what's up softball players i'm coach Dan blewett in today's video
let's talk about how to get out of a slump
okay so if you're new here i'm coach dan i do tons of videos on strength training on softball
throwing mechanics fielding drills mindset all of it so in today's video let's talk about how to
get out of a slump because everyone watching you everyone watching this if you're a player is going
to go through these every single season here's my first point number one it's critical to remember
that say you're a 300 hit or even a 400 hitter you don't just go 3-for-100 every you know every other
month or every month you don't go three for every ten right you don't go six for every twenty you go
like this you go like it's up in waves you'll go two for 22 uh you know and one five game set and
then you'll go 11 for 19 in the next five games right it's always a constant up and down where
if you to track out that line of best fit you know for all of you pay attention to math class
it's just going to be that solid average over the course of a lot of hills and valleys and so
dealing with these little slumps and understanding number one when are you actually in a slump this
is i think one of the things that's hard for young players to understand
if your swing is good and you're you know you're putting a good swing on the ball and you're up
at the plate and you're just not getting the results that you want you have to ask yourself
is something actually wrong or am i just grounding out too much and getting a little bit unlucky
am i hitting line drives right at people am i facing a really tough string of hitter a string
of pictures recently that i just like maybe a little i'm a little over matched at the moment
all these factors if you're hitting the ball at people you're getting a little bit unlucky
you're facing a lot of good pictures in a short period of time that's maybe like a little bit
above the norm for you those aren't reasons to change anything those are all reasons just to
keep doing what you're capable of doing take the same swings have the same approach and really not
adjust anything and ride it out so as a ship captain you might get you know
you might be in calm seas and for a long time and then you might get into a really bad storm
it's not to say you need to like cancel the trip and take a left turn or completely golf
course sometimes you just need to like go through it and it's gonna be smooth sailing
the next day or even just a couple hours later that's a lot of time so really think about
am i actually slumping or am i just getting bad results i think there's a difference
even though we sort of use the blanket term slump for everything all right number two stay positive
and this doesn't have to be that rawra you know bs where you're just like oh i'm not i'm not having
a slump it doesn't have to be that hokey dumb you know unrealistic stuff staying positive just
means hey i just need to put a good swing on the ball i've got the skills i belong at this level
i can do this let's just stay the course and stay focused and see ball hit ball that's what staying
positive means to players the highest level it's not over inflating your ego it's not being silly
about it it's not needing someone to pat you on the back for everything you do or your your
teammates to clap for every ground ball oh you hit that one hard you know great job no being
positive is just like look i belong here this is gonna this is gonna pass i'm just in a tough time
but i've got the skills and i can get out of this i just need to keep my nose to the ball and keep
playing hard that's what being positive is that's how you really start to ride out some of these
slumps next slump tip stay in your routine this is one of the biggest problems with young players
is as soon as they're not hitting their best they start changing everything up they're taking twice
as many swings in the cage they're showing up at the field way earlier or they're just doing all
this other stuff because they're mentally just nervous like why am i not hitting why am i here
i got to do all this other stuff figure if you have a good read if you have a good routine and
you've figured out what makes you good you know i arrived at the ballpark at this time every day
these are the things that i do to get ready this is the stuff i do to get ready in the week
this is sort of my practice schedule this is how much sleep i need this is what i eat on game day
you know these are all the things that get me mentally prepared to play that's your routine
whether it's before the game daily weekly monthly etc stick with your routine if it got you there
keep going with it there's an old saying it says dance with you dance with who brung you
once you get there don't forget what got you there so if you have been having success in
years and months and weeks prior to today that stuff is still going to work you're just in a
little bit of a bad patch so don't abandon your routine stick to your routine stay with the stuff
that you've been doing that's been helping you get to that point the next point and this is a
really big one don't accept too much advice from other people as soon as you start to struggle
everyone wants to help you get out of it they say hey maybe you should do this maybe you should
make this change with yourself maybe you should do that is there even a problem yet this is a really
hard thing to do a lot again a lot of times people will want to say oh you should do this let's do
that maybe try this maybe try that or maybe going back to my just my previous point you're just
in a bad slump you're just in a little period of bad luck and you don't need to change anything or
the changes you need to make are very very small don't let all these other cooks into your kitchen
ask yourself is something really wrong do i really need a change right now or did i just go oh for
nine and i'm gonna go overnight a couple of times every season ask yourself that question and then
tune other people out yes there's a time to accept that advice and there's a time
to change but most of the time with these little short slumps these little tiny waves
it's not and a lot of people can just make it worse by getting in your head and saying oh change
move your elbow up change your swing change your stride change your leg kick
don't abandon again dance with who brung you don't abandon everything all at once and let
everyone else in to your head which is only going to make things worse when you get into a little
slump ask yourself do i need a change and if not stick to your guns and this is my next point make
incremental change so if you're like yeah i feel a little uncomfortable with the plate i'm just not
doing as well as i could i my swing feels a little off look for the smallest possible change you can
make the smallest possible change you can make not a big change because a big change is going
to throw you in the other direction now you might be equally uncomfortable in a different direction
because you know your stride was a little off so now you went to a completely different stride
and now you feel uncomfortable that one too because it's so different than what you used to do
make the smallest incremental change you can to your mechanics and to your routine if you need
to make an adjustment to your routine so if you're only hitting you know taking 50 swings
in pregame don't go taking 150 maybe take like 15 more a little bit more whatever it is do a couple
other drills a couple of this couple of that but little changes not big changes will help you get
back on track lastly take your placebos so i'm sure all of you know that you know a sugar pill
placebo like my mom she's a tells a story about my grandmother um that when my mom had a headache
as a little girl or a stomachache or whatever her mom would mix up this little concoction
that she later learned was just like a teaspoon of sugar and some seltzer water just no medicine
whatsoever she gave it to my mom and it always made her feel better right because she believed
that it was medicine and she as a as a child knew that like medicine always makes you feel better so
when she got this little concoction of sugar and seltzer water her headache always seemed to
magically go away as athletes we have these things right we have the fancy bat the fancy batting
gloves our little routines our little cheers our little stuff that just like gets us going you look
good you play good right all that stuff so yeah a lot of that stuff is silly and it certainly
doesn't make the ball player not by any stretch you know how nice your bat is your batting gloves
your uniform etc but if it's going to give you a little confidence boost and you're going to
you know feel good going up to the plate that can make all the difference sometimes so even though
you don't want to make those things a crutch when you're struggling take any little placebo that you
can to make yourself feel like you know what today is going to be a good day so if that's a new pair
of batting gloves or it's shining your shoes you know clean off your cleats with some scrubbing
bubbles or it's whatever it is just take a take your placebos and distract yourself feel a little
more excited to be at the ballpark because you did x or you did y or you got a new thing or whatever
and now you're ready to play okay so even though the placebos don't really do much they do they do
have a little good mental effect of boosting your confidence and again putting that pet
back in your step because it can be rough and that's the last thing i want to cover is that
most slumps are made vastly worse because of confidence issues so if you let yourself go i suck
i suck i suck why am i even playing this game your o for nine is going to become o for 18 and that 0
for 18 is going to become 1 for 34 and then it's gonna become a really you know you're gonna be
stuck on the bench and it's gonna become a really big hole to dig yourself out of so don't get in
that trap use all these all these tips that i gave you here today to help you keep your confidence up
stay to your routine just ride it out stay positive and don't let that big plane go into the
ground of your confidence all right so what do you do to get out of a slump leave a comment below if
you have any questions hit me up thanks again for watching and i'll see you here in the next video