Cross Training Softball

Is something that I heard repetitively tonight during my lessons and there are really only 2 answers:

1. Practice – Practice – Practice the right things and let those things become muscle memory. Everyone can look good hitting off of a tee with a net 3 feet away, or in a cage 1 time per week with the ball coming at the same speed, and same location and a net 10 feet away. To feel confident in the game you must do the work daily that convinces you that you will keep your head down. You must do the work daily that convinces you that you will use your lower body. You must do the work daily that convinces you that you will CRUSH the ball and not just hit it. Unfortunately many girls stop practicing on their own, and end up hearing 18 different things from 18 different coaches, parents and when they step in the box they are still thinking about everything, instead of reacting and letting their muscle memory do the job. If they aren’t practicing the things that give them confidence when they step into the game then there is 1 simple answer to that … change what they are practicing and do something different or change instructors. It is just senseless to walk into the box and doubt that you will CRUSH the ball. That is the only reason to practice.

2. See it in your head. I’ve been blessed to talk to a lot of great hitters over the past several years is that they all say that they “visualize” each and every at bat. That means that they close their eyes and see the swing they want to take in their mind, then they step into the box and do it. Perhaps the most vidid was from Dionna Harris who was the leading hitter on the 1996 Gold Medal winning US Olympic Softball team. She described that her pre-game ritual was to sit alone some where with her eyes closed and visual herself walking into her living room at home, turning the tv on and seeing her upcoming game played out in her head. She watched her entire “at bats”, not just the hits. Now that is serious focus and visualization. Unfortunately what I hear from a lot of parents is what their daughter does wrong. When they say “you are rolling your wrists” “you are dropping your shoulder” etc, or the girls say “I’m always lunging” “I’m always pulling away from the ball”, those things plant the seeds of that visual in the girls heads. What the girls need to do is put all of that out of their head, and visualize the swing that they were practicing all week long then open their eyes and do it.