It takes a good year for right handed hitters to really become comfortable slapping and drag bunting from the left side, and usually longer for them to be able to swing away competently. Everything is backward, and it’s awkward.
What I don’t get is no coach in his/her right mind would ever consider sending a player out to play a field position opposite-handed without training. That would be insane. The player might be able to catch the ball, but certainly wouldn’t be able to throw it very well. And hitting is a much tougher skill to learn than throwing.
I’ve said before that my philosophy on slapping is to “burn the ships.” If you’re going to become a slapper there can’t be any of that two strikes and turn around stuff. You’re either in or you’re out. But with no training, and with no time to develop, your chances for success are very low. Extremely low. Practically non-existent, even if you’re a great natural athlete.
If you’re thinking about turning a righty around, don’t do it now. Wait for the off-season and give her time to develop properly. Otherwise, all you’re really going to accomplish is making a player frustrated and unhappy.
Oh by the way — usually you turn around a righty who isn’t a particularly good hitter, because you’re not losing much and have a lot to gain. In this case, this girl is a very good right handed hitter. Even went yard in a high school game. So to take the bat out of her hands right now makes even less sense.
Yes, I’ve turned hitters around successfully before, and yes, I’ve worked with this girl on it a little. I stand by my original statement – it’s a project for the next off-season.
A sign that I’m learning
The other night I was out watching a high school softball game (no surprise there) when I ran into an interesting situation. I was watching with some guys I knew from outside the left field fence, pretty much looking down the third base line.
At one point, a bouncing ball was hit down the line, then crossed over into foul territory where it was snagged by the third baseman. “Foul ball” cried the umpire. Then some blowhard parent who was also out there said “That’s not a foul ball. It has to hit the ground in foul territory.” I’m pretty sure he said it because he was rooting for the team in the field and the third baseman made a great play to grab it and make a throw.
Anyway, at that point I decided to correct him for the benefit of everyone out there. “No, it’s foul,” I said. “It doesn’t matter where the fielder is standing. If the ball is touched in foul territory it’s foul.”
A few minutes went by and the guy decided to pipe up again. He again insisted the ball had to hit the ground in foul territory to be foul, and he was pretty belligerent about it.
I was about to argue with him again, but then realized it was pointless. Without a rulebook in my hand there was no way to prove I was right, so I just decided to let it go. A sign of maturity, right? I’m sure Mr. Blowhard Parent was convinced that he’d won the argument because A) he was louder than I was and 
I didn’t argue again.
But no matter how loudly you proclaim your point, the rules are the rules. When I got back to my car I looked it up, just to be sure.
So to you, Mr. Blowhard Parent, I say look up Rule 1 in the ASA Softball rulebook, the one that’s for definitions. It clearly says that a foul ball is defined (among other things) as a ball that has hit the ground (regardless of being fair or foul) and is then touched by a player when the ball is in fair territory.
Ok, guess I haven’t matured as much as I thought since I felt compelled to address it here. But there’s no doubt I was right – again. So ha!
Carrying baggage to the plate
It’s been said that hitting a baseball (or in our case a softball) is the toughest thing in all of sports. And it does seem to be true. In other words, all the outcome-focused thoughts. Hitters have to just focus on this pitch, right now, see the ball and hit it hard. Remain focused on their process and not worry about the rest.
You have so little control over what happens, or the outcome, that it can be extremely difficult to be successful on a regular basis. Which is why a hitter who fails 7 out of 10 times is called an all-star. Since it is so difficult on its own, you really don’t want to do anything to make it tougher.
Today I did a little experiment with a few hitters to help them understand what it means to carry extra baggage to the plate – literally. After having them hit off the tee I had them move to a front toss station. But before they got to hit I had them put on their bat bags or back packs – whatever they had with them.
They took a few awkward swings and then I asked them how it felt to hit with their backpacks on their backs. As you might expect, they found it to be rather difficult.
Then we talked about what the backpacks represented. It’s all those things that hitters take with them that they shouldn’t – all those worries that get in the way. Things such as:
Putting on the backpack/bat bag is a great way to demonstrate how carrying extra baggage to the plate can get in the way of good hitting. If you have a hitter who is struggling, give it a try. It just might help them clear their heads.
That’s my thought. What have you done to help hitters regain their focus?
“42” well worth seeing
Just got back from seeing the movie “42” at my local movie theater. It’s an incredibly well-made movie with excellent performances, an excellent script, and a message well worth seeing.
If you’re not familiar with it, although if you’re reading this blog I can’t imagine you aren’t, it’s the story of how Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first African-American baseball player of the modern era. It’s also the story of how Dodgers General Manager came to put Robinson in the position to do so – and how single-minded and brilliant he was in creating that opportunity, which changed the game forever for the better.
On the way home from the theater I commented to my wife about how far we’ve come here in America in a very short time. I know I personally couldn’t believe the way people acted toward Robinson simply for the color of his skin. It’s uncomfortable at times, and you marvel at how ignorant people were back then.
But then I got to thinking about an incident that occurred just last year, in the summer of 2012, to one of my students. The girl’s mom told me about it. While the player is not African-American, she’s also obviously not Caucasian either.
She was in 12U ball at the time, just to put this in perspective. She is an excellent ballplayer, both as a pitcher and hitter (although I will admit I am biased since I coach her in both; her play, however, speaks for itself). She’s also one of the nicest, most polite kids you’d ever want to meet. She is a hard worker, a great teammate, I could go on and on.
Anyway, her mom told me how during a tournament last year when she was dominating in the circle and at the plate, some moron parent from the other team started yelling ethnic slurs at her. (If you’ve seen “42,” think of the Phillies manager, only using different ethnic slurs.) The guy appeared to be half in the bag as I recall, and nothing brings out one’s inner jerk like alcohol.
I remember being shocked that anyone would do that, first of all to a kid, and secondly in 2012 – whether they’re hammered or not. I mean really – who does that anymore?
There is good news in this, though. First of all, her team, and especially the parents, rallied behind her to make sure she knew it was just one random idiot. More importantly, I think, the girl herself was rather confused about the whole incident.
Why is that good? Because it means it’s probably a rarity. In “42,” the things that happen to Jackie Robinson when he joins the Dodgers aren’t that much different than what would happen to African-Americans all over the country, famous or not. But for this girl, I’m not sure she even knew what the slurs meant, so she probably hasn’t had to hear them much. That’s progress, of a sort.
The girl and her team went on to win the game handily, and fortunately that turned out to be an isolated incident. I believe the other team’s coach apologized for the parent’s behavior, and if I recall correctly he had the guy removed from the field. So there is hope for us as a society.
I highly recommend seeing “42,” not just for the message but also for the view of baseball in the 1940s. Wait until you see the spring training field for the Dodgers, a Major League Baseball club. Yet as you watch, think about much things have changed – and the fact that we still have a ways to go. It’ll definitely be worth the time you invest.
Why I love this country
Ok, this isn’t exactly softball, but tonight I feel compelled to write on this topic. There are a great many reasons I sincerely, deeply love the United States of America, but I heard a couple of stories today that I just have to share. Both have to do with the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon.
The first is one of those things that is kind of goofy, really, but deeply American. I heard that at Major League Baseball parks all over the country last night, the stadiums played, and the fans sang along to, Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. That is the signature song at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The significance of the song, I think, is that it was written about Caroline Kennedy.
The first place that was mentioned as singing the song was Yankee Stadium in New York. Now, if you’re not familiar with it, Yankees and Red Sox fans hate each others’ teams with a passion. They say awful, horrible things to the visitors, and fans get into fistfights all the time. The rivalry was alluded to in the Ocean’s Twelve movie, where George Clooney and another character (Scott Caan, I think) fake getting into a fight on a train as a distraction to switch out two bags.
It’s definitely an interesting way to show support. But it shows the spirit of this country. As I write this we don’t know who did it, but baseball fans all over the country sang the song to show support for their fellow Americans in Boston, and to show that America’s spirit is not going to be broken or even damaged by an act of terror.
This is what we do as a country. Sure, we may fight amongst ourselves, but when things look bad we close ranks and support each other. My feeling is a lot of that is due to the fact that most Americans aren’t native to this land. We either chose to be here, or we chose to stay here. We are mutts (as they say in Stripes), and we believe in equality. And when you believe in equality, well, hurt one of us and you hurt us all. America’s colors are red, white and blue, and they never run. We are proud of who we are, and we will take on all comers.
The other event was a video of Boston Bruins fans singing the National Anthem at a game against the Buffalo Sabres. On a night when people could have stayed home, or cowered in fear, the arena was packed and those in attendance sang the Star Spangled Banner so loudly they drowned out Rene Rancourt singing over the PA system.
Yes, we can seem loud, obnoxious and pushy to the rest of the world. Yes, we have our internal differences. But in the end, you can’t divide us by attacking us. Come after us and we will stand united.
Tonight I am extra proud to be an American.
Developing softball skills is like growing a plant
It’s springtime as I write this, and while it doesn’t look much like growing season yet where I live it definitely is in some parts of the country. So it seems appropriate to compare developing fastpitch softball skills to growing a plant.
At first, whether it’s a plant or softball skills it requires a lot of care and attention. For plants, if you’re growing from seeds you have to get the dirt prepared, plant the seeds, water them, feed them and watch over them carefully. If you let them go for even a few days they may not make it. If you’re transplanting, you have to remove it carefully from the old container and put it into the new dirt.
As the plant grows, its roots start getting stronger and deeper. You still have to watch over the plant and be sure it’s watered and fed, but it doesn’t take as much constant care. You can let it go a little longer than when it’s new and it will still survive.
Finally, as the plant matures, it just requires maintenance. Take good, basic care and it will do well.
Softball skills are the same. When you’re first learning, a lot can go wrong. It’s really important to get to those lessons and practice in-between so you can start building up the myelin layers and lock in on what you’re doing. If you miss a practice or two, though, it can really set you back – like not watering a plant.
As you get better, you can afford to skip a lesson or practice session here or there. It’s not ideal, but if your skill roots have “taken” you’ll have a strong enough foundation to be able to maintain your mechanics.
Eventually you get to the point where you’re not “learning” so much as tweaking or maintaining. Sure, there are always things to learn and improve upon. But your core mechanics should be there even if you’re not able to get to lessons or full-on practice sessions every week. Although I do have several pretty accomplished students who still come regularly, because they like to keep their games running at peak levels.
So as you think about yourself (or your daughter), what phase are you in? Have her skills taken roots yet? Does she require a lot of care and feeding? Or is she in full flower? Knowing the answer can mean the difference between success and failure on the field.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 