Your Biggest Fear
I have to admit I have some pretty big fears: Heights Snakes Spiders Some of you may be afraid of 1 or more of those things and perhaps you have other fears like Clowns or Potato Chips. Guessing you laughed… Read more ›
Category Archives: Mental advice
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Get the Out!
Typically, I am a little more creative with the title of my articles. I like to keep you guessing where “I might be going” with my writing. But for you the loyal reader I wanted to leave no doubt what… Read more ›
What Kind of Bird are you?
When you think of birds you probably lump them all into a single category and probably just think of them all flying because after all that’s kind of what birds do. Well what about the Penguin? They are a bird… Read more ›
What Position Should I Play?
That’s a GREAT question!!! One that players ask me all of the time. “I like playing this” “Dad wants me to play this” “Coach won’t let me play this but I want to.” Probably all of the same things that… Read more ›
The Pursuit of Good
Have you cast aside the word “good” in favor of words with more pizzazz like “awesome.” Have you set it aside in favor of words that portray more enthusiasm like “phenomenal.” If you were to describe your softball play in… Read more ›
WINTALITY 402: Believing you will Succeed
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… Read more ›
WINTALITY 401: Mentally Attacking Everything
[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… Read more ›
WINTALITY 302: Forgoing your own desires
[Wintality] – win-tal-i-ty – noun; The act of mentally forgoing your own desire to feel better for the betterment of the team. “She was devastated internally after striking out, but her wintality kept her from showing it.” I’m going to… Read more ›
WINTALITY 301: Controlling the only thing you can
[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… Read more ›
WINTALITY 202: Having the strength to admit your weakness
[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… Read more ›
WINTALITY 201: Using Adversity to your Advantage
[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… Read more ›
WINTALITY 102: ThrowYourselfUnderTheBusItis
[Wintality] – win-tal-i-ty – noun; The act of mentally lifting your teammates up when they are down. “Her wintality just wouldn’t let me give up.” When learning the mental side of this game, one of the easiest ways to explain… Read more ›
WINTALITY 101: The Mental Act of Winning
I first read the word “WINTALITY” in January 2011 on the Auburn Lady Tigers Facebook page, and I’ve got to say I immediately fell in love with it. There are a million catch phrases out there, many cliché’s but seldom… Read more ›
EXCELLENCE
If a picture is worth a thousand words then a gorgeous photo of a ball field being kissed by the sky is certainly worthy of several posts. Fastpitch.TV was generous enough to allow me to do a series of blog… Read more ›
What do you do when you are alone?
No I’m not talking about picking your nose. I’m talking about what you do when you are alone that is going to help you win that championship game that isn’t for 6 months from now. You know the one I’m… Read more ›
Say NO to the dress
In the spirit of Valentines Day I couldn’t help but try and tie in softball to the most romantic day of the year. Not easy to do but fortunately for me reality TV made it easy for me. I don’t… Read more ›
Championship Teams
What is the difference between a good team, a great team and a championship team? Great question, but rather than write it all out for you I’ve created a video for this particular post Update: April, 2024 In the many… Read more ›
Catalyst
cat·a·lyst /ˈkætlɪst/ [kat-l-ist] noun 1. Chemistry . a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected. 2. something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being affected. 3. a person or thing… Read more ›
Happy New Year
2013 is almost upon us and with it comes a new season of softball. For many it involves being one of the new players on existing team, and for others it involves having new players join your team. One of… Read more ›
Are you a Purple Cow?
Are you a Purple Cow? No? Well do you at least have any purple spots? Seems rather silly, but the fact is that the world needs more purple cows. But we are programmed from a young age to just fit… Read more ›
Silence is Golden … but also deafening
If you are anything like me you hate making mistakes. Only thing I hate worse is immediately reading something new that would have helped me avoid the mistake. I’m going to share my most recent mistake … which involves running… Read more ›
Zero Sum Game
For many of the softball players I work with, and likely many around the country and the world this fall marks a serious time of transition. They started the year on teams that they had been on for a year… Read more ›
Be careful what you practice, you will get better
There is an interesting phenomenon in life, that perhaps I’m the only person who has ever noticed it. It seems to me that when people practice something, they get better at it, and they start making it look easy and… Read more ›
FAIR is a 4 letter word
The more I hear the word “fair” used in conjunction with the word “not” on a softball field, the more I’m beginning to see it as a 4 letter word. One that should be avoided at all costs, and stricken… Read more ›
Controlling the most important 6″ on the field
If you’ve read any of my former posts you probably realize by now that my writing is meant to encourage athletes, coaches and parents alike. I try to string together words that perhaps you have read before, in a way… Read more ›
“If you are not enough without it, you will never be enough with it”
As I’m sure you have figured out by now if you know me, I love quotes. I just absolutely love quotes. Whether they are about chasing dreams, building confidence, working hard anything that I can use to inspire me. So I… Read more ›
Are you a Diamond?
I figured with Valentine’s Day fast approaching it would be a great time to ask a rather poignant question … “Are you a Diamond?” We as coaches are like jewelers. Jewelers don’t make diamonds, they find them. They can polish… Read more ›
No more New Years Resolutions
This is the time of the year when many people feel the need to write down their “New Year’s Resolutions.” This tradition of becoming introspective and looking forward to a “better life” dates all the way back to 153 BC… Read more ›
Is there a difference between being hurt and being injured?
One of the hardest things in this game is knowing as a coach where the line is between a player being hurt and a player being injured. The longer I’m around this game, and the more amazing young ladies I… Read more ›
Team wide “Batting Slumps”
I’ve had several people send me updates this week and tell me about the team wide batting slumps that had occurred in games. That’s a common thing I’ve heard throughout the years and finally challenged one of my players today… Read more ›
It’s all in their eyes
That’s what I’m recognizing more and more as I study the best players in the world. There is just something different about their eyes. No they don’t have the ability to see better than 20/20 or anything like that. In… Read more ›
WCWS 2010 in Review
I began the week as always … rooting for The University of Arizona. By the final game of the championship series I found myself … rooting for both teams. Not because my loyalty had waivered, but becasue I found an… Read more ›
Run the same way as T-Ballers
Have you ever watched the first few games in a t-ball players career? They are so cute when they hit the ball and then panic and run the wrong way when everyone starts yelling “RUN!!!” If you are a coach… Read more ›
Hitterplication
When students first begin learning to multiply we provide them with a Multiplication Chart. We teach them how to go through the rows and columns and memorize the values of 2 times 3, 2 times 4 etc. The expectation is… Read more ›
“Practice Makes Permanent”
For years I’ve used the term “Practice doesn’t make perfect … Perfect practice makes perfect.” A very close friend of mine, David Newman, handed me an interesting article yesterday that captures the heart of what I’ve been trying to say… Read more ›
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
For those of you that don’t live in/around the state of Georgia. King of the Mountain is a tournament that is held every year in about 12 different locations just to ensure that I have to drive hundreds of miles… Read more ›
My hat goes off to …
The first thing I go through will all of my players is a mental exercise where I get them to realize that they alone are responsible for their effort and their attitude. That no matter what goes on around them,… Read more ›
Challenge Everything
What I love about my friend Bobby Simpson from Higher Ground Softball is that he challenges EVERYTHING that has to do with the the game of fastpitch softball. Nothing is safe. At dinner last night a group of us were… Read more ›
How important is your attitude?
Just received an email from the parent of two girls that I love working with. The email was so exciting, that I just had to post it immediately. If your brain is already overloaded right now you might want to… Read more ›
“What’s your dream?”
I was just reminiscing tonight about the classic romantic comedy “Pretty Woman.” The movie begins and ends with the exact same line “Welcome to hollywood. Everybody has a dream. What’s your dream?” The same could be said about fastpitch softball. Every… Read more ›