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The Pitcher Who Threw the Golden Softball
Why high performers don’t always perform at a high level by the end of the season.
Stop me if you’ve seen this scenario before. You have a pitcher who has been performing at a high level from the beginning of the spring (or high school) season all the way through the summer.
Yet now, as you’re getting to the most important part of the year, i.e., those big 4th of July tournaments and the Whatever Nationals, she’s suddenly starting to struggle. The speed is a little down, but worse the pinpoint accuracy she used to display has gone away, replaced with pitches in the dirt, over the catcher’s head, and/or wide of the plate.
Her movement pitches have lost their sharp movement, her knee-buckling changeup looks more like an easier-to-hit version of her fastball, and all the while her Ks are going down as her Ws are going up.
You wonder how could this be happening? What could have caused Ms. Ace to be replaced by someone who looks like her but definitely doesn’t throw like her?
There could be a few causes, but one that few people think about (or are willing to admit) is just plain fatigue. She’s still giving all the effort she always has, but at this point there’s not a whole lot left in the tank.
It’s a lot like the fable of the goose who laid the golden egg. Let’s take a high schooler because it’s the most extreme example.
For those who play in the spring, high school softball probably started sometime in February or at the latest the beginning or March. During that time she either pitched bullpens or in games six days a week for at least three months, possibly more if her team did well in the state tournament.
Her high school coach may have tried to split the work between Ms. Ace and one or two others, but let’s face it: everybody loves to win. So if Ms. Ace was the most reliable path to winning, her innings started to increase as the season wore on.
Once it got to conference championships and the State playoffs, the workload increased even more. She probably threw every inning of every game – even the ones that went 12 or more innings – because at that point if you lose you’re done, and no one wants to be done if they don’t have to be.
She may have been hurting, or tired, or feeling like her arm was going to fall off or her legs had turned into Jell-O, but she sucked it up and pitched anyway in a valiant effort to attain glory for the school with a State championship.
Then one way or the other the high school season finished. And did she get a chance to rest?
Nope. She no sooner turned in her high school uniform than she was putting on her travel team uniform. Heck, she might have done that in the locker room at her school.
And then came the grind of the summer. She probably got some breaks early on, as the coach split the time between different pitchers.
In the meantime, the summer got hotter and more humid. Those turf fields that make it easier to get in games when the weather is colder and wetter have suddenly turned into a hot box from a WWII movie, with temperatures running anywhere from 100 degrees to 130 or more (or so I’ve been told; never measured it myself).
And just about the time the hot weather really set in, the tournaments got more serious. Again, the situation started turning into win or go home on a big stage, and Ms. Ace was called upon more and more to lead the team to victory, keep the team in games until the offense catches up, or close out a close game by pitching another inning or two.
Throw in a college camp or a showcase event where she’s trying to look her best for her dream school, or any qualifying school for that matter, and/or maybe a tryout for next year here or there, and it’s a lot. Especially when the schedule doesn’t allow for any days off.
You see where this is headed. All that work all that practice, all that heat, all that everything begins to take a toll Not just physically but mentally.
Even if Ms. Ace is feeling ok physically, she may be mentally exhausted after putting so much energy into softball-critical situations, game after game, weekend after weekend.
At some point she’s like that mobile phone that you keep throwing on the charger when the battery indicator shows red and taking off as soon as the low battery goes off. She may have a little more energy than she did, but it’s really not enough to carry the team like she could a few weeks – or a few months – ago.
And that, my friends, is why her performance may be suffering a bit at the end of the season. It’s not that her mechanics are off, or that she’s not trying, or that she’s forgotten how to pitch.
She just may be exhausted and running on fumes, still doing all she can to help the team win, even if she’s no longer at her best.
So don’t be too quick to hit the panic button if Ms. Ace isn’t quite looking like herself. With a little rest, even if it’s just a couple of days in a row off, she’ll power back up, and before you know it she’ll be kicking butt and taking names again.
Hopefully in time for a nice run at Nationals.
Champions Never Take a Day Off
At first glance, today’s headline probably sounds like BS. I’m sure there are those among you who are saying “I see lots of high level coaches and healthcare experts who talk about the importance of rest and recuperation as part of an overall training strategy,” or something to that effect.
That is very true, and I am definitely an advocate of not only building some unscheduled time into the season but also taking time off post-season to recover both physically and mentally. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Today’s subject is more about the approach players need to take whenever they are practicing.
We tend to think about practice time in terms of quantity. A question coaches are often asked is “How often/how long should my daughter practice?”
The implication is if you fully fill out the practice time card you will magically get better. All you need to know then is what the numbers are.
But that’s not how it works. The real question is how focused are you in the time you do practice?
Think about two players. The first one is more oriented to the time-based approach.
She goes out for a half hour every other day to practice on her own in addition to attending two or three team practices a week.
Sounds like she ought to be seeing huge gains, doesn’t it? Yet her improvement is slow, and she gets frustrated because she’s investing all this time for very little reward.
Yet the answer lies in HOW she is practicing. When she’s on her own, she basically goes through the motions, doing what she has always done.
Maybe she’s a pitcher who needs to work on her leg drive. But that takes a lot of effort and concentration, which is hard, so instead she just continues to pitch the way she’s comfortable.
Yes, she is out there putting in time. But as far as effort goes she’s pretty much taking the day off.
Then she wonders why her speed isn’t going up the way she should.
Player B, on the other hand, is driven to get better all the time. When she goes out to practice, whether it’s on her own or with her team, she is legitimately trying to improve some aspect of her game all the time.
If she’s a pitcher who needs to improve her leg drive, she’s out there doing her assigned drills and pushing her body to the max with every repetition to try to see improvement. And she doesn’t try to throw a full-distance, full-motion pitch until she feels herself generating a higher level of energy.
If she’s a hitter who has a problem with dropping her hands to swing, she takes dry swing after dry swing with her hands in the proper position before she even thinks about hitting a ball. She starts slowly so she can get it right, and gradually builds the speed up, always being careful to ensure she continues to keep her hands up.
If they start dropping, she backs off a little on the speed, recovers the proper form, then starts increasing speed again.
The same is true with her approach to fielding, throwing, running bases, and every other softball skill. She tries to make every repetition count because she knows that the more she does things correctly, with intensity and a purpose, the better she will play when it’s game time.
And the better chance she will have of becoming a champion.
The reality is we are whatever we do repeatedly. If we are sloppy and lackadaisical in our approach to practice because we don’t feel like it today or it’s just easier, that sloppiness or lack of effort will show itself on game day.
But if we are focused and have a goal in mind for every minute of practice time every day, when game time comes around performing at a high level becomes much easier.
It’s easy to say you want to be a champion, win trophies, play for a particular high-level team, etc. The question is, are you willing to pay the price to get there?
True champions don’t take days off when they are practicing – or playing. They work on their weaknesses and give their all with every repetition, even when it’s frustrating.
The next time you go out to practice, give this approach a try. Dedicate yourself to accomplishing a goal, and be single-minded in your effort to achieve it.
And if you find you can’t give your all that day just stop, because you’re probably wasting your time at best and possibly even making yourself worse. Then come back when you’re ready to go 100% on every repetition again.
I think you’re going to like the results a whole lot better.
Life in the Fastpitch Lane 