The Power of Commitment – PART 1

Now is great if we’re talking internet connection but it really hurts us when we’re talking softball performance. In a world when we expect a broadband connection over dial-up and text messaging over phone calls we struggle when we can’t get the same immediacy in skill improvement. Improvement takes time which takes commitment – something most of our players don’t really understand.

Researchers have long been trying to figure out how people that are really outstanding at something get that way. Many of us think great performers are just born that way, well, good news! That’s not the case! It seems that 10 is a magic number when it comes to excellence. Researchers by the name of Piirto and Ericsson explored all kinds of exceptional people in fields from chess to music to physics to dancing to sports and found out that outstanding performance isn’t something that’s natural or that you’re just born with. Instead they discovered that excellence doesn’t happen without at least 10 years or 10,000 hours of nearly daily and deep practice.

Wow, that’s bad news for everyone wanting it now, but good news if you really want to be good, or should I say, outstanding! It means that no matter how poor you might think your skills are right now, if you want something bad enough to work long enough at it (10 years at least) then it’s very possible for you to become very good. That’s incredibly exciting news! So basically what these researchers are saying to us is this:

Work + Struggle + Time (about 10 years) = Excellence

As long as you’re willing to work and struggle over time you can become excellent at something, anything really, and to me that’s awesome news! It also makes a ton of sense to me as I was not that skilled at pitching when I started, in fact, its closer to the truth to say I stunk! But I had this crazy desire to be good, really good, so I practiced on my own virtually every day for over 10 years and I did become good, really good – so I guess this information is right.

But if the ability to get so good at something that you can stand out from almost everyone else doing the same thing is as easy as working hard at it for 10 years then why don’t more people become outstanding and more players become excellent? Well the whole notion that its easy falls apart as soon as the reality of work and struggle and time are met head-on.

Sure, these days players want things easy like a new bat, or a new pitching coach or a new team – whatever isn’t currently working they simply “want’ a new one and viola, someone makes it appear. So why would players have any concept of anything else? We can blame the players for this type of behavior but if we really look closer at it we’re all the reason it exists. Of course adults want to do everything they can to help improve the lives of kids, especially their own kids. But improving their lives doesn’t always mean making things easier. Sometimes the things we learn during a struggle about ourselves are more powerful than the emotions we faced heading into it.

Improving at anything means that we have faced some sort of roadblock or obstacle. Maybe it’s a skill block so we have to practice more to improve that skill, or it might simply be an understanding block so we’ve got to communicate better in order to gain a clearer picture of our objective, either way in order to overcome the problem it will take a commitment on our part to either go through or around the problem instead of taking the easy way out and quitting or changing teams or yelling or buying a new bat.

So let’s look at some very powerful and effective ways we can help players learn to value the effort and commitment it takes to become good at something. That “good” might ultimately work itself into “great” but it may not. Either way the value is in what the player learns about themselves in the process of overcoming obstacles they’ll face along the way.

1. Becoming Really Good Makes You Really Special – To me this is the most important item on the list, that’s why I put it #1. Whenever I suggest to a player to make a change that will help them get better they usually tell me, "I can’t, it’s hard". I know it’s hard, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it! Too many players are so used to simply “wanting” something like a new bat or a new phone or even a coke from the snack bar and their parents go running off after it that players have confused “work” with “want”. And since “want” is easy and “work” is hard our players haven’t been raised to know what hard really is so when something becomes hard their first reaction is to quit. Not because they are quitters but because they’ve been conditioned this way.

   Just because you want to get better doesn’t mean you will – your body and skill only know what you work for and not what you want for. I remember growing up I wanted to be a pitcher so bad and all my parents ever told me was I better go out and practice. There were no shortcuts then and there aren’t any shortcuts now. Sure, there are more pitching coaches now than there were back then but I’ve never thrown one pitch for any pitcher I work with so pitching coaches only help the player in their work, they don’t do the work for them.All this work means that few people are willing to do it. How many players or coaches do you know willing to put in lots of hard work on their own, never mind 10 years or 10,000 hours of it! Not many and that’s why you’re Special when you do! And being Special makes you feel powerful and feeling powerful helps you be good! Work hard because doing so makes you Special!

2. Invest in Yourself! – If you’re a player then think of all the time, effort, sweat and sacrifice you make for softball as an investment in yourself. You’re making yourself better every single time you work hard at practice, jog in the evenings, practice individually in-between team practice, keep your grades up so you’re eligible, lift weights, watch what you eat, drink more water, go to bed early, whatever. All the little things you do to make yourself a better softball player are ultimately things you’re doing for yourself – it’s like you’re putting money into your very own softball bank by making an investment in yourself. Be proud of this and use this sacrifice, effort and commitment to feel strong, feel special and feel confident!
3. You’ve Got to Enjoy the Process – All practice is a sacrifice and 4 years of it is a sacrifice never mind 10 years or 10,000 hours. Players and coaches sacrifice TONS of things along the way like social lives or school activities or family time or fishing. Committing time to softball takes sacrifice so you’ve got to really enjoy the process or else you’ll regret softball for what it’s caused you to miss. I guess I missed tons of things along the way when I was growing up but I never thought of it like that for a second because what I gained from practicing and playing softball was worth waaaay more to me than any of that other stuff!It helps if players love softball but that usually doesn’t always happen right away. Lots of players that end up becoming outstanding in softball don’t start out loving it – that comes later. Liking it is the first step and that usually is the result of one of our youth coaches making practices fun and rewarding, making us feel important and yet pushing us to get better. While you might never coach the player that eventually becomes outstanding, you probably ARE the coach that can light the “enjoyment fire” inside your current players and that enjoyment encourages hard work, pride and practice.
4. YOU’VE Got to Want the Improvement – Nobody can want it for you! In order to make the time and effort commitment necessary to improve, never mind to get really good, you’ve got to want it yourself. Your parents can’t be the ones that really want it, or your coaches or your friends, only you. Sure, those people are important as your support system but their “wanting it for you” can’t do the work for you. It’s OK if you don’t want it that bad, but then scale down how good you want to be. If you’re thinking you want to play major college Division I softball and be a star at the Women’s College World Series then YOU better want it because it’s going to take a lot of YOUR time and effort to get there! Oh, and don’t you think a ton of other players out there your same age “want” the same thing right now too? The question isn’t who “wants it”, the question is “who works for it”? Turn your want into work and watch your dreams start to get closer and closer to reality!

The rewards are great now in the sport of softball and the stages are bigger than ever so if you’re going to be one of those players or coaches or teams that play on that big stage you’re going to have to be better than ever which will require more work and practice than ever! Remember, that somebody WILL be on that stage and what’s preventing it from being you? Everyone “wants” it but who will be committed to work for it?

To help your players put in the time and really stretch themselves in practice check out the following:

• Book: The Ultimate Softball Practice Guide
• eDrills
• ePractices