It’s the 7^th inning. The game is tied. Bases are loaded. You’re on defense. There is 2 outs. It’s a 3-2 count. The batter hits the ball up the middle. Your team loses. Have you ever played in a close softball game in which you really wanted to win and every time you were in a close situation your team kept losing? If so, here are some tips for you...

1. Treat the losses like a LEARNING EXPERIENCE- First of all, understand that every game you play is a learning experience. Just because one game did not go your way doesn't mean every one of them is going to be that way. Do not label your team as “losers” when those situations arise. The moment you put your team under that label, you are defeated before you even play. Instead, think about it as a learning experience and take each second as it comes. Sometimes it just takes a little experience to get the team fired up to win. I remember a couple years ago when our varsity softball team had lost a lot of games in the beginning of the season, but towards the end of the season we ended up winning those close games. If it wasn't for those games we lost in the beginning, we would have never won our sectional Championship at the end of the year.
2. Look the Part! In order to have confidence you need to look like you have confidence. You need to display a presence that makes the other opponents intimidated when they look at you. You want to look like you have control of the situation because if you don’t, your opponent will jump on your meekness. So how do you look confident? A simple way would be to practice what you look like in that situation. That’s right. Practice in the mirror. Practice in front of everybody else. Practice your up to bat swing. Practice your up to bat stance. Practice your on deck stance. Practice your walk up to the plate. I will literally have my team practice their up to bat walk and their presence in the box. We tell our girls something that they can do to make them look a little bit more confident and intimidating when there's a pressure situation. It seems awkward but it works. We use the principle, “fake it until you make it.”  Make it look like you have things under control. The more calm you look on the outside, the more calm you will be on the inside.
3. SLOW THE PACE of the game down. Play at your own speed. Often times when the pressure is on and a mistake is made, another mistake happens or one hit and another and a bunt and all of a sudden you have runners in scoring position. A lot can happen all at one time so take a step back, take a breather or call a time out for your team so they can gather their thoughts. Make them think about the present moment and what the task is at hand. Do not let that moment escape you. Have a specific word you share with your team that you use in order to remind everyone to take a deep breath and slow the game down a bit before it gets by them too quickly. Think about what you can do offensively in a situation to slow down a game. You can take a step out of the box. You can ask for time out for the umpire. Get some dirt on your hands rub it between your hands. If you are a pitcher you can step off of the mound, grab the dirt, toss the dirt up in your hand, call a short stop over, or call the catcher. You will be surprised how much this helps you to regather your thoughts and stop the momentum of the other team.
4. Every player on your team must have a failure recovery system. This is something that a player does to recover after a mistake. We use the idea, “Own a mistake. Learn from that mistake. Forget about the mistake.” As soon as you forget about it, it's gone. It's flushed right down the toilet, and it's never to be brought up again. I physically have a toilet (a Barbie size toilet) in our dugout that the girls use to put their failures in and mentally flush them right down the toilet. Find something you can do physically that triggers yourself to mentally reset. Can you wipe off your shorts, can you adjust your helmet for a minute, re-strap your batter’s gloves or tie your shoe? Do something that will help you to recover from that failure so that you mentally reset as well.
5. Buy into the philosophy- If you want to win you've got to buy into the coach’s philosophy. As a team, the confidence in the coach starts with leadership. If you are a leader on your team you must back up your coach. I don't care if you believe in the coach’s philosophy or if you disagree with things, you must respect what they say (unless, of course, it’s unethical). You need to act as though you believe in it to the rest of your team. If you show wavering confidence, everyone else will as well. The more confident everybody feels, the more you back up the coach and as a result everyone feels more confident in executing in whatever they need to do. Whenever there is dissension among the girls about the philosophy and technique it shows up in games in huge ways. Some things are out of a coach’s control, but having leaders that everyone looks up to and respects buy into the coach makes a world of difference.
6. Infuse competition into practice as much as you can. I enjoy making inter-squad teams that compete throughout the season and gain points for winning competitions in practices and games. The squad with the most points at the end of the season wins a prize at the banquet. The more competition infused in practice and the more head-to-head competition you have, the more you're going to thrive and actually look forward to the pressure when it arises in games. You're going to feel controlled under that competition because you are used to a high-stake competition.
7. Make a fun reward for the team--I like to tell the team that if we win I will buy them a pizza. I may say things like if we score 5 runs in the first inning and hold the other team to 2 runs I will take the team to ice cream. This helps to take their mind off of what's actually going on and put the focus on the reward. It makes it fun and gets the team motivated. It takes their minds off of the pressure of the situation and brings it towards something that is fun and extrinsic.
8. Team led prayer has been something that has been a commonality for all of the championship teams that I have been associated with. Whether it be high school in our state championship runs, college for our playoff championships in our league or as a coach, each of the teams that have been successful have incorporated prayer before games. Call it radical or crazy, but this faith has helped when the going gets tough.