There is a huge stigma around what “number” pitcher you are, and “knowing your role.” I have pitchers of all ages come to me for the first time and say things like “Well, I’m not really a pitcher, I only pitch a little bit in games.” or “I’m the number 3.” My favorite is “I want lessons because I want to be the #1 pitcher, I don’t like being the #2.” All this hype and stress over a number.
 
Pitching has changed a lot since I played. (Which really wasn’t that long ago, I promise!) I was the only pitcher for my high school team. Thanks to the lovely NY weather, I was usually throwing 3 games a week, sometimes up to 5. My travel team growing up had other pitchers, but I still carried the bulk of the innings as the “#1.” As more and more research comes out about the underhand motion and how it affects the body there has been more of a push towards a staff or unit being created rather than a hierarchy of pitchers. Which, for the record, is a GREAT thing.
 
With my college pitchers I push a unit mentality. There is no one else on the field but the three of them that knows what it’s like to be in the circle pitching for the 2017 Rhodes College Softball Team. The three of them relate to each other better than they relate to anyone else on the field, including myself. They make each other better not only through competition but also just by showing support. They help to work drills in the bullpen with each other during a game if the pitcher in the game is struggling with a certain pitch. They talk to each other about adjustments they can make versus certain hitters. They talk about the scouting report. Even something as simple as offering a hug after a really rough day. At the end of the day, it is a team effort but their name is in the win or loss column, whether they deserve it or not. I’ve seen my pitchers this year throw the game of their lives and lose. In the same breath, I’ve seen my pitchers throw maybe some of the worst games of their college careers and come out in the win column. It takes a certain level of crazy to be able to mentally handle this concept. (and I’m allowed to say that as a pitcher!)
 
Pitchers, parents, and sometimes even coaches are programmed to worry about what “number” pitchers are. It is what it is, I was the same way. It’s up to all three parties to change this culture. Players need to change their mentality. Coaches need to foster an environment where unity is valued within a staff. Parents need to push their pitchers, if you want more playing time then work hard and earn it.
 
Coaches…
 
1.) Talk about it! I can think of three specific times this past year alone where I sat the staff down and we talked about how they weren’t acting like a staff and what we could do to change that. I would also point out positive things they did to act like a staff, or suggest different things they could do throughout practice or games. It was amazing to watch the transformation as my junior and sophomore pitcher started to mentor the freshman.
 
2.) If you post a line up with a starting/relieving pitcher on it, say starter or reliever rather than 1 and 2.
 
3.) If you throw live during practice or scrimmage within your own team, switch up who pitches when rather than having the same pitcher “start” every time.
 
4.) “Practice” how to change pitchers in a game….I know, it sounds crazy. Our head coach does not go out to the circle when he makes a pitching change, and one of our pitchers mentioned that it makes her feel awkward. That turned into a conversation about what she can change when that happens, because he isn’t going to come out to the circle, it just isn’t his style. The conversation evolved into instead of pitchers changing each inning during one of our team scrimmages I would just choose a time when I wanted them to switch and send a new pitcher out mid inning. They became more comfortable with it, and learned how to show more support to each other as well.
 
Parents…
 
1.) When your daughter starts to talk in numbers, don’t let her! Talk about how she threw during the innings she got that day or weekend. Talk about what she can do differently if she wants more pitching time. Talk about what day that week you can practice pitching after work with her.
 
2.) If you daughter truly has a problem with playing time, talk to her about how to talk to her coach about it. A conversation that starts with “Why am I not playing?” will probably not end well. Roll play with her if she genuinely does want to talk to her coach about it. Questions like          
              - What can I improve on?
            - Do you have any extra drills I can do at home?
            - Can you work with me before or after practice sometime this week?
can all help shape a conversation that ends with a coach thinking “Wow, this kid wants to get better” instead of “Ugh here we go again, someone complaining about playing time.”
 
3.) Be realistic. This might be the hardest thing to do, I struggle with it sometimes too because I want the young pitchers I work with to succeed so badly. Did your daughter just start pitching a few months ago? She’s probably not going to be pitching 3 games a weekend already. Did your daughter not prepare well over the Winter and Spring? She’s probably not where she needs to be to compete and be dominating right now. Is your daughter the youngest pitcher on her team? There are probably/possibly older pitchers with more experience. Talk about all of these things with your daughter! Encourage her that if she works hard good things will come.
 
Pitchers…
 
1.) If you have the ball, you’re the number one. Let me say it again….If YOU have the ball, YOU’RE the NUMBER ONE. So act like it! I don’t care if you’ve thrown 2 innings all season, if you are in the circle and the ball is in your hand in that moment you are the number one pitcher on your team. Carry yourself with confidence, and if you don’t have it then fake it! There are 7 people in the field behind you who see your facial expression every time you turn around after getting the ball back from your catcher. Do you instill confidence in them, or make them nervous? Each play starts and ends with the ball in your hands…that’s a big responsibility.
 
2.) Be positive and supportive. So you aren’t getting the innings you want or think you deserve, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t support the pitcher in the circle 100%. Think about how you want the other pitchers on your team to act when you get to pitch. Wouldn’t you feel more confident knowing that the other people who know what it’s like to be in your shoes are excited for you?
 
3.) Work harder. Work harder during warm ups, during practice, at home, at pitching lessons, just work harder. If you aren’t satisfied with your playing time there is not one pitcher at any level that can’t work harder to get better. Your opportunity comes at practice, not in games. Games are the “extra” part. It is a privilege to step on a field and play softball, you owe it to the game to work as hard as you can.
 
 

1.) I came to Memphis as a private pitching instructor, and am leaving Memphis as a pitching, catching, hitting, and slapping private lesson instructor. I didn’t start out planning to expand my private instruction, but with the need in the area I was all about it! While nervous at first to try something new, I have grown to love working with young women in all facets of the game. “Quincy Lewis: Pitching Lessons” just doesn’t fit what I do anymore!
 
2.) I have finally found a name that can grow with me as I move through phases of my coaching career and my life. Whether I am able to give 5 private lessons or 25, I still want to be able to share my passion, knowledge, and love of softball.
 
3.)Diamonds are the hardest known natural substance. Diamonds are unreactive under ordinary conditions, meaning that nothing can change their general make up. Only a diamond can cut another diamond. Diamonds represent the mental toughness that it takes to excel in athletics. Being the toughest and most dedicated you can be. When adversity strikes are you “unreactive” and stay focused? Or do you let the circumstances around you dictate how you feel and perform? As a player on a team you have the power to both tear your teammates down or build them up, which will you choose?
 
4.) Dynamics can be defined as the forces or properties that stimulate growth, development, or change within a system or process. This is EXACTLY what we do through the use of private instruction. Your softball career is an always evolving process and by taking part in private lessons you are pushing yourself to grow, develop, and change as not just an athlete but a young woman as well!

While at Head First Honor Roll Camp in California this past week I was asked to speak to the recruits and their parents during one of the camp meetings about anything I wanted (No pressure, right?). I decided to tell a little bit of my own recruiting story and give some advice that I should have listened to a long time ago. We talked about developing a philosophy as a player and why that is so incredibly important. As a coach you are expected to have a philosophy, actually most institutions won’t hire you if you don’t have one. The part that no one really talks about is how players need to develop a philosophy as well. How can you pick a softball program and know if you will work well within their philosophy and program if you don’t know what your own philosophy is? Sit down and think about it. Think about all of the coaches you’ve played for and against, think about the college teams and coaches you love the most. Are there similarities in their philosophies? What about the differences? Do you want to play for an aggressive base running program or a program with big bats that hit everyone in? Do you want to swing at the first strike or take one to get comfortable? Do you like to play almost up the middle at second base or somewhere more in the middle? As a slapper do you want to power slap too or just soft slap? These are all things that you can ask in interviews with college coaches. But you have to know what your philosophy is before you can start asking questions about someone else’s, how else will you know if you could see yourself succeeding in that program? Take the time to write it down, define who you are as a player.
 
We take so much time picking a college and a softball program. The pressure to commit early is increasing by the year. I committed right after my sophomore season 8 years ago, and at the time it was considered early. Now, it’s completely normal to already have committed during freshman year. We all pick a school and are beyond excited to go on your official visit, meet your roommates, figure out everything you can before you get there. So, what happens when life takes a 180 when you get there? What happens when you start to feel like it might not be the place for you?
 
This isn’t really something I’ve ever talked openly about. I guess I’ve always been I little bit embarrassed of the decisions I made and why I made them. I think it’s important to share, even if it only resonates with one player or parent. Let’s start at the beginning. I was a sophomore getting recruited by a few different schools, some DI and some DII, there were scholarship offers involved and it seemed like all was going well to my 15-year-old brain…and then suddenly it wasn’t. I visited and fell in love with the College of the Holy Cross in Worchester, Massachusetts. They were DI, high academic, and competitive as a program and a school. The school itself was amazing, I fell in love the second I walked on campus. Small catch…at the time the Patriot League was not allowed to offer athletic scholarship, they could only offer merit and need based aid (so scholarship based on grades and family finances). Did I mention that Holy Cross cost $50,000 a year to attend? And that I wanted to be a teacher? I know what you’re thinking…those two things don’t exactly add up. So after a lot of tears and a lot of arguing with my parents that I would figure out how to pay almost $200,000 in college debt off, we moved on to look at other schools.
 
The recruiting process continued, I visited a few other schools. I was offered two “full rides.” In this case, they were both about 2/3 athletic scholarship and 1/3 academic scholarship…full athletic scholarships are a very rare thing as most programs do not have the funding to offer them. Caldwell College (NJ) and Long Island University-Post (NY), both good schools and both good programs. So why look anymore? I had two options to go to college for free. Most of you know that I picked Post and went on to start my career there. I stopped looking because I saw dollar signs. I picked a school that I liked, but didn’t love. That had a great softball program and that was successful, but wasn’t the style of program I was used to. It was also in an area that was nothing like where I grew up and I wasn’t overly comfortable with. I went on my official visit during their Homecoming Weekend and was beyond overwhelmed and started to second guess my decision. But it was free and they were a winning program, so September rolled around and off I went.
 
My freshman year was rough, to put it nicely. My classes were easy and I was bored a lot of the time. I wasn’t finding a lot in common with my teammates, which wasn’t anyone’s fault, we were just from different worlds. I was the kid who worked crazy hours all summer to be able to have money during the year while they had their parents’ credit card and could do and buy whatever they wanted. I didn’t have much time outside of softball to make other friends or participate in other activities. I wasn’t finding the joy in softball like I did before I got to college, it was feeling more and more like a job. I wasn’t eating, I actually lost 20 pounds my freshman year going from 135 to 115 at 5’7”. I genuinely think I was depressed, which is a hard thing to come to terms with. We did well that year, earning an at large bid to the NCAA regionals and losing in the championship game. I led the conference in saves and loved being a closer. I went home for the summer and started to think about what I wanted to do the next year.
 
Once I was home it was easy to start rationalizing why I was unhappy my freshman year. It’s freshman year…it’s hard for everyone…maybe it was just because it was a new place…I know everyone now, so sophomore year should be better. So off I went again in September, back to Long Island. It was a little better, I found clubs I could join that didn’t require a lot of time commitment, met new friends through them that weren’t athletes, I took more classes and tried to challenge myself by adding a minor. I had worked to gain weight over the summer and was keeping it on even when I was stressed. I was still pitching well and closing games, leading the national in saves at multiple points throughout the season. We had a great year, with the opportunity to play at the World Series. Our post-season continued almost a month after finals. So I was on campus with just our team and a few others, with just softball to think about. No classes, no other friends, nothing to keep busy but practices. I starting to think more and more about transferring as the post-season came closer and closer to the World Series. I wish I could say there was one thing that made up my mind, but it was really just a lot of little things that built up into a feeling of not belonging. We went to the World Series, lost two games and came home. We drove 8 hours home from Virginia, I talked to my coach as soon as we got off the bus, he agreed to give me release papers to transfer with the stipulation that I could not play for another East Coast Conference school. I packed up my car, and drove until 1AM that night to get home, never really looking back or regretting my decision.
 
 
So then what? I had just signed away two more years of free tuition at Post, with no idea where I was headed or what to do. I got home, and my parents weren’t happy at first…I mean who would be with all of the variables up in the air. Eventually they warmed up to the idea of transferring, since going back to Post wasn’t really an option anymore I guess they kind of had to. I reached out to my sister’s travel ball coach for some advice, and he started to help me find schools that were looking for a transfer pitcher. Starting the whole process over again researching schools, talking to coaches, planning visits...I felt like a failure. At 20 I was supposed to be getting excited to be an upperclassman and want to fast forward through summer, not be looking for a new home. Shippensburg University was the first school I visited, and ended up being the last as well. There was no full scholarship, there was little hope of a deep run into post season, and the facilities were that of a state school. The coach was honest and caring, and I liked the girls that I met on my visit. The school was exactly what I was looking for academically, known for their challenging teacher education program and opportunities academically are what sold me on the school. That summer I had the opportunity to do it all over again, the entire recruiting process. This time around there were a few less restrictions, as a transfer I could talk to coaches whenever I wanted through email, text, or on the phone which was really nice. I started to define who I was as a player, really what my philosophy was (and is still pretty close to today as a coach), and what I knew I had to have in a program. Shippensburg offered a lot of the things I was looking for in a program -athletically, socially, and academically. So off I went the following September. It was a great fit, I loved the school, I had time to be involved in my major, it’s where I started giving pitching lessons seriously, it was great. It was a perfect fit to the point where as a senior when my shoulder finally gave up on the whole softball thing, I was still extremely happy with my college experience after I couldn’t play anymore.

Take softball out of the equation. Pretend you don’t work your butt off and love it and all those things that make you a great softball player. If you applied to X school just to go to school there, would you still love it? If you get hurt and can’t play anymore will you still love where you’re at? You go pro in whatever your major is, there are very few of us that will go pro in softball. If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life, whether you’re 19 on a softball field or 36 going to work every day in the real world.