Mindset & Approach at Honor Roll (Pre-Camp Curriculum, Part 8)

June 16, 2021

 

As you continue to prepare for camp by researching and building your school list, communicating with college coaches and developing your game, it’s also important to be prepared mentally for your time in a showcase setting. Although you’re still playing softball – the game you love and that feels familiar – there will still probably be some nerves that come up at Honor Roll, given the situation and the college coaches’ eyes on you.

That’s not to make you more nervous. To find success in high-pressure situations, the best first step is to acknowledge the environment – not deny it. Recognizing how you feel and understanding that it’s natural to have some butterflies in this type of situation is key – as is moving past it to the stage and tool of “reappraisal” that they covered on the Learner Lab podcast that was the homework from Part 7 of this pre-camp curriculum (if you haven’t listened to that episode yet, definitely go back and listen! I’ll wait right here…)

 

“Calm Down” vs. Reappraisal

In a high-pressure situation – like, for example, taking your defensive showcase groundballs with 50-70 college coaches watching – telling ourselves to simply “calm down” can actually impair performance. “Calm down” works to deny and suppress the emotions you’re feeling.

Reappraisal though can help not only get you back to your peak performance, but can actually enhance performance in key stressful moments. So, when you’re at Honor Roll, about to step onto the showcase field, remember: all those things you’re feeling – butterflies, heart racing, hands a little shaky – are not only natural for the situation, but are actually the physiological responses your body has to prepare you for high performance.

 

Trust Yourself

Even though this is a more pressurized situation than you usually play in, it’s still softball. It’s still the game you’ve worked hard at for years – and now is the time to trust all the time and effort you’ve spent to develop your game.

As ballplayers who have put in the hard work to be successful in this situation, trusting that effectively means:

  1. Play within yourself, and play your game. Trusting your preparation means trusting your game – so when you come to Honor Roll, maintain that and play your brand of softball. If you’re a contact hitter, don’t show up expecting to go 6-for-6 with 5 home runs. If you’re a pitcher who’s effective low in the zone and with your command of your offspeed pitches, don’t try to light up radar guns just because you think it’s what college coaches want to see. If you trust your preparation and your play, and you stay within yourself, you’re going to be best set up for success.
  2. Control the controllables. There are a lot of things in softball that we can’t control. You might hit a ball square but right at someone. As a pitcher, you might throw the perfect curve on the outside corner, but the hitter gets the barrel to it for a double. But trusting your game means that you’re able to control what is in your control, and then when things don’t go your way, to come right back at it with your best effort again.

 

Honor Roll is the easy part. All the hard work on the field, in the weight room, running sprints, late night studying – all of that was the work. That was the hard part. Your two days at Honor Roll are the fun part, and the time to let all that hard work shine for the coaches watching you. If “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” then all of that was the preparation, and this is just the opportunity you were looking for.

 

Homework & Action Items: