You don’t always get what you wish for, you get what you work for.
Growing up I had a role model, much like most little girls do, and her name is Jennie Finch. I credit her for my initial interest in the game I love today. She has motivated me to strive to become the best pitcher I can possibly be and has really opened my eyes to the amount of work necessary. Of course, I also have to give credit to my dad and my amazing pitching coach for holding me accountable to my aspirations and reminding me day-in and day-out how much discipline is required as they significantly contributed to shaping my work ethic when it came to pitching.
What people fail to recognize is how much training it actually takes to be successful. Not just in softball, but in any sport. Nowadays, it is rare to find a stand out player that is also a three sport athlete. Don’t get me wrong, there are some exceptions, but for most people that is just too many hours to dedicate to different activities. Instead, you often find people devote most their time to the one or two activities they love unconditionally. For me that was pitching. I grew up participating in volleyball, soccer, basketball, and I even ended up joining cross country in high school, but for me those sports were just activities to keep me in shape for softball. I would work hard in season and put a little extra time in when needed in order to compete, but I never completely dedicated myself to them. They were more of a "fun" sport where I was able to socialize with my friends or distract myself from my everyday life.
Most will agree that great achievement generally requires great sacrifice, but from a pitching standpoint, I’m not sure if people truly know how many hours are required or all of the sacrifices that are often necessary. I started pitching when I was nine years old. I would pitch on the sidewalk to my dad five or six days a week. You can imagine the number of shoes I went through from throwing on a sidewalk. Believe it or not there is a permanent scuff mark on the cement at my old house from me dragging my foot (I have gone back and looked)! Anyways, as I got older, my dad didn’t have the experience to keep teaching me and it was getting more difficult for him to pick out the tiny details of my technique, so that’s when we turned to my pitching coach. At this point I was still pitching five or six times a week and I’ll be honest, I loved pretty much every minute of it. To this day I thank my Dad for believing in me, because on those particular days and times that I struggled he was always there to remind me of my goals and what it takes to reach them.
Nothing worth having ever comes easy! I’m not going to lie and say I was driven during every session or that every practice was fantastic. I made a lot of sacrifices and that wasn’t always the “cool” thing to do. I ended up missing slumber parties because I had to get up early to go to a tournament, or I couldn’t go to the varsity basketball game because that was the only time I had available to go pitch with my dad. I had two choices; put in the hours to get better or sit back and hope that I will be good enough. I’m pretty sure you can guess what decision I made. There were pitching sessions where I pouted, cried, or I wanted to give up because it was hard and there are always those days you just don’t have it in you. However, I also had fabulous days, which easily erased the difficult times and I wouldn’t trade these for anything. Every bad day I had I would remind myself that there were better ones to come and I always believed that someday all of the hard work would pay off. Through high school and into college I still throw about four or five days a week and there are always things to work on. Like many sports, pitching is 90% mental so before you go out there and decide to dedicate yourself to something ask yourself if you have what it takes and if you’re willing to make some sacrifices. Anything can come to those who have the desire, the drive, the dedication, and the determination. I can tell you that for me, it was worth it.
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, & discipline. ~ Jesse Owens
