Your Toughest Opponent

What is the biggest difference between the athlete that “chokes” under pressure and the one who lives for those moments? Is it physical or mental? One has so much to do with the other.

We often dream of getting onto the biggest stage, but sometimes discover that we are not ready when the time comes. We become tense, things that got us here suddenly stop working, so we subconsciously become desperate to escape. The dominoes begin to fall and we just want it to be over. Soon we lose confidence and history is waiting to repeat itself.
Other times we see the kid who relishes pressure situations because this is what she trained for all of her life. She went out of her way to prepare, constantly practicing things that might scare her until they were no longer intimidating. Just another day at the office.
Here is a simple example of how physical preparation allowed for mental readiness. Our younger daughter loved to practice during a light rain. She said it felt refreshing. I never gave it much thought until we were playing a tournament where a light rain constantly fell and the older pitchers on both teams were struggling to get a good grip on the ball. She was right at home in this situation and took us from the brink of elimination right into the finals.
Our older daughter sometimes wanted to pitch after a fresh snowfall just so she could learn to deal with difficult situations like cold fingers and slippery landing. These are extreme examples, but it pays to look ahead in anticipation and practice the thing that scares you most. In an earlier post I mentioned that one of our students loves it when the other team gets really pumped and makes a lot of noise to try to rattle her. She considers it the highest compliment, showing how badly they want to beat her. Many kids wilt under this pressure, especially if an error or blooper hit brings up the volume even more. This girl feels that it shows desperation within the opponent, further fueling her fire. She knows the game will be won or lost right then and there, and she has prepared for this moment both physically and mentally, so she can’t wait to test herself.
The thing that scares us most is not the players in the other dugout. It is something inside ourselves. Am I adequately prepared? Has my practice plan prepared me for everything? What if they adjust and start bunting, start squeezing the plate, call timeouts to try to mess with my timing, or maybe my defense is shaky? What if my drop stops working or my riseball will not stay in the zone? This heat is bad, the umpire is squeezing me, and their hitters are unbelievable? Your greatest fear is pecking you on the shoulder just before you take the field, waiting for you to feed it just enough so that it can grow stronger. You must beat it right now.
You may lose occasionally but if you return even better, nobody outside of yourself can ever beat you. The most they can do is to help you prepare to be even better tomorrow. You must be honest with yourself, determine the worst situation in which you can find yourself, and begin preparing immediately to handle that situation. Become excited, waiting for that moment, knowing that your strength came from identifying your weakness and doing the work to turn it into another strength. No matter how intimidating the situation, if you can overcome yourself, you can overcome the world.