what's up softball players coaches parents in today's video we're going to talk about routine
and why a good routine whether it's mental whether it's physical all those things we'll
cover all of it today why they're so important for consistent performance not just today but
throughout your career and really throughout your life i mean it's not just a sport specific thing
so one of the big big things that separates college players from high school players
pro players from college players is their dedication to the routine the quality of
it the amount of iteration and thought that goes into it so we're going to go into all
that today and this is actually a clip from a bigger webinar that goes into five struggles
that many athletes have in their mental game so if you want to see the full webinar it's free
you'll find the link in the description below so if you enjoy this clip you'll get essentially
four times more you know four more four more tips in that full webinar so definitely check
that out if you're interested after you finish the video thanks so much and i'll see you at the end
struggle number four and this is a big one and this is what separates this is what separates
pros from everyone else and this is is routine routine is huge especially in baseball and
softball because there's so many games it's it's unlike any other sport baseball and softball in
college they're both playing you know 50 games in the spring i know the baseball schedule is 56
i think softball maybe even a little higher than that how do you expect to hit you know
300 over a season like that you're gonna have ups and downs it's always gonna be waves like the
background of this webinar there's waves you know you're gonna go over 12. and then you're gonna go
17 for 27 right you're gonna tear the cover off the ball for a while or you're gonna have a couple
bad outings and you're gonna have you know three shutouts or whatever it is in a month these things
happen and the way you normalize that is by having good practice routines and by being consistent not
only in the way you practice but in the way you prepare and in you know getting your mind
right to play so good routines are not only before and at bat but they're also before a game they're
also during the week they're trying to figure out what makes you the best version of yourself I'm a
really relaxed kind of person kind of monotone you can probably tell i'm not super animated i
never was on the field even in that game where i was fuming where like i could feel almost steam
coming from my ears you wouldn't be enough you wouldn't be able to tell that i was that angry
i was a very stoic kind of robotic player and that helped me stay level i was never overly emotional
i didn't let myself get high and low because if i stayed you know calm and even keeled then i could
recover mentally between bad outings between bad pitches and bad you know bad luck and bad calls
and refocus and get the next one that's really important but some players
they want to be get really hyped up some players need to be calm back down you know some players
are listening to reggae and like you know again really like wavy relaxy stuff before the game
other players are like banging their heads and trying to get pumped up because it gives
them a little more energy everyone's different and you have to learn this stuff sort of trial
trial and error and you know you bounce stuff off your teammates and how much uh running can you do
in a week and still be at your best how much arm care how much strength training when can you do
these things how much sleep do you need what kind of stuff should you eat on game day or not eat you
know how do you again like how aggressive do you want to be how how focused how cerebral like all
these different qualities like what makes you the best version of you and then when you figure that
out which takes a long time then how do you foster that every single day how do you roll up with the
best version of yourself you know your car finely tuned and ready to race before every game that's a
really challenging thing and it takes it takes time and i think looking back in my own career
i learned a lot from other players by watching them by asking them saying hey like how do you
do this how do you be a starter because i was a starting pitcher i was a relief pitcher i
flip-flopped i was a swing guy some years where i'd start where i'd relieve which was super hard
and you're always asking like hey what's your routine like how can my routine be better like
tell me what do you do how did you handle that season that you had a couple years ago when
you were a reliever then you were spot starting how did you figure that out or how do you handle
being a pinch hitter how do you handle coming off the bench you know all these different things are
really important and coaches obviously can be a huge help but we know in the youth level not
every coach is played at a super high level but coaches still really want to help their players or
for parents if you didn't play you still want to be able to help your kids through this right and
so you need these you need your peers you need coaches you also need to be a good scientist
and what i mean by that is is trying things out and really saying okay well i did a lot
of this this week and i kind of struggled and i kind of felt tired when i played and
next week i did things a little bit differently i did a little less of that a little more of this
and i felt really good so maybe i should do some of this and less of that
you start sort of testing things out and using your body and your mind as an experiment
to figure out what routine is best for you it can take a long long time to figure out what to do
and again when you know i when i was a head coach of my academy travel teams with lots of serious
young players i was making them right routines that i'm like hey you're starting pitcher day
the game's at 105. i want you to write everything you're going to
do in pregame down to the minute so at you know 12 34 what are you doing all right 12
34. i'm taking my jacket off i'm running two poles 12 37 i'm doing karaoke i'm doing shuffles 12 39
i'm doing this 12 41 i'm getting a sip of water and my catchers we're gonna start playing catch
you know i'm gonna throw for seven minutes i'm gonna long toss then i'm gonna come in
you know i'm gonna put my jacket back on get a sip of water 12 46 i'm in the bullpen i'm
throwing inside outside fastballs first then i'm going change ups 12.49 that's how we do it that's
how i did it but i learned that from someone from observation i learned that from my coaches from my
my teammates and that stuff is super important because when i pitched i was you know what when
i was a starter i was walking if it was a 105 game or 705 game whatever 05 time it was i knew that i
was walking from i throw my last bullpen pitch and i was walking up to the dugout at 12 58.
it would take me a minute and a half to walk to the dugout it's now one o'clock or seven o'clock
i sit down i get a swig of gatorade 70701 702 they're calling me to run out on the field
doing the national anthem and i am ready to go exactly to the minute when i want to
everyone does this at the highest level and for hitters they don't have the timing as a starting
pitcher but they still what's your pregame routine what are you doing in the batter's box what are
you doing before the game how many swings are you taking so that you're fresh and you're ready but
you're not worn out these things are so important because now because i've already programmed this
out and i know what i'm going to do i don't have to have to spend any mental energy on doing this
i don't have to worry about whether i'm prepared because i know that i've honed my routine over
time i've been a good scientist about it and now i executed it so i know the way i prepared for
today's game was exactly the same as i prepared for tuesday's game or for last thursday's game and
so if i don't pitch well or i do pitch well it's not going to because i did something different did
something weird did something counterproductive it's going to be just from the few factors in the
game the pitches that i made the decisions that i made the way the ball bounced etc it's never going
to come down to the stuff that i could control and you'd be surprised as parents and as coaches
of youth players how little of this structure that they have and they have to be taught it i
mean i showed up at tournaments with my team and i was just flabbergasted to see starting pitchers
sitting in the dugout 25 minutes for the game they've already warmed up and they're getting cold
you know i see hitters just straggling around the field of our opponent posing team just like
that kid's not mentally ready to play he's not meant to be mentally ready to play they're just
checked out just killing time pros don't do it that way and it makes a really big impact
on your kids consistency of their performances all right so i hope this clip about you know
routines and just the the critical importance of them really was helpful to you it's an underrated
uh aspect of preparation especially for young athletes and amateur teams but it's really super
important so thanks again for watching again if you want to see the entire webinar you can
do so below there's a link in the description all it takes is an email it's completely free
so you can check that out thanks again for watching and i'll see you in the next video