Contrary to popular belief, accuracy is only a byproduct of a lesson. The real goal of a lesson is to "build a repeatable motion." One is part of the process, and one is the actual outcome. As you know, you can't control an outcome, but only your effort that goes into it. How, then, can you best use your time in lessons to achieve both your process goal (build a repeatable motion) and your outcome goal (throw more strikes)? If you feel like there have been times where you haven't gathered enough takeaways from your lesson and aren't sure what to work on, read ahead.

There was something different happening on this team which I never experienced. It was cool to try hard. The players didn't tolerate others who didn't hustle. It wasn't the coach who had influence over attitudes, it was my peers. This was a completely new concept to me, growing up on teams where players bonded over complaining about or disobeying the coach. How many car rides home did I take where we talked about how I wasn't being treated fairly? This team seemed different. Athletes were on the same "side" as the coach.

Procrastination has the same effect on pitching. When it’s game time in April and you’re simply “hoping” you’ll get a strike, rather than strategizing the best strike-out sequence, you’ll know that procrastination has taken effect.

Procrastination takes hold of the high school student who uses the excuse, "It was cold out this winter I had nowhere to pitch. I was waiting for my coaches to organize practice for me."

I felt the urge to add a little flare to the newsletter this week! If you are wondering about what it really takes to help your daughter learn the pitching position, look at the infographic below. If you are an experienced pitcher or parent, what do you think of this information? What should I add or remove? Either reply to this email or comment on the blog. Please enjoy this wordy-art!

I think the pitching position is a bit of a draw for perfectionistic people. While I doubt any pitcher can be a total perfectionist, since they'd definitely quit after one week of trying it out. You know about the grounders and hit batters and all. I think this is a subject that deserves some attention and have come across tools that have helped me and others. Please remember, I have quite a few of these qualities too so I'm writing out of an affinity with my fellow pitchers.

According to Oxford English Dictionary, a perfectionist is "a person who refuses to accept any standard short of perfection." Isn't it annoying when they use the word in the definition? Nevertheless, as I'll discuss below this definition is helpful after all. I added a little more context with information in the Harvard Business Review from an article called "How to Manage Your Perfectionism." I paraphrased the article here

What is more exciting than World Series softball? NOTHING tops it in my world. And this year in 2022, I was especially excited about Northwestern making it to OKC. It’s fun to see MidWest teams representing softball on the biggest stage - especially because it’s not as prevalent as the southern and western teams who make it to Oklahoma City year after year.