September 1, 2025 • 29 mins
In today’s episode, AJ takes a deep dive into the mental side of softball, exploring how to push through tough moments and develop a resilient, winning mindset. She shares her favorite mental tools for staying focused and grounded, and emphasizes the power of intentionality and setting clear, actionable goals.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Dropping Diamonds with AJ Andrews is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Athletes Unlimited Softball League and Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment. Welcome to Dropping Diamonds with Me
aj Andrews, where we dive headfirst into the world of softball.
(00:21):
Today we're diving deep into the mental aspect of the
game and how to come back from those low moments
and the mindset it takes to get you there. But
before we discuss today's topic and get all up in
the brain, insane in the membrane, I'd like to begin
with my affirmations of the day. So one of my
favorite quotes that we're going to start with is whether
(00:42):
you believe you can or you believe you cannot, either
way you are right. And so essentially, to me, that
is so powerful because you dictate your journey, you dictate
your success. And if you believe you can achieve something,
then you're gonna go out and you're going to achieve it.
But if you believe you cannot achieve something, you're right,
(01:03):
You're not going to achieve it. You're not going to
do the things, you're not gonna put in the work,
and you're not gonna have belief. But that's what sets
the stage for your success. It's your mindset and whether
you believe you can or you believe you cannot. And
so from affirmation, we're gonna pull from that today that
we're going to keep saying and when we wake up
in the morning and throughout the day to maintain our
confidence and get ourselves back in that mindset if we
(01:24):
ever lose it. It is I can achieve all I want,
non stop till I've reached the top. The power is
within me. I create my own destiny. Again, I can
achieve all I want non stop till I reach the top.
The power is within me. I create my own destiny.
Having to know that you create your own destiny is
(01:45):
so important to developing and creating the destiny that you want.
You are in charge no one else, So you lay
out the game plan and then you go out and execute.
So we're going to continue to dive into the mental
aspect into making sure we can have the correct mindset
that it takes to be successful in this game of failure,
because it is so easy to fall back on that confidence,
(02:09):
to fall back into a woe is me mindset instead
of going out and say I can do this. I'm
creating my own destiny the way we did in our affirmation.
Many players have come on to dropping Diamonds and they
share their tips, techniques, and how they were able to
master the mental game. So I want to dive in
a little bit deeper and take it to the next
(02:31):
level to really break down the steps that I've taken
and I've utilize in order to get myself into the
right mindset to go out and not just be good,
not just be great, but to be one of the best.
In order to do that, yes, you have to master
your skills, but the only way to master your skills
is to first master your mind. And so first thing
(02:52):
I want to talk about when we talk about mastering
the mind, it is the awful, god forsaken the one
thing that esopball players try our hardest to break free
from and hardest to avoid, and that is the quote
unquote slump. Now, what if we change our mindset about
(03:16):
a slump instead of thinking about gosh I am oh
for five, i am oh for eight, i am oh
for twelve. I'm gonna hit this tournament, I'm gonna hit
this series, I'm gonna hit the last two series. If
instead of we look at it as a slump or
something that is something we can't overcome, how about we
(03:37):
look at it as if we're dancing and we lost
our We just lost our rhythm, right. You know, when
you're dancing to a song, you just you can't really
find the beat, so you feel a little off, and
you may be off or the first half of the song,
but then finally you catch it again, You catch the beat.
And once you catch the beat, you get back on
rhythm and you start to feel good, and then you
start dancing and then you honestly don't even really need
(03:59):
to hear the song keep dancing because you found your
rhythm again. You found the way the beat goes, and
you know how to maintain it. That is what I
want everyone to start thinking of a slump as it's
just you losing your rhythm. And that's why in softball,
when we always say it just takes one right, it
just takes that one hit for us to get our
rhythm back. Why because we remember it's like, ah, that's
(04:21):
what I needed to do. I felt so off. I
wasn't seeing the ball well, my hands were getting to
the ball well. I wasn't staying inside the pitch, and
then we finally have that one good hit and we say, oh,
that is a switch. Right, What happened All that happen
is that we've found our rhythm again, right, changing the
mindset instead of thinking like, gosh, I'm I'm not seeing
the ball or saying that I just cannot catch a break,
(04:44):
I'm making contact, but the ball's hitting right to people, right,
instead of it being a situation where we're looking at
more of a negative. Do you guys, you know it's okay.
I just lost my rhythm. I just can't. I just
gotta keep listening. I gotta keep going till I find
the beat again. Once I find the beat, I'm a
dance like you've never seen somebody dance before. Right. It
just takes that one that one hit, that one moment
(05:07):
to catch the beat, that one moment to get your
rhythm back. And when you get your rhythm back, that's
when you get out of that slump because you feel good,
you feel good againting it and you know what to do.
So instead of thinking of it as a slump, that
god forsaken word. I hate the word slump. I don't
think if that's what it is. I just believe it's
you know, you just lost your rhythm for a little bit.
Keep going, keep working. You're going to find the beat again.
(05:27):
But you have to believe that. You have to believe
that you're going to find the beat and every single
at that if you go up because it's so easy
to go up to the at bats when you're in
a slump and say, I'm just I don't know what
to do. I'm not finding it, I'm not seeing it,
and nothing's working. And that mindset is what's keeping us down.
When we think like that versus I go in every
(05:47):
single at bat, I'm like, okay, boom boom, I swing
this way. I didn't see it here. Okay. Let me
maybe I track a little bit, maybe try to find
a different beat, track the ball a little bit longer, okay,
or we stay inside the ball. Every at bat is
an attempt to find the beat rather than an attempt
to get a hit. Right, When we're going up there
and say I'm just trying to get it hit, I
just want to get that hit, it puts so much
(06:08):
pressure on ourselves and it takes away from our mechanics
and takes away from us doing the little things and
just playing. We start to think while we're swinging, and
it's hard to think and hit at the same time.
So just go up there and try to find the beat.
And as we continue to dive deeper into our mindset
of the game. When you're up there trying to find
the beat, I think it's so important to have the
(06:29):
confidence of you stand in the box and you say,
let's say the picture got you out the first AB
and you're like, okay, you got me out once, but
you're not gonna get me out twice. Then you go
back in the deck out you do we gotta do, recalibrate.
You come back out your second A B. Maybe get
out your second a B. Okay, tip your hat to
the picture the catcher. You say, all right, you guys
got me out twice, but you're not gonna give me
(06:50):
out a third time. You come back out, maybe you
got out a third time. You let them know, all right,
you got me out three times. Congratulations. If I had
a medal, I would give it to you, because no
one's ever gotten me out of fourth right. And then
you keep going, You keep going, and it's that mentality
of you got me this type. But you're not going
to be the next you got me. Okay, maybe you
got me the next time, but you're not getting me
(07:11):
this fourth time, this fifth time, this sixth time. And
I guarantee you one of those times, you're gonna be right.
They're not gonna get you every single time. If you
go up with that mentality of no one's ever gotten
me six right, and as the numbers keep climbing up,
maybe feel a little bit discouraged, it's like, well listen,
it's getting higher, y'all. I don't think anybody in this
world can get me out ten right. So it's always
(07:32):
going up with the mindset of I'm going to be
a different player this AB. You guys thought you knew
about AJ Andrews the last two abs, but I'm a
different player this third one. You can't get AJ Andrews.
You can't get this AJ Andrews out. Completely shifting the
mindset and letting them know you are a new player
(07:54):
now than you were the last AB. You're a new
player now than you were the last game, the last turn,
whatever it is, because you took those failures and you
learn from them, and the only way to truly succeed
is to fail. I think people so many people think
failure is opposite of success, but it is a part
of it. And every time we fail, we're only adding
to a ladder. Think about it as a stair. Every
(08:17):
failure is you're adding another stair. You're adding another stair,
You're adding another stair, And what's happening is you're making
that ladder really long and really tall. And that's only
leading to the biggest and the highest successes as long
as you learn from those failures. And you know that
this failure taught me this, This failure taught me that
it's only going to elevate you higher to the biggest
(08:38):
and the best successes. They say, the expert has failed
more times than the beginner has even thought to begin.
So make sure that you're continuing to believe that no
matter how many times you get out, no matter how
many times you feel like you're in a slump, you're
working to find that beat. And as you're finding that beat,
you're letting everybody know that you are the world's best dancer.
(09:00):
And once you find your beat again, the world will know.
Let's take a quick break to hear a word from
our sponsor. I want everyone to really understand and know
that your power lies within you go back to our
(09:23):
affirmation and you create your own destiny. There's not the
nine players that are working to get you out do
not you do. And so I think that you know,
one time a situation where I can bring this back
to myself is one of the best moments of failure
that truly led to one of my biggest successes. Was
(09:45):
in pro ball when I was playing with the Akron
Racers and the season's going well, except probably the second
series or third series of the season. I go out
and make a diving catch and I ended up landing
on my my body lands on my hand and it
crushes my hand and so I broke my hand in
(10:07):
like three places, and it was excruciating. And for those
that know about professional softball, the season is just, you know,
it's just not that long of a season. And so
I knew that if I were to take out and
take off for the season, that would be the end.
I would just have to clock out. See you guys
next year. So I just double padded. It was my
catching hand, so I would put patting and everything in
(10:29):
my hand in my glove and go out and to
try to play defense. I would swing, but Lord knows,
I was really only using one hand to swing because
the vibration was hurting so bad because my hand was broken.
I was playing on a broken hand, And so I
wasn't really feeling like myself. And every time I came
up to the plate I had to remind myself of
(10:50):
who I was in order to not get down, and
in order to not allow an out or a failure
to define me, but rather it be a situation or
an opportunity to learn. And so continuing to go through
the season, I wasn't feeling like myself at all because
I just didn't feel like I was scared. Honestly, I
was scared to die because of the pain. I was
scared sometimes to even make a fly ball catch because
(11:13):
it hurt every time it landed. I resorted to bunting
a lot about the plate just to avoid the pain
of mishitting it or it catching the inside of the
inside of the bad and ricocheting through my hand. And
so I had all these negative thoughts, and I was
working so hard to come back from that. And while
it may not be what we categorize a slump as
(11:36):
right now, it was a slump. I was not myself.
I was completely outside. I lost my rhythm of who
I was as a player. I don't play scared, and
I was playing scared. And so I remember we were
playing the Pride at the time, and I was in
right field and Chelsea Goodacre hit the ball and as
she hit the ball, she hit it down the line.
(11:57):
It was behind me, and it was always the fin
I'm running. I'm running, I'm running, going to get the ball.
And I completely forget about my hand being broken in
that moment, because all I saw was the ball and
all like laser focused in on it, and I was
going to make the catch the old aja where I
(12:17):
always say, if it's hit anywhere near me, your stuff's
gonna get you. And I'm gonna make the catch. And
I completely forgot. What happened was my rhythm came back right.
I was working to catch that beat and I go
up and I lay out full body, spread one hand
up against the fence and make the catch. And I'm
positive that that is the catch that led to me
(12:39):
winning the gold Glove, to me being the first woman
to win a gold Glove. And in that moment, I
wasn't thinking of Oh man, if I catch this, it's
gonna hurt. Or if I don't catch this, then it's
gonna be terrible. Because it's down the line. I'm diving
to the ball down the line. She's gonna get easily
a triple, maybe in the park home run. Those things
weren't aren't coming to my mind. The thoughts that we
(13:02):
think when we're in a slump, whether it's a hitting
slump or on the field slump, or making errors on
the field. All that I was thinking about was catching
the beat. All I was thinking about was finding my rhythm.
All I was thinking about was being the AJ. I
know how to be right in the field. If we're
making errors, we know how to make those plays. But
because we're so nervous or we're thinking about the last errors,
when we make another one, stop thinking about that. Or
(13:24):
its same thing that we got out, our last ab
struck out, so now we're worried we're going to do
it again. Not thinking about that, thinking only about catching
my rhythm and being the age and knowing how to
dance the way agent knows how to dance, make plays
the way AJ knows how to make plays. It's all
that was going through my mind. And because of that,
because of the failures that I had experienced prior, it
(13:44):
only led to the the more notches on my ladder
that led to my highest success, which is being the
first woman to win a gold glove. And so I
say all that to say that oftentimes the biggest slumps
can lead you to the biggest success stories if you
allow it, and if you allow yourself to learn from it,
(14:06):
and you allow yourself to keep dancing until you find
that rhythm, until you find your beat again, because you will.
But you have to keep dancing, You have to keep going,
and you have to know every time you step up
to the plate that this time is not going to
be like the last time, every time you step out
to the field, that this time is not going to
be like the last time. This time is going to
be the real you. This time is going to be
(14:28):
who you are. You have to talk to yourself more
than you listen to yourself. That is so important, especially
when you're playing injured, because you know, we know, playing
injured is probably one of the hardest things to do
because it not only takes a hit on your your
skill set, because you're a little bit more limited than
you were before. But it takes a huge hit on
(14:50):
your confidence because the player that you knew yourself to
be just isn't showing up no matter how much you're trying,
no matter how much you want it to it just
physically because you hurt, It just simply isn't. And I
think in those moments you have to remember that. I
think it's so easy for us to identify the injured
play or the error or what we did wrong as
(15:12):
who we are and as who the player is, the
type of player that we are versus the successful versus
the amazing play we made before that versus all the
amazing plays we made before we were hurt, all the
amazing plays we made before we were injured, all the
amazing hits we had before we were injured. We begin
to really identify the things that we did when we
weren't doing well as who we are as players, without
(15:35):
realizing or taking away from who we were when we
were making the amazing plays and hitting the ball the
long balls. And so I think it's so important to
anytime something bad happens while you're injured or just in
general the game. You just said that was an aja, right,
that wasn't me. Don't identify that person as who you
are or the type of player you are. You say, no,
(15:57):
that wasn't me. I'm clocking in right now, is about
to clock in. That wasn't me. You don't associate that
with who you are as a player. You just say
that was just a lapse, that was a blip, and
that was you know, it was a blip in the matrix. Actually,
I'm surprised you guys saw that, and you make a
joke about it and move on. But nor do that.
You have to talk to yourself more than you listen.
(16:19):
And I say that because when we listen to ourselves,
sometimes it can be our own worst enemy, and sometimes
our brain says things that just aren't true, right, that
we know aren't true, and we're trying to combat that
and try to come over. So you have to talk
to yourself and say, I know I'm one of the
best players in the nation. I know I'm the best shortstop,
I know I'm the best outfielder. I know I can
make this play, I know I can hit this picture.
(16:41):
Instead of saying, well, well what if right, that little
voice that comes in talk over it every single time.
There's more to cover. But first, let's take a quick break, okay,
(17:02):
And as we're continuing to talk ourselves up and know
that we are the best and the baddest things to
ever step out on the field to make the plays
and to hit the balls, hit the pitches. I think
it's important in order to do so to have some
actionary things right. Yes, it's amazing to know the things
(17:22):
to say and to be confident and want to tell yourself,
but also it's important to apply them. So here are
some tools that I think would be amazing to help
apply to help that confidence and help you continue to
look at yourself and work towards building up and finding
that rhythm again. In the morning, before you step out
(17:43):
on that field, set an intention for your day. Of course,
you want to say your affirmation first. You want to
wake up and say that affirmation. Okay, we're gonna wake
up and we're gonna let ourselves know that I can
achieve all I want, non stop till I reached the top.
The power is within me. I create my own destiny.
After we say our affirmation to a mirror, probably like
(18:04):
three to four times, make sure we really feel it.
I want everyone to set an attention for the day.
So today I'm going to make five diving catches, right,
that is what I want to do today. I'm make
five diving catches to show myself that I can do it.
Or you go up and you say I'm gonna hit
five line drives up the middle today and every time
(18:26):
it's gonna be up the middle, or I'm gonna move
the runner. Right, it doesn't even have to be something
that is for you. You can say today, I'm going
to be selfless today. I'm going to cheer so loudly
for my teammates. Today, I'm going to be the loudest
player on the field. Today, I'm going to sprint out
to the outfield, sprint out to my position every single
(18:47):
inning and be the first one out. Set an intention
to note and allow yourself to achieve it every single day.
My intention today is to go out and just to
play hard. My intention today is I am going to
play so hard today that it's gonna be really hard
to get this dirt off my uniform tomorrow. Right, we
set an attention that allows us to not feel like
(19:09):
we have to achieve something, but rather know that this
is what I'm gonna I'm not leaving today until I
get this done right, versus being like I'm going to
get a hit today, I'm gonna be one for three today.
That's my attention. No, because you sometimes you just those
are things you can't always control. But you can't control
your hustle. You can control your effort. You can control
how many times you're gonna go out and you're gonna
(19:31):
make something happen. You can control how hard you work,
you can control how how loud you yell. So go
out and set attention and go out and achieve that,
and set the intention to know that you are going
to be the best at whatever it is. And they say,
no matter what it is that you do, be the best.
So if I'm going to be the best outfielder today,
(19:53):
to me, that means I'm going to be giving my
one hundred percent effort for every single ball. I'm going
to you make all my throws. I'm going to go
out and do all the right things today. Once you
set your intention, I also then want you to set
one goal. So I made my intention of what it
is that I want to do today, the player that
I want to be today, and then you set one
(20:14):
goal that you want to achieve and So whether that
is you leave the field today feeling better, right, I'm
going to get everybod always say get one percent better today,
But what is that one percent? Right? I want you
to set what that goal is that one percent today
is going to be. I am going to get one
percent better at going back on the ball. I'm going
(20:37):
to get one percent better today at my throws. I'm
going to get one percent better at the inside pitch.
The way I like to view this is good better best,
make your good better and your better best. So you're
going to find what you think you're good at and
you're gonna make it better today. To find we think
you're better at and maybe gonna make it best today.
(20:58):
Pick one, but pick one that you're really going to
dedicate your time, to your energy to, and that one
percent too. As we continue to get better every single day,
we want to make sure we are focused and ready
as soon as we step out onto the field. And
another thing that's really good to start your day is
(21:20):
having a routine, something that allows you to feel really
comfortable and allows you to feel ready and prepared for
the day. So we start with our affirmations and then
it is whatever you really feel like is going to
make you feel either the most prepared, or going to
make you feel the most relaxed, or going to make
you feel the most mentally ready to go out and
(21:42):
to achieve your one percent. It's so hard to go
out and play a game of failure. If we are
not ready to be the player that potentially fails. You
have to accept feel, almost have the thing of failure.
As like your friend. You have a befriend failure. As
(22:03):
hard as it sounds, it is the only way to
truly succeed. Failure is inevitable in this game, and the
more you try to stray away from it, the more
you try to avoid it, the more it seeks you out.
It seems right. We always say the ball will find
the player that doesn't want the ball, Right, It's gonna
find you. So you have to always honestly almost befriend
(22:25):
failure and say listen, you check in with failure today
and say, hey, if we have an encounter today, just
know that I'm going to overcome you. It's only going
to be one and then you move on. Never be
afraid of failure. If you point me out, you can
point me the player that's afraid to fail. And I'll
point to the player you can beat every single time.
(22:47):
You just cannot be afraid to fail. Have that mental routine,
have that physical routine that allows you to feel comfortable
and allows you to know that you will be successful.
But despite no matter how successful you are, you still
are not afraid to fail because you know that the
only way to truly reach success is sometimes through failure.
(23:11):
And so success truly favors the brave. Success favors the brave.
So go out, be brave, go out be strong, go
out be tenacious, and go out and be fabulous. That's
my thing. Go out be fabulous because you can get
it done. Make sure that you are treating the confidence
like a muscle, right, muscle confidence is something that has
(23:35):
to be worked on, just the way working out is.
We work out every single day. We don't always see
results immediately, right. You see results in a week, in
two weeks, sometimes in months. But you have to work
that confidence the same way you work out a muscle.
It only gets stronger and gets bigger with consistency. So
(23:55):
making sure that you're not just doing this one time,
that every single day, that's when you're truly going to
see results. And then once you see those results, and
once you have that muscle, it's very hard to even
if you take a week off after you built up
that confidence, it still doesn't go away, right, So you
have to build yourself up so hard, build yourself up
so vast that nothing can dismantle it. Nothing can dismantle
(24:18):
that confidence, Nothing can dismantle who you are as a
player and the mindset that you have. All Right, we
dove deep into the mental aspect of the game, what
it takes in order to truly reach success, and we're
going to keep shining bright like a diamond on and
off the field. Some really cool stuff that has happened
(24:39):
in the AUSL that allows the amazing women that are
playing too shine bright like diamonds. Is the deal with Sephora.
Siphoras come in and sponsored the Championship series when it
comes to the AUSL and truly highlighting and showing that
investing in women's sports is not only important, but it
(25:00):
is worth it. It is valuable. It is something that
is going to create a return, an ROI return on investment,
and we love to see so many brands and so
many different people investing in softball and in women's sports.
It's only going to continue to get better, bigger and
only going to continue to get better. We haven't given
(25:24):
our flowers to the Talons who have won the first
inaugural Aussel season. Montana Fouts was able to throw out
a gym on the field in her hometown of Tuscaloosa.
Over there at the University of Alabama. She was able
to showcase and show off in front of her home
(25:45):
crowd and win that championship on the field that ultimately
raised her. It was so exciting to watch and so exciting.
Sidney Romero had an amazing game torri the Dallas coming
out of that first home run. I think so many
players really set the standard and set the stage for
what it looks like within professional softball and all the
excitement that is to come professional softball. This is we're
(26:07):
coming to an end, and we're so exciting because next
year the four teams, the Talents, the Volts, the Bandits,
and the Blazes will have their own market cities. I
actually got to talk to some Major League Baseball players
and to hear where they thought that the Talents, the Bandits,
the Blaze, and the Bolts where they should be going.
(26:30):
And they had some amazing and funny things to say.
Moogie Bets. I think he thinks that the Blade should
be in California, so we have some fun maybe have
like a Blaze and a Dodgers. You know, we have
a little connection there. Make something happen between the two.
But then they're adding two more new teams, which is
(26:52):
also going to be really exciting next year for the AUSL.
So professional softball is only getting bigger and it's only
getting better. And if you are along for the ride
right now, congratulations, you're a head of the curve because
it is taking off and it's not going to stop.
Keep listening to Dropping Diamonds. There's so much amazing information
(27:14):
and so much amazing talent and words of wisdom to
be learned and to be heard by the amazing women
that played this game. Talking to professional softball players, and
as college softball comes down the corner going to be
talking to the amazing talent and collegiate softball. It's only
going to get bigger, it's only going to get better.
And to all the Diamond listeners, thank you so much
(27:34):
for listening to today's episode. I want to know what
you want to hear, What things are you interested in
knowing about with these professional softball players, please head to
the Dropping Diamonds Instagram and send me a dam Let
me know what you want to hear, what questions you
have for the girls. I'm gonna make sure that those
get answered. Remember the quote for today. Whether you believe
(27:58):
you can or you believe you can cannot. Either way
you are right. So go out, set your attention, set
your affirmation. If I can achieve all I want, non
stop till I reach the top the powers within me,
I create my own destiny. Thank you guys all so
much for listening. I'll meet you here next week back
at the Diamond Bye for now. Dropping Diamonds with AJ
(28:28):
Andrews is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with
Athletes Unlimited Softball, Dinge, and Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
I'm your host, AJ Andrews. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz.
Tari Harrison is our supervising producer, and this episode was
mixed and mastered by Mary Doo. Listen to Dropping Diamonds
with AJ Andrews on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(28:51):
wherever you get your podcasts.
Dropping Diamonds with AJ Andrews is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Athletes Unlimited Softball League and Deep
Blue Sports and Entertainment. Welcome to Dropping Diamonds with Me
aj Andrews, where we dive headfirst into the world of softball.
(00:21):
Today we're diving deep into the mental aspect of the
game and how to come back from those low moments
and the mindset it takes to get you there. But
before we discuss today's topic and get all up in
the brain, insane in the membrane, I'd like to begin
with my affirmations of the day. So one of my
favorite quotes that we're going to start with is whether
(00:42):
you believe you can or you believe you cannot, either
way you are right. And so essentially, to me, that
is so powerful because you dictate your journey, you dictate
your success. And if you believe you can achieve something,
then you're gonna go out and you're going to achieve it.
But if you believe you cannot achieve something, you're right,
(01:03):
You're not going to achieve it. You're not going to
do the things, you're not gonna put in the work,
and you're not gonna have belief. But that's what sets
the stage for your success. It's your mindset and whether
you believe you can or you believe you cannot. And
so from affirmation, we're gonna pull from that today that
we're going to keep saying and when we wake up
in the morning and throughout the day to maintain our
confidence and get ourselves back in that mindset if we
(01:24):
ever lose it. It is I can achieve all I want,
non stop till I've reached the top. The power is
within me. I create my own destiny. Again, I can
achieve all I want non stop till I reach the top.
The power is within me. I create my own destiny.
Having to know that you create your own destiny is
(01:45):
so important to developing and creating the destiny that you want.
You are in charge no one else, So you lay
out the game plan and then you go out and execute.
So we're going to continue to dive into the mental
aspect into making sure we can have the correct mindset
that it takes to be successful in this game of failure,
because it is so easy to fall back on that confidence,
(02:09):
to fall back into a woe is me mindset instead
of going out and say I can do this. I'm
creating my own destiny the way we did in our affirmation.
Many players have come on to dropping Diamonds and they
share their tips, techniques, and how they were able to
master the mental game. So I want to dive in
a little bit deeper and take it to the next
(02:31):
level to really break down the steps that I've taken
and I've utilize in order to get myself into the
right mindset to go out and not just be good,
not just be great, but to be one of the best.
In order to do that, yes, you have to master
your skills, but the only way to master your skills
is to first master your mind. And so first thing
(02:52):
I want to talk about when we talk about mastering
the mind, it is the awful, god forsaken the one
thing that esopball players try our hardest to break free
from and hardest to avoid, and that is the quote
unquote slump. Now, what if we change our mindset about
(03:16):
a slump instead of thinking about gosh I am oh
for five, i am oh for eight, i am oh
for twelve. I'm gonna hit this tournament, I'm gonna hit
this series, I'm gonna hit the last two series. If
instead of we look at it as a slump or
something that is something we can't overcome, how about we
(03:37):
look at it as if we're dancing and we lost
our We just lost our rhythm, right. You know, when
you're dancing to a song, you just you can't really
find the beat, so you feel a little off, and
you may be off or the first half of the song,
but then finally you catch it again, You catch the beat.
And once you catch the beat, you get back on
rhythm and you start to feel good, and then you
start dancing and then you honestly don't even really need
(03:59):
to hear the song keep dancing because you found your
rhythm again. You found the way the beat goes, and
you know how to maintain it. That is what I
want everyone to start thinking of a slump as it's
just you losing your rhythm. And that's why in softball,
when we always say it just takes one right, it
just takes that one hit for us to get our
rhythm back. Why because we remember it's like, ah, that's
(04:21):
what I needed to do. I felt so off. I
wasn't seeing the ball well, my hands were getting to
the ball well. I wasn't staying inside the pitch, and
then we finally have that one good hit and we say, oh,
that is a switch. Right, What happened All that happen
is that we've found our rhythm again, right, changing the
mindset instead of thinking like, gosh, I'm I'm not seeing
the ball or saying that I just cannot catch a break,
(04:44):
I'm making contact, but the ball's hitting right to people, right,
instead of it being a situation where we're looking at
more of a negative. Do you guys, you know it's okay.
I just lost my rhythm. I just can't. I just
gotta keep listening. I gotta keep going till I find
the beat again. Once I find the beat, I'm a
dance like you've never seen somebody dance before. Right. It
just takes that one that one hit, that one moment
(05:07):
to catch the beat, that one moment to get your
rhythm back. And when you get your rhythm back, that's
when you get out of that slump because you feel good,
you feel good againting it and you know what to do.
So instead of thinking of it as a slump, that
god forsaken word. I hate the word slump. I don't
think if that's what it is. I just believe it's
you know, you just lost your rhythm for a little bit.
Keep going, keep working. You're going to find the beat again.
(05:27):
But you have to believe that. You have to believe
that you're going to find the beat and every single
at that if you go up because it's so easy
to go up to the at bats when you're in
a slump and say, I'm just I don't know what
to do. I'm not finding it, I'm not seeing it,
and nothing's working. And that mindset is what's keeping us down.
When we think like that versus I go in every
(05:47):
single at bat, I'm like, okay, boom boom, I swing
this way. I didn't see it here. Okay. Let me
maybe I track a little bit, maybe try to find
a different beat, track the ball a little bit longer, okay,
or we stay inside the ball. Every at bat is
an attempt to find the beat rather than an attempt
to get a hit. Right, When we're going up there
and say I'm just trying to get it hit, I
just want to get that hit, it puts so much
(06:08):
pressure on ourselves and it takes away from our mechanics
and takes away from us doing the little things and
just playing. We start to think while we're swinging, and
it's hard to think and hit at the same time.
So just go up there and try to find the beat.
And as we continue to dive deeper into our mindset
of the game. When you're up there trying to find
the beat, I think it's so important to have the
(06:29):
confidence of you stand in the box and you say,
let's say the picture got you out the first AB
and you're like, okay, you got me out once, but
you're not gonna get me out twice. Then you go
back in the deck out you do we gotta do, recalibrate.
You come back out your second A B. Maybe get
out your second a B. Okay, tip your hat to
the picture the catcher. You say, all right, you guys
got me out twice, but you're not gonna give me
(06:50):
out a third time. You come back out, maybe you
got out a third time. You let them know, all right,
you got me out three times. Congratulations. If I had
a medal, I would give it to you, because no
one's ever gotten me out of fourth right. And then
you keep going, You keep going, and it's that mentality
of you got me this type. But you're not going
to be the next you got me. Okay, maybe you
got me the next time, but you're not getting me
(07:11):
this fourth time, this fifth time, this sixth time. And
I guarantee you one of those times, you're gonna be right.
They're not gonna get you every single time. If you
go up with that mentality of no one's ever gotten
me six right, and as the numbers keep climbing up,
maybe feel a little bit discouraged, it's like, well listen,
it's getting higher, y'all. I don't think anybody in this
world can get me out ten right. So it's always
(07:32):
going up with the mindset of I'm going to be
a different player this AB. You guys thought you knew
about AJ Andrews the last two abs, but I'm a
different player this third one. You can't get AJ Andrews.
You can't get this AJ Andrews out. Completely shifting the
mindset and letting them know you are a new player
(07:54):
now than you were the last AB. You're a new
player now than you were the last game, the last turn,
whatever it is, because you took those failures and you
learn from them, and the only way to truly succeed
is to fail. I think people so many people think
failure is opposite of success, but it is a part
of it. And every time we fail, we're only adding
to a ladder. Think about it as a stair. Every
(08:17):
failure is you're adding another stair. You're adding another stair,
You're adding another stair, And what's happening is you're making
that ladder really long and really tall. And that's only
leading to the biggest and the highest successes as long
as you learn from those failures. And you know that
this failure taught me this, This failure taught me that
it's only going to elevate you higher to the biggest
(08:38):
and the best successes. They say, the expert has failed
more times than the beginner has even thought to begin.
So make sure that you're continuing to believe that no
matter how many times you get out, no matter how
many times you feel like you're in a slump, you're
working to find that beat. And as you're finding that beat,
you're letting everybody know that you are the world's best dancer.
(09:00):
And once you find your beat again, the world will know.
Let's take a quick break to hear a word from
our sponsor. I want everyone to really understand and know
that your power lies within you go back to our
(09:23):
affirmation and you create your own destiny. There's not the
nine players that are working to get you out do
not you do. And so I think that you know,
one time a situation where I can bring this back
to myself is one of the best moments of failure
that truly led to one of my biggest successes. Was
(09:45):
in pro ball when I was playing with the Akron
Racers and the season's going well, except probably the second
series or third series of the season. I go out
and make a diving catch and I ended up landing
on my my body lands on my hand and it
crushes my hand and so I broke my hand in
(10:07):
like three places, and it was excruciating. And for those
that know about professional softball, the season is just, you know,
it's just not that long of a season. And so
I knew that if I were to take out and
take off for the season, that would be the end.
I would just have to clock out. See you guys
next year. So I just double padded. It was my
catching hand, so I would put patting and everything in
(10:29):
my hand in my glove and go out and to
try to play defense. I would swing, but Lord knows,
I was really only using one hand to swing because
the vibration was hurting so bad because my hand was broken.
I was playing on a broken hand, And so I
wasn't really feeling like myself. And every time I came
up to the plate I had to remind myself of
(10:50):
who I was in order to not get down, and
in order to not allow an out or a failure
to define me, but rather it be a situation or
an opportunity to learn. And so continuing to go through
the season, I wasn't feeling like myself at all because
I just didn't feel like I was scared. Honestly, I
was scared to die because of the pain. I was
scared sometimes to even make a fly ball catch because
(11:13):
it hurt every time it landed. I resorted to bunting
a lot about the plate just to avoid the pain
of mishitting it or it catching the inside of the
inside of the bad and ricocheting through my hand. And
so I had all these negative thoughts, and I was
working so hard to come back from that. And while
it may not be what we categorize a slump as
(11:36):
right now, it was a slump. I was not myself.
I was completely outside. I lost my rhythm of who
I was as a player. I don't play scared, and
I was playing scared. And so I remember we were
playing the Pride at the time, and I was in
right field and Chelsea Goodacre hit the ball and as
she hit the ball, she hit it down the line.
(11:57):
It was behind me, and it was always the fin
I'm running. I'm running, I'm running, going to get the ball.
And I completely forget about my hand being broken in
that moment, because all I saw was the ball and
all like laser focused in on it, and I was
going to make the catch the old aja where I
(12:17):
always say, if it's hit anywhere near me, your stuff's
gonna get you. And I'm gonna make the catch. And
I completely forgot. What happened was my rhythm came back right.
I was working to catch that beat and I go
up and I lay out full body, spread one hand
up against the fence and make the catch. And I'm
positive that that is the catch that led to me
(12:39):
winning the gold Glove, to me being the first woman
to win a gold Glove. And in that moment, I
wasn't thinking of Oh man, if I catch this, it's
gonna hurt. Or if I don't catch this, then it's
gonna be terrible. Because it's down the line. I'm diving
to the ball down the line. She's gonna get easily
a triple, maybe in the park home run. Those things
weren't aren't coming to my mind. The thoughts that we
(13:02):
think when we're in a slump, whether it's a hitting
slump or on the field slump, or making errors on
the field. All that I was thinking about was catching
the beat. All I was thinking about was finding my rhythm.
All I was thinking about was being the AJ. I
know how to be right in the field. If we're
making errors, we know how to make those plays. But
because we're so nervous or we're thinking about the last errors,
when we make another one, stop thinking about that. Or
(13:24):
its same thing that we got out, our last ab
struck out, so now we're worried we're going to do
it again. Not thinking about that, thinking only about catching
my rhythm and being the age and knowing how to
dance the way agent knows how to dance, make plays
the way AJ knows how to make plays. It's all
that was going through my mind. And because of that,
because of the failures that I had experienced prior, it
(13:44):
only led to the the more notches on my ladder
that led to my highest success, which is being the
first woman to win a gold glove. And so I
say all that to say that oftentimes the biggest slumps
can lead you to the biggest success stories if you
allow it, and if you allow yourself to learn from it,
(14:06):
and you allow yourself to keep dancing until you find
that rhythm, until you find your beat again, because you will.
But you have to keep dancing, You have to keep going,
and you have to know every time you step up
to the plate that this time is not going to
be like the last time, every time you step out
to the field, that this time is not going to
be like the last time. This time is going to
be the real you. This time is going to be
(14:28):
who you are. You have to talk to yourself more
than you listen to yourself. That is so important, especially
when you're playing injured, because you know, we know, playing
injured is probably one of the hardest things to do
because it not only takes a hit on your your
skill set, because you're a little bit more limited than
you were before. But it takes a huge hit on
(14:50):
your confidence because the player that you knew yourself to
be just isn't showing up no matter how much you're trying,
no matter how much you want it to it just
physically because you hurt, It just simply isn't. And I
think in those moments you have to remember that. I
think it's so easy for us to identify the injured
play or the error or what we did wrong as
(15:12):
who we are and as who the player is, the
type of player that we are versus the successful versus
the amazing play we made before that versus all the
amazing plays we made before we were hurt, all the
amazing plays we made before we were injured, all the
amazing hits we had before we were injured. We begin
to really identify the things that we did when we
weren't doing well as who we are as players, without
(15:35):
realizing or taking away from who we were when we
were making the amazing plays and hitting the ball the
long balls. And so I think it's so important to
anytime something bad happens while you're injured or just in
general the game. You just said that was an aja, right,
that wasn't me. Don't identify that person as who you
are or the type of player you are. You say, no,
(15:57):
that wasn't me. I'm clocking in right now, is about
to clock in. That wasn't me. You don't associate that
with who you are as a player. You just say
that was just a lapse, that was a blip, and
that was you know, it was a blip in the matrix. Actually,
I'm surprised you guys saw that, and you make a
joke about it and move on. But nor do that.
You have to talk to yourself more than you listen.
(16:19):
And I say that because when we listen to ourselves,
sometimes it can be our own worst enemy, and sometimes
our brain says things that just aren't true, right, that
we know aren't true, and we're trying to combat that
and try to come over. So you have to talk
to yourself and say, I know I'm one of the
best players in the nation. I know I'm the best shortstop,
I know I'm the best outfielder. I know I can
make this play, I know I can hit this picture.
(16:41):
Instead of saying, well, well what if right, that little
voice that comes in talk over it every single time.
There's more to cover. But first, let's take a quick break, okay,
(17:02):
And as we're continuing to talk ourselves up and know
that we are the best and the baddest things to
ever step out on the field to make the plays
and to hit the balls, hit the pitches. I think
it's important in order to do so to have some
actionary things right. Yes, it's amazing to know the things
(17:22):
to say and to be confident and want to tell yourself,
but also it's important to apply them. So here are
some tools that I think would be amazing to help
apply to help that confidence and help you continue to
look at yourself and work towards building up and finding
that rhythm again. In the morning, before you step out
(17:43):
on that field, set an intention for your day. Of course,
you want to say your affirmation first. You want to
wake up and say that affirmation. Okay, we're gonna wake
up and we're gonna let ourselves know that I can
achieve all I want, non stop till I reached the top.
The power is within me. I create my own destiny.
After we say our affirmation to a mirror, probably like
(18:04):
three to four times, make sure we really feel it.
I want everyone to set an attention for the day.
So today I'm going to make five diving catches, right,
that is what I want to do today. I'm make
five diving catches to show myself that I can do it.
Or you go up and you say I'm gonna hit
five line drives up the middle today and every time
(18:26):
it's gonna be up the middle, or I'm gonna move
the runner. Right, it doesn't even have to be something
that is for you. You can say today, I'm going
to be selfless today. I'm going to cheer so loudly
for my teammates. Today, I'm going to be the loudest
player on the field. Today, I'm going to sprint out
to the outfield, sprint out to my position every single
(18:47):
inning and be the first one out. Set an intention
to note and allow yourself to achieve it every single day.
My intention today is to go out and just to
play hard. My intention today is I am going to
play so hard today that it's gonna be really hard
to get this dirt off my uniform tomorrow. Right, we
set an attention that allows us to not feel like
(19:09):
we have to achieve something, but rather know that this
is what I'm gonna I'm not leaving today until I
get this done right, versus being like I'm going to
get a hit today, I'm gonna be one for three today.
That's my attention. No, because you sometimes you just those
are things you can't always control. But you can't control
your hustle. You can control your effort. You can control
how many times you're gonna go out and you're gonna
(19:31):
make something happen. You can control how hard you work,
you can control how how loud you yell. So go
out and set attention and go out and achieve that,
and set the intention to know that you are going
to be the best at whatever it is. And they say,
no matter what it is that you do, be the best.
So if I'm going to be the best outfielder today,
(19:53):
to me, that means I'm going to be giving my
one hundred percent effort for every single ball. I'm going
to you make all my throws. I'm going to go
out and do all the right things today. Once you
set your intention, I also then want you to set
one goal. So I made my intention of what it
is that I want to do today, the player that
I want to be today, and then you set one
(20:14):
goal that you want to achieve and So whether that
is you leave the field today feeling better, right, I'm
going to get everybod always say get one percent better today,
But what is that one percent? Right? I want you
to set what that goal is that one percent today
is going to be. I am going to get one
percent better at going back on the ball. I'm going
(20:37):
to get one percent better today at my throws. I'm
going to get one percent better at the inside pitch.
The way I like to view this is good better best,
make your good better and your better best. So you're
going to find what you think you're good at and
you're gonna make it better today. To find we think
you're better at and maybe gonna make it best today.
(20:58):
Pick one, but pick one that you're really going to
dedicate your time, to your energy to, and that one
percent too. As we continue to get better every single day,
we want to make sure we are focused and ready
as soon as we step out onto the field. And
another thing that's really good to start your day is
(21:20):
having a routine, something that allows you to feel really
comfortable and allows you to feel ready and prepared for
the day. So we start with our affirmations and then
it is whatever you really feel like is going to
make you feel either the most prepared, or going to
make you feel the most relaxed, or going to make
you feel the most mentally ready to go out and
(21:42):
to achieve your one percent. It's so hard to go
out and play a game of failure. If we are
not ready to be the player that potentially fails. You
have to accept feel, almost have the thing of failure.
As like your friend. You have a befriend failure. As
(22:03):
hard as it sounds, it is the only way to
truly succeed. Failure is inevitable in this game, and the
more you try to stray away from it, the more
you try to avoid it, the more it seeks you out.
It seems right. We always say the ball will find
the player that doesn't want the ball, Right, It's gonna
find you. So you have to always honestly almost befriend
(22:25):
failure and say listen, you check in with failure today
and say, hey, if we have an encounter today, just
know that I'm going to overcome you. It's only going
to be one and then you move on. Never be
afraid of failure. If you point me out, you can
point me the player that's afraid to fail. And I'll
point to the player you can beat every single time.
(22:47):
You just cannot be afraid to fail. Have that mental routine,
have that physical routine that allows you to feel comfortable
and allows you to know that you will be successful.
But despite no matter how successful you are, you still
are not afraid to fail because you know that the
only way to truly reach success is sometimes through failure.
(23:11):
And so success truly favors the brave. Success favors the brave.
So go out, be brave, go out be strong, go
out be tenacious, and go out and be fabulous. That's
my thing. Go out be fabulous because you can get
it done. Make sure that you are treating the confidence
like a muscle, right, muscle confidence is something that has
(23:35):
to be worked on, just the way working out is.
We work out every single day. We don't always see
results immediately, right. You see results in a week, in
two weeks, sometimes in months. But you have to work
that confidence the same way you work out a muscle.
It only gets stronger and gets bigger with consistency. So
(23:55):
making sure that you're not just doing this one time,
that every single day, that's when you're truly going to
see results. And then once you see those results, and
once you have that muscle, it's very hard to even
if you take a week off after you built up
that confidence, it still doesn't go away, right, So you
have to build yourself up so hard, build yourself up
so vast that nothing can dismantle it. Nothing can dismantle
(24:18):
that confidence, Nothing can dismantle who you are as a
player and the mindset that you have. All Right, we
dove deep into the mental aspect of the game, what
it takes in order to truly reach success, and we're
going to keep shining bright like a diamond on and
off the field. Some really cool stuff that has happened
(24:39):
in the AUSL that allows the amazing women that are
playing too shine bright like diamonds. Is the deal with Sephora.
Siphoras come in and sponsored the Championship series when it
comes to the AUSL and truly highlighting and showing that
investing in women's sports is not only important, but it
(25:00):
is worth it. It is valuable. It is something that
is going to create a return, an ROI return on investment,
and we love to see so many brands and so
many different people investing in softball and in women's sports.
It's only going to continue to get better, bigger and
only going to continue to get better. We haven't given
(25:24):
our flowers to the Talons who have won the first
inaugural Aussel season. Montana Fouts was able to throw out
a gym on the field in her hometown of Tuscaloosa.
Over there at the University of Alabama. She was able
to showcase and show off in front of her home
(25:45):
crowd and win that championship on the field that ultimately
raised her. It was so exciting to watch and so exciting.
Sidney Romero had an amazing game torri the Dallas coming
out of that first home run. I think so many
players really set the standard and set the stage for
what it looks like within professional softball and all the
excitement that is to come professional softball. This is we're
(26:07):
coming to an end, and we're so exciting because next
year the four teams, the Talents, the Volts, the Bandits,
and the Blazes will have their own market cities. I
actually got to talk to some Major League Baseball players
and to hear where they thought that the Talents, the Bandits,
the Blaze, and the Bolts where they should be going.
(26:30):
And they had some amazing and funny things to say.
Moogie Bets. I think he thinks that the Blade should
be in California, so we have some fun maybe have
like a Blaze and a Dodgers. You know, we have
a little connection there. Make something happen between the two.
But then they're adding two more new teams, which is
(26:52):
also going to be really exciting next year for the AUSL.
So professional softball is only getting bigger and it's only
getting better. And if you are along for the ride
right now, congratulations, you're a head of the curve because
it is taking off and it's not going to stop.
Keep listening to Dropping Diamonds. There's so much amazing information
(27:14):
and so much amazing talent and words of wisdom to
be learned and to be heard by the amazing women
that played this game. Talking to professional softball players, and
as college softball comes down the corner going to be
talking to the amazing talent and collegiate softball. It's only
going to get bigger, it's only going to get better.
And to all the Diamond listeners, thank you so much
(27:34):
for listening to today's episode. I want to know what
you want to hear, What things are you interested in
knowing about with these professional softball players, please head to
the Dropping Diamonds Instagram and send me a dam Let
me know what you want to hear, what questions you
have for the girls. I'm gonna make sure that those
get answered. Remember the quote for today. Whether you believe
(27:58):
you can or you believe you can cannot. Either way
you are right. So go out, set your attention, set
your affirmation. If I can achieve all I want, non
stop till I reach the top the powers within me,
I create my own destiny. Thank you guys all so
much for listening. I'll meet you here next week back
at the Diamond Bye for now. Dropping Diamonds with AJ
(28:28):
Andrews is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with
Athletes Unlimited Softball, Dinge, and Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
I'm your host, AJ Andrews. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz.
Tari Harrison is our supervising producer, and this episode was
mixed and mastered by Mary Doo. Listen to Dropping Diamonds
with AJ Andrews on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(28:51):
wherever you get your podcasts.
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