If your daughter dreams up big goals for the season, why can’t you make some too? After all, you do almost as much work as she does! You drive her to practice, coach, help at lessons, raise money, offer emotional support, give her pep talks, and teach her life skills. How about creating some parent-softball goals? Softball not only teaches your daughter physical and life skills, but it teaches you those things too.

In tandem with these mental toughness skills, she can track the basic stats like strike percentage, walks and hits. Your pitcher will probably start to see a gradual correlations between good mental performances and good statistical performances. I’ve attached the forms we give players for free below. I developed these through learning what coaches do at annual NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) conferences I attend yearly, so I won’t take credit. I would have your daughter fill these out before and after every game as part of her routine. There’s nothing more fun than seeing your pitcher grow and recognizing her improvements.

I’ve been talking about the mental state of players the last month with many parents. I like to check in and see what everyone is thinking, and how we can keep incorporating pitching and motivation into family’s lives.

You know I say it constantly. Pitching is a skill that needs to be developed year-round. If you fail to recognize this, you’ll be very sorely disappointed at the result, and the money, time, energy you invested in 1 month to 5 years of lessons.

The last thing we want is those Wisconsinites and Hoosiers to kick our butts in tournaments since they’ve been able to socialize more than us!! Don’t let this happen Illinois!!