Psychology

The say the name of the game is pitching. I can't argue with that. Without solid pitching, you can't expect to win much.

However, something is even more important than pitching: confidence. Without it, you're out before you even step on the field.

I've been coaching 20 years and the single biggest challenge I've had all these years: to get my athletes to be confident. Too often, they have doubts, fears, worries. It's the nature of being humans.

Check this video to learn how to become more confident at the plate:

Are you mentally tough?

Would your opponents, your teammates or your coaches say you are?

Are you recognized to be super confident, focused, and mentally strong when it really counts?

If so, congrats.

If  not (like a lot of us), you need to work on that ASAP!

As you know, softball is a game where mental toughness is everything.

Listen, softball IS a mental game.

If you're mentally WEAK or SOFT, you gonna be AVERAGE at best.

And that would be in non-important games. You'll underachieving or underperforming if you're mentally tough when it really counts.

When you're young, you don't care about "experience". You don't think you need it to perform and do well.

You think it's just a bunch of BS older folks are talking about to make them feel important because they are older and
have lived a little.

I certainly didn't believe much in it.

Well.. I have been coaching 20 years now and every year I realized I couldn't be more wrong.

Read this carefully:

You don't know what experience is until you have it.

You cannot buy or train experience; you have to live it.

Today was our first official outing of the season.

We went 1-2 for the day.

There was a fair bit of nervousness, rust, and lack of cohesion on the field during the first two games.

We certainly didn't play up to our potential in the first two games making several mental, baserunning, and defensive
errors.

But, you know what, that's alright with me and you will read why below.

We did finish with a strong showing during our last game, had a decisive win against a pretty solid team and I saw
more of what I consider to be my "real team".

Yesterday, the younger daughter of my assistant coach was playing her first game of the season on a her travel team. He told me she was all excited but nervous at the same time.  She had pre-game jitters.

The girls on my team are feeling the same way about our first tournament this weekend. And I do anticipate they'll have  pre-game jitters saturday morning.

Are pre-game jitters good or bad?

In this video below, Dr. Patrick Cohn, renowned sports psychologist,  answers this question and explains how you should handle them.

Here are the different types of sports parents that I would identify – both good and bad:

•    The model parent
•    The competitive parent
•    The blasé parent
•    The ‘living through your kids’ parent
•    The outspoken parent
•    The ‘coach’ parent
•    The critical parent
•    The negative parent
•    The uncooperative parent
•    ‘My child is a superstar’ parent

Obviously, the worst parent would be one who exhibits components of the latter nine types.  But, once I explain what each of these parent types are, you will probably find that many of your parents fit into one of these categories.  They may fit into more than one category as well.

Last night I held an information session for the coaches, players, and parents of my association.

The purpose of the seminar was to educate them about college softball. I talked about the reality of college softball, the recrutment process, the academic requirements, what coaches are looking for, and so on.

I also spent time explaining to the young athletes that were present that besides refining their softball skills and having the best marks possible in school, they have to pay attention to the little things.

Coaches are good to give a lot of softball hitting tips. Most of the time, these tips are technical. However, I am not telling you anything new here by saying that a huge part hitting success is mental.

Here's a short video that discusses how important it is to act confident at the plate and how big of a role that plays into the overall success of a hitter.

This weekend, I took my 16U team to a 12-team tournament. The team played well and we ended up being winning the tournament.

The are 2 reasons why we chose to participate at a tournament during the off-season:

1) Assess where we're at and measure progress

2) gain valuable competitive experience that you can't acquire in practice

Every participation at a tournament brings in loads of experiences and learning opportunities for both coaches and players.

Here are few valuable key lessons that I either learned or was reminded of as a coach through various things that happened throughout the weekend as a coach.

Yesterday, I blogged about the nomination of  Crystl Bustos as the 2008 USA Softball Player of the Year.

It's definitely a well-deserved honor for who is considered by many to be one of the best hitters to ever play the game especially after her 2008 stellar season.

Here's a quote in the news release by USA Softball:

"She leaves behind a legacy not only as the most  powerful hitter in the game, but also as a leader on and off the field."

As you probably remember, she was one of the few players on the US team  to leave her cleats at home plate after the Olympic final.

In this podcast, Marc Dagenais explains the various stages of development a team goes through during the course of a season and how coaches should approach each of them to minimize problems and develop a successful team chemistry.

 

 Softball Coaching Tips - Stages of Group Development [18:13 m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (15)

Would you like some softball coaching tips on how to coach female athletes?

In this video, I share some insights and lessons I have learned over the years coaching softball and more specifically, female athletes.

One of the important things I explain is how important the social aspect is for them and how you must adjust your coaching to take this into consideration and experience success coaching girls softball.

Feel free to leave your comments or share your own experiences.

Here is the next habit of success to help you achieve all your dreams in the coming year.  Commit to these habit of success and you'll experience tremendous success.

HABIT OF SUCCESS #2 - Commit to Continous Learning

Someone once said that the day you stop learning, you stop living.

A common characteristics of the most successful people in society is they are lifelong learners.

They have developped the key habit of continuous learning,  the habit of continuous personal and professionaldevelopment.

I don't know if you are like me but every year at this time,I'm thinking about what I'd like to accomplish  and what goals I'd like to achieve in the coming year.

There are always a fair number.

Do I achieve them all? Of course not.

But I still have a pretty good batting average.

So what does it takes to achieve a high percentage of  your goals?

You have to master the "Habits of Success".

Over the next few days, I'm going to present you what I consider the key habits you should have or develop to experience tremendous success both on the field and in your life.

Have you ever noticed that softball is a sport of errors?

There are all kinds of errors. They happen in every game.

Usually, the team that makes the least amount of errors wins.

What is the cause of all these errors?

Most of the time, errors are caused by one of these 4 factors:

1) faulty mechanics

2) lack of focus

3) Too rushed or pressed

4) Lack of confidence and hesitation

I would like to talk about #2.

This is the easiest one to fix.

My goal is for them to be conscious of what their body language and their actions are doing to the psyche of their opponents.

Think about it for a second, what do you do when you get to the park and you are a facing a team you have never played before?

YOU CHECK THEM OUT!

Even though you try to make it look like you're ignoring them, you'll still check them out a bit - it's just human nature!

You will be looking at their hitters, their pitchers, the size  of their players, their skills execution, how well structured or organized they are, how confident or fearless they look, etc.

Earlier this week, I was having a discussion with a very talented teen athlete.

Like many kids of that generation, she has it easy. She is used to get what she wants and do what she wants.

We were discussing her life goals and she mentioned she want to go far in softball.

However, she somewhat believe that it will naturally happen.

I had to wake her up and tell her that many talented athletes never go anywhere because they either don't have the desire or they aren't willing to work and make sacrifices for it.

Hitting homeruns or rocket shots ain't easy.

However, curiously, if you ask any hitter who just hit one out of the park to describe what she was thinking about right before she hit the ball and how her swing felt - you will find that most  hitters will give you pretty similar answers.

If you ask a hitter to describe how she felt just before she swung  the ball over the fence, she will probably tell you something like "I was not thinking. I just saw the ball and hit it. I  was not even trying to hit it out of the park."

Not long ago, I wrote about how cell phones (texting, talking, email, etc.) can be negatively impact a player's focus, social interaction within a group environment, and even lead to rudeness and direspect sometimes.

Are Cell Phones Negatively Affecting You and your Team?

Kids aren't only addicted to cell phones, they are also addicted to iPods and other MP3 players. They live with their music almost 24/7.

Just about every player owns either an iPod or an MP3 player.

That's the reality of this generation - portable, 24/7 music.

The other day, I was reading a article in a coaching magazine that was sort of a debriefing about the summer Olympics.

I found one of the elements discussed by the author very interesting and definitely something I can relate to - how the presence of cell  phones might negatively affect an athlete's performance and the team environment.

We now live in a society that is addicted to instant communication devices like cell phones, iPhones, Blackberries, etc.

We are addicted to being connected and talk, chat, email, and text anywhere anytime.