Spiraling Out of Control - What to Do

Almost daily, whether I’m coaching or not, I notice things about my life that I learned while playing sports in my youth. Most stems from our “mental game” lessons as a player for Ithaca College. On Thursdays, our off day, we would lift weights then go to one of the classrooms in the “Hill,” the athletic facility, and complete a hour-long lesson on how to think about the game.

I’m so grateful for those lessons in college. They helped inspire me to believe I had power over my own life, and that I could do things on my own. Before college I liked competing, but fitting in was more important. These mental game lessons made me think it was “cool” to be extraordinary. There I discovered that putting in extra time practicing or skipping the party to prepare for a game was actually the best thing to do. It helped me mature into an adult.

Coach Deb Pallozzi, now an NFCA Hall of Fame coach, was implicitly teaching us that our off day just meant off from throwing or hitting a softball. We were to be diligent about studying the game and getting stronger. We did, to our delight, get to do our weight-lifting sessions without supervision those days.

We learned about mantras, routines, how to do our job, and be part of something bigger than ourselves. We set goals, picked game buddies (we decorated each other’s lockers before each game), and evaluated past performances. I was amazed at all the things I was learning and I loved it. No one had ever told me this stuff before! At least, not in an organized way. My dad would give me a pep talk on the way to or from a game and I also got toughness lessons from my Uncle John when he’d come to my house at 6 am before school to help me practice my pitching.

One of the lessons that helped me most was one about “spiraling out of control.” It was a little spiral with words of progressing discouragement towards the end. I recognized those words. I had always thought the spiral I’d heard about was inevitable and unstoppable. Here I was given a tool to help me stay under control in a practical way.

This image, from the book Heads Up Baseball, encourages players to play it “one pitch at a time.” Players want to know what to do in situations when they start off pitching well, but soon it’s one bad pitch after another. They get into a hopeless situation - walk after walk. The girls wonder, if they pitched well last inning, how could they be pitching poorly this inning?

When pitchers start to spiral out of control, the first step is to remember this image and acknowledge they are outside the inner circle. The second step is to do your “gathering routine,” as Coach Traub teaches. This might include taking a breath, calling the catcher out to the mound, or singing your favorite song to yourself. Make sure to develop this before your first game, not during.

The third step is to continue to play one pitch at a time. If a mistake is made, minimize it with a phrase like, “So what? Next pitch.”

I had to use this process all the time. To my coach’s and team’s displeasure I had a habit of loading the bases then striking out the last two batters. Despite their rising blood pressure I kept this up for three of my four years there.

Now, I use this image when things aren’t going my way with my family, friends, or at work. If the t-shirts don’t come in time or the facility forgets to tell me they are closed, I remember to notice the panic swelling up, take a big breath, then start to solve the problem one part at a time.

Lessons like these are what we teach at our 2-day pitching camps in August. We take time each morning to learn these concepts, then apply them in the afternoons during our games and competitions. It’s nice to be able to take plenty of time to go over these, since pitching school affords us shorter 15-minute lessons of big-picture subject matter.

Please joint us in River Forest, Chicago, Evanston during the first two weeks of August for our most fun events of the year. We are looking to add two more in the suburbs, so be on the lookout! During these camps we focus on having fun, learning cool stuff, and competing with our current and future friends. We’ll see you there!