What Pitchers Can Teach Us About Confidence

In 2012 my first student after getting back into coaching more seriously was 10-year-old Christina. I taught her right after work. It was fun and easy and I got outside.

Fast forward two years later I quit my office job and gone to pitching instruction full time.

She stopped in the middle of practice once and said, “Abby you seem so much more relaxed now.  You used to come in business outfits and dress pants to our lessons.  Now you wear work-out clothes.  That’s what I want to do.”

“You mean your life’s goal is to wear sweatpants?” I said.

“I want to do a job that I really like and get to do what I want. That wold be great.”

I was a bit nervous about quitting my “respectable corporate” job to give softball lessons every day. Surely there is not enough demand. I was thinking it’s a little unusual for private instruction to be someone’s full-time job. Wow, I thought, a 12-year-old just validated me.

The next day I was teaching a clinic of 8 and 9-year-olds in Chicago and I said, “You have to take risks when you pitch. You have to take them in the rest of your life, too.  I took a risk because I just quit my job to start a business and teach you ladies.”   “What?!!! You did???!!  Wait.  You get paid for this?”

Those things made me feel good.  And it’s funny, I’m supposed to help them feel good and build their confidence,  but they build mine all the time.  Pretty cool.