April 18, 2001
| Ramona Shelburne |  | Year: Senior
Position: OF
Height: 5-2
Hometown: West Hills, CA
High School: El Camino Real
Major: American Studies |
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"Little bites."
That's what we softball-types like to say to someone who has been struggling for a while. Basically, it just means, fix one thing at a time. If you're doing three or four things wrong at the plate, start with one and build your confidence with each adjustment instead of trying to do four things at once.
Hit a ground ball instead of a pop-up. Then, hit a hard ground ball instead of a weak one. Then, work on driving the ball instead of muscling it. And so on and so forth.
It sounds easy right? Like there's this checklist that you can make to fix your swing and once you mark all the boxes, you'll be fine. The problem is that you're never going to hit 1.000 in softball. You may have games or weeks, months if your really good, where you're really hitting (excuse the pun) on all cylinders, but it's a statistical impossibility to be perfect. You are constantly making adjustments, dealing with failures, taking little bites. Even the top hitters in the game fail 6 out of 10 times.
It's not surprising then, that the players who are most successful in softball are the people who have the best approaches and ways of dealing with failure. The people who realize that there's no magic light switch you can flip, or checklist you can complete that will fix your swing for good and that only a positive attitude that will carry you through the constant adjustments and failures.
Again, easier said than done.
"Being negative is easy," my coach says all the time. "You have to work at being positive."
Even if you got a solid single or double or triple, you could find something wrong with your swing. There's no such thing as perfect in softball remember.
The reason I chose to write about all this stuff is because I had this thought the other day that I've been taking little bites my whole career here. One game good, one game bad. One good at-bat, one bad at-bat. Sure I've had hot streaks here and there, but for the most part, it's been a constant process of dealing with failure, making adjustments, and trying to stay positive. For the first two years, I kept waiting for that magic light switch to flip on that would make it all fine. Like once I flipped it on, I would just play well for the rest of my time here.
I can't pinpoint the exact time I realized that the magic light switch didn't exist but I remember how I felt when I did - a little disappointed but completely accepting. Sort of like the way we all feel when we realize that our parents hide the Easter eggs and wrap our Christmas presents. It's nice to think that there's magic switches that make you hit 1.000 or Santa Clauses but it's also dangerous because relying on magic deludes you into thinking that you don't have to make things happen yourself.
Your parents have to work all year to make money to buy you Christmas presents. Then they have to take the time to pick something out for you that you'll like or need. Instead of being disappointed that there's no Santa Claus, why no be thankful for loving parents and the sacrifices they have to make to buy those presents for you?
Realizing that there was no magic switch to hitting coincided with the acceptance that hitting is a constant battle. Behind every hit are weeks and months of practices spent trying to make the adjustment that led to the hit and thousands of "little bites." Why not see every hit as the residue of those months of practices and be proud of all the hard work that went into it?
Recently I've fallen into a bit of a downswing. In my weaker moments, I start to feel sorry for myself, or frustrated at not being able to make my adjustments. Like I said before, "negative is easy." It's in my better moments that I remind myself that "being positive is what makes you a winner." That there are three choices you can make when you're in a little slump, get better or get worse, be positive or be negative, fight through it or feel sorry for yourself.
In a lot of ways, it helps that I'm a senior because as soon as I start to wimp out and opt to be negative, this voice reminds me that I don't have time for that.
Every game before we play, we read the words our assistant coach Sara Pickering wrote on a ball for us because she hasn't been able to be at our games while undergoing treatment for Hodgkin's disease.
"This game is fun but that doesn't mean easy. There will be trying times but you will suck it up and go to battle. It is our belief in ourselves and our will to win that will carry us through."
Coach Pick's has been fighting Hodgkin's for two years now. There's no magic switch that will cure it, just long, painful does of chemotherapy and radiation. What's got her through it all "is that belief in herself and will to win" that characterized her as an All-American player too. That positive attitude is the difference between winners and losers. It's a choice she's made to be positive rather than negative, to fight through it rather than feel sorry for herself.
Whenever I hear her words, I realize that there's really only one choice you can make when things don't go your way: to stay positive and keep battling.
