Why You Should Forget About Improving Your Hitting

Hello Practice Pro Nation!

I’m Coach Marisa, and I just couldn’t be happier about being the newest addition to the Practice Pro team! I’m super excited to have the opportunity to work with young players on their journeys to greatness within the sport of softball. I look forward to getting to know each of you as I put forth my best efforts to aid and empower you into becoming great batters and confident women.  

I’m sure some of you noticed that I used the word “batters” instead of “hitters”- very astute if you did! I firmly believe that there is a distinction that can be made, and for those of you who join my offensive classes, you are going to learn, execute, and dominate because of those important nuances.

However, before I go into my “offensive” softball perspective, I would like to begin by giving you a little bit of history about myself and my softball background. For starters, I grew up in Oak Park and began playing sports at an early age. I came from a family of educators whose mission was to give me the best life they possibly could.  One of the ways they did this was by integrating me into many extracurricular activities, setting me up to better navigate my life by determining what made me happy.  I developed strong morals and values through cooperative activities in sport.  I bet many of you can or will be able to say the same.

My first experience playing softball was t-ball. At that age, I towered over the other girls. Believe it or not, I was already hitting it out of the park; I was a big kid! The confidence I found within hitting at such an early age is what fueled me to further my softball career. 

My first taste of playing fastpitch was at the 10u level with the Oak Park Huskies travel team. As confident as I was, and as good as I THOUGHT I was, I didn't get the playing time that I felt I should and wanted. However, the reality was- the other girls on that team were better than me.  Humbling AND Motivating!

I learned to be open to growth and had the opportunity to engage with some amazing coaches along the way. By putting in the work through lessons, I was able to become a solid high school/travel player and D1 recruit. 

By the end of that first year playing fastpitch–which did I mention, we won nationals that year—after dedicating my time and efforts into becoming the best player I could be, and surrounding myself with girls who held the same values, I made it into the starting line up.

After two years with the 10u Oak Park Huskies, I had accumulated enough skill to compliment my talent.  I did this through hard work and trusting my coaches and their knowledge.  During this process, my opportunity came to join a more elite team. That’s when I joined the Windmills!

From 14u to 16u, the Windmills were my primary travel team while Oak Park and River Forest High School was my school team that I played for.  I had the opportunity to play with some very competitive girls at an elite level, which only improved my abilities and inspired me to have an even greater work ethic. 

Through high school I was fortunate enough to to be coached by some of the best players and coaches around (Special thanks to Bernie Allen, Mike Soulberg, Eugene Lenti, Gina Dobbs, Tammy Williams, Alex Morocco, Mike White, Bruce Morgan, Mel Kolbtz, and my dad- Doug Belpedio)!

As a freshman, I was a 3-sport, straight ‘A’ student-athlete. As I got older, and as softball became even more entrenched into my life, I decided -with the help of my family- to make that my primary focus outside of academics.

The harder I worked at softball, the better I got. The more I listened and took the help offered to me, the more understanding of the game I was able to grasp.

By my junior year, I was rocking the ball consistently. I believe my slugging percentage was .893 that year -which for me was a huge accomplishment. With the help of my parents and my Windmills coaches, I began the college recruiting process.

(You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned “fielding” much.  That is for two reasons. One, I will be coaching you on the offensive side of the ball.  Two, offense is where I derived my passion and my primary success.  I was, however, a starting 1st and 3rd baseman, competent enough to play the hot corners baby!)

Many exposure tournaments, emails, phone calls, and college visits later, I decided to begin choosing schools at which to do my official visits: University of Kentucky, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, San Deigo State, and Western Michigan made my final list. 

After much deliberation, I decided on Western Michigan—GO BRONCOS! 

Freshman year in college as a student athlete, I was eating it all up and having an absolute blast with my new teammates and friends. Just as we were about to start our primary season and get things going, I got injured. I ended up tearing my ACL and fracturing my femur. I fell into a very deep depression, which ultimately ended my athletic and academic career for the time being. (The mental and psychological aspect of sport wasn’t really being talked about, studied much, or treated at that time…unlike today. I am so grateful you all have, and will get, the benefits of becoming well-rounded players who know how to embrace resilience and learn about coping with challenges before they present themselves-another reason I am excited to join Practice Pro, as it is a holistic approach to becoming one’s best).

Full disclosure—after many years of obstacles and hurdles in my life- I surrendered to my higher power, and I asked for help in regaining my passion and purpose in life. That’s when softball re-entered the scene.  And it came with even more joy, excitement, appreciation, and understanding than I had before.

This eventually brought me to encompass a whole new perspective on batting. I incorporated all of the mistakes I was grateful to overcome, as well as the experiences I had learned on and off the field, to develop a new approach to hitting: Practice Pro Batting!

PracticPro Batting: Engagement, Improvement, and Empowerment through competitive-batting-excellence to fuel personal success.

Tune into next week’s blog to learn why Coach Marisa distinguishes between batters and hitters, and why that difference might just make all of the difference for you!