What is Mental Madness?
Mental Madness is something that YOU build as a pitcher/athlete that helps YOU work on the mental and emotional side of the micro or macro move while you are physically performing the move. You are constructing a better pitch one pitch at a time!
The reason I emphasize "you" is this is something that you can do in micro minutes, it's also the blueprint to how you teach yourself to "stay in the tunnel" when so much is going on around you.
It is accountability and direct feedback for you to receive by working on your craft and in the big picture of your pitching career each time you do this you build more mental, emotional and physical strength.
Not to mention you build a HEALTHY pitch over all!
As a former colligate pitcher, I had to do certain things every day to improve my pitch since I decided at the age of 9, I was going to become a pitcher.
Man has the times changed since I was building a better pitch! With the vast amount of knowledge being spilled out about pitching I'm sure there are moments where you or your parents feel overwhelmed and almost over stimulated!
When I was younger, I had to throw 100 balls (x4 buckets) mostly daily to the barn door that had a target with the 4 corners spray painted on it. No one was there to watch me, so I had to go off of how it felt and also verbalize situations (example: runners on 1 and 2, one out, 5th batter) in between each pitch (hence "one pitch at a time") mentality. Both my parents worked full time in the city 45 minutes away from our farm and this had to be done among doing my homework, playing other sports, getting my horses rode and also doing my chores.
Just like you I was given the tools to build a better pitch, but I also had to practice using those tools in between games and pitching lessons! I couldn't rely on my pitching lessons with my coach to just "show up" ready to pitch in a game and neither should you.
If you don't have a pitching coach giving you tools for your pitching belt, then you are most defiantly going to want to read this. (let's talk more!)
As athlete's schedules have evolved since I was building my pitch along with the knowledge of how to build a healthy pitch, I know this is important information to share with you!
Here are 3 things that you can do to improve your pitch! They are efficient and effective!
Build in at least 15 minutes a day to do "Micro Moves" key mechanics to whichever pitch you are working on or whichever mechanic you are working on. IE: Wrist snaps, bucket drill, drag or pull...etc. I highly recommend that you make this a part of your morning routine to be "fresh" but if you can't find a pocket of time in the AM that you can protect for this; show up 15 minutes early to team practice and make some quality Mico Moves.
Video yourself for at least 30 seconds of you doing the drill or drills so you can go back and watch yourself. This is something that has become a part of the evolution of an athlete, the ability to have video feedback on your phone! Keynote here: If you one of my pitchers doing the drill and you feel stuck and are not able to make the adjustment, you already know that you have the option to send me video so that I can review it with you and help you identify the mechanical breakdown.
Make sure that you keep track of how this goes in your softball journal. You can write this in your journal or type it in a google doc. If you are doing 3 sets of 5 reps log or journal how it felt, if you struggled and what was the adjustment you made. This is an excellent way to keep track of your progress especially when you have a moment of doubt, you can go back to see how far you have come.
If you would like more information on more Micro Moves that you can do to OWN your Macro Moves, lets set up your FREE "game plan" call!
Now get out there and OWN it!
-Coach Kally V.
