Battle Between Teammates

Imagine stepping into the box versus a pitcher that knows everyone of your strengths and your weaknesses. Intimidating right? I experience this every time my Byron High School team plays Stewartville. Cait has been my teammate for over 5 years now and is one of my closest friends, but, she is also one of my competitors. Being teammates during the summer presents us with a very interesting situation when it comes time to play each other in the spring. At-bats are like a chess match, their are many conflicting emotions you must control, and the competion is higher than ever.

No one that I know wants to step into a box and face a pitcher that knows a ton about them. Facing Cait is different than any other pitcher because of how familiar we are with each other. Not only are we long time friends but we were also hitting partners! This means that during warm-ups and during games you are constantly analyzing your partners swing to try and help them to get better. This is where the chess match begins. As I step in, Cait knows where I struggle just as well as I do. This changes your mental preparation coming into the at-bat. I know that she is going to pitch me a certain way or try to get me to chase a certain pitch. Knowing these things, I form the mindset that I will adjust my approach to hit take advantage of what she is likely to try to do. After the first at-bat you asses your strategy and the strategy she used. Through the next two at-bats you go back and forth each making small adjustments to beat the other. In the next half of the inning the roles reverse. Now I am the pitcher and Cait the batter. I only pitch during the high school season as I am an infielder during the summer. But, I still do the best I can to help my team win by pitching. Pitching to someone you know is completely different because you understand their abilities, and if you miss in a certain spot, you know they will make you pay for it. The only true way to win this game of chess is to get the other person out or to get a hit. 

Playing against your own teammates sparks so many different emotions. First there is excitement. You are excited to see them because it has been a long time. Next is anticipation. I get antsy on any game day, but especially restless when playing Stewie because of how close our games have been in the past. Last is the feeling of determination when the game finally starts. You are preparing to do everything in your power to win and have the mindset you will not fail. During the game you have to control your emotions on either side of the board whether you are having success or not. It can be a great struggle to do when you put everything you have into the game. But that is all part of the mental side of the game. 

The most evident difference when playing against a teammate is the level of the competion. You always want to win when playing, but the desire is even greater when it is against one of your own. This level brings out the best on both sides and often leads to great plays. If your teammate gets a hit or makes a play, you automatically want to do something to top them. Not only does it earn you a bit of bragging rights come summer but also it fuels your self confidence. 

A lot of different feelings and emotions come into play when you go up against your own teammate, but personally I love it. During H.S. I constantly am playing people that I know, so I am very familiar with these feelings. Even though the game is like a chess match, it brings out a lot of emotion, and provides high competition, they are my favorite games of the year.  

NDSU vs. SDSU

Most people spend their Saturday mornings sleeping in, watching t.v., and just relaxing. I couldn't tell you the last time I did that! So getting up at 6 to hit the road and watch some softball this weekend was nothing out of the ordinary. Our destination was Brookings, SD, to watch NDSU vs SDSU.

A quick gane recap: The game was tied at zero until NDSU opened it up with 8 runs in the 3rd inning. From there on it was very one sided. The final score was 12-0, with Krista Meinke throwing a 1-hitter for the Bison. It was a perfect game until the bottom of the fifth with one out and a lefty blooped a hit into short RF. It was awesome to watch NDSU string a bunch of hits together just like their last comeback win in Illinois that I saw.

I love watching college softball because there is so many things that you can learn. Each game I watch I try to pick out about  three different skills or plays that have good teaching points and talk about them with my dad or coaches. The three things that I picked up from this game was warming up through the 3rd baseman, hitting in different pitch counts,  and sliding into home. 

The first thing was doing most of infield warmups through the third baseman.  Using this technique everyone gets a ball coming from the home plate angle and the 1st baseman still fields their throws.  Instead of rolling to the ball to them,  the 1st baseman throws the ball to 3rd and she begins the next play. It also provides the right angles to work double plays. Each session of warm ups starts with the 3rd baseman rolling it to the pitcher once and then moving onto the other infielders. Every other inning they differed the situation (just going to first, turning two, or bunts). Then it is ended with the third baseman getting her two balls. I think that this type of pre inning infield provides a better game simulation for fielding balls and is more time efficient. It is definitely something that I would love our infield coaches to look into and hopefully transition to it for the summer.

The next thing I noticed was how much the count effects your at-bat. At the college level you will only see one maybe two good pitches per at-bat. Once they get ahead of you, don't expect a pitch that you can drive. That is why I feel it is SUPER important to be aggressive and be the one in control of the at-bat. In my last blog I compared an at-bat to a chess match, it is all about your strategy to beat the opposition. If you want to win you do not sit back and react, you are the one making the moves and being aggressive.  For me, this translates directly to hitting. Almost every hitter's batting average increases when they are ahead in the count. So it is simple, don't get behind in the count. Recognize the first good pitch and do something with it!

The last thing I noticed that whenever there was a close play at home the on-deck hitter for the Bison only used hand signals to instruct their teammate. Now I am not sure whether it was just because I could not hear them talking but it sparked an idea. When you do talk you help your runner but you also tell the catcher where she is going to be sliding. If you only use your hands and no voice the catcher does not necessarily know where you are going to slide. I am still unsure about this idea but it is definitely something to further discuss.

I had a blast at the game watching my Bison play and learned a few things which will be beneficial. The long drive was definitely worth getting to watch a ball game on a beautiful Saturday. 

High School Softball 2014 Preview

The start of the 2014 season marks the beginning of my fourth year playing for Byron. The start of a season always brings great anticipation and excitement over what is to come and what is possible to achieve in the upcoming games. It is a new year, a fresh start. Besides for the new start there is a certain sense of pride that you feel when you are able to put on a jersey and represent your school.

This years team is completely new besides for me and our center fielder Takota Tierney. So there is lots of opportunity to grow and improve every day. Practice starts indoors for the first few weeks because of all the snow. It is awesome that even though we have all the snow we have access to scrimmage indoors at the RCTC bubble. We also ended up playing our first two games of the season in there as well. This year we did not have an outdoor practice before our first outdoor game that was this past week. Our first scrimmages and games have been kind of rough but the exciting part is that we improve drastically every time. You can see things starting to click and the kids beginning to understand things they previously had not. If we keep improving at our current rate we could be very competitive come playoffs this year. 

Last year I set a very high standard for myself to reach again this year. To reach above and beyond that standard I put in more work this off season than ever before and am still working hard to get better. I have very high expectations for myself and even though this year has started off slow I know things will come. This year will be the biggest mental test for me so far because of all the different pressures from outsiders and myself. With all of my prior preparation I feel confident that things will come together and I will be able to compete at my usual level. 

Overall I am very excited for this season as so many things are different from the past. The team is completely new and their are so many opportunities to come. No matter how things ends up, I definitely am going to enjoy this season. :)

Fall 2013

This fall was possibly one of the busiest I have ever had, but that also makes it one of the best. Along with playing a ton of ball, I traveled a ton, and finally got to spend some good family time.

Most of my weekends January through September revolve around softball. Normally in the past that has ment tournaments and games. This time it was not only games but also college. Scary I know, it has gone by so fast. We played all over Minnesota and Wisconsin.  The best thing about fall is the games do not matter (to some they do, but they are completely missing the point of fall ball). Fall ball is purely focused on getting better. Working on your swing, trying new things, just getting reps. But so many teams and coaches miss that, which is sad, but is the truth.

This fall I feel that personally I took a big step forward improving not only my softball skills but also my leadership skills. Things really started coming together and it was a very successful fall.

This fall, my family and I also traveled all over the place. A huge part of the college process for me is getting on campus, meeting the players and the coaches, getting a feel for the school. That way I know if I could see myself going there or not. I met a ton of great people who all care about this game as much as I do, and some ever more than I.

Besides for just "business" travel my family also got to go on family vacation over MEA. We went on a cruise in Hawaii. It was AMAZING!!! We had such a blast going on all of our excursions, and my favorite, going to the beach. I am so blessed to be able to do these types of things with my family as well as play softball like I do. It always takes a big event for us to realize how fortunate we are. So I wanted to say thank you to them, as well as everyone who has been a part of my life. Ive had so many great opportunities and they wouldn't happen if I didn't have all of these great people surrounding me.

Fall is also the time where I finally take some time off. My Dad puts my stuff in the basement so I wont be tempted to sneak off to the batting cage :) I love the game, but everyone does need a break. Not only does it wear you down physically but mentally, and your body needs time to recoup.  The past two weeks I have had completely off and next week we move into basketball season!! Even though I am excited for it I have really enjoyed just being able to get together with my family, watch some football, eat really good food, play two hand touch during half time, and catch up with all the new things they have going on.

2013 was a great year, it is amazing to look back at all the things that I accomplished in one season. It only encourages me to work harder to see just how good I can get.

Badger Camp

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Wisconsin Badger Camp. I had already attended one of their camps before in the beginning of summer. Both times I have learned a lot and had a lot of fun doing it. Saturday was full of drills and breakdown work on hitting and fielding skills. Sunday was supposed to be scrimmaging but, as anyone around here would know, it was a Sunday when we had softball so of course it rained! We moved everything to the indoor facilities and still got some great work in.

Friday night I went to our high school football game and then made the drive over to Madison. Saturday morning felt kind of early but I always wake up a bit more when I hear that it is time to hit. We broke up into groups and headed to our stations. We went through different tee work, front toss and base running drills. A main focus during the drills was they called slot hitting. To perform the drill you load with your negative movement and then start your swing. You stop at connection or when your hands reach your sternum. After pausing for a moment you finish your swing hitting the ball wither off the tee or off front toss. This drill really works on getting connected and getting linear. I have a tendency to rotate too early and this causes me to pull of a lot of balls. In this drill I also learned to get my linear movement with my knee still facing the right way, because when I rotate my knee before my hands get to sternum I pull off the ball. I also worked on staying through the ball and getting more extension on my swing. Another drill that they do is throwing frisbees. During our classroom drill Coach Schneider explained how throwing a frisbee is just like hitting, and by throwing them, you can be a better hitter! He made several connections with other sports of things that will help you to be a better player. Coach Schneider also stressed how much hitting hasn't changed, it has always been the same. Tons of coaches just have had new ideas of "better" ways to do it. Their main goal was to be as efficient as possible. Another new thing for me was they connected hitting and throwing. They say that the kids that throw the best and the hardest will be good hitters. Things you do while throwing you often do while hitting. It amazed me how connected all parts of your game are to each other and how much the little things matter.

After a break for lunch we moved on to defense. First we started out with playing catch. While playing catch they stressed how important the receiver is. You always need to step to the ball, catch it chest height, and on your throwing shoulder. Yes, this means you actually need to work hard to move your feet and get in the right place to make the catch. Also it is your job to always stop the ball even on a bad throw. After a loosening up and going through part of their throwing progression we moved to a different kind of throwing. Both coaches believe that you should be able to throw from anywhere, especially the ground. In softball we play low and spend a decent amount of time on the ground especially on diving plays. To work on this we started with throws from your knees falling forward. We also did throws on your knees falling to the right, falling to the left, sitting criss cross applesauce and falling backwards, standing up falling to the right, the left and backwards, jumping into the air and then throwing. We also placed the ball behind us, dove on the ground to recover it, rolled over as fast as possible and then threw it from there. The last drill was for finishing plays. There may be times where you stop a ball but it ricochets off and you need to finish. They always finish the play because you never know when the runner may try to take another base when they think you will just give up. Through all of these drills especially when you are throwing from crazy positions they talked about keeping your head with your hands. If you do this you can throw from any slot and any position because you have the proper form. Along with keeping your hands with your head, they emphasized kinesthetic awareness. Kinesthetic awareness is knowing your body in space and knowing how to handle it. Next we moved into break down drills in diving, ground balls, short hops, and fly balls. We worked on their everyday drills that focused on coming through the ball and lots of short hops. We got tons of break down drills on the small parts of the overall skill that were very beneficial.

Sunday morning we had tons of rain and were forced to go indoors. Instead of scrimmaging we did more breakdown drills for fielding and hitting while also getting a lot of full reps. We warmed up playing catch then took grounders and fielded bunts throwing them to different bases. Today while playing catch instead of working on diving throws we did throws on the run. We threw running forward, 45 degrees to the right and left, running straight to the right and left side, then running backwards to the left and to the right. This was another drill that pushed me out of my comfort zone as I tried a new skill. All of these throws from yesterday and today have a time and place in our game where we need to be able to make them. It is much better to practice them and know what they feel like then to be in a pressure situation and all the sudden have to make a play and throw a way you never have before. Next we moved to hitting where we hit of the tees, off the small ball machine, threw frisbees, and hit live in the cages off of a machine and two different pitchers. Many of the same things on offense and defense were stressed again today as I continued to try new things and improve.

A huge piece that is different at this camp than others is that they really push you to get out of your comfort zone. To Coach Healy and Coach Schneider, you will never get better if you stay the same, you need to get out of your comfort zone to learn new things and improve as an athlete and as a player. This weekend I learned lots of new things to help me improve my game and had a great time doing it. A big thank you to all of the coaches at Wisconsin as well as their players to take the time to help me become a better player.

Fall Ball Week 3

Fall ball is a very short season, but a huge part of getting better each year. In fall you get to compete in live games while not worrying about winning or losing. All you focus on is getting better. On our Sundays during the fall we play quadruple headers. Playing four games you get tons of time to work on things to focus on during the week when we do not play.

This much time also provides so many learning opportunities.  This weekend the biggest thing I learned, was that I can be me.

Talking with my dad about the differences between playing with my Royals team and now transitioning to the Danes I noticed several things. 1.) I am not as much of a leader 2.) I am do not talk as much and 3.) I do not have as much contact with other players.

All of those fit into what I used to do as a Royal. First I am always the super positive person that gets people going and makes them smile. I like making people smile because I believe smiling is one of the most powerful forces in the world. One smile can change a persons whole mood and how they are thinking.  In the dugout I am always giving positive encouragement to the batter. As my dad says, there is a difference between being helpful and being a cheerleader.  Next, before every at bat of mine or the person ahead of me, I made some sort of contact.  Many of us had little handshakes, but really it just means, hey were in this together we can do it. You show you are there for them and share your positive energy with them. When teammates made a mistake or a pitcher was struggling I was always the one to go over and pick them up, or walk to the mound and settle them down.

Now for the Danes, I do not do many of these things. Because they teach how focused you need to be on the game I think people, and myself, have interpreted it as you cant have any fun or encourage your teammates.  That isnt the case at all. Today my dad started to get on us to celebrate successes more, give high fives to people when they score or get a hit, and encourage the batter. At first I was hesitant, I wasnt sure if this kind of behavior was allowed as it had been on the Royals. In our next team meeting after the game Tim (our head coach) brought up in the circle that my dad was right, we need to be doing that. He never had said we couldn't cheer, it was just a thing that we never did.

Now that I know I can, I can finally be myself. If you have ever watched me play for the Royals, you would notice that I always as smiling and look like I am having fun. All of the things that I used to do, I now am going to bring to the Danes.  As I player, I play better when I am talking and having fun while being focused on softball. Going the serious route is not as good of a choice as my play has shown over the short time in the quieter environment. 

Another huge thing we learned was the power of good touch and bad touch. You may laugh because that is something they teach you in fourth grade about strangers and other people haha, this is a different kind of touch. I am talking about the power of positive touch. We did a demonstration on how just thinking positively will help you perform better. It was amazing how much your thinking affects not only you but the people around you. As long as you are prepared, positive thinking and energy will allow you to play at your best.

Labor Day Tournament

For us Labor Day is the last weekend before school starts. Summer has come to an end and now it is back to school for everyone.  What would I want to be doing on my last day of summer? Of course play softball!!

This weekend was meant to be more of a showcase that attracted lots of coaches to come and see players at the 16u and 18u level. I definitely want to thank all of the coaches that took the time to come and watch the Danes and I play.

This weekend we played 6 great games of softball. On Saturday my mom barely let me ride in my seat when we got in the car because I was so dirty even after I took off my uniform.  For those who have seen me play, I am generally the kid with the dirtiest jersey because I love sliding and diving. 

Every weekend I feel like I learn so much about the game from our coaches. We have some of the best coaches around in Tim Husted, Randy Witthus, and Mike Carpenter. We are also training in several other coaches who are high school coaches of daughters on the team. All of them combined provide tons of one on one time and people to run drills. They take their own time to help us get better as players and as people. A huge thank you to all the coaches that have helped out with our team. Another big thank you is to all of the parents. Without you guys I would for sure starve playing three games seeing as I tend to eat every two hours! Also all the parents support us, love us no matter how we play, and cart our butts all over the place to do what we love!

On actual Labor Day I got to spend the day with my family and was remind how much I love them. As teenagers most of us are so worried about being with friends ect, that is all great but always make sure to have time to spend with your family. They are the people who love and care about you the most.

So a big thank you to everyone for a great Labor Day weekend and an awesome end to my summer!!