Category Archives: Mental game
Getting hitters started on time
Getting hitters started on time is often a challenge. You work, and work, and work on developing proper hitting mechanics. You hit off the tee, soft toss, front toss and everything else you can think of. 
Then the next game comes along and it seems like it all falls apart. That hitter that was bombing balls in practice stands there frozen at the plate until the ball is on top of her, then quickly executes what I can only call a “panic swing” – one that says “Oh crap, I better swing.”
There can be reasons for it, although most tend to lead back to fear of making a mistake. So the hitter waits and waits and waits, then realizes she ought to be swinging. At which point it’s too late to hit the ball well.
One long-standing way of attempting to overcome this was of thinking is to say you should be thinking “Yes, yes yes” and then either yes or no. In other words plan on swinging until you see otherwise.
Another common way of expressing it is the pitch is a strike until you see otherwise. In other words, plan on it being good, and then hold up if it’s not.
Here’s a little different way of approaching it. When the hitter is taking too long to decide, she is essentially trying to determine if she should start her swing. Of course, by the time she starts it she is already too late. So tell her she shouldn’t be thinking about whether to start the swing. She should start it every time, and then while she is in her swing decide whether to continue or stop.
If the hitter is using good mechanics, i.e., starting the swing with her hips, followed by her shoulders and then her bat, she’ll have plenty of time to hold up before committing the bat to the swing. In the meantime, she has her body in motion, developing power and preparing to apply it to the ball. Her eyes are also gathering information about the speed, location and spin of the ball, helping her to decide whether to take the swing.
So if she’s started her swing, the only thought should be whether to stop if the pitch is a bad one.
Give it a try, and let me know if it works for your hitters.
Playing the softball time game
Let me start out by saying I’ve made it pretty clear in the past that I am NOT a fan of time limits in fastpitch softball. The game was designed to be played across seven innings, no matter how long that takes.
Yogi Berra’s statement “It ain’t over ’til it’s over” doesn’t make as much sense if you’re playing against a clock, because there is a definite point when it’s over. But then again 
Yogi never had to make sense to be quotable.
In any case, whether we like it or not time limits have become the norm at nearly every summer tournament. The desire to get as many teams to play as many games as possible on a finite number of fields drives that. Maybe it’s greed, maybe it’s the “bigger is better” syndrome, but whatever it is as long as that’s the prevailing sentiment among those who are running tournaments you’re going to see time limits.
With that comes a new set of challenges for coaches. For example, if you’re dedicated to all of your players playing at least half the game, that’s fairly easy to accomplish when you know you have seven innings. Not so much when you have 1:15 no new inning with 1:30 drop dead. You have to keep an eye not only on the innings but on the clock, and may have to make substitutions at times you don’t want to.
The drop dead time limit can also change the strategy as far as whether you want to be the home or visiting team. If your team starts off hot at the plate but tends to fade in the field later in the game, you may want to take visitor if given the choice. You get to start out hitting, and if your team is booting the ball around in the bottom of the last inning it may not make a difference. In fact, if you’ve blow a lead you may even want to have them not get outs so the inning isn’t completed and the game defaults back to the previous inning when you were ahead.
And that brings us to today’s sermon topic, which is the games some coaches play when facing a time limit. The above being just one of the more egregious examples.
Some might call it being strategic. Others might call it short-sighted, since it’s kind of legalized cheating – you’re playing within the rules of the game, but not the spirit.
Not that I was always a saint about it, but after experiencing time limits a few times I quickly came to the philosophy that if you’re not good enough to win the game outright, you’re not good enough to win it.
As my buddy and assistant coach Rich Youngman once pointed out to me, what does it tell your team if you have to play these games? That you don’t have confidence in them to be the better team and win it outright, so you’re resorting to tricks?
Here are some examples. Your team is on defense, clinging to a one-run lead. You don’t want to go into a new inning because you know the heart of your opponent’s order is coming up, along with the bottom of yours. So you call a timeout to talk to the pitcher and gather the rest of your team in for your talk, which apparently becomes a manifesto. Tick tick tick.
Or you’re the home team on offense and don’t want a new inning to start. So you tell your team to walk slowly to batter’s box, and be sure to take a few practice swings between each pitch. If time is still moving too slowly you call a batter over for a conference. I even heard an instance of a coach telling a player to tie her shoe when it was already tied.
There are all kinds of ways to run a couple of extra minutes off the clock. Even an argument with an umpire can take up some precious time. A fake injury that doesn’t take too long to deal with can run some time off without stopping the clock too. Fielders taking a little extra time to throw the ball around after a strikeout, and maybe even throw it away on purpose or let a ball go by so they have to chase it down qualify as well.
This is not to say every strategy for killing time is bad. If you want to tell your players to take pitches until they get a strike on them, I’d consider that smart. Maybe you get a walk, but maybe you put your hitter in a hole that speeds up the at bat. That’s legit.
More borderline ethical is telling a hitter to strike out on purpose to kill an inning. I wouldn’t do it, but if it results in an extra inning being played you’re potentially not affecting the outcome of the game as much – both teams still have an equal chance to do something in that inning.
It’s the ones where you’re preventing the game from being played that get to me. If you’re there to play fastpitch softball, then play fastpitch softball. Man up, or woman up, and have confidence that the best team will win. Without the need for gimmicks. The lesson that will teach will mean a whole lot more to your kids than a $10 plastic trophy or medal.
It’s not where you start the race…
One of my favorite sayings is “It’s not where you start the race that counts, but where you finish.” I will say it to players who didn’t make a team they wanted, or who start the season riding the bench, or otherwise find themselves in a less than desirable position.
One of my favorite pictures of Erin Yazel. A far cry from the girl who could barely catch a ball hit to her.
Of course, it’s easy to say things like that; platitudes come easily. So I thought I’d share one of my favorite success stories today – one that proves that saying is more than words.
I first met Erin Yazel when she was a first-year 14U player. (I’m old school, so I only recognize even number team levels.) As I understand it, Erin had joined an A-level fastpitch team after coming from rec ball. Not on the basis of her skills as much as the team needed players and Erin tried out.
To put a little more perspective on it, I came to that team as an assistant coach after it was already formed, about midway through the offseason. When you’re working indoors in a small gym it’s tough to get a real read on things.
Once we were outside, however, it became apparent that even though she was an outfielder Erin’s outfield skills were not quite at the level that was expected. That was a potential problem since the team had a few legitimate A-level players and some of their parents were vocal about who could cut it and who couldn’t.
Erin was a hard worker, though, and a good kid, so I went to the head coach and asked her if I could work with Erin separately at practice to help her learn to track fly balls better. The head coach agreed, and off we went. I also suggested to Erin that I could meet her before practice, or stay after, to help her hone her skills some more. She was more than willing since she wanted to be a full-fledged contributor and she, her dad Steve and I spent a lot of time together.
Over the course of that first season she got better and more reliable, although she did end up breaking her nose in a game when she lost track of a fly ball in center. That one was ugly to see and hear, but it didn’t stop her. After a couple of weeks off she was back on the field, more determined than ever.
One of the qualities Erin brought with her was that she was fast – like 2.7 home to first fast. So naturally I suggested she spend the off-season becoming a lefty slapper.
We worked on that the entire winter, along with bunting and swinging away, and by the next spring she was a different player. She took naturally to slapping and soon had earned the leadoff spot in the lineup for our travel team. She also made her JV team as a freshman, and likely would’ve gone straight to varsity if the head coach hadn’t come straight from baseball and didn’t understand the importance of speed and the short game (a deficiency he fixed the following year, by the way).
Erin went on to have a great high school career as well as a travel ball career, and actually came back to me a couple of years later to play on my IOMT Castaways team. I encouraged her to try college softball, and even helped her make a recruiting video, but in the end she decided it wasn’t for her.
Erin’s ISU club team. She is first row, second from the right.
But that doesn’t mean it was the end of her fastpitch career. Instead, she became involved in the Illinois State University club team. If you’re not familiar with the concept, club teams are groups of girls who form their own teams and play against similar teams from other schools. It’s fun and competitive, without the bigtime commitment and time sink of playing at the college varsity level.
This past year was Erin’s second playing for the Redbirds, and it’s clear she’s still loving the game. Her mom Judy sent me her stats.
For the season she had a batting average of .488, with an OBP of .533 and slugging percentage of .537. In 41 at bats she had just 4 strikeouts, and her OPS was a healthy 1.090. You can check out her whole line here.
That’s pretty impressive for a girl who had trouble even getting on the field her first year of travel ball. But it shows what you can do when you have a love for the game, the determination to improve, and the support of great parents. Not to mention self confidence, which Erin always had boatloads of despite some of the outcomes.
So if you’re not quite where you want to be, take a lesson from Erin. Don’t let anyone else define you, and don’t define yourself by where you start. Because that doesn’t matter. The most important consideration is where you finish.
How NOT to act when you’re the pitcher
I was out watching a high school softball game today (as I often like to do) on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. It was a well-played game overall, with a few good hits and some excellent defensive gems as well. 
There was one thing I saw, however, that kind of bothered me. First let me set the scene.
The home team was in the field, and was trailing by a few runs. The visitors had a couple of runners on base. Bases may have even been loaded – I usually don’t pay that much attention to the specifics.
The pitcher threw a pitch and the hitter turned on it, driving a sharp two-hopper between the shortstop and third baseman and into left field. The left fielder came charging up to field the ball gloveside. That’s when disaster struck.
The ball took a nasty hop right over her glove and to the fence. Two runs scored, extending the visitors’ lead, and there were still runners on. That’s when I heard it.
The pitcher lost her cool and yelled “Outfielders, you have to get in front of the ball.”
She was correct, especially in that particular situation. The left fielder was going to have no play by charging the ball hard, so should’ve made sure it stayed in front of her. But…
It’s not the pitcher’s place to chastise her fielders. She needs their support. Pitchers should either say something positive and encouraging to their fielders or keep their mouths shut, in my opinion. Chastising the fielders is the coach’s or the catcher’s job. Giving the fielders a hard time will do the pitcher no good, but it could do some harm.
Personally, if I were that left fielder and got called out like that, I would not have been happy. When the pitcher rolled the first pitch to the next batter into the plate (as she did) I might’ve been tempted to yell “Pitchers, you can’t roll the ball in to the plate.” See how she likes it.
Pitchers have to understand that just as they don’t usually walk batters or hit them on purpose, fielders aren’t trying to make errors. They just happen. Also keep in mind that runners on base don’t just materialize from nowhere. If there weren’t other errors already, they got on by a hit, walk or HBP, so the pitcher has some culpability for those baserunners that scored.
Again, unless they can strike out every opposing batter every time, pitchers need everyone pulling in the same direction behind them. Getting mouthy to their fielders isn’t the way to accomplish that.
They’ll be better served by staying cool and demonstrating leadership. It’s the better choice not only for the immediate game but for the season.
Be the you they already like
This one is for all the fastpitch softball players (and other athletes as well) who are having trouble with being nervous because you’re afraid of failing or letting the team down. In other words, facing a lack of confidence. 
First off, know that everyone goes through this now and then in every walk of life. Even the professionals who are being paid millions of dollars (thousands of dollars in the case of pro softball, but that’s a story for a different day) to play.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to forget about trying to live up to some ideal you think you have to meet and remember that your coach put you on this team for a reason. He or she thought you had something that would help the team win, whether it’s a game, a tournament, a conference championship or some other prize. All you have to be is who the coach already saw and you’ll be fine.
So if you’re a hitter, instead of hesitating until the last possible split second before you get into your swing, start early and slow so you can be aggressive in putting the bat on the ball. She who hesitates tends to hit pop-ups and grounders. But hitters who take their practice swings into the batter’s box and make a plan to hit the ball hard usually do.
If you’re a pitcher who has put the work in, there’s no need to worry about whether you can throw strikes. If you did it in practice you’ll do it in a game. Quit focusing on outcomes and instead just relax and pitch your game. If you’ve been handed the ball the coach clearly thinks you can get the job done. Why would you argue with the coach? 🙂
It’s the same for fielders too. Unless you’re a super great hitter who the coach is trying to hide on defense, you know what to do when the ball comes to you. Just do it. (No, this is not a paid placement.)
Look, everyone makes an error now and then. Everyone has a bad day at the plate, or in the circle, or on the basepaths. That’s what makes the game of softball so hard – and so good when it goes well.
You don’t have to be the next Cat Osterman or Sarah Pauly or Lauren Chamberlain or anyone else. You just have to be you. Just do the things that got you into this position and you’ll have all the success you could ever imagine.
Now go get ’em!
You have to take opportunities when they come
Last night I was watching Texas and Arkansas on the SEC network. It was a good game, with great plays and the lead changing a few times. I got to see an Arkansas home run record set and two teams playing all out.
Also saw a pitcher get her first-ever start for Arkansas. I didn’t catch the back story, but apparently she’s is normally an outfielder. But due to some sort of circumstances she was pressed into action. I think she’d been a high school or travel ball pitcher, but at Arkansas she’s an outfielder. Good for her for stepping up when the team needed her.
The thing that struck me, though, was what happened in the bottom of the 7th. Arkansas, the home team, was down a run. The leadoff batter went to first after being hit by pitch, and the next hitter – a power slapper – drove a ball just out of reach of the center fielder. The runner on first scored and the batter ended up on third.
So Arkansas was in a tie game with a runner on third an no outs. Oh, and all-important momentum on their side too. I thought for sure they were going to pull off a victory. All they needed was a ground ball with eyes, or a sac fly. Statistically, the run expectancy in this situation is at least one run for the inning.
Of course, that’s why they still have to play the game. The next hitter popped up. The one after that grounded out weakly to the pitcher, who held the runner at third. The next batter struck out, stranding the runner on third. Texas scored in the top of the eighth and held on to win the game.
Which brings me to my point. In this sport, especially when you’re the underdog, you have to find a way to capitalize on your opportunities. I’m sure the three hitters on Arkansas didn’t purposely try to make outs, but make outs they did. By not scoring that one more run they made it more difficult on themselves.
Maybe they were nervous, or trying too hard. Maybe they were thinking too much about outcomes (or the result of messing up) and took themselves out of it. Or maybe the Texas pitcher, faced with a tough situation, rose to the occasion. All I know is Arkansas had a great chance to pull off an upset but couldn’t quite get it done.
If you’re in that situation, it’s important to focus on the task at hand. If you’re the hitter, do your best to relax and just try to hit the ball hard – same as you always do. Because you may not get that chance again next inning, which means you have to take your opportunities when they come.
The best way to help softball players feel good
University of Arizona head coach Mike Candrea is famous for saying that the difference between boys and girls is that boys have to play good to feel good, and girls have to feel good to play good. There is a lot of truth in that as anyone who has ever coached both can attest.
But how do you get girls to feel good so they can play good? To some people it seems to mean always saying something positive, even when it’s not earned. I disagree.
Girls are smart, and they tend to be more self-aware than boys, especially in the teen years. If they mess up and you say “good job” they know you’re lying, or saying it to try to make them feel good. It doesn’t take long before even sincere compliments are treated with skepticism.
If you really want to help a girl play good (and yes, I know the correct word in English is “well” but let’s stay with the theme), the way to make her feel good is to help her learn to play better. If they are hitting well, they will continue to hit well. If they believe they can hit well, because they’ve seen themselves do it, they will hit well (eventually). The same goes for pitching, fielding and running the bases.
Understand, though, that most people don’t get better by getting yelled at. That is something many coaches seem to forget. If they were spoken to at their jobs the way they speak to their players in practice or at a game, they’d quit. So why expect any other result if you’re constantly yelling at and berating your players?
If you want to help them get better so they can perform better, teach them. Or find someone else who can. Be patient. Explain not just what to do but why. Help them see the big picture, which is not something that usually comes naturally to young people male or female. Give them context and a reason why doing something a certain way will help and they’ll be much more likely to do what you want them to do.
One of the things I dislike most during a game is when a player screws up – say drops an easy pop-up – and coaches or parents say “nice try.” That’s not a nice try, it’s an error. A nice try is when you dive after a ball that ends up just out of reach. If you set the standard that a nice try is muffing an easy play, how is that player ever going to improve her game?
When you give sincere feedback, even if it’s corrective, the player knows you have her best interests at heart. The message you’re sending is “I know you can do (whatever), here’s how to make it happen.” That goes a lot further than saying “nice job” when the player knows it wasn’t.
Of course, there are a lot more things that go into a player feeling good than just what happens on the field. But you can’t control most of those. You can work with her, however, to develop her skills so at least that’s one less thing she has to worry about. Do that and you’re sure to end up with a player who’s more game-ready every game.
Keeping softball from turning into Space Armada
Back in the mid-1980s, I owned an early video game console from Mattel called Intellivision. Extremely primitive by today’s standards, I still managed to waste many an hour playing it. This was long before I started coaching softball, obviously.
My favorite game was one called Space Armada, basically a knockoff of Atari’s Space Invaders. The object was to kill off all the invaders while avoiding being hit by bombs dropped by a flying saucer that went back and forth across the screen. If one of the invaders reached the bottom of the screen, the game was over.
Why tell you about an ancient video game in a softball blog? Because there were a lot of similarities between that game and what can happen to softball players when they start to panic.
You see, as hard as it may be for today’s young games to understand, in Space Armada there was no way to “win.” You didn’t beat a level boss to move up, and you could never reach an end. In Space Aramada, every time you cleared the aliens a new group would appear. Each new screen would work faster and faster, while the pulsing “music” behind it would go from thump…..thump……thump to thump…thump…thump and ultimately thumpthumpthump. In the meantime, your heart would race and your brain would be, shall we say, over-stimulated.
That’s the way it can feel in a softball game or even a practice too. We often hear players who are “in the zone” say the game slowed down while they were in there.
Well, the opposite can happen when things don’t go well, such a pitcher not making the pitches (or getting the calls), or a hitter struggling through a slump. The player starts to press, and you can almost hear the background sounds going thumpthumpthump. At that point it’s going to be tough to recover. Usually the biggest sign is that the player starts to work faster, such as a pitcher trying to throw the next pitch as soon as she gets the ball back.
If you feel that happening (or you’re a coach and you see it happening to a player or the team) you need to try to get them to chill out, slow it back down and relax.
The best way to do it is to take some time to breathe. Not just any breath, though. Take a deep cleansing breath or two – in through your no
se, out through your mouth, slowly and taking in as much oxygen as you can. You’d be amazed at how that deep breath can help you calm down and relax.
You want to clear your brain and quit over-thinking — especially of the consequences of failure. Trust your training and focus on the task at hand.
If you’re a coach, you may want to take this opportunity to call a timeout and talk to the player or team. Tell a joke, comment on what a nice day it is, remind the player or team that they’re playing for the love of the game, and perhaps a little plastic trophy or medal, not world peace. Do whatever it takes to slow those aliens down and keep the game at a pace they can handle.
When I played Space Armada I knew it was just a game. But the competitor in me couldn’t help but get wrapped up in the pressure to perform. It’s the same for your team. Help them keep the game from getting out of control and you’ll like the results a whole lot better.
Solid softball mechanics a key to confidence
We talk a lot about the importance of confidence in softball – particularly for hitters, but in every aspect of the sport. There’s no doubt that it makes a difference.
But when it comes to ensuring our players have confidence, many are at a loss. There are plenty of tricks and techniques you can use to up the mental game. But there’s one that often gets ignored.
It’s good mechanics. The root cause of a lack of confidence is often uncertainty about one’s technique. If you’re not sure of what you’re doing, you’re very likely to become nervous and filled with self-doubt. On the other hand, if you’ve put in the work and believe you have good technique, you’re far more likely to be confident.
This is where quality instruction and quality practice come in. You want to learn good mechanics – the kind you see successful players use – from someone who knows how to teach it. But that’s only half the battle.
The other half is to work at it until you internalize it – in other words until you can do it without thinking about it. Those good mechanics should be as natural as breathing.
If you’ve put in the work, you’re far more likely to be confident. And if you’re confident you’ll perform. And if you perform you’ll be more confident. May the circle remain unbroken!
It doesn’t necessarily work immediately with everyone. But sooner or later it will. For those who have put in the work but are still uncertain (this especially happens with younger players), remind them that they HAVE put in the work and tell them to take that out onto the field with them.
It’s like they say in Remember the Titans – it’s like Novocain. Give it time, it always works.
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.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 