Most people in the fastpitch softball world are believers that practicing is essential to building, maintaining, and improving skills. Whether you’re a pitcher, catcher, fielder, or hitter, it’s important to get those practice reps in.

What they don’t often realize, however, is how even with the best dedication to practice there is another factor that can erode those skills – a lack of gametime experience.

Let’s take pitchers for example. You can get individual instruction, do bullpens two, three, four times per week, and even do the lonely practices on your own. But if you’re not getting in-game opportunities, your ability to hit speed, spin, and spot is going to deteriorate.

It doesn’t happen quickly, as it would if you’re not practicing at all. But the fewer innings you get in the circle, the less likely you are to perform well when you do get an opportunity.

Instead of earning 7-10 Ks, throwing 1-2 Ws, and giving up a couple of hits, suddenly you’re only striking out 4, walking 4, and letting up 4 hits. As a result, teams are scoring more runs against you (earned or unearned).

At that point you coach begins to lose a little confidence in you and gives even fewer innings, maybe waiting for “safe” situations (translation: being well in front or well behind). Your skills deteriorate a little more, and the downward spiral continues.

Yet that reduction in quality probably has less to do with physical skills than it does with mental factors.

If you’re getting a decent number of innings, you’re far more likely to feel confident in what you’re doing, which means you’ll be more aggressive and more mentally positive in your approach. You’ll perform better, and look like a good choice when it’s time to make playing time decisions

If your innings are being reduced, however, you’ll probably feel more pressure to perform. You’ll become more conscious of what you’re doing, and will focus more on outcomes than on the process.

That misplaced focus will make you tighter and will likely cause you to try to force the outcomes (for example, trying to force strikes instead of letting them happen). The net result is you won’t perform as well, leading your coach to feel like using you is taking too much of a risk, which means your innings will be reduced, which means you’ll feel even more pressure to produce and probably do even worse.

It’s a vicious cycle.

The same is true for anything on the field. Hitters who are confident are far more likely to make good contact than hitters who are worried that if they don’t get a hit on the next at-bat they will be benched.

Fielders who are worried about making a throwing error are likely to tighten up their throw, ruining their mechanics and throwing the ball away anyway. Baserunners who are unsure of whether to take the extra base may stop rather than take a chance, or hesitate and then get thrown out because they made their decision too late.

So what can you do about all this? It depends on the situation.

You can start by controlling the controllables. Do as much physical and mental preparation as you can, and then make sure when you get an opportunity you keep your emotions and mental approach in check.

Confidence is king, so pump up yours any way you can before you take the field and then keep those little demons of self-doubt off your shoulder. Believe in yourself and you’re likely to relieve a lot of the internal pressure.

From there you have to evaluate your situation. If your coach is supportive of you and encouraging you even when you’re not at your best, and continues to give you opportunities even when your current performance level may not always recommend it, count yourself fortunate and give it your all.

If you feel like you’ve lost your coach and that your opportunities are continuing to shrink even when your performance is improving, it might be time to look for another situation where you can start fresh. Professional athletes do that all the time across all sports.

How many times has a bust on one team gone on to become a star (or at least a solid contributor) on another? More than you can count for sure.

It’s fairly easy to do in travel ball (in most areas anyway), and now college athletics has made it easier as well. In high school it’s tougher – you may have to move or attend a school that will be more of a financial burden – so salvaging the current situation is probably the better choice. But if it’s not salvageable, there are options as difficult or as unpleasant as they might be.

The reality is, to achieve their potential players need in-game playing time. Otherwise, their skills will erode the way the water erodes the rock until there is very little left.

If you’re in that situation, be sure you’re honest with yourself and then choose wisely. It will save you a lot of heartache in the long term.

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