Don't Suck: Life, Family & Softball
Don’t Suck: Life, Family & Softball is a father-daughter podcast where passion meets the grind. Hosted by Ronald and Madison Smith, we dive into the highs, lows, and lessons learned from the game of softball and how they apply to life beyond the field.
From early morning workouts to late-night tournaments, and road trips—we talk about the dedication, sacrifices, and unforgettable moments that come with chasing dreams. Expect real conversations, funny stories, competitive debates, and insights into the softball journey, plus a little family banter along the way.
Whether you’re a player, parent, coach, or just love the game, Don’t Suck is here to keep it real. No excuses, no regrets, just hustle.
Don't Suck: Life, Family & Softball
Is That Blister Worth Your Future? The Mental Game of Playing Through Pain
The toughest conversations in sports often revolve around pain – when to push through it and when to protect yourself from long-term damage. In this thought-provoking episode, softball pitcher Madison and her father Ron tackle this complex topic with raw honesty drawn from their own experiences.
When Madison reveals she threw a staggering 373 pitches in a single tournament weekend while battling a painful finger injury, it opens a deeper discussion about the pressures young athletes face. "If you're that worried about losing your spot on the team because of an injury, go find a new team," Ron candidly shares, challenging the win-at-all-costs mentality that permeates competitive sports.
The episode takes an emotional turn when Claudia recounts her harrowing experience with knee dislocations caused by improper pitching mechanics – injuries she had to learn to prevent on her own when coaches didn't address the fundamental flaws in her technique. Her story highlights the critical importance of proper coaching and injury prevention over performance at all costs.
Perhaps the most powerful moment comes when the group articulates a philosophy that should resonate with athletes everywhere: "Athletes should be selfless until it comes time to their body, and then it's time to be selfish." This perspective shift acknowledges the reality that while games come and go, the physical consequences of playing through serious injuries can last a lifetime.
Whether you're a player, parent, or coach, this episode will transform how you think about athletic toughness and the responsibility we all share in creating a healthier sports culture. Listen now and join the conversation about protecting young athletes while fostering genuine mental and physical resilience.
Life throws curves. We still swing proud Family got my back here. I'm cheering real loud.
Speaker 2:You're listening to the Don't Suck Live Family and Softball Podcast with your host, Ronald.
Speaker 3:If I was up there I'd hit every ball like 450.
Speaker 2:And Madison Smith.
Speaker 1:Not mine Psh.
Speaker 3:Well, episode two, man, it's finally here. Week one's behind us. How's it feel?
Speaker 1:Feels great.
Speaker 3:You nervous.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just excited.
Speaker 3:Yeah, last week we were very nervous. I think we shot seven, eight hundred times on the first intro part, maybe even a thousand. Yeah, and of course it's me, ron, I've got Madison here and we have our producer Claudia.
Speaker 2:Hey y'all.
Speaker 3:And we're excited to get it kicked off and we'll probably end up releasing a lot of episodes at one time. We're still struggling to learn the editing and production part of it and looking forward to see what everybody thinks about it. Claudia, how about you want to get us started this week with our quick pitch questions?
Speaker 2:Yes, let's get into it. I'm excited. What is a superstition you have?
Speaker 3:you want to go? You go okay, I have many superstitions. I'm probably the most superstition person that I've ever met. I have.
Speaker 3:That must be where I get it from yeah, I will constantly shift positions, depending on how the game is. I will be in mid-conversation with you and I will tell you I'm gonna go over here because something ain't working right. And then I'll go talk to somebody else new and if it turns around pretty good, I will stay there. And then if we go on offense and we don't do good, I'll go back and talk with the other person. I never stop moving, mad.
Speaker 1:I do plenty of superstitious things during the game. One will be when I'm hitting, before I get in this, you know, get on deck I'll put my helmet on first and then my batting gloves, and then, if I go out there and I strike out or I don't get a hit, then I'll put my batting gloves on and then my helmet, or, you know, switch it around, and then I also will do like my I guess you call it like your pre-pitch swing I'll switch it up. If it's a ball or strike, I'll try and do the opposite so that I'll get like a good hit or a good pitch. And then, when I'm pitching before the inning starts and I'm warming up, I'll do two walkthroughs and a pitch, and then, if that's a bad inning, I'll do two walkthroughs and that's it, or I'll just switch it up as we go for better luck.
Speaker 3:I remember 8U probably our one and only listener listening now. Josh Lockhart Madison will remember this. He carried our five-gallon bucket in. We had about 18 coaches on a 12-team roster in our All-Stars, but he carried our bucket in. We had struggled like the first weekend and, but he carried our bucket in. We had struggled like the first weekend and then he carried a bucket in and put it in a corner. I sat on it and we won like every game that day, and I said who, who moved this bucket in here? He's like I did. I said, well, you bring it back every time we moved. It was the thing. I was not allowed to carry the bucket. Josh grabbed the bucket, he put it in my corner and yeah, we're superstitious family very, I am not I'm not superstitious no, I'm not.
Speaker 2:I'm probably the least superstitious person here.
Speaker 1:I think my whole life is like revolving around the same routine, like I have to do the same thing and if it's not, if something happens bad, then I'll switch I'm kind of the same way yeah, I mean I believe in a routine, but I'm just not superstitious I mean, I am exactly like that, so all right, if you even in a routine, but I'm just not superstitious.
Speaker 3:I mean, I am exactly like that, all right, even in a football game. If I'm watching a Bama football game we're losing, I'm going to put a different shirt on. I'll sit somewhere else on the couch, oh my gosh, it's bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, if you could, only eat one food for the rest of your life. What would it be? Well, if it had to be like one thing, it would be potatoes, and I would have mashed potatoes, french fries, hash browns, all the potatoes, that's smart.
Speaker 3:And potatoes are really good too, I think. If I read this right, I think potatoes is one of the only things that you could survive off of.
Speaker 1:Dang really. I think it might have enough protein, enough water.
Speaker 3:But I'm not eating potatoes. I would probably have to say a burger. I could take a burger anytime.
Speaker 2:I think I'd have. Oh man, I don't know. I really love Italian food, but also a good steak, what?
Speaker 3:That's a whole food choice. I know you can't take the whole menu. No, I'm just saying no.
Speaker 2:I'm saying like pizza. Like I would naturally say pizza because I love pizza, but I'd have to go with a good steak, so I'll go with the steak. Yeah, all right. What is a rule in softball you would change?
Speaker 1:I think I would change, because I've always thought about this Like when a foul ball gets hit and it's like a pop up and you catch it and can still make the play, I feel like that's just kind of weird, Like you shouldn't be able to run off that you know like tag up and run. So I feel like it should just be if it's foul ball, you catch it, the batter's out, that's it, end of play, you know.
Speaker 3:Man, that should have been a debatable question because I hate that answer Really. Yeah, for me, the one rule that I would want to change would probably be pitching in general. I'm tired of them changing it. If you can leap, you can't leap. I don't care what it is. Find something and stick with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to have to piggyback off that answer. Whenever I played high school ball I don't know if this was a rule, but I'm pretty positive it was that both feet had to be on the plate as a pitcher. But now, like when I watch Madison pitch, I'm like, oh, she has one leg back. I wish I could have done that. I feel like I heard that, yes, and I'm pretty sure that was a rule back in like 2016. But yeah, I would definitely. I like that they changed that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wish they would. Weird how some organizations or tournaments you play in you can pick your foot up, but then other ones if your foot comes off the ground, it's an illegal pitch.
Speaker 3:Or you can present the ball or not present the ball. Find out what works. Stick with it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I love this question. If you could learn the truth about one mystery, what would it be?
Speaker 1:Y'all are going gonna make fun of me, but I want to know. I want to know if helen keller was a real person. Okay, that's, that's fair, because you cannot tell me that you could not hear or see and you're flying a plane, writing a book, living life like how boring could that be?
Speaker 3:you really, is this a serious question?
Speaker 1:I'm being dead. I mean I.
Speaker 3:I get it like am I missing a tiktok conspiracy?
Speaker 1:do you know who helen keller is? Yeah she couldn't hear or see, yeah, so how'd she learn to write flew a plane, she wrote books, she lived her life like how she learned to she. She got deaf and blind when she was like a baby and she learned how to read and write and understand sign language or whatever it braille, and she couldn't even hear that's.
Speaker 2:That's very true. I mean as a kid, when you grow up like you hear your parents talk to you and stuff like that so that makes like a little little yeah
Speaker 3:am I the only one here that is confused right now? I mean, I have never heard of this.
Speaker 1:If you're listening and you agree? Please let us know, Because this is something I feel strongly passionate about and I want to know if other people agree.
Speaker 3:I will say this I'm so excited to know that Madison didn't say if the earth is flat. I was scared.
Speaker 1:she might say that I thought about it.
Speaker 3:What is the question again?
Speaker 2:If you could learn the truth about one mystery.
Speaker 3:What would it be? I think we all want to know why we're here, how we got here yeah that's a good one, and uh and I can't wait till one day I find the answer to that or like why you know yeah, um, I'm thinking um, you know I'm like murder mysteries and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So I'd really like more information on the Gabby Petito case and like what actually happened Did you watch the documentary I did Me too. I did, but I'm still confused, Like there's so many I don't know. I just have a lot of questions about that case, but yeah, that would be my mystery but yeah, that would be my mystery.
Speaker 1:I just actually watched a documentary on that again, maybe yesterday, the day before I watched it yeah, like a few weeks ago.
Speaker 3:It was good there. It the podcast I listened to and watched on. It was how the netflix documentary didn't put all the stuff in there and people were really upset about it so I didn't know yeah I'll just share that to y'all all right.
Speaker 2:What are your favorite fields to play at?
Speaker 3:good question the.
Speaker 1:Let's see, I don't know, dad, I can.
Speaker 3:I can answer this from the from a baseball point. I remember being a young kid and they used to go to a stanky stadium for like a soft for a baseball camp. We. It made us feel like we were the big guys, you know, and being a 19 year kid out there. But as far as being a parent and going to a tournament, like to watch Madison, I really love the Gulfport tournament on the turf fields.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I love the way we sit above. I think it's probably extremely terrible for y'all, but I love being up in the air like that. I know it's a hot environment.
Speaker 1:I think that's like the hottest turf ever to play on.
Speaker 3:I don't know what about it, but yeah, maybe it's the science and the other field that I really, really liked was down in newberry, florida, and it's not so much the fields, it's just the way the environment is yeah, the turf infield, dirt or grass outfield. But I love how you can pull your truck up to the back of the fence those fields are like nostalgic, like the newberry ones.
Speaker 1:It's just something about about it. You see the green everywhere and it's like, oh, I know where I am. But I think if it was turf it would probably be the Panama City ones, the complexes, it's just really spread out.
Speaker 3:But it's really nice. You're right, that's a very nice place. Yeah, what about piggyback off that? What is your favorite high school softball field you've played on? What is your?
Speaker 1:favorite high school softball field you've played on Thinking back, probably the East Central field.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We played there last year and they have the wooden I think it's wooden Yep Fence behind it. It's really tall, it's really nice. Nice field, absolutely, and their stadium like goes up.
Speaker 2:Very nice, very nice. What's your dream vacation?
Speaker 1:oh, I think going to like hawaii, which is probably something a lot of people would say, but that would be so cool. The beaches just seem pretty, you know, and it's hawaii like that?
Speaker 3:yeah, that'd be awesome, I would go. I would love to go to Alaska.
Speaker 1:Alaska yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't know why. Maybe I think I could survive there.
Speaker 1:I probably could, isn't that where, like at certain times of the year, it's dark time the whole time.
Speaker 3:That's the time I want to go, and then it's daytime. We'll just be asleep the whole time. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, let's say this I have unlimited money. That would be number one Dream vacation unlimited money.
Speaker 3:So tell us the vacation you're never going on.
Speaker 2:Right, Literally no One day. Probably like take a month off and just travel, maybe parts of the US and stuff, and then maybe go to like Iceland or something.
Speaker 1:Is Iceland the one that we got mixed up with Greenland? So Iceland is Greenland and Greenland is Iceland.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:That's the conspiracy we should have figured out. Why is that? So maybe do like.
Speaker 2:Disney for a week because I love Disney, and then just like travel for a week in the US of like certain spots that would be cool to go see, or whatever, and then fly out and go to iceland, yeah, be, fun.
Speaker 3:Unlimited money could that's just a lifestyle, whatever I want. Yeah, that's a lifestyle vacation.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, for sure, all right. If you didn't play softball, what sport would you play?
Speaker 1:if I didn't play softball as myself, right now I would probably play volleyball, because I've played volleyball and I also love playing volleyball and so it just seems right. But I thought about this if I could have grown up and never played softball not if I could have, but if I would have and never, like, knew about softball or even play, you know, I would have probably done gymnastics.
Speaker 1:I feel like that would be so fun and I remember asking mom when I was like 10 years old, maybe a little bit younger, and I was like 10 years old, maybe a little bit younger, and I was like, hey, mom, or maybe I was younger than that and 10 years was my mark, but I was like, hey, mom, when I turn 10, can I sign up for gymnastics? No maybe y'all would have hated it, but that was something I wanted to do same.
Speaker 3:No, I I think. Uh, I won't talk about cheerleading, but I believe that gymnastic is a form of sport.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100% yeah, because people are so strong, so strong, so strong.
Speaker 3:So if I didn't play I didn't play softball, but play a baseball If I could go back and just I'll just say this, if I could go back and play one sport, I would have wanted to play lacrosse.
Speaker 1:It didn't exist.
Speaker 2:It wasn. It didn't exist, it wasn't nothing we could do, but the sport looks fun. Yeah, it's no. Okay, um, I, I think that I'd probably end up would have played volleyball, but I did already play volleyball, so that's an easy one. Um, other than that, I really can't think of anything kind of like you, madison, like gymnastics I was always into, like wanting to do back flips and stuff like that it just seems really cool.
Speaker 1:If I could do flips, I would be flipping everywhere.
Speaker 2:I feel like that yeah, it is the coolest thing ever like I used to have friends and stuff and cheer and I'd be like, do a backflip for me, like it's so cool looking.
Speaker 3:Somebody's sitting on a porch right now. Madison's doing cartwheels what is that weirdo?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, if you could relive any age for a week, what would it be? Tough question.
Speaker 1:I definitely think I would relive like eight years old. Maybe I feel like that was good. I'm still young, you know, I'm 16. So I feel like eight was like my prime time, you know, for a little kid. I was living it up playing the little eightU All-Stars with all my friends. We were good, we were having fun.
Speaker 3:It's easy for me 15. He's no longer with us, but my cousin, he was 16. He was driving, missed the days.
Speaker 2:No, I'd have to say probably a baby. I mean, I got to eat and sleep and do nothing. I don't remember it exactly. Do you like hate your life or what? Okay, so it's either me being a baby or me being 15, 16 years old in high school, thinking that life is so hard. And then you grow up and you're like, oh, that was nothing, like I could have had so much more fun had I not sat there and worried about my future and stuff.
Speaker 2:but yeah, definitely either a baby or like 15 or 16 oh my god um okay, that answer depressed me um, what is the most annoying thing a coach could say?
Speaker 1:probably when I'm pitching.
Speaker 3:Are we talking about? The coach says something that's accurate, that bothers you, or something the coach is just mumbling.
Speaker 2:It can be anything. I'll leave it to you.
Speaker 1:Probably when I'm pitching and I hear a coach or really anybody like, come on, just throw a strike. Like what do you think I'm out here doing? Do you think I'm? Trying to walk the ladder or just let them win Like.
Speaker 3:I'm trying my best, think I'm trying to walk at her, or just let them win, like I'm trying my best and you're like, and y'all have heard the intro we do here. It's more of a poke at the fun part of kind of being a parent and of course Madison, anytime we're watching a game and stuff. I'll say I could have smoked that 450 or when she's pitching, I'm catching her.
Speaker 3:It kind of goes on, the whole thing like don't suck. I just like to bring her down to like the humbleness part of that. But yeah, that that's the worst thing you can say to a kid who's struggling to play. Come on, hit the ball, I've said it. Or come on, just throw a strike, we're all we're, we're all guilty. Not the best thing for me when I played ball it was having a coach tell me things that well, this is my fault, I didn't understand. And they were repeating it and I'm just like what, what does that mean? Like I don't, I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
Speaker 3:It's. You ever met the coach who gives you instructions? But or they tell you what not to do, but they don't tell you how not to do it. Like, don't tell me, show me.
Speaker 1:What about you, Claudia?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the most annoying thing that my coach said to me one time was fix your face. He dogged me out for a good 45 minutes one day at practice because I have this very like grouchy resting face, you could say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's another word.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, it's more of like a serious face, like you know, get her. Well, it's more of like a serious face, like you know, get her done. You know, like a serious face but yeah yeah, so that was that was crazy. Yeah, he dogged me out for a good, a good while over that, but I learned all right. Describe yourself in three words hilarious, amazing and funny honest, caring and funny yeah, those are good. Um, I would say selfless, honest and funny okay I didn't know we were being serious.
Speaker 1:So um unserious, no, um smart I'm smart, funny, I'm funny, right yeah yeah, and and genuine yeah, yeah. Is there any more?
Speaker 2:questions. Nope, that's it for a quick pitch all right, well, thank you.
Speaker 3:That, uh definitely loosens up everything and we'll go right into week two. Madison, february 25th to march 1st, we went over to robertsdale. You have a teammate over there, miss kinsley. I think she's already hit one or two home runs this year. It's early in the season, so she started off pretty hot. Yeah, and uh, how did we do there?
Speaker 1:at robertsdale we took the win 15 to 0 yeah, pretty big win.
Speaker 3:A good team too, it just yeah there was one inning for them and we, our bats were on yep we.
Speaker 1:I went two for four. I had two doubles and two strikeouts.
Speaker 3:Yep, you almost put one out in right field.
Speaker 1:Almost.
Speaker 3:So then we hosted Faith on Thursday. You got the start in the circle. Tell me how it went.
Speaker 1:We took the loss 2-0. I was 0-2 at the plate and had two strikeouts. I struggled that game, couldn't hit the ball.
Speaker 3:You pitched lights out. You went seven innings zero runs. You had three walks, you had five Ks. It's tough losing those games. A 2-0 ball game with no earned runs. If you remember, that night I was pretty disgusted when we got home you come home and said I pitched good. I disgusted when we got home, you come home, I said I pitched good. I said, well, how'd you do in the batting order? Yeah, me and another parent talked before the game ever started and we both agreed like this was kind of a trap game. We come off a couple hot uh, the first week of softball, hot bats kind of got here, kind of went there, maybe a little too pumped up and struggled to play. Uh, miss larkin pitched a heck of a game yeah, she wasn't what we were expecting that night.
Speaker 1:We were ready for that outside pitch and that's what we've been working on. And then we get there and she's hitting us inside.
Speaker 3:All night and so, yeah, that was a tough, tough loss. And then y'all headed up to Wetumpka for the tournament there and y'all had what? Six games.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Pretty good weekend overall. Long weekend too yeah you had some good stats there too. But we'll start off. We had it with Tumpka. Y'all lost six to seven. You didn't play that game, and then y'all faced Hatton.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Y'all won 12-6. You were one for two with a sacrifice, five with a sacrifice, five innings pitched, six earned runs.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, we started. I remember starting off that game. Our first one or two innings were really good when I was pitching out there, like we had some three up, three down, maybe two runners got on base and then we got out of it and then we got to this one inning and they started hitting.
Speaker 3:Yep, doesn't help. You had four walks. Yeah, you did have seven Ks. Then you started having a little bit of issue with your finger.
Speaker 1:Yep, when I'm throwing my curveball it rubs on my finger and it kind of rubs it raw and it starts ripping my fingernail and sometimes my finger will start bleeding. Playing those long seven-inning games like that did not help.
Speaker 3:Yep, and it's still early in the season. You're trying to come off of that. You go and face Maplesville.
Speaker 1:The next day.
Speaker 3:Yep, we got a friend over there, Miss MK. She's coming off a pretty tough injury from last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, knee injury.
Speaker 3:Yep, but this is a shout-out to MK, because I know MK is going to be one of the ones that listen to this podcast too. Up to this point she's batting 6-0-9 with one home run, 16 RBIs. She went two for three against you with a single and a double.
Speaker 1:She's had a good season.
Speaker 3:Good season and we love to see that MK Mad y'all won 8-4. You were two for three, with two singles, a reach on air, six innings pitch, three earned runs, five walks. Got to get those knocked down and you had eight Ks.
Speaker 1:That was the game where my finger really started bothering me. I was throwing, and for us at Baker we have three pitchers One of ours, she wasn't able to make that tournament, so we were just stuck with two pitchers throwing seven inning games Trying to preserve y'all.
Speaker 3:They sat y'all between games. Not really much you can do, so I was out there. Eventually might run out of energy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, knew that and I was out there pitching, my fingers started bothering me, tried to hold off from the curveball a little bit, but once you get in games like that and you're so far in it and you're already struggling, it's just doesn't really get better. But we ended up pulling the wind on that one yep.
Speaker 3:And then y'all played enterprise. Y'all won 12-6. You didn't play there. And then guff shores y'all won seven to four. You didn't play there I did base run you did base run. Y'all got the finger kind of super glued up, got it kind of working that was, uh.
Speaker 1:we played two of my well, one teammate now and a past teammate we played played Madison Nelson-Monkey from Bombers, and then a past teammate we played Nevaeh.
Speaker 3:Yep, I think she's got a scholarship to go to Middle Tennessee. Yep, she signed with them. They both had good games that day and then May plays for Enterprise.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:So shout out to you girls Love watching y'all. We do keep up with y'all still. And then y'all played with Tomka. You got the start here. Y'all lost 7-4. Y'all couldn't beat them. Y'all kind of had them close all day. You had them until the sixth inning, yeah, and kind of the same thing Kind of fell apart. You had four earned runs. I mean it's a great game and again I'm super proud of you. That's a lot of pitches y'all put out when you're dealing with injuries like that.
Speaker 1:I had 373 pitches on that weekend.
Speaker 3:That's tough. Well, really just a day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 3:So the tourney stats. Matt, I do want to shout you out on this. You had a batting average of 375 and zero strikeouts, yes, yeah, and ERA was 5.5. We kind of knew we were going to go up and down. It's part of the game.
Speaker 1:That with Tom Caterina. There's a lot of good competition there.
Speaker 3:But listen to this too 23 strikeouts in that. Yeah, good, Madison's never been a strike that hopes to pop you out or like a little ground ball, so that's fun to watch. And then, uh, total for the season. Mad, where are we at? What were your goals for your batting average?
Speaker 1:for batting average. My goal was 360 and I'm sitting at 364 all right so, right above strikeouts, my goal was 18. I'm sitting at eight hey, plenty of time only week two, but it's okay. Still got a lot of season to go trying to work on it. My era goal was 1.5.
Speaker 3:I'm sitting at 3.1 bumped up a little bit from this tournament.
Speaker 1:It's fine, nothing to worry about and then I didn't have a strikeout goal, but I'm sitting at 37 strikeouts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, congratulations and a nice little stat here. We've thrown 555 pitches. It's week two. This is tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I do want to give another little shout-out before we get going. We had a past teammate, a girl that we love Well, she was Madison's second.
Speaker 1:Big sister.
Speaker 3:Yeah, big sister, second mama when she moved up from seventh grade, miss Emily Mizell. She's at Jones Community College. The kid is a killer athlete and just seeing today that she had the NFCA leadoff classic all-terney Batting average of 6'11". She was 11 for 18, 14 RBIs. So, emily, keep it up, kid, we're super proud of you. Kind of looking at the other teams in the area Bryant MGM they're still struggling to get started. We know they're going to figure it out. We're about to start hosting them real, real soon.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:And kind of looking ahead of what we have. Next week we're going to host Fairhope, who we got over there.
Speaker 1:Addison Russell.
Speaker 3:We're coming kid. We're big fans of Addison. We've known her for a long time. Her and Madison have kind of a lot of same makeup. When me and her dad watched her at a couple camps we thought, man, you couldn't tell them a difference if they didn't have different color hair. So, looking forward to seeing y'all, and then we go into Harrison County.
Speaker 1:You have another big tournament.
Speaker 3:Big tournament. Looking forward to that and kind of continue on this season. I mean, y'all are 10-4.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty good, really good. This is a great season.
Speaker 3:So congratulations, coaches, players. It's been a heck of a season so far. I'm excited. So, madison, really a good week, looking forward to this coming up week, and I want to let everybody know. If you have a kid out there or one of your players that you would like to get a shout out on here, reach out to us.
Speaker 1:we'd love to highlight them and you can find us on tiktok instagram, facebook twitter twitter uh, you can our email.
Speaker 3:We have a email. It's called don't suck lfs podcast at yahoocom. It'll be attached to all of our stuff. Seriously, reach out to us. We'd love to do that and see what else we can offer in the future. But one thing we really love last last episode is we did the caught the rundown and we love the debating side of that, even though there's not much to debate about. I mean, me and madison are practically the same. I'm just a little bit better looking. Y'all look the same.
Speaker 1:Don't tell me that.
Speaker 3:So, claudia, how would you get us started this week in the caught in the rundown segment?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have some pretty good and tough questions this go around, so let's get started. Is playing through pain a sign of toughness or a dangerous habit?
Speaker 1:I'll start that one off. I think that playing through tiredness is more of a sign of toughness. I think that playing through pain can be very dangerous eventually, but I think the tiredness is where the toughness comes from.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I agree. But I will say this I agree with your point in the right question. I think playing through pain is a sign of toughness, depending on the type of pain you're dealing with.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what does it mean to be tough in sports?
Speaker 1:I think, kind of like what I said, being tough is being able to push through when you're tired after you've been doing something for a long time or like the tournament, the day is long, and being able to push through when you're tired after you've been doing something for a long time or like the tournament the day is long, and be able to keep going and mentally being able to push through, no matter what you're feeling yep, I do agree with you, madison.
Speaker 3:Being tough, mental toughness that that's what being tough to me is. Now, every kid's tough, we're all these kids are physically strong, but being tough is correct. It it's mental toughness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I agree. So is there a difference between playing through minor pain versus major pain? Yes, Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know I've had major pain, I'm sure, madison, this past week, major pain with the finger at some point. But that to me is something that you can fight through in the certain situation. If it's the first day of the week and that's something you're going on with and this game doesn't count, no, I'd rather you not deal with that, go get healed. But if you have a minor arm injury, probably need to go sit on the bench and go see a doctor tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah for sure. Something that can result in a long-term injury or something you potentially might need surgery for. That's something you really need to think about, taking a break you know, major pain, minor pain.
Speaker 3:That that's not the problem here, it's. It's where the injury is. What kind of injury it is. Is it a finger? Probably? Okay, an arm issue?
Speaker 2:go see a doctor yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. So do athletes feel obligated to play through pain to prove their worth?
Speaker 3:A hundred percent, a hundred percent. There we go See. Telepathy, is that the word?
Speaker 1:Telepathy, telepathy, telepathy.
Speaker 3:Telepathy.
Speaker 1:I can literally look at my dad right now and see what he's thinking in his head. What am I thinking right now? Taco Bell, no.
Speaker 3:I was thinking don't suck, but I will say this Taco Bell for dinner. Yeah, look, every kid out there on these big programs they want to play ball and there's 15, 20 kids out there who are on that same roster. You know, I'm a little tweaked in my arm. I'm not going to say nothing because then they're going to bring Louise in here and I may not ever see the field again. So if that's you and you're that worried, go find a new team. That body I mean, this is your, we know kids that's had five ACLs blown out, right, isn't that?
Speaker 1:what they've had. I think I know one person that tore both her knees.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and these are things and multiple surgeries. You're young and like now I'm 36 years old and when I think about these kids and their injuries, I Like now I'm 36 years old and when I think about these kids and their injuries, I think.
Speaker 1:God, you're going to live with this for the rest of your life. Yeah, super scary, and when you're at my age and this year coming up is going to be a big year and people Recruiting year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're going to get, have injuries and you're going to think, oh my gosh, if I do something about this now. I'm going to think, oh my gosh, if I do something about this now, I'm going to miss out on all these opportunities. Coaches aren't going to message me or they're not going to be able to see me play and like want to see me and so people are just going to play with it or it's going to get worse.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely Good point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So have you ever had to make a decision to play through an injury?
Speaker 3:I'll speak on this first. So me personally. No, I had one injury that I can remember, maybe a couple injuries, but one that sat me out. I had a concussion and I didn't get a choice. The doctor made that decision and Mad.
Speaker 1:I have had to tell my coach that I couldn't play because of my finger. It was the beginning of the week. We had had a tournament coming up and if I would have, it hurts to pitch with. When you're at my fingers like it is. It hurts to throw a curveball, a fastball. Just the pressure on it it really hurts. And I knew that if I would have tried to pitch with it one, I wouldn't have been able to perform like I needed to for that night and two, it was going to be even worse for when the tournament comes up. And I knew that tournament was a long, big tournament and the last thing I needed was to not be able to play.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I agree with you there. I think again, depending on the type of injury, that is, you know, your finger hurting, dig deep, kid, figure it out. You know, I remember we went to a camp one time and you had blisters. You're about 11, 12 years old and I said, hey, what's the problem? I got blisters. I said, well, guess what? My back hurts. You hear me talk about that. It's a blister. This isn't your arm falling off, it's a blister. You know some things. Yeah, you've got to fight through. That was an opportunity for madison to kind of push through. But let me tell you this when we were building our batting cage and madison's digging holes, she said dad, you got any gloves? I said, why you? What's wrong? She goes, I got a blister, went and got her gloves, I brought them back, she put them on, she in about 30 seconds later she rips them off. So that didn't work and the kid kept digging holes because blisters don't matter, right, that's being mentally tough.
Speaker 3:That, yeah, that's a whole different scenario here. So, correct, call on you, madison. My finger it hurts. I don't care about the finger it's. How long is? How long am I prolonging it from getting better? Yeah, so that's like my finger.
Speaker 1:I mean it takes like a week to get back to where I can fill it again and be great. But when it's that raw and that close to from the last time I pitched to when I'm about to, I just have to say maybe not today yep, but if it's championship game, state tournament, state championship pushing through you better figure it out, hey, and actually guess what I remember.
Speaker 3:Uh, if I'm if I'm not mistaken I I hope I'm not wrong here I believe Riley Harrison had this issue when at Fairhope in her state championship title. I think she had a really nasty blister. I remember them zooming in on that camera. I really think I've seen that.
Speaker 1:I remember hearing about that. I don't.
Speaker 3:I didn't see it, but I remember hearing about it.
Speaker 2:If I'm wrong, strike me dead yeah, so, um, I will talk about this one injury that I had. Well, I say injury, it was more of like a repetitive thing, so when I would pitch I would drag my back leg so hard that my knee would pop out of place. And then when I dropped to the ground listen, this is serious Like it would pop out of place. I mean I'd drop to the ground and then it'd go back and then I'd just be screaming, crying because I was in so much pain.
Speaker 1:How fast, did you pitch? I mean, I don't know, Because when you think about it like your leg drive helps you get out and get your arm through, Exactly, but if you're driving your foot that hard to the ground.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm not even kidding y'all, you, I'm not even kidding y'all.
Speaker 2:You throw in like 30 bucks, but it got to a point where, you know, shout out to Coach Walters. It got to a point where it was every practice but nobody was helping me correct it. So I had to learn how to correct it myself or I was going to end up really, really hurt. So I just remember like practicing and stuff, and then I dropped to the ground screaming and I'd be like Coach Walters, come help me. And then he'd be like, oh, you're all right, and then go back to the field and help the girls and stuff. So at a certain point I had to figure out, okay, how do I prevent doing this so I don't get further injury? And so that was really tough on me for a while because I didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 2:So wrong, obviously it was because I was dragging my legs so hard. So I had to learn how to come up off my leg a little bit. But yeah, a little bit. But yeah, that was. Did you have a pitching coach when you played? No, I had a pitching coach when I was probably.
Speaker 3:I was young, probably like 14, 13, and then it's so important to make sure, no matter what they're doing, make sure your kids have a coach who's teaching them their lessons 100, somehow learning at least like mechanics. The mechanics are so important. And I mean again, and this is, you know, mad Madison pitches with. I mean, in my mind, the best pitching coach in the world, I mean maybe Coach Barb is amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe in the universe, I don't know about everybody, but when we first started going to her, there was some stuff that Madison was doing and she said, hey, she's got to stop this now. Like she's going to have all types of arm issues. And another thing that barb has always told me she is not worried about madison learning a new pitch. She's not worried about madison learning more speed, she's worried about madison's mechanics number one.
Speaker 2:so, claudia, you could use someone like I could use that for sure, because I really had to figure that out on my own. It got pretty debilitating, but, um, yeah, it was bad and I'm really shocked that nothing more happened to my knee. But yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 3:Well, while we're on the topic of you, you have one of the worst injuries.
Speaker 1:I have ever seen.
Speaker 3:That was not. I mean, it wasn't a blown-out knee, but it was. You looked like you were maybe a half an inch from death.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I was so half an inch from death. Oh yeah, I was. So we were playing. Uh, let's see, I was 15, it was march 1st, 25th, 2016, and we were playing baker. I was playing shortstop and I remember praying the week before god please let something happen so that I don't have to play shortstop anymore. I genuinely hated shortstop. I love being in an outfit, I love pitching and she hated facing them honeybees yeah, yeah, we were always like really nervous to play baker but, anyway so I was playing shortstop.
Speaker 2:I love being in an outfit, I love pitching and she hated facing them honeybees. Yeah yeah, we were always like really nervous to play Baker, but anyway. So I was playing shortstop and then there was a girl in first. Well, you know, it was a throwdown. So the girl comes in, cleats up, and I got cleated, so I was about an inch away from that main artery on my arm and I had to have about 14 to 16 stitches.
Speaker 1:We won't.
Speaker 3:We will not post pictures of the actual injury but just think gray's anatomy but we will post pictures of the scar with a tape measure because it is very. It was nasty and I still have a scar, but yeah um, but no.
Speaker 2:So I you know I went to the hospital. I just remember like when it all happened. You know that adrenaline's pumping like I. I didn't even know anything happened. I got up, my coach is yelling at me because my glove ended up in center field and he's like go get your glove, go get your glove.
Speaker 2:So like I looked down and I'm like I just start screaming. I didn't even cry, I was just screaming because I didn't know, like, what was going to happen. And then I saw the girl on second. That cleated me. She felt horrible, horrible and she horrible and she was like crying and stuff. It was a whole scene. But, um, I ended up getting you know, 14 to 16 stitches and then I let that heal for about a week and then I went right back to it, like right back to it. Um, so yeah, it's pretty nasty, but all right, moving on, how do coaches, parents and teammates influence this decision?
Speaker 3:well, as a dad and a coach, I mean I think the biggest thing is letting your kid know hey, this game doesn't matter. You know you're the rest of your life, does you know? Continue on. Yeah, again, you know how do I influence the decision. If it's a finger, I'm going to be strong with you. Hey, I got it. You're in pain, I hurt too. You're gonna hurt the rest of your life. Pain is temporary and, um, you know, get out there and fight through it. If it's an arm, as a parent I'll say this also as a parent, especially as a pitcher's parent it's your job also to protect your kid. If they're getting overthrown, you have to say something. You can't just put that on the coach, the kid. It's your job. I mean, this is your kid, the rest of her life. So if your kid's throwing 16 games in a weekend and then playing two, four games during the week, it's got to be on you also here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree. And whenever you're a player and you're playing on this team with all your teammates and stuff especially like for me the Watumpka tournament we had two pitchers and in my head I'm like, well, caitlin can't pitch all the games, she can't do it herself because her arm's squeaking just as much as mine is and my teammates are relying on the pitchers for ground balls and the defense to work. So it's like I've got to push through, but also I've got to think about me and how I'm feeling and what's going to be long-term from this. You know, I mean my finger. Obviously it will heal.
Speaker 3:People should be. Athletes should be selfless until it comes time to their body, and then it's time to be selfish. It doesn't matter about the results of that game. Honestly, it doesn't matter what game you're in A finger again championship game, get through it, but a little tweak to the arm. You have to be open about this and I remember doing a camp with Coach Barb. One of your very first times meeting Coach Barb you got hurt, so I don't remember exactly what happened.
Speaker 1:I don't remember that.
Speaker 3:But you were on, going on and you did say, oh, yeah, again, I don't remember the injury, maybe it was, my arm was kind of feeling, maybe a little weird, and she said, uh-uh, why? I mean it was. She stopped practice for you know 10 minutes and said, oh, if you're hurting, you have to let someone know. That is your job. So, yeah, you know, players, please let your coaches know, let your, your parents know. Most of these programs have trainers. Go get checked out and get it taken care of before it gets worse Again. We have met so many kids that are dealing with injuries.
Speaker 1:They just keep going and then you hear so-and-so is having surgery tomorrow For what they're like. Oh yeah, their knee has been hurting for two years. They haven't done nothing about it. How?
Speaker 3:about this. How about you don't say nothing today? You go the entire rest of the season, you play a little bit of travel ball during the summer and then say, god, I can't, it hurts so bad I can't, I can't walk, I can't get out of bed. Then go get surgery and guess what? Now you missed your entire senior season yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2:But I feel like it's very easy to say, hey, players, make sure you tell people. Well, we have to make sure that the people that we're telling is more understanding and ready to adapt to that, because if not, there's a fear in us of, oh my gosh, I'm gonna let my team down, I'm gonna let my coaches down, I'm letting my parents down, like there's this huge fear and um around it.
Speaker 2:So I definitely think that the coaches, parents and and teammates need to be a lot more understanding and just kind of learn how to adapt to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, great point and hey, that's one place. As parents and coaches, we have to not suck at Let those kids have an open hallway of talking. Look, great episode. Enjoy it again. Girls, y'all have anything for them, don't?
Speaker 2:suck.
Speaker 1:There we go. We got my back here. I'm cheering real loud, don't suck. There we go.