The Houston Astros have their own methods for improving their hitting results. Unlike the MLB, Fordham Softball doesn’t use garbage cans or buzzers: we rely on time-tested old reliable drills (front toss, tee practice and hitting live off of our preeminent pitchers) and have recently incorporated a modern mental training system.

This week, we had a visit from successful global hitting coach Tony Abbatine. We met him in Hughes for an hour-long lecture, then made our way over to Lombardi to put his teachings to the test and experiment with everything we’ve ever known about front toss, tee practice and hitting live. Coach Abbatine spoke of sunsets, mountains and oceans when it came to visualizing the pitcher. His premise is to find calmness and stability in a natural image and to openly gaze at that imagined landscape so that by “seeing nothing, we see everything.”

Coaches in the past have told my teammates and I from a young age to simply “See ball. Hit ball.” This caveman-like directness urged us to visually pick up the ball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand and stare at it as it barrels closer.

Turning that world on its head, Coach Abbatine wanted us to trust our vision and timing and challenge our eyes to imagine things that weren’t necessarily there in order to better react to what actually was there.

Although it’s hard not to focus on the details we so often obsess over, the importance of remaining cool, calm and confident in high-pressure situations is paramount.
When we get caught up in the little details that might hold us back, we hinder our reaction to fastballs, ground balls and even the adversity we face in normal human experience.

Earlier in the year, in our training sessions with mental performance coach Ben Oliva, we learned the value of taking deep breaths, dealing with controllables and responding to things out of our control. To break free from patterns of self-doubt and worry, we learned ways to stay grounded and confident.

Sometimes life throws us difficulties that uproot us and send us into a Descartes-like whirlpool of anxiety, and while it may seem as if there is no way out, we have to use the words of coaches Abbatine and Oliva and see things that aren’t necessarily there.

As we prepare to play in less than two weeks and the pressure of both softball and academic assignments heightens, I will try to see sunsets, mountains and oceans and not worry about the little things.