Pitching Yips. OMG

We put together a booklet for our team to help with mental toughness. It contained a lot of information about how big name athletes deal with competition nerves, stress etc. We gave them self evaluation sections where they identify their own goals, hang ups etc. One girl quit over it..."this is supposed to be fun - don't want homework!"...

One of my favourite quotes: "Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical."

MNDad said:

As hard as it is, don't let DD see your frustration. Encouragement and support is about the best thing you can do for her. If it persists, a sports psychologist or just one with a sports background could help. It might even be covered by insurance.

I give you credit for coming on here and sharing. Not enough people talk about the mental side of being an athlete. We all want out kid to have "nerves off steel", but that's not reality. DD's seen a sports psychologist a few times. It's not much different from any other injury. She ices her arm if its sore and she talks to the team psychologist if the stress builds up. It doesn't even have to be sports related. Sometimes its school or having a psycho softball Dad she needs help with.

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I think you're right on. She's been nails all high school and travel ball season, and you just come to expect she'll continue. She beat five ranked teams in high school this season with the score 1-0 or 2-1. She just did a college visit and has been struggling to get an ACT score where she needs to get into the school she wants. Crazy pitching dad helps her a lot and trys to keeps it positive, but I know I get can critical. I feel bad as she was breaking down this weekend, I got frustrated and I showed it. I told her not to give up and fight threw it and she was letting team down. My rule is to keep it positive and make sure the game stays fun. I blew it. If you research it, the Yips can be vicious. You do something simple 10,000 times easily, then you cant do it. It looks like you're not trying but your paralyzed.

Softball scholar said:

I know its in her head. But getting her over this will not be easy. Im talking to a few sports psychologists today and going to get something going and will make a decision. This is going to be expensive. I think ignoring it and hoping it will go away is the wrong decision. We got some time off and hopefully we can get the negative voice replaced with a positive voice. Well figure it out. I know this isn't on the mental page, but nobody looks at that. It amazing the amount of time we talk about mechanics and spend on coaches, but we rarely address the mental game for these young ladies.

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I would also recommend throwing into a tarp @ 20' away instead of throwing to a catcher. It allows her to focus on her mechanics and not the results of the pitch.

How old is your DD?

Softball scholar said:

She started game with 8 straight balls and came out, she wasn't too far off and had tight ump.

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SS - quick question..... what does Head Coach say to her and what is his/her policy on walks? Based on above, she walked two in a row to start and was pulled. DD has had one coach and one coach only fortunately that had a if you walk a girl mentality you will get pulled. It used to drive me crazy as my DD walked fewer than any girls on the team back then. Point being is she was pitching to be mistake free and it mentally did her in. She was afraid to walk a girl because she was afraid of getting pulled. You can't pitch afraid or you are done. The crazy thing is DD is known for being ice. Nothing rattles her, including a line drive back missing her ear by an inch. However, that coach was in her head and not in a good way. Really powerful stuff for a kid IMO

STRIKE3 said:

SS - quick question..... what does Head Coach say to her and what is his/her policy on walks? Based on above, she walked two in a row to start and was pulled. DD has had one coach and one coach only fortunately that had a if you walk a girl mentality you will get pulled. It used to drive me crazy as my DD walked fewer than any girls on the team back then. Point being is she was pitching to be mistake free and it mentally did her in. She was afraid to walk a girl because she was afraid of getting pulled. You can't pitch afraid or you are done. The crazy think is DD is known for being ice. Nothing rattles her, including a line drive back missing her ear by an inch. However, that coach was in her head and not in a good way. Really powerful stuff for a kid IMO

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Normally, he would of gave her some more time to work it out. The main factor was she struggled in warm ups and this was a bracket game at a national tournament, and we have depth in pitching. Like I mentioned, DD has pitched big in big games and been Ice. She doesn't pitch scared. We've been there when she was 13-14, but she's learned to get over that. She's has been mentally tough the last 3 years.