Develop routines to help you get in the zone. The use of routine is one of the most widespread practices among elite softball players. They perform routines before games, between innings and between pitches at the plate and on the field. A routine integrates both the mental and the physical aspects. It is a specific way of doing things to stay focus, block distraction and put you in the ideal mindset. Routines are powerful and you should definitely use them.

Master the short game. Being able to sacrifice, drag or slap in addition of hitting away is a tremendous advantage. When you can hit away, slap or punt a bunt down, you literally become a triple threat and increase your chances of getting on base.

Breathe through your nose. Catch any top softball player right before the start of an important game and you will see three things: a total relaxed focus; a calm, loose body; and deep breathing in through the nose and out of the mouth. A simple way to deal with stress in one swift motion is breathing through your nose. Deep breathing is what elite athletes use to control pre-event tension, and this simple, effortless, highly effective skill will work for you in most stressful situations.

Take your warm-up seriously. Take your warm-up seriously. The quality of your warm-up will often dictate the quality of your performance. It helps your prepare not only physically but mentally as well. Develop a specific warm-up routine for your workouts, your practices and your games. This will help you perform to your best!

Make no excuses and take full responsibility for all your failures and all your successes. The world’s most successful people never make excuses and they hold themselves accountable. Achieving success and making excuses are mutually exclusive, wholly incompatible.

Practice absolute punctuality. Some coaches tell their athletes that if they are on time, they are late. Make of not only showing up on time but early to all your meetings, training sessions, workouts and games. Punctuality is a sign of respect but also demonstrate tremendous self-discipline. The top athletes in the world are never late.

Take control of your little voice. Negative self-talk can be very destructive. It will take time before you take total control of it but it is definitely worth the effort. Try to catch yourself when you have negative self-talk and replace it by positive self-talk. Being positive is a common characteristic of highly successful people.

Visualize success. Visualization (a.k.a. mental imagery) is one of the most powerful mental skills. If you can visualize yourself being successful and control the thoughts in your head, your confidence will skyrocket and you performance will be much more consistent. Just like any physical skill, visualization takes time to learn, refine, and master. It must be practiced.

Quality before quantity. Working hard is important, there is no question there. Most people think that the harder you work, the more successful you are. However, it is not necessarily the case. Working smart is much more important than working hard. It’s better to have 2 excellent workouts or pitching sessions than 5 lousy ones; it’s better to hit or pitch with a totally focused mind for 20 minutes than going through the motions for 60 minutes. Going through the motions is a sin for the best softball players in the world.    -   Perfect practice makes perfect