Many people view mental health as connected with sports, but mental toughness in softball is really important. Softball requires a combination of experience, confidence, and mental and physical preparation. As the sport becomes more stressful and you begin to advance, mental health levels can decrease. So, it is important to understand how to balance your mental health while playing. 

Training your mind:

Training your mind in terms of softball, means being aware of how you are talking and thinking about yourself. Knowing that mistakes can be overcome and to not weigh yourself down from the mistakes. It can also mean learning how to control your emotions and breathing strategies. Other ways can even be learning about how to have positive self talking strategies. 

Benefits of training your mind as a softball player:

-Increased Confidence

-Improved Focus

-Perform Better Under Pressure

-The Ability to Bounce Back from Failure

-The ability to Bounce Back from Injury (If occurred)

-Improved Motivation

-More Positive Self-Talk

-Stronger Self-Image

-Increased Mental Toughness

-Better Mental Health

How it Can be Hard:

Softball can be difficult on mental health because it requires high pressure to always play the best an athlete can. It also requires me to cope with injuries. “The overall incidence of injury, adjusted for athlete exposure, during an interscholastic season has ranged from 0.95 to 3.5 per 1000 AEs for softball players.

Managing time efficiently in softball is important as well.” Says Ellen Shanley, a writer for the National Library of Medicine. Softball also makes it hard to balance both personal commitments as well as softball. One last thing that makes softball hard on mental health because without a supportive coach or a lack of team support can make it hard to feel accepted. 

Different Mental Training Tools:

In an article called “Mental Training For Softball” by Eli Straw, different tools to help train your mind are discussed.

The First Method:

The first method that Straw goes through is self-talk and why it is so important. Self-talk refers to the way you think and speak to yourself. Using self-talk as a method is an essential way for you to help control what you’re thinking during both practices and games, which can help you feel more confident, leading to overall better performance. The reason self-talk helps you is because the way you think leads to how you feel. So, making sure the words that you are using are leading to you feeling confident and creating positive ideas of what you want to have to happen. 

What the process of self-talk may look like:

-Make a list of all the negative beliefs you have and ways you think during a game.

-Create a list of positive alternatives for each statement.

-Repeat that list to yourself each day and use those new statements during games

The Second Method:

The second method that Straw leads to is mental rehearsal. This involves using rehearsal skills in your mind before playing or practicing softball. Mental rehearsal is so important. After all, it can be a great mental training tool for a softball player because it allows you to increase your confidence, perform better under pressure, and relax before a game.  

Examples of Mental Rehearsal:

-Get into a quiet location, sit down, and close your eyes. (If this option is available)

-Take a few deep breaths to relax.

-Now create the scene you want to visualize 

-Watch yourself perform your skills

-Finish by seeing yourself succeed and feeling successful and happy with how well you perform

The Third Method:

The third method that Straw talks about is breathwork as well as having a calm mind. But, having a calm mind doesn’t mean not caring about what happens or what’s going to happen but that your mind is still. The calmer your mind is, the more relaxed your body is. Because the more relaxed your body is, you’re ready to react quicker. Relaxing your body can be hard, which is where breathwork comes in. Breath work can be practiced daily which will make it easier if it is needed to be used in a game, practice, etc…  

Breathwork Strategy:

-Breathe in for a count of five.

-Breathe out for a count of ten.

Slumps:

Hitting a slump in softball can be common and most players may fear how it may affect them. They can often be caused by many mental factors such as anxiety, a lack of confidence, or overthinking at the plate or in the field. Improving mental health may help get out of a slump. Besides the listed methods ahead, one way is to improve your mental game and focus on the process rather than the outcome of the situation. 

Why do players go through slumps?:

A so-called slump often results from mental mistakes more often than physical ones and, often the hitter loses focus and has no idea what he’s trying to do at the plate.

Tips On How To Get Out Of A Slump:

-Don’t overthink it.

-Use a swing analyzer. (If available)

-Hit the batting cages, doing tee work, soft toss.

-Hustling hard and keeping motivation. 

-Watch TV, YouTube videos, and films surrounding softball.

-Getting your eyes checked. 

-Having the right equipment.

Why It Is Important

Softball and mental health are important because while going into the sport or looking from an outside standing point, to understand what’s going on from the inside standing point 

Overview

Overall, the importance of mental health in softball is crucial because otherwise, it can become really weighing on athletes. So, knowing how to work with it or how to help people struggling with mental health within or outside of softball is really important.