Category Archives: Mental 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.
Every pitch is a new day
One of the challenges with fastpitch softball is how difficult the game can be from a mental standpoint. A little failure here, a little failure there and things can start to get overwhelming.
Last night something occurred to me to help change that thinking. I held a ball up high and asked the students to imagine it without any seams. I then asked them what else is yellow and sits in the sky? A few seemed to think it was a trick question, but they eventually got that I meant the sun.
I then started moving the ball at arm’s length from hip high to overhead, and asked “What does the sun do each morning?” They replied various versions of “rise.” Then I kept moving the ball down and asked, “what does it do each evening?” Most said “fall” instead of set, but they got the idea.
Then came the point. I asked if they’d ever had a tough day, where they couldn’t wait to go to bed. They’re teenage girls, so of course they have. I asked, “But then after a good night’s sleep you felt better the next day, right? The world looked a little brighter.” They agreed.
I told them each pitch is like a brand new day, full of possibilities. Whatever happened the day/pitch before doesn’t limit the possibilities of today. They understood.
Tonight I told a girl named Hannah that story. Later we played the “High Fives” hitting game, and she got in the hole with -4. One more bad hit and she’d owe me five pushups. But she kept battling back, and eventually got back to -1 when we had to stop.
I complimented her on her mental toughness, because I really was trying to sink her. She told me she remembered what I said about the sun, and didn’t focus on what would happen if she missed. Instead, she focused on that pitch and that pitch alone, independent of everything else, and said it it worked for her.
If you’re looking for a way to explain playing one pitch at a time, give this one a try. And if you have your own way of explaining it, please share!
Fastpitch competitors know how to deal with adversity
Tonight I had the opportunity to watch one of my fastpitch pitching students, Tayler Janda, and her Grayslake Central High School team demonstrate what it means to be a competitor.
It’s rained a lot in the past 24 hours, so I texted Tayler’s mom to make sure the game I’d planned on going to was still happening. It was, she said, and then a few minutes later she texted that it started out ugly.
From all reports (not just Tayler’s mom Jennie) the umpire had a strike zone the size of a loaf of bread. Tayler isn’t a big girl, so she relies a lot on movement and finesse to get hitters out. But the umpire was having none of that, forcing her to leave the ball on the plate when the hitters didn’t swing. By the time I got there, she had given up five runs in the first and three in the second, and her team was down 8-1.
But in the top of the third, she didn’t give up any runs, and from then on started to cruise. She only gave up one more run for the rest of the five innings (which meant the game I saw was pretty awesome). Instead she was inducing easy outs from the hitters, along with a few strikeouts.
What I liked about what I saw was watching a competitor in action. Rather than complaining about the umpire or continuing to throw the same pitches that weren’t working for her, Tayler adjusted. She figured out how to adapt her pitches to get the results she wanted. Yes, she had to leave the ball on the plate more than usual, but she did it in a way that didn’t allow for the big hits the opponents had gotten earlier.
Now, she may have been stoked by the comeback efforts of her team at the plate. They chipped away at the lead, and went on to win it in the bottom of the seventh on a short sacrifice fly to right and some heads-up baserunning. But I think a lot of it was her own inner fire.
When I work with pitchers we talk about the mental game, and what you can control versus what you can’t control. Tayler was the epitome of that tonight.
She couldn’t control the umpire’s miniscule strike zone, so instead she controlled her own frustration and instead decided to work with it. That’s what a competitor does. And knowing how these things go, I’ll bet she inspired her team to go out and snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.
I know Tayler doesn’t plan to play softball in college. But a competitive spirit like that is sure to serve her well no matter what she does in life. Kudos to her, her teammates and her coaches. It was a fun game to watch!
Coaching, playing and the success delusion
Funny how sometimes fastpitch softball and my day job in PR coincide. I was just reading an article in the journal of one of our clients — HRPS (HR People & Strategy) talking about neuroscience research into the brain and how it affects leadership when I came across a description I thought is worth sharing with the softball community. It’s about a phenomenon many of us fall victim to at one time or another — the success delusion.
According to the article, the success delusion follows this line of thinking: I am successful. I behave this way. Therefore, I must be successful because I behave this way.
We see this all the time, especially on discussion boards. Someone will post the results of research that has been completed recently that says the optimum way to perform a particular skill is to do X. Then someone else will get on and comment “I’ve been doing it the old way for 20 years. I’ve had many students/players get colleges scholarships and be the best player on their team. Therefore, I’m not going to change no matter what the science says.”
That’s the success delusion. You ignore the facts because you believe what you’ve been doing has been the key to your success, without a thought that perhaps your players/students would’ve been even more successful had you taught them differently.
Players fall victim to it too. I’ve certainly seen this as an instructor. A parent will bring his/her daughter in for a lesson and I will recommend some changes that will help her reach her potential. But she’s already the best player in her rec league, or on her travel or HS team, so she doesn’t want to make any changes. She has confused success with excellence and therefore has shut the door on making any changes. That’s fine — it’s her option — but she shouldn’t be surprised when one day in the not too distant future some of the kids she used to be above are suddenly passing her. Or that despite her awesome record, college coaches aren’t interested in looking at her.
Success is a good thing. We all like to get that rush from winning; it’s what keeps us going. But it’s also easy to assume a particular behavior is the reason for that success when it could actually be a barrier to greater success.
Never be so caught up in what you’ve done that it prevents you from doing what you can do. Keep learning, keep striving and be open to change. You’ll be amazed how much farther it will take you.
Hitting and confidence
This may be one of those chicken/egg things, but there’s no doubt in my mind that hitting and confidence go hand in hand. Tough to say whether confidence drives good hits or good hits drive confidence, but it does seem to work both ways. Often it the two come from making adjustments that may seem small but deliver a quick payout.
Here’s a case in point. One of the girls on the team I coach has struggled with her hitting for a couple of years. She’s a big, strong kid (also one of the hardest workers and most enthusiastic players you could ever hope to coach) so she ought to hit the ball hard. This is my first year coaching her, but I’ve worked with her in the past.
Thing is, she wasn’t. Her dad would tell me every now and then she’d get one, but mostly she was hitting weak grounders and pop-ups. Mechanically she actually had a good swing, although it had a couple of issues. But she couldn’t quite seem to get the timing down. When we played indoors in January, she went 0-4 with four strikeouts, all swinging, and barely touched the ball. She was frustrated, and reportedly ready to quit the game she’d loved for so long.
So, it was time to really to get to work on her and figure out how we could turn it around. She’d gotten all sorts of advice over the past couple of years (including from me), so I was aware that there may be some resistance coming out of frustration and confusion.
I had videoed her in the batting cage (along with the rest of the team), so it was time to do some deep analysis. One thing I noticed was a sort of “reaching” with her front foot. There was a little weight shift from the lower body, but the upper body stayed in place. Not good. Generally you see hitters moving to toe touch with the front shoulder over the front hip, more or less. Also, her early timing moves were quick and staccato instead of fluid, the way you’ll see good hitters doing it. (I will accept blame for that since I tended to teach a quicker load and positive move a couple of years ago than I do now.) It was no wonder she was struggling!
I pointed it out to her on video, and showed videos of a couple of top-level hitters (softball and ML
, and it seemed to make sense to her. I sent her off to the tee and she worked on taking her whole body forward.
The following week, my friend and former coaching partner Coach Rich started Jonesing to teach hitting so he came out to practice and worked with her on it too. Rich and I have a sort of ESP when it comes to hitting, so the girls were all amused when either he would tell them something I just said or vice versa. As she continued to work on it, it just seemed to click. But the real test would be her next game action.
That was last weekend. She didn’t strike out once, and the only weak contact she had was when she tried to pull an outside pitch instead of letting it get deep. Given her previous results, that was a trifle! She had a couple of solid hits, plus a couple of solid outs across three one-hour games. The best ball she hit all night was her last one — a hard liner to center that unfortunately went straight to the CF. Probably 10 feet either way, or 10 feet deeper, and it’s a double.
The kicker came this past Monday. She was taking batting practice at her high school’s open gym, and the varsity coach called everyone at all levels over to watch her hit, saying “This is how you should do it.” She is a freshman, by the way, so that’s pretty high praise.
Needless to say, there’s no talk of quitting anymore. In fact, her confidence at this point is sky high, and she’s now looking forward to stepping into the batter’s box.
So was it the first good hit that drove her confidence? Or was it the change in mechanics (which no doubt felt better and more powerful) that drove her confidence? Probably some combination — the change made it easier to hit, which enabled the confidence building. Ultimately, though, it doesn’t matter. What matters is a good kid is in a happy place. Can’t wait to see what she does this spring and summer.
How to know you’re getting through
In my last article for Softball Magazine, I used one of my favorite little teaching devices to talk about the importance of commitment to what you’re doing. The article focused on what is the difference between bacon and eggs. The answer, of course, is that the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. I finished, as I do in lessons or team practices, by telling readers they should be the pig. 
I do know that message got through to at least one of my students. I usually get a box of extra Softball Magazines when they come out, so I will distribute them to my students. This one was no exception. Each of my students received a copy of the magazine, including a girl named Erin who is new with me this year.
Well, lo and behold, right before Christmas she comes to her lesson toting a good-sized red shopping bag, and inside the bag is the piggy bank shown in the picture. She had customized it with the saying “Be A Pig.”
Obviously the article made an impression on her and her family. Hopefully she’s living it too! But this was so cute I just had to share. I love it when a plan comes together!
That whole breathing thing really works
I have been an advocate of taking a slow, deep breath (also known as a cleansing breath in Lamaze circles) ever since reading the book Heads Up Baseball by Tom Hanson and Ken Ravizza, which in my opinion is the Bible of the mental game. The basics are to stare at an object that won’t move during the game, such as a sign permanently attached to the backstop, then breathe in slowly — in through your nose and out through your mouth. It’s designed to calm a player down as she starts to panic and help her get back into her happy zone.
Last week, though, I got a chance to prove scientifically that it works. I was in a clinic for a little outpatient procedure which I will spare you the details on — nothing serious, just a routine if disgusting test. As part of it, the nurse clipped a device onto my finger to track my heart rate.
After it was on, I turned to look at the monitor and saw it was reading 81 beats per minute. What a great opportunity, I thought, to see what effect the breathing exercise would have. So I took a deep breath — in through my nose, slowly out through my mouth. And lo and behold, down came my heart rate. At first I dropped it to about 74 beats per minute, so I did it again and got it down to 72. So, since it was going to be another 20 minutes before the procedure started I decided to play with the machine and see how low I could go. As I recall, I got down to about 70, but couldn’t get any lower than that.
Still, that’s pretty cool. I was already calm when I started, but doing the breathing brought me down even more. It’s the same for athletes.
When I explain this to players they often look at me like I’m nuts — especially the younger ones. I make them try it and they give me a token effort. Then they’re the first ones to panic and lose control in a game.
It may seem silly, but it really does work. I’ve had plenty of anecdotal evidence over the years, but now it’s confirmed scientifically. Every player should learn to breathe. You never know when it can make the difference between cascading errors/failure and success.
Creating remarkable performances
Saw an excellent article the other day in Jeff Janssen’s Championship Coach’s Network newsletter and thought I’d pass it along. You can read it here.
The article is actually a book review written by Greg A. Shelley and Colleen Sager about the book The Encore Effect by Mark Sanborn. The book covers how to create remarkable performances. 
In the review, they highlight three areas Sanborn says are essential to becoming the type of performer who really stands out. Those elements are Commitment, Professionalism and Skills. Commitment and skills are pretty much self-explanatory. But professionalism takes a little explanation.
According to Sanborn, it’s being “other-minded,” i.e. putting the team and your teammates ahead of yourself. This is an area many young athletes struggle with. They are far more focused on their own personal performance than the performance of the team. Yet that mentality often holds them back from being, as the Army says, all they can be. Until they can move beyond themselves they may perform well. But they won’t be considered extraordinary, or a premier player.
This is a topic I’ve written about before as well. No matter how well you play, you’re not really an elite player until you can raise the level of play around you.
The end of the article includes an awesome quote from the late John Wooden, the former head basketball coach at UCLA. The quote is this: “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”
I love that concept. So many players are content to be good, or even very good, that they never make the effort to become great – or remarkable. That’s a shame, because it means they’ve wasted their potential. It’s like another favorite quote says — “Good is the enemy of great.”
I haven’t read the book yet, but it is going on my future reading list. If you want to find out what it takes to be remarkable, I suggest you pick it up too.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 