Ever wonder how you can improve your game to the point that you will be the best? I wondered the SAME WAY growing up. I was never the best player on my team and never felt that I was in the top five throughout my middle school years, but by following this BASIC framework, I eventually became an All-American in high school. You can too.

Watching parents spend crazy amounts of money on lessons with little improvement seen between one week to the next drives me crazy. Ultimately, parents begin to think it is the lesson instructor or the coach; however, if I were a player only spending an hour and a half or two hours a week working on something, I would not be proficient at it very quickly even if I had individual attention. If I were to have a math tutor once a week but never did my math homework throughout the week, I would probably forget what was learned and prevent myself from reinforcing the information that was taught. If you want to be the best on your team, then you need to put in the work outside of practice to keep up your skills. We all know that. Rarely, do players really understand what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. The following steps seem obvious and simple, but few take the time to actually do them. To be your best do the following:

1. DEFINE YOUR GOAL: I have the girls on my team give me a list of their personal goals at the beginning of the season every year. Most of them include things such as wanting to be a starter at their position, going to college to play softball, becoming a captain, winning an award at the end of the season, or achieving a certain statistic. Stating a goal that you wish to obtain is the perfect way to start becoming the player you want to be. Be specific with your goal so that you can tell when you’ve achieved it. A goal of “getting better at hitting” isn’t specific enough because there is nothing to measure your progress or to tell you that you have met your goal. By writing a goal such as “gain 5 miles per hour on my exit speed” is much more specific and measurable.  Defining what you want to achieve is the first step in the process. Researchers say that you are way more likely to achieve a goal if you first write it down. I would suggest putting your goal on your mirror so that it stares you in the face EVERY DAY.

2.  IDENTIFY THE STEPS TO GET THERE- So we’ve uncovered our goal. Now we need to write down the steps to get there. Take out a pen and a piece of paper. Write down everything you need to do in order to achieve this goal of yours. This is the thing that many people with huge potential neglect to do. Break down the steps into easy things to work on. You may possibly need to increase your leg power, increase your range defensively, be more vocal, reach out to college coaches, or find ways to obtain exposure. Break those steps down into smaller tasks that you can work on completing each day at home to make you better. This may take you 30 minutes to do one day, but I promise you that you will reap the rewards tenfold. By the time you are done you will have the steps broken down into 5 to 10 minute tasks that can help you to achieve your large goal if they are done day in and day out.

3. DO THREE 5 MINUTE TASKS EVERY DAY- You have all of the steps written down in front of you. Now you need to execute. Set aside only 15 minutes every single day to do 3 of these. Tasks that you wrote down to do in order to make you better and achieve your goal. These tasks don’t always have to be physical. Some could be visualizing your swing on your way to school, doing research on YouTube on swing mechanics, doing push-ups before bed, doing indoor modified drills in your basement when it’s snowing, or reading a book on the mental game of softball. By doing things each and every day you are bettering yourself every day and reinforcing the things you learned. You will see the growth and it will be all the more motivating to you. The girls who I see the most growth in their lessons week in and week out are the ones who are working outside of practice and lessons. I don’t even have to ask the girls what they are doing outside of lessons; I can tell by the way they progress and the gains they make from week to week. The way you will become the best player you can be is by doing the work outside of practice and doing it SMART.

4. STAY ACCOUNTABLE- This framework is something that can be easily implemented after being motivated for a week or two, but after a while it is difficult to maintain because life happens and we get distracted from our disciplined ways. To combat this and stay consistent, find a partner on your team to keep you accountable. You could video small snippets of yourself doing your tasks and send them to your partner so that she knows that you are doing what you need to be doing to get better. Best case scenario, she will get inspired to do the same and your whole team will get better because of it! Create incentives for yourselves that will help to motivate you to get it done. Don’t have someone on your team on the same motivation level as you? Ask your parents or a trusted sibling to keep you accountable. Maybe your parents’ incentive for you could be a new bat or piece of equipment if you are serious enough about your goals and show dedication for a designated amount of time. Earn your goals. You’ve got this.