What's up softball players. I'm Coach Dan Blewett. In today's
video, let's talk about different ways that bad luck
impacts fast pitch pitchers, and ways that you can mentally get
past that. So understanding the whole scope of luck in softball
is really important because you can easily get really pissed off
about it, you can get mad at your fielders you can get mad at
yourself. And being good pitcher, especially long term
and getting recruited. And playing at higher levels means
having that sort of stoic demeanor where it's not a big
deal when you don't pitch your best and you're out there and
things aren't going your way coaches want to see that you can
ride those rough seas out, and keep pitching and keep your team
in the game. So today, let's talk about luck. Some of the
ways that you get kind of screwed over by bad luck and
softball, and how you can mentally get past it.
Alright, so if you're new here, I'm Coach Dan Blewett. I do tons
of videos on softball, throwing mechanics, arm care strength
training the mental side of the game. So be sure subscribe
below, check out my online courses if you want to improve
your game, whether you're parent player or coach. In today's
video, let's talk about luck. Number one, this is a
interesting one that I like talking about. It's the
sequencing of your inning, you can get you know, think of it
this way. In an inning, you give up two singles and one home run,
how many, how many runs Have you given up that inning, it could
be two, it could be three, it could be one, right? So single
single home run means you gave a three run homer and you get
three runs.
Single home run, that's a two run homer and then a single
means you have two runs, home run single single was a solo
home run. And that means you gave up one run. So did one
pitcher. So if you had three pitchers, you had one had each
of these different outcomes, did one pitcher pitch better than
the other forgiving of only one wrong than the other ones who
gave up two runs and three runs, they all gave up a home run and
two singles. So what was the difference, the fact of the
sequencing of the inning, the two singles to load that, you
know to load those runners on base. And then the home run,
obviously is a three run homer. So look, as a pitcher, you know,
coaches will yell at you and say, Oh, you got a pitch tougher
one, there's runners on base, but you really can't, you really
can only pitch as well as you can pitch. And a home run is a
home run it's one individual Act, the fact there's runners on
base doesn't really matter in the set, except for the sense of
obviously, it hurts you on a scoreboard a lot more puts that
crooked number out. But the big takeaway is that as a pitcher,
you don't have a way to control the sequencing of you can't just
magically always get runners out, when there's, you know, the
bases jammed, and you can't magically, you know, like
throttle it down when there's not, you're not going to be able
to control the different outcomes, you can only control
one individual bag at a time. So those sequences of events,
they're just sort of a luck, a good or bad luck kind of
situation that you don't really have control of. So just it's
important understand that, again, you could give up a
single and then a home run or you give a home run and then a
single and the outcomes very different run wise. And over the
long haul the season, that's gonna change your era, your
statistics, all that stuff. So just be aware that you probably
didn't pitch as bad as you felt like if you get more on one time
rather than less. Okay, so the next thing, your team, your
defense, all teams are different lots of times those ground balls
because your shortstop doesn't have that much range or your
second baseman doesn't have that greater range. Sometimes ground
balls that should be come out become hits. And you just have
to learn to deal with that over time. It's just the fact that
look, I'm gonna keep pitching, I'm gonna do my best to get weak
contact to get hitters out quickly to make the best pitch
pitch that I can. And it's going to be up to your fielders, you
might play with an amazing team that has amazing defense and
they can just get you an extra couple outs every single game
and that happens I've had shortstops and second baseman
and outfielders who saved me runs consistently because
they'll run down a ball that should be a double or should be
single. And then you're gonna have the opposite where your
teammates are just not that fast behind you. And they're just
gonna let balls that could be easy outs become hits. It's just
something to remind yourself of control what you can control.
And don't worry about your filters, who even if they're a
little slow, don't have great range, they're still doing their
best to prevent runs for you. Alright, the next two, so
obviously, field conditions are not within your control, and bad
hops and batted balls, like where they go is not in your
control either. So I know a lot of times people think oh, you
know, get a ground ball like induce a double play, you can't
really control what the hitter does, right? If you throw a
ground ball, or you throw a pitch in the bottom of the zone,
a hitter is probably more likely to hit a ground ball on it
because it's low. Or if either an off speed pitch or they're
leaning, they're probably more likely to put it on the ground.
But you can't control what they do. The hitter could still stay
back and just lift it and put in the outfield and you don't get
the double play that you want or whatever. So you don't have
control over where the ball goes after it leaves your hand.
That's really important to understand. You can make the
best pitch you can but you don't have control over the outcome.
After that point. The hitter is going to hit it and then it's
going to bounce according to physics and all that other
stuff. All that's out of your control. So the fact that one
ground ball could go right to your shortstop and become an A
game ending double play for you, or that same ground ball could
be four feet to the left through no fault in your own, and it's
not to be a hitter did that out of skill, and it goes through
the hole for the game winning single, you know, again, you get
rewarded with claps and applause and praise, and you get out of
the inning for that hard ground ball that goes right, your
shorts out and becomes a double play. But that same hard hit
ground ball again, goes up the middle, or goes through the hole
on the right side and becomes a single. So it's not really like
the quality of the hit, where a lot of times it becomes a single
or an out, it's really just the placement of it. And a lot of
players just don't understand that they get pissed when they
give the hit. But it's the same ground ball that becomes an old
play. If it's just four feet to the left. And again, the hitter
didn't control the hitters aren't up there like placing it
and punching it through the hole intentionally there's other
swing and trying to you know, do their thing, but they don't
control that. So just remember that. And the other thing is
field conditions. It might rain one day, you might play on a
terrible field and your viewers might have a really tough time
with just random hops, really hard fields or the ball takes a
hop, they're just not used to. You can't control that stuff
either. So you can't get mad at them. When just like man that
that ball would have been an out but it hit off the plate and it
was so hard because the ground is so hard it's like such a big
hop and the girl beat it out. That stuff's just gonna happen
it's up to you to then make the next big pitch and try to help
your team dig out of it. Alright, the last two so the
next one mental obviously like mental mistakes. They usually go
on the score because hits right so if your outfit or just lose
it in the sun, and it falls and it doesn't touch your glove
they're gonna score to hit if a ball goes over your you know
your second baseman's backpedaling on up on a blooper
and should have caught it but it just falls you know, it's going
to go down as a hit. If your shortstop grabs the ground ball
fields, it cleanly throws it cleanly to first base, but just
maybe she took too long, just like thought she had more time
than she did. And the runner beats it out because of that
because that mental error taking too long. That's also a hit
right? So anytime a ground ball or flyball drops without being
touched, it's a hit, which is such a dumb scorebook rule makes
no sense. It should be discretion. And again, lots of
times when you're fielders just like do the wrong thing. But
don't actually like drop the ball, that becomes a hit those
mental errors, those stink but they hurt you they hurt your
era, they can cause you to get a loss in the scoreboard on the
score book. And again, you have to just deal with those, your
teammates are always doing their best. So you have to keep that
in mind. Now that's not to say that they don't need to
reprimand by their coach or a player on your team need to say
hey, you need to step it up. You should have known where that
ball is gonna go. Whatever. You have to go through your pre
pitch and your between ending checklists of mental stuff like
Hey, what do I do if it's hit here? What do I do if it's hit
to me in this situation? x y&z that's what high level players
do. That's why you don't see many mental mistakes at the
highest level. And the game does weed players out who make mental
mistakes, you can only make so many mental mistakes for Coach
doesn't want to put you out there anymore. Before a college
coach comes and watches and says she doesn't have it to play the
next level. So it does get weeded out. But it's
frustrating. And you do just need to like, Hey, have some
compassion about it understand that players are still doing
their best, even when their best isn't good enough. And then the
last thing here is being a reliever. So obviously starting
pitchers pitch a lot more complete games in softball than
they do in baseball. And lots of teams with stud starting
pitchers are going to pitch lots and lots and lots of full games.
But if you do come in as a reliever, understand that you
might get a really tough draw a lot of times where you're going
to come in and pitch to the middle of the lineup. And then
you're going to have to pitch the middle lineup, you know, two
innings later, where your day was a really tough go or you
might just come in and pitch to one through four and the game's
over. So understand that as a reliever, you might get to pitch
to the worst hitters of the team like if you're just you know
you're the starting pitcher gets pulled out for the number five
hitter and now you get to pitch 6789 that's a nice draw, right
you get to pitch to the worst hitters on the team. But you can
also get the opposite which is okay the starter we just pulled
the starter after the nine hole hitter. And now it's your turn
to pitch and you get a face the top of the lineup. And if you do
that consistently, you can be like a man the last 10 outings.
I've pitched only to the top of the lineup like every time so
it's like I'm pitching to the four hitter every inning the
three hitter every inning. And it makes it just tougher to
pitch because you're pitching to better hitters consistently
right and that's just part of the game. But you do want that
obviously, you want that responsibility. So just keep
that in mind too, that it seems like you're getting kind of an
unlucky draw, always pitching to the best hitters on the other
team to get your team out of a jam. Just keep it in mind that
that's what you want. You want your team to rely on you because
that means they feel confident you they they look upon you very
highly. And they want you in there when the game's on the
line. Okay, so hopefully today's video helps. It's really
important to understand that there's a ton of luck in
softball and baseball. It's just the way the sports are built.
You don't control where the ball goes, bad hops, mental errors.
There's just so much stuff at play. That's just not the same
as other sports. It's where in soccer, where you kick it is
where it goes right and basketball when it's your shot
when you take it. And in softball is much different than
that. And especially as a pitcher, you have to be mentally
tough. Give your teammates a break, be compassionate,
understand everyone's doing their best. And just try to
refocus and control the things that you can control which is
executing the next pitch to the best of your ability and then
repeating that for every pitch in the game. That's really your
job. All right. Thanks for watching. Be sure to share this
with a friend. I hope this video on softball pitching strategy in
the mental game was helpful to you