How to Teach Softball Players to Be Present at Practice

Angela Biddlestone

Founder of The Next Rep

You've seen it at practice. Players taking ground balls while talking about the weekend. A hitter taking 20 swings in the cage without thinking about one of them. Bodies on the field, minds somewhere else.

It's easy to shrug off. It's just practice, right?

But here's what 30-plus years in this game has taught me: practice habits become game habits. A player who drifts through practice will drift in the big moment, too. You can't flip a switch on game day and suddenly be locked in.

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Being present is a skill. And like every skill, it takes reps.

Why players drift

Today's players carry a lot onto the field: school, friends, phones, recruiting pressure, a bad day at home. Add a long practice with drills they've run a hundred times, and it's no surprise their minds wander.

It isn't laziness. Most players have simply never been taught how to bring their focus back.

Be where your feet are

The phrase I use with teams is simple: be where your feet are. Your mind goes where your feet are. Not on the last rep, not on school, not on the weekend. On this rep, right here.

When a player notices her mind drifting, she runs three quick steps:

Feet: feel your feet on the ground.
Breath: one slow breath.
Job: say your one job for this rep, like "see it" or "glove out front."

That's it. A few seconds, and she's back.

Four ways to build it into practice

Start at the fence line. Before practice, players stop at the gate, take one breath, and leave everything else outside. Then they step onto the field together.
One job per rep. Before each rep in a drill, the player says her one job out loud. After the rep, a partner asks, "Did you do your job?"
Count quality reps, not total reps. Ten focused swings beat fifty careless ones. Slow players down when they rush to finish.
End with an exit ticket. Before leaving, each player tells a coach one specific thing she got better at today.

Coaches, this starts with us

Players notice everything. If we're checking our phones during drills or running practice on autopilot, they will too. Put the phone away, coach the rep in front of you, and model what being present looks like.

Why it matters

The girls who learn to be present at practice become the players who stay calm in the 7th inning. And the skill follows them everywhere: to the classroom, to tough conversations, to every moment where focus matters.

That's the kind of player, and the kind of person, we're building.

Try it at home: the free Practice Plan Builder creates a personalized week of training, with a mental rep built into every session.

Confidence is built one rep at a time.

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