Your Mindset Is Your Most Important Tool. What Are You Doing To Train It?
- Julie Jones
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
This past weekend, at the USA Softball Junior National Team Identifier, a few hundred young athletes stood before two giants in our sport, and almost every question they asked was about the mental game.
Not mechanics. Not drills. Not recruiting.
Pressure. Confidence. Fear. Handling expectations.
Why? Because deep down, athletes know the truth we sometimes pretend isn’t there: our minds swing the bat long before our bodies do.
As we stood in the Jackie Robinson Training Facility, where he, Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax and other legends roamed in years past, these young athletes from all over the country, with a dream of being part of Team USA, had the amazing privilege of listening to former NCAA Player of the Year, Bri Ellis and softball legend Jenny Finch talk about their experiences in the game. .
If you haven’t heard Bri’s story, it’s a powerful one. She told it with a rawness you don’t often hear from someone who was once at the very top of college softball.
And then… she hit bottom as a pro.
Not because she forgot how to hit. Not because she stopped working. Because it was the mental side of the game (and life) that got to her.
I love the quote she shared, “It’s not the water around the boat that sinks it. It’s the water that gets in.” I love this because it reminds us that it’s all about managing negativity, worries and setbacks to keep them from invading our self-worth and emotional well-being, much like bailing out water to keep a ship afloat.
Bail that stuff OUT!
But it’s easier said than done!
She had a hard time separating her self-worth from outcomes. I’ve been there. You probably have, too!
That honesty was a gift. And a warning…and a roadmap.
Because the gap between #1 and “I can’t do anything right” gets very small when pressure rises…and the race to the top is real!
Then Jennie Finch followed and dropped the mindset bomb...“Your mindset is your most important tool.”
They both did a great job of cuing up my sessions this weekend for parents called “Parenting the High-Performance Athlete: How to Be Their Competitive Advantage.” I couldn’t have teased it better myself!
When Jennie Finch, one of the best ever, says the same thing my son says in his Mindset Minutes videos, I was doing a little fist pump on the inside!
The athletes this weekend felt enormous pressure. A few of them even have a chance of being a 2028 Olympian…CRAZY! When I say there were good players there this weekend, I mean big-time GOOD players!
But no matter where they fell in the talent pecking order, their futures were being evaluated in real time. Compare. Impress. Don’t mess up. Eyes everywhere. YIKES!
One kid throws 74 mph and the kid after her throws 60…what does that comparison do to your mindset?
And what if they weren’t armed with mental tools to help them manage it all? I’ll go out on a limb and say that they probably didn’t perform at their peak!
Not because they weren’t talented. Because pressure without preparation, mental preparation in this case, equals panic… and panic hijacks the brain.
And when the brain gets hijacked, we know what happens next…more emotion, less decision-making power…and more unhelpful stuff….like that B.S. radio station that plays in our heads (you know what B.S. means…but we don’t cuss in these Tips 😊)…as if we can’t change the station. And it gets louder and louder as pressure and uncertainty mount!
All the talk on that frequency changes the way our brain and body function. Here’s where the good old parietal lobe comes in, if we want to get all sciency!
The parietal lobe helps your body understand where it is in space. It’s your internal GPS. It integrates sensory input so you can move smoothly, adjust quickly and coordinate with precision.
And GUESS WHAT???? Negative words and threat-based thoughts steal processing power from the parietal lobe.
Isn’t that crazy??? Our inner narrative changes how we move in space!
Plain and simple…when our inner language is filled with fear, doubt or outcome obsession, our body literally struggles to move the way it knows how. Positive, clear, intentional language
frees the system so our skills can actually show up.
The more Bri struggled with her negative thoughts, the less she could use her amazing talent!
This is why I talk about this all the time: Talk about WHAT YOU WANT!! Your brain is always listening. Your words matter.
And so does your response.
One of the ideas I shared with the parents in my sessions was the four-step performance cycle:
Approach → Action → Result → Response….(which circles back to Approach…and on and on!)
We can’t always control the result, but we always control our response (Power Move #2). And our response shapes our next approach and our next action. And our next result.
It’s the loop that builds confidence and consistency or derails them. It’s the loop Bri described when she went from the top to the bottom and had to rebuild herself mentally. It’s the loop that every athlete faced this weekend under pressure and all of us face every day!
It’s why mental training is SO important.
EVERYTHING we do follows this same cycle…and what we think about and during our approach, what we say before we take action and how we respond to our results determines how far we go…in EVERYTHING!
Two of the best athletes in the game I love spent almost two hours talking about MINDSET… playing one sport…not playing year round…not getting on the best team…they talked about the mental game when they had the chance to address the future stars of our game. They talked about our NUMBER ONE TOOL…the tool that is the foundation for all our other tools!
If the best need mental tools…how about the rest of us?
It’s time for all of us to commit to training our most important tool. The tool that leads all others!
Commit to consistent mental training. Not when the wheels are already coming off, but before…so we can do a better job of keeping the wheels on and driving as fast as we can!
Every day. A few minutes at a time.
Commit to building your Mental Performance Operating System like you build your swing, shot presentation or performance skills!
Because if we want to compete at the highest level or avoid the crash that comes when pressure tests our skills, we must train our minds with the same intention we train our bodies.
Bri’s story reminds us that pressure is real for all of us. Jennie reminded us what champions already know. And every athlete that asked a question…along with the ones who didn’t…understand that their mindset makes a difference!
Our mind is our most important tool. Start sharpening it… today.
Julie
P.S. Add a 3-session mental lab into your fall season. Reach out and let’s build the perfect one for you! Shoot me an email or text – juliej@ssbperformance.com or 234-206-0946
Julie Jones
Mental Performance Coach
SSB Performance
juliej@ssbperformance.com • 234-206-0946
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