Initiative by Aaron Weintraub

Initiative Equals Success

Today’s Mental Skills Tip – Success, according to John Wooden and me, is “the peace of mind that comes from knowing you did your best.” It’s not a result of merely thinking about doing well, so action is clearly required to be successful. Unfortunately, watching TV, being lazy, procrastinating, and “just hanging out” seem to be pretty popular in our society. This provides you and I with a great opportunity to get an edge over average people. With initiative, we will try, then try again, keeping what’s working and changing what’s not. This is a fail proof formula for success. … Continue Reading

For The Love Of The Game… by Joni Frei

Hello  Softball Family!

I apologize for the hiatus in writing. Life has been incredibly busy. I’m currently sitting in the Copenhagen airport waiting to board the plane back to Vancouver, Canada. My assistant coaches Dani Damel, Tyler Pilgaard, Jen Soukeroff and I were hired by the Danish Softball Federation to come to Denmark and share our passion, information, and experience with Danish softball coaches and players. … Continue Reading

Relentlessness by Aaron Weintraub

I Will Give My Best Effort No Matter What; I Will Compete

All coaches are looking for signs of leadership and toughness from their players. They’ll see these traits of champions when their athletes truly understand what it means to give their best effort one pitch at a time. … Continue Reading

Is The Term ‘Female-Athlete’ An Oxymoron? by Charity Butler

With another two wins, the Saints improved to 11 and 1 overall. As the season progressed, however, our team never shifted our focus too far from the European Cup Softball Championships.

The Euro Cup plays host to the top ten softball teams in Europe.  It is the largest, most high-profile softball tourney on the European continent.

As the National Champions of Sweden three years running, the Saints earned a birth to represent Sweden in the Cup in Legnano, Italy. … Continue Reading

Always Choose Option #2 by Charity Butler

My European softball adventures provided a rather surreal opportunity for me.  When I arrived in country, the Saints number one pitcher was out with shoulder trouble.  I was unaware of this “minor issue” until I arrived in Sweden.

On my first day in Sweden my teammate, Ann-Sophie, asked me about pitching.  I thought she was joking.  Later that day at my first practice, they asked me to throw a short bull-pen. … Continue Reading

Trust by Aaron Weintraub

Getting Into Trust Mode

Today’s Mental Skills Tip – My definition of ‘winning’ the mental game, revisited: I will give my best effort one step at a time and accept whatever happens. Athletes give their best effort when they are performing from a trusting mode. To do this, they must be confident and focused (as opposed to distracted by thinking too much) while performing. … Continue Reading

My Shoes Kept Getting Me Into Trouble! by Charity Butler

While playing softball in Sweden I had the opportunity to visit a fourth grade class.  Prya, one of my teammates, works at a local elementary school.  She asked me to attend class with her.

You see, students in Sweden begin learning English formally at age six.  I was scheduled as a special guest during the English lesson.

I took my seat in the back of the class until it was my turn to speak. … Continue Reading

Letter From A Player To Her Parents by Jan Greenhawk

Dear Mom and Dad,

I know you love me and I am so thankful that you spend the time and money to make sure I can play this sport I love so much. You are at all my games and practices and you make sure I get any instruction I need to get better. I love you for that.

I have some requests to make of you and I hope you won’t think they are too difficult. No, I don’t need a new bat and glove.  I need you to be take control of yourself. … Continue Reading

2011 WCWS Storylines by Gary Leland

I hope you have been enjoying the 2011 WCWS. We have seen some great softball played in this years tournament.

I thought I would bring you a little extra information about the teams playing in this years tournament.

Alabama
1. The tornadoes that hit Tuscaloosa on 4/27

2. Having four games canceled due to the tornadoes … Continue Reading

SKÖVDE, Sweden by Charity Butler

In a country that consistently produces top notch athletes and maintains a strong base of athletic enthusiasts, the game of softball is rather unfamiliar to mainstream Sweden.

Women’s fastpitch softball  has only developed in Sweden over the last several decades.  The players here do not have the long, rich history and the resulting resources available to players in the US. … Continue Reading

Who Are They Doing It For? by Jan Greenhawk

Imagine this picture. Your team is in an important game. You are moving players in and out of the line up for various purposes. Some of the players are acting as pinch hitters, pinch runners, and subs for the starters.  As players fulfill their roles on the field, they are excited, as they have participated in an exciting win for your team. Smiles abound in your dugout.

You have your team meeting, congratulate everyone, and then have a team cheer. You let the kids have a break before the next game. … Continue Reading

Routines by Aaron Weintraub

Routines: The Athlete’s Tool to Guarantee a Best Effort Performance

The gap between good and great is wide!

Today’s Mental Skills Tip – Do you try hard but sometimes stink it up? Join the crowd. Everyone makes mistakes, but great athletes make fewer. They don’t allow one mistake to directly lead to another. Also, they have figured out how to prepare themselves optimally so they can consistently release their talents when they perform. They do everything they can to put themselves in a position to give their best effort. They know how to prepare. This preparation can be thought of as a checklist of the things they’ve learned to do to make sure that they are physically and mentally ready when it’s time to perform, and it’s called a pre-performance routine. … Continue Reading

Adjustments by Charity Butler

Have you ever been overweight?  No, I am not referring to the bathroom scale, rather the airline scale! 

Have you prepared to leave the country for months at a time?  Have you packed carefully, modestly and strategically only to get to the check-in counter at the airport and be informed that your check bag is still too heavy? … Continue Reading

You Gotta Want it to Win it, and We Want it More by Jennifer Mounsey

Losing to win is not an option; it is mandatory. My 12-year old daughter learned this valuable lesson recently and it prompted me to share how big of a life lesson failure can be, if we use it right.

Children are under a lot of pressure in many aspects of their lives, especially girls. Keeping up grades, maintaining self-esteem, finding their voices in a sea of others trying to do the same thing. Some of them go on to choose what has been deemed a “failure sport” in the game of fastpitch.  It has been said many times that in baseball/softball, if you succeed only 3 out of 10 times then you are considered good. The most talented players fail 7 out of 10 times, and yet they still come back the next day wanting more. What drives this? I recently saw an interview with fastpitch legend Jennie Finch who said it best: It’s about “turning frustration into determination“. … Continue Reading

SoftballShots.com, A New Website That Everyone Should Enjoy by Gary Leland

As you may know I produce the Fastpitch TV Show which takes me to quite a few softball events across the country. If you enjoy softball like I do, one of the fringe benefits of producing this show is the fast that I get to travel to a lot of camps, clinic, games, and events.

For quite a while I have been taking photos everywhere I go. I was starting to gather a lot of photos that were basically just sitting on my computer. For the most part I took them , downloaded them, and that was it. I really wasn’t enjoying them, and no one else was ether. This did not seem to be an effective use of the time I spent taking all the photos. … Continue Reading

Imagery by Aaron Weintraub

The Power of Imagery

Today’s Mental Skills Tip – It is the athlete’s challenge to get his (or her) body to act the way he wants it to act. Communicating mind to muscles can be extremely challenging. Sometimes simply telling yourself what to do works, but sometimes it doesn’t. You must care, but trying too much is debilitating. You must be aggressive, but it is easy to lose balance and control. You must be strategic, but also keep it simple so you can focus effectively. You must be mechanically sound without thinking about mechanics while performing, even after a mistake. So is there a magic wand? Is there a way to commit the mind to a plan, and then consistently get the body/muscles to act or react appropriately? I think there is. From Hank Aaron and Greg Maddux to Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam to Michael Phelps and Michael Johnson, imagery is the elite athlete’s magic wand for producing outstanding results. … Continue Reading

Wintality: 402 by Dalton Ruer

WINTALITY: 402

I interrupt the regularly scheduled post on Wintality to bring you some important, tragic news that Crystl Bustos has an irreversible mental disorder. I’ve met with several leading psychologists around the world to discuss her case and the term they use starts with a “C” …. Give me a second and let me flip through my notes … oh here it is … … Continue Reading

My Pastor And The Base On Balls by Bobby Simpson

A few years ago, I attended the International Softball Federation Congress in Tampa, Florida. I was there as part of the coaching staff of the inaugural Greek National Team and expecting a meeting to help formulate program strategy prior to the 2004 Olympics. While there, I sat as an observer in the Player Committee meeting. When they were discussing some rule changes and possible ways to assist television’s request to shorten game lengths, I suggested that they use the slowpitch rule for intentional walks. International fastpitch still required the pitcher to throw four balls, whereas slowpitch teams were used to simply saying, “Put her on,” which required no pitches. After some discussion, the committee and the entire ISF Congress both adopted that rule. … Continue Reading

Consistency by Aaron Weintraub

What do you want people to say about you? That you have the best genes or the most potential? No. That you’re the world’s luckiest person? No. That you are reliable? Absolutely. That you are consistent? What a compliment! Everyone has good days and bad days, but tough competitors have fewer bad days than everyone else, and even on those rough days they remain competitive. They find a way to give themselves or their teams a chance to win. … Continue Reading

Stay Loose, Stay Positive, and Have Fun by Bryan Burrows Ingalls

In this day and age every since we are young we know that winning is important. Myself I hate losing more than I Iove winning and I want my student athletes to have that same mindset. But now in my 4th year in coaching at the collegiate level I have learned something that may be the most valuable thing a coach can try to instill in his or her program. Staying loose and having fun. It seems like that is something we only try to do when we are young and just playing for fun is for tee ball or Little League. Winning at all costs attitude can do one of two things: Gives your players an opportunity to rise to the occasion and elevate their game or it tightens them up and it tends to go in the other direction. … Continue Reading

Call It Fastpitch by Gary Leland

I love the game of softball, but when I hear the term softball I think of guys playing a game while drinking a beer in the dug out. I think of co-ed teams playing on a Sunday afternoon for a church league. I even think of intramural games played by students at colleges across the country. what I really don’t think of is Women’s Fastpitch Softball.

Now before you get all agitated at what I am saying, please hear me out. While it is true that Fastpitch is a form of softball. It is so superior to any other form of the game it should be treated differently. I believe the term Fastpitch describes the game I know and love much better than softball does. … Continue Reading

Humility by Aaron Weintraub

Today’s Mental Skills Tip – I look for role models. I’ve met or studied many high achievers who appear to have earned the right to be satisfied with what they already know. However, the highest achievers are consistently the people who are the most eager to learn more. For example, Michael Johnson didn’t stop improving when he became a World Champion sprinter. It was his continuous drive to be the best he could be that allowed him to set World Records and stay on top for his entire professional career (all 19 of his medals in the Goodwill Games, World Championships, or Olympics are Gold Medals). It’s an interesting irony that the people who need the most humility usually have the least, while the people who seem to need it the least typically have the most. … Continue Reading

Wintality: 401 by Dalton Ruer

[Wintality] – win-tal-i-ty – noun; The act of mentally attacking everything on the field as though it may be the last time you ever play the game. “That player’s wintality is just infectious.”

While he hasn’t played for a great many years, if you were to have a discussion with baseball folks about passion and hustle the name Pete Rose would jump off of their lips. The game of Fastpitch softball has it’s own version of Mr. Hustle in the form of Kristin Schnake. Prior to playing the 2010 season for the USSA Pride, Kristin spent 4 seasons as a University of Georgia Bulldog. … Continue Reading

Why Is The Fastpitch Blog Like A Car Dealership? by Gary Leland

Have you ever noticed that car dealerships seem to gather together? What I mean is that car dealerships seem to attract more car dealerships. It is rare to see one car dealership, and not at least see one more near by. More often than not there will be 4 or 5 nearby.

A long time ago car dealerships found out that they actually made more money by locating in groups. When I was a kid there use to be a tv commercial for Auto City. There motto was something like miles and miles of cars. In reality Auto City was one street with 8 competing car dealerships all in a row. Chevrolet, Ford, Chrysler and more, one after another. … Continue Reading

Relaxation by Aaron Weintraub

Tension is literally the contraction of muscle fibers. Relaxation is the absence of tension. Awareness is necessary for adjustments to happen. Therefore, if an athlete doesn’t realize he’s too tight, he won’t fix the problem. Learning to relax is a three step process (like learning anything, really): know where you want to be, know where you are, and figure out how to get from here to there.

How do we know where we want to be? We need clear goals. “Clear” means we need to know what we have to do that is totally within our control to achieve the goal. Pay attention when you’re doing well so you can repeat. Pay attention when others are doing well so you can imitate. Ask the right questions constantly. Paying this much attention to life, including muscle tension, is too much for a majority of people, but it is normal stuff for champions! … Continue Reading

Form The “Complete Athlete” by Monti Vanbrunt

As I have traveled throughout the US and World, the athletes have many commonalities in regards to motivation, practice habits, movement, strength, nutrition, and lifestyle habits.

When first looking at the previously listed, many Coaches would think practice habits and strength are the most important in regards to playing well throughout the duration of a softball season. The common thought process is, in order to execute sport-specific skills effectively and efficiently, you must practice these skills. This rationale is acceptable, but very superficial. As we dig further into what skill execution really entails from a skeletal, muscular, and neural standpoint, your approach might change as to how as a coach or athlete you go about trying to attain the performance outcomes you are looking for. … Continue Reading

Wintality: 302 by Dalton Ruer

[Wintality] – win-tal-i-ty – noun; The act of mentally submitting your own desire to look good for the betterment of the team. “She was devastated internally after striking out, but her wintality kept her from showing it.”

Rather odd for a blog I know, but I’m going to start out with a question for you:
You are up to bat in an important situation and you don’t come through – or – during an important play in the field and you make an error. How do you respond? … Continue Reading

Creep or Leap? by Bobby Simpson

I doubt there is any player, well maybe a few, who does not want to improve. The same can also be said for coaches or instructors of every type. We all want to get better. If not 100 percent accurate, for now let’s at least consider that it’s a true assumption so that we can get on with the discussion of the how of getting better.

Some will say that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to reach the elite level of a sport or even activities like chess, dance, art, or music. Some say that some skills seem to improve overnight. I even hear people say that they bought the magic bat and POOF, they became a star hitter. At times, parents send me a player about to try out for a team or play in some big game and I’m supposed to create a miracle in 30-60 minutes. … Continue Reading

It Is Only A Start by Gary Leland

I know you have all seen the Pink Out Games that the NPF promotes to help with Cancer Awareness. Team USA even wears pink in the World Cup to support breast cancer awareness. These are both great events for the sport of softball to show their support of Cancer Awareness. As great as these events are, IT IS ONLY A START.

Now we have sporting good manufactures joining in, and showing support for the cause. Their is now a Hope Bat for the second year. There are softballs, eyeblack, and even socks. I may have missed a product or two, but those are the products I am aware of. This is a great second step of showing support for Cancer Awareness, but IT IS ONLY A START. … Continue Reading

Discipline by Aaron Weintraub

DISCIPLINE IS A LEARNABLE SKILL!

Today’s Mental Skills Tip – First, you have to decide that you want a particular goal – that you are committed to finding a way to get it. Then with enough motivation, you will be able and will need to have discipline. Discipline may not be a sexy topic, but to get to any worthwhile “end,” you must go through the “middle.” No cheating, no shortcuts. Discipline is the “middle.” You can get whatever you want in life if you have enough motivation and courage, and it is discipline that will take you there! … Continue Reading

Having (And Being) A Role Model by Jennifer Mounsey

Fastpitch softball is unlike any other sport out there.  This is a game of true dedication, of many hours on the field working with the team but endless practice off the dirt, working with a hitting instructor, pitching instructor, or going to the latest clinic put on by some big name in softball. There’s always something to be working on. Last week my daughter started dropping her elbows at the plate… she’s only 12… but it’s a BIG deal. I understand, however, since I’ve been living and breathing softball my entire life. I look back now and thank my parents, who literally followed my teams and I around wherever we were going that week… at their expense, of course! … Continue Reading

Wintality: 301 by Dalton Ruer

[Wintality] – win-tal-i-ty – noun; The act of controlling the only thing of which you really have control. “Her wintality enabled her to respond to a negative situation in a positive way.”

Anyone can look good when everything is going there way. You know what I’m talking about. The pitcher who throws the ball in the dirt and the umpire calls it a strike anyway. The player who never shows up to practice, finally does, makes 1 catch and the coaches are all over her like she’s the next Caitlin Lowe. It’s easy to walk around with a smile on your face when everything is going your way. But how you react when you are in the batter’s box and the umpire made that strike call even though the ball bounced is what really separates the average players from the great players. … Continue Reading

.300 Ain’t Failure by Bobby Simpson

Let me start by saying that I believe in failure. I see slogans in schools that say, “Failure is not an option,” and I agree and disagree. My experience and the wisdom of many others tell me that failure is not an option because failure is mandatory. To be successful, we typically must have failed some along the way. If not, we are not stretching ourselves enough to reach our maximum potential. So, I do think that failure is normally a critical component in being successful in softball. … Continue Reading

Patience And Faith by Aaron Weintraub

What does the phrase “If it was easy, everyone would do it” mean to you? To me, it brings good news that I can earn a competitive advantage by doing things that most other people won’t do. Of course, it also brings the news that reaching any worthwhile goal is going to be inherently challenging, even difficult. So, how can we navigate these difficulties? By giving our best effort one step at a time, repeating what’s working and changing what doesn’t work. This system is guaranteed to work…eventually. But alas, it’s the word “eventually” that’s the biggest problem for so many people. We figure: “I worked hard. Now show me the results.” Unfortunately, life and performance in sports are not that simple. It takes an undefined amount of time for the formula of “try and try again” to bear fruit. One goal of mental skills training is to accelerate the process of approaching potential, but even fabulous mental skills don’t alleviate the need for time. Time, in turn, necessitates patience and faith, or the positive attitude that led to “winning” the mental side of the game in the first place will be lost. As John Wooden described in his Pyramid of Success, the mortar that holds it all together is made of patience and faith. … Continue Reading

Crystl Bustos The Artist? by Gary Leland

A few weeks ago I was checking my Facebook page, and I saw a post from Dalton Ruer about Crystl Bustos. It stated Crystl had decided to move into the world of art. That she was going to start selling her first work of art.

If you have followed Crystl recently, then you know that she designed a young softball player that she has been marketing on T-shirts, and stuff. So it appears that Crystal has decided to market the logo as a stand alone work of art. Yes, you could get it before on a t-shirt but never as a pice of stand alone piece of art. … Continue Reading

There Is No “I” In Team by Joni Frei

I was recently asked to take on my first endeavor as a blogger by Gary and with great enthusiasm I accepted the position (kind of)! Every head coach knows that there is not enough time in the day to be able to do everything they need to do and so they must be able to delegate…and this is exactly what I did. I am the lead technical director and head softball coach of the Okanagan Elite Softball Association (among other things). We are a newly formed softball association in B.C. Canada that focuses on training Elite athletes who desire to pursue the game at the highest level. … Continue Reading

You Have Goals. Do They Help You? by Aaron Weintraub

We all have goals, whether we realize it or not. Some simply act to avoid pain. Others move towards pleasure. A select few systematically set and use their goals to navigate themselves towards exactly what they want in life. Well-stated, monitored, and adjusted goals will help direct attention appropriately, provoke physical action on this focus, improve time management skills, and increase persistence. These goal directed behaviors are not always normal, so if where you’re headed isn’t normal or average either, actually writing down well-formed goals will help you achieve the ‘extra’ordinary. … Continue Reading

Call The Right Number by Bobby Simpson

We are absolutely surrounded by numbers. Technology seems to have exponentially increased the numbers in our daily life and the game of softball is definitely not exempt from this data explosion. Everywhere you turn, someone is spouting off about a batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, ERA, bat speed, pitch velocity, or comparison of strikeouts to walks. If we are not careful, we willingly dive into the Statistic Sea. Without some numerical life preserver, we may even drown there. … Continue Reading

Finally A Place To Call Home by Aaron Moore

There’s something about being able to go to a ballgame in the summertime, sitting back with the fans and watching one of the greatest sports unfold on the field in front of you.  That hasn’t always been the easiest thing to do in Bandits land over the past six seasons.

The team has also done everything it could to make the fans feel at home, but something was always missing.  Maybe it was the fact the team was playing on a college campus or that the stadium had a “rented” feel to it. … Continue Reading

Wintality: 202 by Dalton Ruer

[Wintality] – win-tal-i-ty – noun; The act of admitting your weaknesses and working to correct them. “Her wintality inspired others on the team, and our season totally turned around.”

When I began this series I shared that each week I would have fun just making up definitions for this great word that I first heard from the 2011 Auburn Lady Tigers. The thing I just love about wintality is that it really explains the characteristics that we see and admire in the great ones but that we have trouble explaining using common words, since the traits are admirable, but uncommon. Since I’ve confessed to making it up as I go I suppose it is safe for me to share that honestly I wasn’t sure what to write about this week until I received inspiration from a teenage ball player that I’ve never coached, nor instructed but one who reached out to me via Facebook. … Continue Reading

Wintality: 201 by Dalton Ruer

WINTALITY: 201

[Wintality] – win-tal-i-ty – noun; The act of mentally turning an adversity into an advantage. “We all felt sorry for that girl because of X, but her wintality seemed to use it as fuel.”

Webster’s defines adversity as “an adverse fortune or fate; a condition marked by misfortune, calamity, or distress.” The definition itself is rather ominous, with words like calamity and distress. Often we are trained based on the words alone to just give up. In times of calamity/distress we say things like “If I can just survive …. I will be a happy camper.” But wintality is about thriving, not just surviving in the face of adversity. … Continue Reading

Confidence by Aaron Weintraub

Think Right: Confidence is an Attitude and Attitudes are a Choice
Thoughts Determine Attitudes and a Confident Attitude Sets the Stage for a Peak Performance

I call them “green light” indicators. They are the variables, mostly internal, that let an athlete know that he or she is likely to perform up to potential. The opposite “red light” indicators predict a poor performance. Awareness of these “green” and “red lights” enables athletes to keep going when they are likely to do well and stop to change something when they are not. Examples of “green lights” are relaxed, focused, and having fun. Common “red lights” include frustrated, thinking too much, and trying to do too much. The most common indicator, however, is confidence. From old to young, softball to football to ping-pong, boy to girl, and professional to recreational, athletes know that they are more likely to play great when they are confident and are more likely to stink it up when they lack confidence. … Continue Reading

Learning by Aaron Weintraub

Make Learning Most Important

If your top goal is to be the best you can be at your sport, you will maximize your chances to achieve all your other goals. What does it take to approach potential? This lofty goal doesn’t require that you perform perfectly today; it requires that you learn as much as possible today about how to give your best effort in the future. … Continue Reading

It’s Spelled CADAL by Bobby Simpson

My late father-in-law raised cows and the steaks that they produced were terrific. Today, I work a lot of hours with young ladies, striving to produce hitters that are terrific. To do so, I employ another version of the plural of cow, spelled incorrectly, a word called CADAL, similar in pronunciation to cattle, but very different in usage.

Wanting to condense the complexity of hitting so that players know what is really important, I use one of two methods, the one concerning CADAL or one that condenses even more and refers to hitting as a Controlled Explosion. Today, let’s see how CADAL can help you understand what actually happens during the short time of a pitch and the very short period after the pitch. … Continue Reading