The Fearless Warrior Podcast

092: How Mental Skills Propelled Jordan Roberts to Professional Softball

• Amanda Schaefer

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This week, I am sharing our Mentorship Call from January with Jordan Roberts. She takes us on her journey with Coach Kara and our Warriors about how she went from a college catcher at the University of Florida to a professional player with Athletes Unlimited, revealing how mental performance tools transformed her game and life.

Episode Highlights:

• Key mental tools: journaling and breathwork
• Forging mental resilience through repeated exposure to challenges
• Value of creating an identity outside of softball
• The power of viewing pressure as a privilege rather than a burden
• Finding joy in the game after overcoming the fear of disappointing others

Connect with Jordan:

IG: @jojo_beans14




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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the fearless warrior podcast, a place for athletes, coaches and parents who know the value of a strong mindset. I'm your host, coach AB, a mental performance coach on a mission, former softball coach, wife and mom of three. Each episode, we will dive deep into all things mental performance, mindset tools and how to rewire the brain for success. So if your goal is to gain the mental edge and learn the secrets of mental performance, mindset tools and how to rewire the brain for success, so if your goal is to gain the mental edge and learn the secrets of mental performance, you're in the right place. Let's tune in to today's episode.

Speaker 2:

Hello ladies, welcome to tonight's mentorship call. Tonight we are so excited we have a great guest joining us tonight, someone that you guys get to meet. You've probably seen her playing. We have Jordan Roberts here with us. Jordan played for the University of Florida as a catcher and something really neat which we'll probably have her talk about is that, as a catcher at Florida, probably have her talk about is that as a catcher at Florida, she actually has their career fielding percentage at 1.0, which means 100. She had zero errors in all of her fielding attempts, which is incredible as at a career at a top school like Florida at catcher, where she got such a ball lot. So she holds that record. I doubt it's going anywhere anytime soon. I mean the best anyone can do is match you right like no one's. No one's going to beat you for it. But Jordan is a multi-sport athlete, or was a multi-sport athlete. She played volleyball, weightlifted, ran cross country and swam all in high school. So she was busy, busy, busy. I also saw you've run a couple half marathons, is that right?

Speaker 3:

I was going to talk about that. I got marathons. Is that right? You just said I was gonna talk about that not until running after college, and I don't know if I'll ever run another one, but I've got two under my belt.

Speaker 2:

There you go. She's run two half marathons, um, currently a professional with athletes unlimited, and so she gets to play with that group of ladies every summer and that's pretty neat. And then recently, or I guess we said 2021 she started her own business. So she has a coffee cart that she owns called Daily Cup of Joe, which is a such a cute play on your name. That's a great, great name. Um, welcome, we'll go ahead and let you share what you ever feel like, or introduce yourself, share your story with these girls, hi everyone.

Speaker 3:

So she kind of covered a little bit of everything. Um, I, my name is jordan. I'm from a very small town in live oak, florida. Um, my softball career started at eight years old. It actually I started playing with boys during ricky ball. Um, and I think my entire life has just been filled with all kinds of sports. And then, once I turned about 9, 10, 11, I realized softball was my thing.

Speaker 3:

Um, I started out as a pitcher actually, and transitioned into a catcher when I was 12 or 13, and my entire career has just been filled with lots of travel, ball tournaments, traveling, getting to go all over, and when I transitioned into a catcher, it was kind of that light bulb that came off. I got to work with Kaylee Raptor, who works at Florida State, and got to learn a lot of things from some really good athletes. And then I was grateful to be able to go to the University of Florida. I have a lot of people that ask me about recruiting and how I got there and what the process looked like, and it was definitely a lot of weekends of softball and then camps were like the best thing that I ever really decided to get into. I waited until I was a freshman sophomore in high school, um, to really do the Monday night clinics. They offer a lot of those at Florida State, florida UCF, which are schools that are around me, and that was really where I got to create relationships with the cultures and kind of get an idea of where I wanted to place off on college. My hometown is actually an hour away from Florida, so it was very, very convenient. I went to a place that allowed my family to come and watch me as often as they could. I wanted that more than anything. That was really awesome and being at Florida was one of the, I will say, the hardest thing that I've ever experienced, but also one of the most rewarding things. Um, I made a lot of great relationships. That would really be.

Speaker 3:

I knew at a young age what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go, and I really wanted to play at the women's powerball series and I could do that three times. It was incredible every single time and it seems like that was the place where I really just felt like myself. I really tried and it was such a fun experience. So I'm really grateful that I got to do that.

Speaker 3:

College taught me so much about who I am as a person and also who I'm not. I struggled a lot as a person and also who I'm not. I struggled a lot. I think now we're kind of in this realm of mental the mental side of the game but I had no really idea about, and once I got into college it was something that I realized that I I didn't really have. Um, I didn't have that in my tree belt. I worked really hard when I was younger. I was always a big kid so I felt like I kind of signed in that sense and set myself apart. But once I got to college I kind of snuck away a little bit because there was something that was in my tree belt.

Speaker 3:

If I could give you guys any advice, I think using resources. If I could give you guys any type of advice, I think using resources is understanding what you can do and how you can create such a healthy multiple relationship. The game really allows you to figure out who you are and kind of separate who you are outside of softball and who you are in softball fall and who you are in the fall. Unfortunately, whenever I was a senior, covid was the real. That probably kind of shut everything down. So it was my last year. It was one of the best falls I was ever having Mentally, physically, emotionally.

Speaker 3:

College kind of drained me. There's a lot of pieces to the puzzle in the bed of college and then I realized like I was not going to get to finish out my feedback and I decided to not go back and I think that was probably a really life-changing moment for me because I was able to walk away knowing what I had given every ounce of heart, soul, passion, all the effort that I had to have a world-wide legit career. I decided that going back will get in the best for me. I was ready to get it on time. I kind of had everything figured out and I kind of just trusted myself and I had a lot of faith in knowing that whatever was next, I was going to figure it out. I loved getting lessons when I was in college. I loved working with younger athletes. I loved sharing the game. So I kind of figured I was going to be a coach at some point.

Speaker 3:

And then I got an opportunity two weeks after I decided not to get back from an old friend from Oregon, one of his friends, becca she's probably heard of me before she's played a athlete's in London. She asked me to come ask me if I wanted to play professionally. And I promise you guys, like I honestly never thought that I would end up in this space playing with so many amazing athletes, I got to play with Kat Oskina, who's just an unbelievable. She has become one of my greatest friends. But I will have her a really long time, forever, and I learned a lot that year after college kind of getting out of that space living away from home.

Speaker 3:

Kind of figuring out of that space moving away from home, kind of figuring out what was next, but also figuring out what life was like outside of college, what being an athlete means outside of playing for my college. I had so much pride playing at the University of Florida. It was really well-tough but it was so much fun. I had a big day to plan and I was really sad to leave, but I am so grateful that I was able to walk away and move on to the next thing because it opened up a lot of doors for me. It allowed my business to grow. It allowed for me mentally and emotionally to kind of figure out who I am, how to approach myself, what it looks like to be a professional, how it feels to play like a professional, what it feels like to play good professionals. I just learned from the people that are and were older than me Now I'm going into my sixth summer.

Speaker 3:

We actually have our draft tomorrow for Athletes Unlimited, so make sure you guys watch 8pm. It's being posted on YouTube. So I'm kind of going into this season with a lot of gratitude Because I know for myself personally, I think kind of see the light of being with the tunnel. I have a coffee business that I've decided to open for the first year. But I feel like athletes are limited and it's been incredible to find a deep dive into something that has nothing to do with sports. I love a lot. It's challenging, it helps me learn, it helps me grow and also my passion outside of softball. So I think if you guys can continue to grow in the sport, also know you are outside of it, you have other passions, um, and you'll figure that out as you go, you'll realize what you really love to do or why you like to spend your free time, and, although there's probably not a lot of free time when we're playing football, learning that and figuring that out has allowed me to find a piece with. All my softball crew has gone and I don't know how long I'll play this. I don't know what the future holds, but I really take pride in just the the work that it takes and the process. It's a little bit different. It's a lot different than college. We play in the summers, so being accountable for how I get my work done, what that looks like, balancing my lifestyle and my coffee, business and relationships and family has been something that I really enjoy.

Speaker 3:

I love sharing about the struggles that I've had in college. I really struggled physically with the six-day longs and the early workouts. I was an athlete and I played a lot of sports, but I always love to tell for younger kids that are coming up to prioritize that, because I do think that that doing hard things and doing things that are super out of your comfort zone or something that you feel like you're not even capable of doing, allows you to grow and do the mental reps that are required. I hated running in college. I was very I'm very slow. It's something that I really really struggled with, and so that's kind of where the half marathons came to play.

Speaker 3:

After my college career, I realized how important it is to face the hard things right on and not allow yourself to let your feelings dictate how your day is going to go, how the game is going to go, how your practice is going to go. It's really easy, I think, for us to go about our day-to-day and practice how we feel or we don't feel good about this, so we're just not going to have a good game. I think you can still show up, you can still take the action required to do what you need to do on your phone, whether it be in practice, whether it be again, whether it be find that phone um just getting the rep friend to put aside the way that you feel or prioritize what you want for yourself in the future. And I think the need of being really very important. And once I ran my first sophomore fund, I realized like running was hating the running and doing the hard things. That was just kind of like a narrative in my head. But I wasn't able to give up in college because it was kind of like my crutch.

Speaker 3:

And so I really challenge my athletes and I challenge you to do be physically ready to once you're ready to get approval and if that's something that you want to do. Everyone can go out and everybody can go out and pitch. Everybody can go out and take ground balls, but not everybody wants to do the running, not everybody wants to work out, not everyone wants to take care of their body, not everyone wants to eat the right things. And I think if you can sacrifice the things that you want right now, in this moment, the things that matter to you most, who you want to be, where you want to play, who you want coaching for you, the athlete that you want to be, um, you will see some of the biggest change in your life. Um, mentally, emotionally, that's kind of it. Do you have any questions for me?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think that's all so awesome. I love that. Like at some point everybody's going to have to walk away from the game.

Speaker 1:

Like nobody's body lasts forever.

Speaker 2:

Nobody. Nobody's opportunities last forever, Like either you hit the end of your opportunities or you hit the end of what your body's going to allow you to do, and I love what you talked about that you know having an identity outside has helped you be able to step away.

Speaker 2:

You know we thought you were stepping away from softball maybe forever, but you were able to come back to it. But I think that's so great to hear that you know you were. You were somebody else and I mentioned in your intro I'd said that you had played other sports as well. How do you think that helped you as an athlete, as a softball player? Do you think that you benefited from having exposure to those other sports as well?

Speaker 3:

I really do, and I think that it puts you being a one sport athlete really just puts you in a box in a lot of ways. I think softball is one of those really tough sports. It requires so much of you and I needed those other sports to kind of be an outlet for me when things maybe weren't going great or I was really ultra competitive as a kid. So I think it was just innate and natural for me to want to do a ton of things, but I think I quickly also realized like it was doing a lot for my body. Being a volleyball player has benefits to being a softball player.

Speaker 3:

I ran a season across country and I want to tell you guys that I hated every minute of it, like it was a huge thing I've ever done in my life and I honestly did it for my best friend because she was like oh, we're going to get ready for softball, it's going to be great conditioning. I hated it. But I also think it's important as you grow to do things that are super out of your comfort zone, that you never know what you might get out of it. Now, being 26 years old, I actually really enjoy running for a half marathon more than running the race, because it's about the ability to stay dedicated to something that is really really hard and learn to love your process. And everybody's process is different and I think there's no plippy cutter way to kind of get to where you want to be. It's going to be different for all of you, but if you can kind of channel these or just try like, just try these other sports you don't have to be good at them um, you might meet some of the best friends that you'll ever have. I think it's something that I really valued.

Speaker 3:

My experience as a weightlifter that was one of the things out of all the sports that I did that I was really proud of because I was getting stronger. I got to go to a state weightlifting meet two years in a row, so I was all fine for things. I think it just taps into another piece of your brain that is kind of outside of your main sport. You want to play and it's just, it's healthy, it's a bigger body. I tell all my kids I'm like I know you want to do just one one bidding, but if you can find a way to try, even if it's just one other sport, you'll thank yourself just for the attempt, and you might even fall in love with it yeah, and I mean it even goes beyond sports right to anything that we try out, anything.

Speaker 2:

It broadens our horizon. Yeah, you can teach us things about ourselves we may not have ever known. You know, we can learn things. And then it all goes into just creating this wider identity of like I am a softball player, but I can also be, or maybe I'm an artist or maybe I like to write. Like you can have all these, you know all these well-rounded parts of your life that they contribute to like creating that identity. So I think that's awesome. What? So? You talked about your tool belt. You didn't really feel like you had like a tool belt. What do you feel like so, now that you've learned some of these mental skills? What do you think is what's your favorite mental skill that you now have on your tool?

Speaker 3:

about that you wish you had had earlier on so I one of the things that I and I still struggle. I I don't think some of these things like ever just go away. Growing up I just really and even who I am as a person, I just have this, have this thing about me where I really care about. I was really worried about pleasing my coaches, really worried about pleasing my parents, and that was kind of the mental I don't want to call myself and I think at some point I was kind of like a mental midget. I like struggled, kind of getting past letting people down and knowing, thinking about how the failure was going to affect other people, when in reality it's. It's not, it's just this narrative that we create like the worst possible thing that can happen is that your parents are still gonna love you if you try that three times or you make a mistake. And so I had a. I had such a hard time because I was that that you know little fish in a big pond. I got to go play at Florida and I just wanted. I just wanted to kind of live up to my expectations of myself. But I think when you think about a goal or you think about you know the idea or expectation for yourself. It's really important to reverse engineer, like how you want to reach that goal or how you want to be that athlete or how you want to do something really, really well. And for me, all I could think about was just being that person being successful, getting the job done all the time, being a reliable, good teammate, my coaches loving like all these things, my parents being proud of me, and I completely, like, got lost in that feeling and wanting to do that so bad that I really didn't take the time to prioritize my mental health. To prioritize my mental health having the three pitch routine, having the routine when you step into the box, being able to get from one inning to the next, with being a catcher, like you don't have to think about what you just did in the box when your pitcher is doing his pitch and you, we weren't calling pitches, but I think now, being a professional, I'm calling pitches. I don't have time to think about what I just did.

Speaker 3:

I think being able to, like, really have a short-term memory it's very easy to say that, but I think the more you do it, the easier it gets and understanding that there's nothing that you can do on the field. That's going to truly disappoint anyone Like I think we just put a lot of weight in our life. I think that that's when it kind of boots into who we are as individuals. It bleeds into our identity and our ideal separation, our identity, and there is no separation.

Speaker 3:

So I think for me it's like understanding, like yes, I have goals, I have expectations and standards for myself, but how can I reverse, engineer all what I want to achieve before thinking about, like what that looks like and what happens if I don't reach it? Like what do I need to be doing? Every single like arc the line, just focus, um and take one bite at a time, like you can't eat an elk, can't in one big bite, you'd have to take about at a time. And so I think for me it was like my colleagues, and it probably would have been a lot easier not easier, but more manageable if I hadn't looked at this full piece of a big picture of what it looks like, what I want it to look like, and get lost in that instead of just doing the little things day by day. It's kind of filled up the stamina, mentally and physically um, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, talk about super relatable. Raise your hand, ladies. If you've ever felt like I'm gonna let my teammates down, I'm gonna let my parents down, I'm gonna let my coach down, like everybody feels that at some point as an athlete, like it's so so easy. So this this is jordan freaking. Rober Roberts, right like this is a professional athlete, someone we all can aspire to be like, and she's telling you right now that she's struggling with these things too. So it it's so normal. It's so and I love what you said like there's nothing you can do on the field, good or bad. That's going to change the way your parents feel about you.

Speaker 3:

It's not possible. They are going to love you no matter what. And something else, too, that I think about was like I used to get so I struggled with the pressure of everything that was that I had worked for. I worked so hard to get to florida. And they always say like, yeah, you worked hard. But the hard work starts now, the day that you step on campus, because you gotta stay there and you gotta figure out how to flow and get all the things that you want.

Speaker 3:

After that and it is true, but the only way to overcome the fear of that failure or the things that you're, you can lie that down. Journaling was the number one thing that I did in college. I learned how to do the breathing. I think that's a huge piece of the puzzle that helped me calm my nerves. It's another tool, um, but writing down your biggest fears and understanding whether it be something that you're doing on the field. The only way to overcome that is to attempt a rep again and again. So you have to keep playing hard. You have to keep showing up to practice going hard. You have to make those mistakes more often to get over the fact that you're going to make that mistake. You're going to do it again.

Speaker 3:

I make mistakes, even at the professional level, and I think we're finally put from like You're going to do it again. I make mistakes, even at the professional level, and I think we're finally quick. We're like the fail was never going to end. That's the reality of our sport. That's the name of our game. So it's all about how am I responding? Am I going to stop attempting to fail Just because I'm scared of it? No, I want to be attempting to fail just because I'm scared of it. No, I want to be able to manage the pressure of being on the field and it not really affect me in a negative way, something I learned from Amanda Roran.

Speaker 3:

She's one of my teammates in college. She's a teammate now. She thrived under so much pressure in a lot of games that we played Like she's the little hand of Brie, like one in the game for a one rush, pepsis or Jones. Like we played a 17 in the game against Oklahoma my first year at the world series, and she was incredible and I just was in awe of her because the mallet never got too big for her. She was never afraid of anything, not nothing. She didn't care. Nothing, she didn't care. She didn't care about failure. It was just this little part of it and we'll get to try again. So I think for me it was very huge under grooming like this is so exciting.

Speaker 3:

I I get the pressure, I get to feel this pressure. It's a privilege, it's an honor, it's a game. It's not. It doesn't define me at the end of the day who I am, but wow, it's so cool. I get, I get to go in.

Speaker 3:

My face is loaded two outs my freshman year. If you told me that that was going to be a situation I would be shaking in my boots. But now I'm like, let's do it. Let's see what happens. I'm excited, let me be the one that I'll do it. I want to be the first one up. So I would say you can, I think, put yourself in positions where you're you might fail, because it's a big, big moment, or something like that. Do it, because you're gonna thank yourself later when you're 16, 17 or 18, and it doesn't faze you, because you know that the opportunities are gonna come and you've already been in that moment. You know. You already know what it feels like to fail and maybe you already know what it feels like to see, and so you have a better understanding of this. Pressure doesn't have to be a weight on my shoulders. It can just be an opportunity. Let's see what happens.

Speaker 2:

I love how you talk about too. It's reps, right, and we talk about that a lot. Girls who are in the program. You guys know we talk a lot about all of these mental skills. We have to practice them over and over and over again. It's like people expecting like I'm going to go take a grounder today and if I miss it then I must not be good at softball. And they do that with their mental game. They think I just am not a confident person. You know, like I, I failed and I got sad, so I can't, I can't learn how to recover from failure. But you've got to take the reps. You've got to practice failing and picking yourself back up and moving on in order to get better at it, and so I love that. The mental game is all about mental reps, just like the physical game is all about physical reps. You've got to do it over and over and over again, and that's why these tools are so great to learn.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, jordan. Thank you so much. This has been awesome. We are running a little short on time, but I did want to open up Girls. If you are on here and would like to ask Jordan a question, you can either unmute yourself, or you can go ahead and put it in the chat. You know any question that you feel like asking her about her experiences at Florida, maybe, or even as a professional, or what she ate for breakfast this morning. I think you can ask her pretty much anything, right, whatever?

Speaker 2:

you guys, whatever your burning question is, I do notice we have at least one Florida fan on here. Kelly, it looks like you got a Florida shirt on your rep in Japan. Can you see her? Jordan, she came prepared All right questions, ladies.

Speaker 3:

What do you?

Speaker 2:

have.

Speaker 3:

There's a couple of them later. What do you have? Probably Kelly Barmill.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love Kelly too hey, we should get Jordan to hook us up with her. Right, we should have her come talk to us. That would be awesome. We would love to have her. So Adeline's got a question for you do you have advice for a catcher? What's your advice for a catcher?

Speaker 3:

I think my advice, um, for catchers is to really embrace the knowledge of the game. Um, I think it's a lot of things are required when you're behind the plate. There is an, a present that you need behind the plate is a confident that you need, and you kind of touched on confidence and I I struggled a lot for being a confident player and I think I'd be now, but I want you guys to let it up. It comes from your preparation and it's very much a choice. You decide how you show up every single day and how you carry yourself, and so I would say, catcher, specifically like, just confidence is how you carry yourself with your body language, how you speak to your teammates, are you loud? It's something that you kind of grow into from being vocal on the field. I struggled with, I worked really hard to getting better at it and now I feel like I'm a pro and I would say the knowledge of the game is the most important. So, if you need to know the game better than anyone, you get to see everything on the field. Watching softball is going to help you do that. Asking questions, you want to do that, um, there's a lot of resources out there. I think that's something that I kind of struggled with when I got into college wasn't something I was necessarily taught. You know where the ball needs to be cut, some relay things like that. So learning the game, being local, having a presence, being super confident, um, that's gonna help you stand out. Okay.

Speaker 3:

What was the day? I knew I was on a gay day, college, um, a day in the life on a game day. So if we were traveling, it would be a little bit different than being at home typically on a game day. I might still have class on the weekends. I would not. I would wake up, get coffee um, we would always have early hitting, so we have early hitting groups before the game. Uh, we were always there super early. We would get our pre-game meal and spend time with my teachers and then kind of get into our warm-up. Um, I like to keep it pretty simple on a game day. I'm a coffee drinker, so coffee is like my go-to. Obviously have to have it, get a good breakfast and then kind of get into the day. But the game days are kind of long because we have a ton of things before Wanting to hopefully journal it out.

Speaker 3:

So I really find it helpful to journal just how I'm feeling. I think, for me personally, I am a overthinker and I really love my people. I love taking care of people, but sometimes it can kind of bleed out and I don't take care of myself. So it's really important for me to journal about how I'm feeling, kind of get out, what's kind of piling up in there. I like to journal about my hitting. I find that very helpful if you are struggling with hitting or anything like that, or not even struggling, but just making it kind of like a routine to journal how you're feeling that day. What does your routine look like? How do you want to adjust your routine? Um, because on your hard days, if you can go back and look at like, okay, this day I was doing this and I felt this and that was a really good day, it kind of helps you bounce back faster. And a really good athlete the great athletes have the ability to bounce back quick, and so I think that's a really good tool, and I'm also a very faith-driven human, so I like to journal my prayers and just little things like that. You can find a lot of resources online to journal, like journal lawns and things like that.

Speaker 3:

Okay, what mental skill do you use the most? I would say I think breathwork is something that really allows me to kind of clear my mind and accomplish it. It doesn't matter what I'm doing. I think breathing in general has allowed me to manage emotions, stress, kind of anything that I'm facing, um, it's allowed me to visualize what I want to do. So whether it's visualizing what I'm doing in the box, how I'm approaching a pitcher, um, how I want to call pitches for my pitchers in games, um, kind of forward thinking, a little bit, meditating and just being in like a peaceful state. I think there's a lot of athletes that benefit, the kind of what's the word? Like their height number is really high. I'm kind of low, so like I'm a very even heel human, I don't really exuberate a lot of energy in the dugout and that works for me. So kind of knowing like if I'm getting too hyped then I'm probably not going to be in my best, be my best self in the box or behind the plate. My emotions are too high or too low.

Speaker 3:

What made you want to play for Florida? I really wanted to play for. I wanted to play for Coach Long because I really think that he is one of the smartest coaches I have ever met in my life. He was really tough on me and I needed someone that was tough. I needed something that was going to make you mentally tougher and stronger and push me to my limits, and he did that every single day. I really wanted to be close to my family and I really wanted to go to the World Series and that was a big, big dream of mine and I knew playing there was going to be an opportunity for me to get there and I got to do that and it was incredible. Um, and I think the campus itself is really incredible. The culture there is a championship mindset, no matter what you do. I think that that has carried me really far in my life, because everything that I want to do, I want to be really great at it. I want to be a champion as a business owner. I want to be a champion as a daughter. I want to be a champion as a sister, as an aunt. I want to do everything for the best of my ability and have really high standards so that I'm living my life to the fullest and I'm not leaving anything on the table once my time here on earth is over.

Speaker 3:

What do you, what do I do when you get the ballpark? Any sport I have to think about that. I feel like as a catcher. So this is something that's really helped me is being able to you can do this in any position um, thinking about kind of the possible scenarios before that actual play happens. So for you know me, being a catcher, there's a lot of things that can happen in a situation. So I think I'm always trying to be a couple steps ahead, so like, so that I'm not panicking, because I feel like panicking is just like a lack of being prepared or being ready in the moment. And so I think, if you can, it goes back to the knowledge of the game and just how the game transpires and what's going on, and knowing your teammate and knowing kind of any type of thing that could happen. It really prepares you for the moment and you're not going to feel that panic If it does happen. I think it's just kind of going back to a reset. It does happen. I think it's just kind of going back to a reset. Something that I learned from Ellie Cooper she's at Florida State, she's her mental performance coach is just having the ability to like, like. What's your reset. Is it a? Is it a thing? Is it a physical thing that you do? Is it a motto, a song? It's something that brings you back because we're gonna have those moments. I think in the game it still happens, but can you come up with something that allows you to reset and flush it? That's a really important tool to have in your pocket.

Speaker 3:

How often practice? I practice every single day, and that was a non-negotiable with my parents and something that I really take a lot of pride in, that I work really, really hard. But I do want to say that more doesn't always mean more work. Quality is is something that you should prioritize over doing more of, and you can do a lot of it. A lot of reps, really really well. You're going to get really really good quickly. So I think for me, it was something that I had to do every single day if I wanted to get to where I was going. It was a non-negotiable.

Speaker 3:

And then, obviously, if you're in another sport, you have to. There's balance. Like softball is not a year, it doesn't have to be a year-round thing, especially when you're super young. Um, you're going to have those seasons, just like in life, when you're outside of sports. There's seasons in your life where you have to maybe sacrifice time somewhere or balance things out in other areas, um, but softball was always kind of like it was the priority. But if I'm in volleyball and like I'm going to my volleyball practices, I'm going to my games and there's nothing wrong with taking a break. But it's just kind of understanding, like, what do you need as an athlete to get better? If you want to see results? You have to put the reps in, you have to put the work in, and it can't just be when you feel like it. So if you can kind of get into a routine, I always tell my kids, like, if you can do a little bit every single day, a little by little becomes a lot, it compounds over time, you're going to get results. I will just not any more slides, or how does that work? Um, so a lot of.

Speaker 3:

I played local travel ball, which was really competitive back when I was younger. I don't know how competitive it is now. Um, but right when I decided that Florida was really on my radar and I had a couple other schools that I was interested in, I was going to camp, I was going. My recommendation, when you get there is going to camps, because that allows you to get to know the coaches on a deeper level. The Monday night clinics, the one day getting like the really small ones, are awesome because you kind of get some. It's not one time that you're close to it and I think that allows you to figure out if you really like that place a lot, if you like those coaches, if you like like you know where the school is. You're getting to know and be a part of the whole environment. And I think what some athletes forget is that not only are these coaches like you're trying to sell yourself almost like when you're getting recruited you're trying to, you're putting yourself kind of on the market and you're showing them your best self and who you are but also these coaches are selling themselves and their school and what they have to offer.

Speaker 3:

And I try to kind of give advice to kids that are getting into that recruiting process. Like your values are what matter the most in your life and as an athlete. So if you can make a list of what you value top to bottom and if that matches, then that's going to give you the ability to make a good decision about what college you need to go to. You don't want to go to a college just because it's a Division I and they're a Power 5 school. It may not be the place for you. They may not have the same values that you do, they may not have the academics that you do or you or want to do. So we don't want to sacrifice that for a school because on the back end of that you're going to be a little disappointed that you'll um so definitely do the camps.

Speaker 3:

Travel ball is really important. I didn't start doing any national stuff until I was a sophomore in high school, so I awaited the big investment a lot for your parents. So playing the best tournaments, playing against the best kids, um is going to make you better. So I would recommend that if you were here, I would tell my 10 year old self that, um, it sounds so cliche, but like I wish at 10 years old I would have had more fun. Um, I really took it so serious to a point where I think it like crippled me a little bit because I just wanted I was so, so competitive but I forgot, like how much fun softball is and I think in my later years of playing like since being with athletes unlimited. These have been the most fun years I've ever had playing softball, because I think I just allowed myself to have fun and understood that, like, the game goes by so fast. Be, your career is going to go by so fast. You don't realize it until it's gone and you're going to have plenty of time to work a job and be an adult and do all the adult things, but the game goes by so fast. So if you can just have fun and enjoy being with your friends and getting better together and challenging each other, you're going to really thank yourself when you're my age. I did catch Elizabeth Hightower. I played with her for two years, I believe, and she's incredible. I got to play with her at AUX a few years ago. Um, she's a really incredible human and she's really fun to catch.

Speaker 3:

Did I have any regrets from my college or self-off work?

Speaker 3:

Um, I think my, like I said before, I think my only regret is allowing other people's opinions of me carry so much weight. I think that goes for fans, that goes for parents, your coaches. My senior year was the start of the best years of my career because I just let it go. I kind of let people think what they want to think. I let people say what they want to say and I just put my head down and I did the work and I realized that it only matters what I think about myself because I put in the work. Every day. I have to wake up and put my head down at night knowing that I've given it all that I have and what other people think isn't relevant to my process. So I wish, I wish I could go back and change that. I wish I could just tell myself like it only matters what you think and it only matters what your teammates think and how you're showing up for them and how you're competing with them and having fun and and just playing the game. Right, or did you enjoy?

Speaker 2:

okay, well, we are. We want to be Jordan. We want to be respectful of your time and and everybody, so we can. Girls, you've asked some awesome questions. Um, I know Sophia, you had a hand up for a long time and she just asked a question, so let's we can end with Sophia's question. Uh, do you know Skylar Wallace?

Speaker 3:

I do know Skylar Wallace. I played with her um for the first time. I've never played with her at Florida because I was older than her, but she got to play at Athletes Unlimited last year for the first year and he is incredible. He is exactly, do you think, here. He's so fun, she is so competitive. She's one of the funniest people I've ever met, honestly, um, and she's just a baller. She's so good. So she is definitely someone to look up to because she's got the work ethic. If you follow her on social media and things like that, she is who she presents herself on social media, so I think that's a really good athlete to look up to awesome, great questions, girls that I mean, I think.

Speaker 2:

I think it looks like we could keep you here all night during the day. They would just ask you questions forever. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much. This has been awesome. Um, it's just been a pleasure to have you here talking to these girls. Um, I think I see for all of them. Thank you, thank you very much.

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Amanda Schaefer

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