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
Strike Out Your Doubts, Not Your Confidence
What happens when your athletic performance feels inseparable from your personal identity? We're diving deep into the psychological tightrope that competitive athletes walk every day.
Madison shares her impressive week on the mound with 12 innings pitched, zero earned runs, and a new personal speed record against tough competition. But beyond the stats lies a more profound conversation about maintaining mental health while pursuing excellence.
"It's something I've grown up doing since I was four years old. When you have a bad game, it feels like your whole day is ruined." This vulnerability opens the door to examining how young athletes can separate their worth from their performance while still striving to improve.
We explore practical strategies for developing a multifaceted identity beyond softball, including engaging in other activities and adopting a growth mindset. The conversation tackles whether the pressure to perform is creating players who lose their love for the game, and questions if the intensive travel ball schedule serves young athletes' best interests.
For parents, coaches, and athletes navigating the competitive sports landscape, this episode offers a refreshingly honest look at building resilience. You'll gain insight into how confidence doesn't require perfection – it's built through embracing challenges and recognizing that even at the highest levels, everyone struggles sometimes.
Listen now to gain perspective on how to maintain your passion for the game while protecting your mental health. Share your own experiences with athletic identity in the comments or reach out on social media – we'd love to continue this important conversation!
Don't suck, we don't suck. Nah, we don't back down. Hustle on the field. Put the work in now. Life throws curves. We still swing proud. Family got my back hit em' cheering real loud.
Speaker 1:Came up young, glovin' my hand. Dirt on my cleats yeah, way before I had a fan. Late nights, caged lights Perfecting my stance, got a dream in my heart I ain't leavin' the chance. Softball life. Every play's a test. Pressure's on yeah, I play my best, bases loaded. Gotta stay composed Like life. One shot never fold. It's about that grind, that sweat, that fight. Family's a squad. Keep the circle tight. Every loss a lesson. Every win we rise, don't suck, live strong, take pride. We don't suck. Nah, we don't back down. Hustle on the field, put the work in now. Life throws curves. We still swing proud. Family got my back. Hear them cheering real loud.
Speaker 1:Late nights, road trips, reppin' the name, turnin' practice to passion that's part of the game. Like life, take a risk, swing hard. No shame If part of the game. Like life, take a risk, swing hard, no shame. If you're scared to lose, you'll never change the game. Mom and dad in the stands yeah, they watch me grow every lesson that they gave me. Now it starts to show discipline. Hustle, yeah, it's all that I know. So when life gets tough, I don't fold, I go. Dreams ain't built off excuses and doubt. Gotta step to the plate, gotta grind it out. Family first. That's the way we live, and we play this game with all we give. We don't suck, we don't suck, we don't suck. No, we don't back down. Hustle on the field, put the work in now. Life throws curves. We still swing proud. Family got my back here. I'm cheering real loud, I guess. No, have you ever seen?
Speaker 2:Free Willy. Yes, I have All right. I Felt as a Father. We will watch that this coming weekend.
Speaker 3:Okay then what's your biggest pet peeve in softball?
Speaker 4:Oh, I like hate when people are just really cocky, which that's not really a I guess you could say it's a pet peeve but especially when I'm pitching and somebody gets up there and they're just walking and doing their batting, whatever you call it, you know getting ready to hit, and I'm like, oh my gosh, if I could just hit you right now.
Speaker 3:But I don't do that um, I'd have to say my biggest pet peeve is when people get mad because they struck out and they go and throw things in the dugout. That probably makes me mad more than absolutely anything, because it's not fair to hurt your players, your team, just because you're frustrated that you messed up.
Speaker 2:So my pet peeve would probably be um us, not no, I say us, but softball not respecting a bullpen as far as pitching goes, three, four pitchers in a game that's what I'd like to see more oh, I thought you meant like they were trying to mess up
Speaker 3:the dirt or something I'd like to see, three or four pitchers a game, yeah, yeah, what's something ridiculous you believed when you were younger.
Speaker 4:Okay, I have two. I have one that's softball-related and one that's not. So the softball-related one was whenever I got to 10U and we started pitching until we got the little wristbands that had all the numbers on them, I used to think that you just bought those offline until you bought the pitch calls offline. So when the other coaches would call signs for their players, I would look down at our wristbands to be like I wonder if we got the same one. You know, thinking that we bought the same set of plays. That's funny. And then the one that's like life related was I used to think that everybody had a million dollars, at least a million dollars, like people who didn't have a lot of money. Like poor was if you had a million dollars. And then rich was like you had millions and millions and millions.
Speaker 2:So if only that was interesting. I think I believe that Sasquatch was so real that I made myself see him.
Speaker 4:Like you, believed it into existence. Yeah, oh, wow.
Speaker 2:I mean not that I vividly remember like he was there, but I remember there was probably five or six years where I had told this lie so many times that I believed it.
Speaker 3:Interesting.
Speaker 2:And on that I think we tell lies like that to believe it. To believe it yeah.
Speaker 3:What's the funniest moment from a game slash tournament that you can remember?
Speaker 4:um, this past season actually, I was playing for bombers and we were playing like a little showcase tournament and we had made the decision at the beginning, at the first day, that if we got really up on a team, we were going to call time. We were all going to go to the pitcher's mound and we were going to all run out to different positions and we finally got our last game of the day. We were up. I don't remember what the score was, maybe like 8-0, 9-0. And so we called time and we went out there. Our center fielder was playing shortstop, our third baseman, I think, was in left field, our left fielder was at second base. We switched all the way around. It was hilarious. Were you there for that game? I don't know, I don't remember where it was.
Speaker 2:I remember it and I remember Madison giving up in the park home run on the next pitch.
Speaker 4:I want to say To our slowest player I think she hit it too In the outfield. It was hilarious.
Speaker 2:I don't really remember any. I had one moment that was funny and it was when I was coaching. Remember Hadley, when she slid into third base and it was like the perfect She'd come in like two feet slotted. It was the perfect, butt slotted. But I remember us getting like a picture of this. Do you remember that?
Speaker 3:No, I'm trying to think it's a while ago, but probably the funniest moment this is kind of funny, but not but when I was running the bases because somebody had hit the ball and I was at third and I was trying to go home and then I pulled a muscle in my back in the moment I just dropped to the ground and then I pulled a muscle in my back in the moment I just dropped to the ground and then I remember like what the heck is going on. So like I get up and I try to run and I just could not run Like it was the weirdest thing ever Because of your back. Yeah, but it was funny though, because like the way that I was like running and stuff like it, just I looked weird.
Speaker 2:You give me, like bubble boy, vibes.
Speaker 4:No, I really no, no, bubble no, you had the pullback yeah, you had a lot of injuries, did I like you, just always didn't hurt yeah, okay, well, maybe I think each episode's a new injury that we get to learn about claudia well, you know, as time goes on, like I remember certain things here and there.
Speaker 3:But yeah what's a small moment you think about more than you should.
Speaker 2:You ever have that very embarrassing moment.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, I hate thinking of embarrassing and I can't think of something off the hand.
Speaker 2:But when you do something stupid maybe you, for instance, maybe you cut somebody off in traffic and then you end up in the same parking lot with them and it was all your fault, and it's that humbleness, but you have to live with that feeling, that heat that kind of goes over your body Like that's something I felt before recently.
Speaker 4:And it's always like you'll hear people say, oh well, nobody's going to remember that one day, and then I remember it. Or somebody will come up to me and or we'll be talking about past things that happened and they're like oh my gosh, remember when you did that and I was like I don't, I didn't need you to bring that up.
Speaker 3:Thank you, but I can't think of one off the top of my head either. What's more stressful being up to bat or in the circle when you are tied with two outs and bases loaded?
Speaker 4:I would say being up to bat only because I feel like pitching. I mean, if they hit the ball, hopefully they hit it to your defense and they make an out, but hitting it's kind of like, oh, I got to hit the ball, you know, yeah, like it's all on you.
Speaker 2:Or go back to seventh grade when you walked in the run like we talked about a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, I feel like I've gotten a lot more confident when it comes to pitching compared to hitting, and that's just kind of a thing where I mean pitching you get in high school, you're playing seven games a game. You have a lot of room to make mistakes and stuff. But when it comes to hitting, you get three at-bats a game and there's your three chances and whether you swing at the first pitch or you watch all three, that's all you've got.
Speaker 2:So you don't get as many at-bats as you do, pitching in that sense, yeah, I'd have to agree.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I never pitch. Oh, okay, who gives a better pep talk? Your dad or an actual coach?
Speaker 4:My dad. My dad makes me feel like either I'm the worst one out there or I'm the best one out there, but usually much better than what I hear from my coaches.
Speaker 2:I feel like I can deliver a message.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I can deliver a good message to really probably anyone. Yeah, I still remember the message I gave you in eighth grade when you were going into the area championship game and you were running in there and you had just come out from warming up before the game or during the game and I snatched you by the back of the Jersey when you ran by me. You remember that I said whose blood is in those veins?
Speaker 4:Oh, I remember that. Yeah, you say like, uh, don't. Uh, what's it called? Like, don't misrepresent my name or whatever. Remember his name on the back of your Jersey. What's a hill you'll die on, no matter what. I always have this conversation with my friends whenever I talk about it, but I think it should be salmon patties and not salmon patties, because salmon sounds like you're not from here and salmon sounds right, so I just think it should be called salmon patties. That's the hill you'll die on. That is the hill I'll die on. It is Simon Paddy's.
Speaker 2:I think the hill that I would die on is whatever I believe in. I'm not going to deviate what I believe or change that for someone.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I agree with you, that was so deep. Mine was just money.
Speaker 3:What's a skill you think everyone should have in softball?
Speaker 4:I think that everybody in the lineup should be able to bunt. Like you to be in the lineup, I think you have to be able to bunt, and obviously there are situations where I mean everybody's human and you're not perfect, like you don't lay a bunt down, which happens to me sometimes but I think you, everybody, should be able to bunt, because all to me sometimes. But I think you, everybody, should be able to bunt because all you gotta. I mean, for some people it seems really hard and for me pretty much. I've always been able to bunt, so I don't understand the struggle that comes with it, but that's because I learned it from 10U. Like my first time in 10U I learned it, but I just feel like it's much simpler than it seems in games and that's something that is very clutch when you can do it sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when somebody comes and plays small ball on you and they find out you can't cover it, man, what a great thing to have.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would say a selfless personality. I don't want anybody selfish on my team ever.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think I'd have to say probably base running, Like that's definitely a big thing that everybody should absolutely know how to do.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like knowing what you're doing on the bases.
Speaker 3:Yes, what to do, when to go like every bit of it.
Speaker 4:The slowest player could be the best base runner, and that could be who you want on the bases.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, would you rather forget people's names or birthdays?
Speaker 2:I forget, I don't know either.
Speaker 3:Birthdays Really? Yes, I would rather not remember a birthday than a name. Do you know how embarrassing it is? Like I have crazy stories but I'm not going to get into it, but when you forget somebody's name it's really awkward.
Speaker 4:Well, I feel like if you forgot their name, you can kind of get it around. You can have a conversation with them without saying their name.
Speaker 2:Well, here's what you do you tell one of your friends.
Speaker 4:You text your daughter and your wife and say, hey, what's this person's name I'm talking to?
Speaker 2:Hey, what's this person's name that's in my car right now?
Speaker 3:No, literally except for when you're.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's a funny story for another day.
Speaker 2:Look, we're going out to eat with some guy. What's this guy's name? Again, because I have no clue what to call him.
Speaker 4:I just kept calling him Bud he's got me and mom looking up his Facebook and trying to find his wife and his daughter's page to figure out what his name is.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I'm notorious, I forget. I have the most embarrassing story ever. Years ago, like 10 years ago, I was at. Academy and there was a girl that I went to school with and I knew her name. I knew it, but she kind of reminds me of another girl and they're both distinct people and I straight up called her the wrong name. And I knew I did that and so I continued to do it and I never corrected it and I knew, the entire time I called her this wrong name, that I was wrong.
Speaker 4:So does that go with your embarrassing story that?
Speaker 2:is one of those, because if I wasn't, sitting here getting the best.
Speaker 4:I would have this heat run over me about how that happened.
Speaker 3:That's funny. I wish that I could share my story, but it's not PG-13, so yeah, and that's it for our quick pitch. Good.
Speaker 2:Believe it or not, after just week six, episode six, we have sponsors lining up right now in the email.
Speaker 4:Knocking on our door, yes, paparazziing us when we walk out of the house.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, it's very difficult, so we're going to pause for just a second for our sponsor. Today's episode of Don't Suck Life, family and Softball is brought to you by us. That's right, folks, we try to get a big name sponsor, but apparently yelling, don't we try to get a big name sponsor, but apparently yelling don't suck at a person, isn't the best sales pitch.
Speaker 4:So we're sponsoring ourselves, because if we don't believe in this podcast, who will?
Speaker 3:Do you love softball, family, questionable life advice? Then don't suck, is the show for you. Tune in weekly for game breakdowns, hot takes and at least one embarrassing story that Madison will regret sharing.
Speaker 4:And, best of all, it's completely free. That's right. You can enjoy this premium, high-quality entertainment at absolutely no cost. No subscriptions and no hidden fees, just good old family fun and maybe a few sarcastic remarks.
Speaker 3:Don't suck Life, family and softball, because life's too short for bad podcasts.
Speaker 2:Available wherever you get your podcasts. And if you don't listen, well, just know, we're not mad, we're just disappointed. Week 6, madison, march 25th to the 27th Y'all traveled over to St Paul's. Got the win. Yep got the win 7-2. You were 0-4, reach on air in a fielder's choice, but you went 7 innings, 6 hits, 0 earned runs. You had 14 strikeouts. You gave up 1 walk, 121 pitches. Pretty good performance there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, pretty good.
Speaker 2:You got to face an old teammate or current teammate, travel ball teammate, lifelong friend Emily Lockhart. You had her in the first inning. She hit a driller down third base.
Speaker 4:Reach on air. Reach on air.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, if Emily gets on base, she's going to score.
Speaker 4:She is scoring.
Speaker 2:And then she got a hit off of you in the third inning, I believe, and she had a double. We had a throw on air and, of course, she's going to score, she scored again. So that was your two runs there. Pretty outstanding performance. You also had a personal new high speed. You got clocked we don't ever clock you and honestly it was three or four miles an hour faster than what I thought you threw. Yeah, so I was pretty impressed with that.
Speaker 4:I was very surprised.
Speaker 2:We knew you were throwing tough or throwing hard Me and Coach Gary from the Bombers. He came and showed up and he said man, she's dishing it, she's throwing hard today. And somebody walked over and said hey, check this out. So pretty impressive performance. Then y'all went to Fairhope on Thursday, two days later, unfortunately, again you got the ball, I and you got the ball I hate that. I wish you could have had a little break.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did lose 4-7. Yep, but you went five innings. You gave up three hits with zero earned runs. That's a pretty good hitting team.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So you did have three walks in the game. You went 0-3 with a walk or with a strikeout. Pretty nice week. Twelve innings, zero earned runs, yeah, against two really good teams Impressive. I looked for you to possibly be nominated for a top performer this week. We'll have to see what happens.
Speaker 4:We'll see.
Speaker 2:Yep Total for your season. Your batting average has unfortunately went down. You're at 348.
Speaker 4:Not too bad, but lower than my goal.
Speaker 2:I'm seeing the twirl down. You've also had 14 Ks. You're four away from your 18 goal.
Speaker 4:Don't have much room for error anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and ERAs went down. You're at 2.4. You're hoping to get a 1.5. And what a nice stat here 70 strikeouts you've had. That's crazy. Yep, pretty impressive. And you also are at 1,081 pitches at this point, halfway through.
Speaker 4:Which I think is pretty high compared to at least last year. I don't think I was well. I'm pretty sure I got to 1,000-something at some point, but I'm getting really close to where I was last year and we're just halfway.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I personally like to see pitchers get a lot of time off if we have enough pitching or splitting innings. Yeah, splitting or splitting games you know four, three.
Speaker 4:Because you can go three innings, split it and you feel fine, but you throw that whole seven innings the next day. Your arm is sore.
Speaker 2:And kind of coming off of this week. You went about two weeks without pitching live.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know you're trying to recover from the finger injury, which turned out to be pretty good for you. And then look at you come out fresh and then a new PR too. There's something to that. Yeah, having some time off, but a little shout out here Something that was pretty cool that we've seen posted Madeline Bird, with Baldwin County, pitched 1,000 strikeouts.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:I remember a couple weeks ago you had said in the quick pitch questions that you and it was a question about something that makes you feel good is when your teammates are genuinely excited for you. I'll have to see if her parents or her family won't. Let us share this video to our Facebook.
Speaker 4:But you can see the genuine excitement for her. That team is excited for her, yeah, and what an awesome kid.
Speaker 2:We've known her for kind of ever from the background.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Coach Jake is her uncle, which is Madison's hitting coach. So real proud of you, kid. She's headed to Florida Atlantic.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean, what a dream kind of college. You know if you're going to go somewhere, like man, it's beautiful. I remember when they went on their tour, jake had told me how beautiful it was and I started looking at the campus. Man.
Speaker 4:Is there a beach around there? I'm sure there's a beach, yeah.
Speaker 2:Beach every day Sounds like the life. Yep, and then also I want to bring up this too Carlin Pickens throws a 78.2 mile an hour fastball, breaking the record I believe that was previously set with, I know, monica Abbott, I think somebody else. Maybe she was tied or maybe she was number one, yeah that's insane. So 78.2, the numbers that I see say that's somewhere between 109 and 115 miles an hour for a baseball pitch. That's incredible, that's scary. There's zero opportunity for you to think.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, you just got to know if you're going to swing at it before the pitch is thrown, I guess.
Speaker 2:I will say this you throw that ball to me. I'll show you what 600 feet looks like, Whatever.
Speaker 4:On that, you go to contact. If you touch the ball, it's going. Yeah, that's true, you hit it solid at contact. Goodbye.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so pretty cool. I know people will try to compare baseball and softball together, but I don't think any of us really want to see that speed the fastest. I know in our area that I've heard rumor I haven't personally seen it to believe it was 70-71.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now I know, this kid's a killer too, so I don't doubt that she throws this.
Speaker 4:But I mean, that's fast yeah, and that's eight miles, almost eight, seven miles per hour, faster it's. It's a big difference between that.
Speaker 2:so looking around the area, so last week we played mgm right and right and they found their bats. I know we didn't give up many air runs, but they hit the ball hard. Well then they went on this week to go 5-1 for the week and they beat Spanish 4, 8-2. They also beat out the area team Bryant 1-0. So definitely, looking at MGM, there They've turned the season around for themselves. Bryant beat Sarah Lynn 5-2. Sarah Lynn's got a lot of talent. And then they obviously lost to MGM, which is a close game, 1-0, pitcher's battle. You know, I don't know who threw that game. You also have, well, you have Moo Ladner and you have Aubrey who is kind of their up-and-comer. This year she's had an outstanding season. And then they lost to Baldwin County, spanish Fort and Fairhope. So kind of a hard week for them. But again their area, we know we're going to see them.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Pretty exciting stuff for this week, Looking forward to get week seven started. I mean we're at the halfway mark now.
Speaker 3:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:so before we uh get out of here, caught in a rundown, let's get into it.
Speaker 3:Do when stats and results define who you are too much?
Speaker 4:for me personally? I don't think they do. I mean, I kind of not really worry, but I do look at my stats and think about them and, as I shouldn't, I do compare myself like to other people's stats, but I don't really think that it kind of affects me in other in the ways that others do oh yeah.
Speaker 3:How do you balance being competitive with protecting your confidence and mental health?
Speaker 4:I try and not let the outcomes of the games affect me for too long. I mean, obviously it sucks whenever you don't win or you have a bad game, but I try and just let it go and just move on to the next one. Work harder for the next time we play them, or you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I feel like what's done is done, so just sitting there dwelling on it is only hurting you nobody else.
Speaker 4:It's not like you can go back and change it.
Speaker 3:Exactly what happens when you have a bad week. Do you feel like a failure or just an athlete having a moment?
Speaker 4:It depends. But a lot of times after the games I'll kind of feel like if I really feel like I did that bad, like dang that kind of sucked, like if I really feel like I did that bad, like dang that kind of sucked, and I feel like a failure, but I don't really let it hang around too long and usually by the next day it's kind of out of my mind and I just let it go yeah, is the pressure to always perform, creating players who lose their love for the game?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I feel like we see it a lot. A lot of people end up quitting eventually, or they stop playing travel ball and just play school ball, or vice versa, whatever, because there's so much pressure on you being able to perform at your best. But a lot of people don't like they forget that we're all just human and we all make mistakes and we can't be our 100 perfect best every single game, every single play.
Speaker 2:So I think that's part of the struggle with softball being your identity. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:Do athletes at this level feel free to fail, or is there a fear of letting everyone down, such as your coaches, parents and teammates?
Speaker 4:I think for just about everybody there's a fear to fill. You get to a point where you're in the game and you're nervous for the ball to get hit to you, because if it gets hit to you you don't want to miss it or you don't want to drop it. And then when you're in the batter's box, you're worried about you're at bat, because if you strike out or if you hit a ground ball, you feel like you're a failure and it's going to be the end of the world because your coaches are going to be mad at you. And if it's like that for the team that you're on, you probably should go find a new team. But they're out there. You'll find people who will have your back.
Speaker 2:Yep, and you know, if that's what you're struggling with, that's where you need to work on even yourself. You need to change your mindset, find a way to get through that.
Speaker 4:yeah, something that coach car we should have y'all do was like the middle. Remember like the middle swings. Yeah, imagine this. It'd be like you've laid in your bed for 15 minutes a night. Close your eyes and imagine you hitting the ball.
Speaker 3:Yeah, can you truly be confident without being perfect?
Speaker 4:I think you can. Once you start doing things over and over and you're playing in games a lot and you're starting to see little things that you do that are slowly progressing like for me, over the past few years, I've gotten a lot more confident when it comes to pitching and being in tough situations and being able to get out of them, whether it be bases loaded or we're losing and we get out of a tough ending. It just kind of boosts your confidence a little bit and it helps you feel like, oh, I can actually do it, like I'm not terrible, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:Hey, do y'all remember, like in 10, 12, you when you would load the bases up like from walks and stuff and then every play was at home, yeah?
Speaker 4:Or like I home, yeah. Or like I'll watch brooke play and ate you, and they're like, okay, everybody scoot up the place at home and they hit it right to the pitcher and it's like there you go and I've seen you in some big, you know bases loaded situations and uh, I mean, hey, we've had a couple already this season yeah where's the line drawn between identity and ability?
Speaker 4:I think that your identity shouldn't rely on your ability. You are who you are as a person and how you handle things is kind of your identity. But your ability is the way you're able to kind of like how you perform, but that shouldn't be your identity in all cases, you know.
Speaker 3:If you had a bad season, who would you be and how would you want people to see you?
Speaker 4:I would want people to see me as somebody who, like, keeps trying even though they're failing. You know, after having a lot of bad at bats or not very good outings on the mound, somebody who will still go to practice and give the same effort they gave when they were winning all these games or going three for three each at bat. I don't want it to be something. I wouldn't want people to see me as somebody who, once they started failing, they just kind of gave up and didn't care anymore. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:So I have, I guess, maybe a little bit tougher question. So we've been making these episodes and you know, kind of going through your stats, is there any pressure for you now, knowing that your stats are out there, kind of echoed through the world, that there's 20 people out there right now that's listening to you? Is that something you think about at the forefront of your head, or is it?
Speaker 4:I don't really think about it too much. I mean, we're writing it down and I see like, oh, my stats are going up, like my track routes are going higher, or I'm walking more people, and it's kind of like dang, I wish I could have put out a little bit better stats for the week. But also, when I think about it, there's a bunch of people out there whose stats are worse than mine not that mine are like terrible, because my stats really aren't that bad but there's people out there who are going over for every game, people out there who are walking five batters a game, people who are giving up five earned runs a game. So it's like me putting this out. There is people who are really struggling and feeling that they're not doing good or letting people down. It's like, hey, well, she's not having her best season either. So I mean I can't sit on it too much, I'm just going to try harder. Or other people are going through this too, so it's not just me.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm not saying you're in a bad season. I just wonder, when you go up to the plate, if there's somewhere in your brain that you're thinking like God if I strike out, that's another, that's another notch on the. You know the bat and you know we're going to talk about it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I do know like we're going to talk about it, and sometimes I'll even be in the dugout. You could ask my friends in the dugout. I'm like, oh well, there's me three more strike. You know, and it's not that me striking out is funny, but I try and take it very light and not think like, oh my gosh, I literally just struck out three times which, yes, that happens after my strikeout as soon as I swing the bat and I didn't touch it. I'm like, oh my gosh, you're joking me. I just struck out again like that's like 500 this season. What are you doing, madison? But then when I after the game maybe I got a hit that game or maybe I didn't Maybe I went 0 for 3. And it's kind of like, well, it's over now. I'm just going to hit in the cage a little bit more for the next game. Hopefully I have a better outcome.
Speaker 2:And I think there's some approaches that we need to work on. I kind of see some areas that you're struggling with I won't speak openly about it on the podcast, it on the podcast and even pitching. I see stuff that um, that that we have to come through, yeah, um, but I was. I have thought, you know, the last couple of weeks, is this something that might be bothering her a little bit in her head? Not that you've showed that, but I mean, when I was 16, I don't think I could have handled coming on a podcast which didn't exist, you know 500 years ago and said hey, I sucked this past week or I did great this past week, because I only want to talk about the highs.
Speaker 2:When I was your age, we were different. I mean just you know watching you. You are a completely different kid and it's fun to watch and I hope people who are out there get to listen to her talk realize just how tough this kid is that's sitting across from me. She is. Well, I'll help you all understand. We're not six weeks behind, we're live and we're catching up to where we're at. So this kid has been able to see where her numbers are. From the start. She knew that when she told y'all she wanted to be under 18 strikeouts, madison knew she had 13. That's huge. So I think that speaks a lot to your character and and I'm excited for you. And you know, we talk, we talk. I've said it a thousand times, softball doesn't identify who you are, but I'm sure somewhere in there there's a part of that that feels that way A lot.
Speaker 4:I mean it's really hard. It's some. It's really hard. It's literally something that I've grown up doing since I was what? Four years old, and it's been a part of pretty much my everyday life. And it feels like sometimes, when you have a bad game or you have bad practice, it's like, well, my whole day is ruined. You know, it's something. It's really hard to get out of that mindset and it's OK, well, practice was bad. But that doesn't mean that the rest of my day has to be bad, you know, or like my game was bad. That doesn't mean that I have to go to school tomorrow and be taking in all those feelings and not want to like talk to people because I had a bad game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well and I think you do a really good job with that I've felt like I've dealt with a little bit of stress from this season just from adding the podcast to it, and it's not purposely. It's that I want people to have an opportunity to see the best of you.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so coming on here and highlighting your lows, like we do joke about that and we're going to do it. Nothing's going to change that, but it is tough. It's tough to say look, you just had the most outstanding pitching week that we could talk about on paper. Yeah, 12, 12 innings of no-worm runs. That's incredible. It's really good competition. There's still areas that we could get better at, and so, kind of looking at what we have to do, we know that we're struggling with a certain pitch. Now it kind of got to where you're struggling with the pitch, now you're struggling between the ears.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we have to figure out that part of it. And so just a couple little notes, things that I wrote down here is and this is kind of the healthier perspective of dealing with these things If you're dealing with where softball is your only identity, then we need to get you to engage in activities outside of the sport to kind of develop who you are, and that's everyone out there. If softball is the only thing you are, find another hobby too. You know Madison also plays disc golf. You know, over the past we've hit disc golf, we fish, like it's kind of having a whole different personality.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And where in the past, it has been nothing but softball, Because when you're younger, I mean heck, we play every weekend.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you don't get a break.
Speaker 2:And you know now it's nice to kind of have two weekends off, three weekends off, I mean you're still practicing and trying to get better, but you're not at the ballpark for 12, 15 hours.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you can go to the beach, go to your friend's birthday party.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you know which is a bit ridiculous. Go to your friend's birthday party sometimes you know which is a bit ridiculous. I do want to talk about that. In future, episodes about kind of, I think, travel ball might be just too much.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's fun when they're eight. It's fun when they're 10. It's important that they get all these reps in, but I think we have lost the focus of what this game is about.
Speaker 4:I've started to think well, like travel ball tournaments whenever you go, which usually in travel ball you have a few more pitchers, you know. But you go and you play all day. Like you play, how many games is it? Like? Sometimes you'll play six games a day, you know, and then you go out the next day and play six more, and then in school ball you play one game a day and you're like dang, I'm worn out, I'm worn out. And then you look at college and in college you're only playing one game usually. So on rare occasion you play two. But it's crazy to think that we got there, we would got there almost every weekend, play 10 games, maybe 12 games of in two days, and then you go to college in like two years and then you're only playing one game. Like how it's so much different, you know.
Speaker 2:Think about too when you're in college, in the advance you know we talk about earlier. You know what's harder being a pitcher or being a hitter. I mean in college you are really only seeing the plate. You know five, six times that week, possibly Maybe more, but for sure at night three or four times, a couple times a week.
Speaker 4:You have a really small chance.
Speaker 2:But we're in travel ball. You're seeing the plate 20 times that day, yeah, and so there's a lot of opportunity there. So another great episode. This is something that we'll definitely get deeper in as time goes on, and I think travel ball will be a topic that we discuss real soon and maybe bring some people on and kind of help talk that, because having a kid now that's 16, and someone who we were involved every weekend and never stopped and every day and practices and practice that, and now having a nine-year-old behind her and I, I have no concern with her. I mean, you know, if you look at Brooke now, compared to kids her age, no, she's not a mechanical as they are, but she's still strong, she's still smart, she kind of still sees the fun part of the game Madison.
Speaker 1:I mean, I remember, this is so stupid. We were 10 and 12 years old, worried about college?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it wasn't, because that's what we were focused on, that's what these coaches were echoing to us. I mean, what a stupid pressure that we put on ourselves. Yeah, and you know when we would go Showcase camps at 14 years old.
Speaker 1:No college coaches ever look at you?
Speaker 2:None of them. It was to get you ready for that opportunity when you got there, but why do we live there? So we'll definitely tackle that in future episodes. Again, thank y'all for tuning in Great episode. Y'all have anything.
Speaker 4:Just don't suck, thank you.