Extra Inning Softball is running a series of articles with record-setting college softball coach Mike Lotief who—after 17 years of coaching Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns softball— reveals the training program that propelled his team to the NCAA tournament, the Women’s College World Series, and NCAA Super Regionals.
Our series on Mental Swing Attractors continues with this week’s article encouraging our young athletes to push themselves through hard work and struggles and adversity and explaining that—when they do push—there is meaning and purpose that comes with that strong mindset.
Here is the latest feature from Mike dealing with the mental side of the game and how to be successful off the field, too.
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To be your best version of your #1, you must push yourself with incredible energy and an invisible determination, you have to overcome adversity yet remain positive, and you must allow yourself to be challenged (by the game and others)!
At the outset, I will acknowledge that “#1” is a very subjective label—but in athletics and deep down in every one of us—is this competitive drive to be our very best (#1).
So, if you bring the proper mindset and spirit to the game, then the competition of the game will allow you a chance to push yourself to be #1… even if you are not NUMBER 1!
If your opponent has more material advantages (talent and money), then you better surely have more fight, more energy, more passion, more belief, more intensity and more PUSH.
Pushing yourself means breaking out of your comfort zone.
If you achieve a goal or start to get close to the finish line, then set a higher goal. Define a new goal. Chase after a bigger dream.
When you start out on the journey, we all have a bit of self-doubt. Sometimes after a disappointing performance, we say, “I’ll never be able to accomplish that” or “I’m not good enough to beat that person or team.”
You must stay positive in your approach and eliminate all self-limiting beliefs (the elephant with the rope around his leg). If you can believe it and visualize it and feel it in your heart, then you can do it!
- Sometimes, the percent of improvement you need—taking you from a disappointing loss to victory—needs to come from a revised approach, meaning you’re smarter (quality of your work) and more efficient.
- Sometimes your expectations need to be set higher.
- Sometimes you just need to push harder and allow others to push you higher.
You also need to surround yourself with a support structure (team) that can provide you with the best instruction and guidance.
One that will push you and hold you accountable to do your best and that will encourage and challenge you to persevere.
And, most of all, a team that will create an environment where you can learn and achieve daily.
“The true joy in life is to be a force of fortune instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” — George Bernard Shaw
It’s all about your attitude and your perspective; are you a “force of fortune” or a “clod of ailments”?
Having the opportunity to play college athletics is a “fortune,” a wonderful opportunity.
First of all, it is supposed to be hard!
The hard is what makes it special and the hard is what makes it worthwhile and the hard is what makes it so rewarding.
This generation of athletes are fortunate to have a support structure/team in place to catch you when you fall and love you when you fail, yet challenge you to push harder and dream bigger and hold you accountable to do your best day after day.
“The difference between one person and another, between the weak and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy – invisible determination…This quality will do anything that has to be done in the world, and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities will make you a great person without it.’ — Thomas Buxton
Pushing yourself involves an “invisible determination.”
Players who push themselves are absolutely relentless. They are intrinsically motivated. They have devotion and discipline. They pursue excellence. Every day, they progress and move forward with a plan to do something that makes them and the team better.
Ordinary effort and energy is mediocrity. The challenge is to find a way to elevate your environment. That is not easy.
You must actively pursue the highest possible performance level. It’s tough to consistently compete at a high level, day in and day out over a number of years. But if you train at the most intense levels, then and only then will your improvement be remarkable.
Along the way, we all must face some adversity on our journey. When the adversity arrives, then we have to push harder than before.
In softball, we have had players who have torn their ACL, torn their labrum, broken their ankle, etc. These kids were performing at a high level athletically and then comes the injury.
The game presents them with a challenge.
Before the injury, they were the fastest or they could pitch the hardest or they could hit the farthest… and then comes the injury and the adversity. No longer can they rely on pure athletic talent and ability.
The test becomes whether these kids can find a new way and a new plan to push themselves.
Even if they are a step slower or lose a couple miles of an hour on their fastball — can they make that up in their intensity level or with an A+ attitude? Or with smarter play and better decisions?
If your edge is not pure talent and ability, then can you still find a way to win?
If you are not #1, then can you still find a way to be your best?
Failure, injuries, losses, disappointment, setbacks and mischance are all part of the journey.
Adversity provides opportunity to push and develop your indominable will… it forces you to become more than just talented—it forces you to become skillful.
“The beauty of the soul shines out when a man (woman) bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he (she) does not feel them, but because he (she) is a man (woman) of high heroic temper.” — Aristotle
When the game challenges you and adversity rears its head, you must answer the challenge and overcome the adversity and “become more skillful.”
Players do not have to have the most talent, be the biggest or the strongest nor the fastest, to put every ounce of their energy into getting better. The player that sees the adversity as a growing experience and a learning opportunity is the one that is going to push through it.
The player who puts every ounce of her energy into getting better and who embraces the adversity and welcomes the challenges of the game to push even harder, can and will beat the faster, stronger, bigger athlete who refuses to commit to the process of becoming her best and who shies away from the adversity and is content to never be challenged outside of their comfort zone.
Players who are talented but who do not push themselves to improve must understand that they will never reach their potential and never be #1 regardless of the labels, outcomes or scoreboard.
They are doing themselves a huge disservice and are a wasting a valuable opportunity to become a true champion.
In college athletics, there is absolutely no guarantee that if you work yourself to death and do everything right you will win.
Everyone wants to create a formula for success that says if you work incredibly hard, things will always go your way. But we all know that things do not always go your way.
Win or lose, the focus is on continuing your development.
How do you get a 20-year-old kid, who is constantly being told how good she is and knows that the game has rewarded her with a certain amount of success, to realize that she could be better (that she must be better)?
Winning is not the goal—it is finding out what your very best is!
Athletics allows you to see yourself more clearly.
If you bring the proper perspective, mindset, and spirit to the game, then the competition will allow you a chance to push yourself to be #1 and let your soul shine even if you are NOT #1!
— Michael P. Lotief