Ever since I learned how to talk and walk, I played softball. It didn’t matter if it was a game during recess or during the championships of my Allen Sports Association (ASA) team, I played softball. During the summer of my fifth grade year, my friends and I decided that we would try out for the high school team as freshmen, but when the time came, I was not ready. The spring before my freshman year in high school, I had broken my thumb, ironically playing softball; it was the prime time for my undefeated ASA team, Crush, to literally crush our opponents, but I didn’t even get to play one game. Later on, during summer, my cast finally came off and I was excited to get back into the scheme of softball. My friends and I were like the characters …show more content…
of The Sandlot; we met up every summer to play softball in an open field. However, bad luck struck when most of my friends went out of town for vacation and we didn’t have enough players, which meant that I didn’t get the chance to play an actual game of softball in six months, which is like a lifetime in softball-time. On top of that, I was a little apprehensive about the upcoming tryouts, I had never tried out in front of other people before. I was out of shape, somewhat lazy, and skittish about my ability to try out. In order to ensure my success at the tryouts, I planned out a whole agenda of exercises that would prepare me for any neon-yellow ball that is thrown my direction from the end of July to the start of school.
My days began with going to the gym early in the mornings and going to the park to practice my batting swings and catches in the evening. I even managed to save up some allowance money to spend on the high school’s softball summer camps. However, my time fell short, and the day of the infamous tryouts had begun. My rambling thoughts were running bases through my head. How will I try out in front of hundreds of other girls? Will they laugh at me? Would I even make it? Will my friends make it? While my anxiety got the better of me, the head coach yelled out my name, and I slowly and steadily walked up to the batting box, and got ready for the pitcher to toss a fastball at me. Time slowed down as I anticipated the pitch; my fingers almost lost the grip on my bat waiting, but then, I saw the softball coming my way. I took a deep breath, and I hit it as hard and as fast as I could; it made it all the way to the outfield. I stood there shocked that I could do that, grinned ear to ear, and did a little happy dance on my way back to the line. My friends were celebrating and came up to high-five me when I got to the end of the line, and the varsity first basemen, a celebrity in my eyes, came up and complimented me on how far I hit the softball. A varsity member had spoken to me.
Me, of all people! All that work really did pay off, or so I thought. In the end, I didn’t make the cut. I was disappointed, but I cheered for my friends who did make it on the team. I learned a valuable lesson that if you try hard enough, you can achieve your goals (or maybe not in my case), but you can’t go down without a fight. In my case, not making the team could’ve been a sign to go explore my other interests and hobbies.
I have played softball ever since the tee ball days. It has been a sport that I have grown to love and couldn’t imagine not playing. The way I have grown up playing softball has changed tremendously from the time it was 1st created in 1887 on Thanksgiving Day. The first time this game was even thought of was when a group of excited men threw a boxing glove to another man who swung a broom trying to hit the boxing glove, like a bat hitting a ball. This group of men, who were all apart of the Farragut boat club, decided they would turn this into a game of their own and softball was born. Although the name softball was not finally decided on until 1926. It was first called indoor baseball. Kitten baseball, or pumpkin ball. Softball didn't grow rapidly until 1933 a softball tournament was set up at the world fair. There were 55 teams in the invent and over 350,000 watching. The game of softball went crazy. Not just in the U.S., but all around the world.
The importance of softball in my life goes unnoticed by others, but I owe everything I am to this sport. I am an organized, cooperative woman who does not let failures affect my work ethic. Although my friends and family do not give my softball career much credit, I am confident that the lessons I’ve taken away from this sport have proficiently prepared me to step up to the plate and score a successful
I never played travel ball, only recreation softball so I've never actually been on a team that I tried out for. Over the summer I went to batting practice and fielding to get ready for the year. This is my year, I thought ready to tryout and make the team. The day came to where I had to show what I could do to the coaches. It took a while for the tryouts to actually commence because there was so much rain that week that it kept getting pushed back. This made more nervous, I just wanted to get it over with. I worked hard throughout the tryouts, but when I went up to bat I could not hit the ball. I tried many times but I couldn't do it. I felt terrible because everyone else hit great. I was embarrassed. I freaked out, this is what could ruin my chance to be on the team. Even then I still tried my
. Young, tall, and uncoordinated were the words that were often used to describe me as I started my softball career at 8 years old. . Catching, throwing, and hitting did not come easily, but I worked hard. By the age of 10, I was beginning to develop into a pitcher. Speed was my strength but I was unable to hit the strike zone. Batters were scared because they never knew if the ball would hit them. My uncoordinated body didn’t always do what my mind told it to and this was frustrating to me, but with practice it became better. As I learned how to control my body movements, my pitching became more controlled. Softball helped me find the connection between mind and body. Now, as a senior in high school, I have complete control of where I want the ball to go, how I want it to spin, and how fast I want it to go.
Many people choose to exercise at the gym, at home, or they participate in a sport. Research shows, “playing sports is the best physical activity that helps to improve the functional capabilities of body” (“Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight”). Playing sports, especially softball is beneficial to a person’s health, as shown by achieving better grades, maintaining healthy weight, building up self-esteem, and most importantly learning how to work together with others. Softball is “a sport similar to baseball played on a small diamond with a ball that is larger than a baseball and that is pitched underhand” (“Softball”). These benefits allow teenagers and adults to find out who they are and to use the strengths they learn from softball in the rest of their lives.
When I first started playing softball, I never thought I would be where I am today, which is finishing up my senior year of college and still playing softball. I started playing softball at the age of nine, with no skills and only knowledge from watching baseball on television, learning to play a new sport was challenging, but learning to play a sport with teammates was rewarding and tested my willpower and determination for the game. However, through tenacity, patience, hard work, and constantly practicing, my playing ability developed rapidly. Depending on what level of softball I was playing, we practiced anywhere from four to ten hours a week as a team, and individually I would put in two to three hours a day. Although practice didn’t make me perfect, it taught me to never give up and that if I wanted to live my dream as a college softball player, I was going to have to develop the work ethic to get there.
I have been play softball for almost 13 years. When I was young my grandpa got me into playing and ever since I loved it. Softball is not just a game to me it’s a passion. Over the years of playing I became great at almost every position. The only position I am not that good at is pitching but that okay because I am not a pitcher. You can put me anywhere on the field, I won’t complain. But the position I love to play more than others is catcher. I love the rush of making sure the ball doesn’t go past me or making sure the other team doesn’t advance to the next base.
Well despite all of that I did not give up I tried out again the next year which was my 11th grade year. This year we had got a new coach that really did not know nothing about high school softball, but he would do anything so we could have a softball team. I was the team captain but felt like I was the coach and a player all in one. I went to batting lesson somedays and tried to help my team improve their batting ability. I hit my first home run of the season and it did not count because one of my team mates touched me before I crossed home plate. I was also asked to play fall ball which gave me the opportunity to practice and help with the younger players to help improve their game. During one of my games I hit a grand slam I was so excited I received my game
Softball has impacted my life tremendously throughout the years. I first started playing softball at a very young age. My dad taught me everything he could about the game. He coached me till I was in the seventh grade. I took his knowledge of the game and tried to teach my other teammates. This earned me a captain spot my junior year. Softball has brought me very close to my dad as well as my coaches and teammates. I love the game so much I volunteered as the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade coach this summer. Coaching these girls the game of softball and some components of life was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I learned how hard it is to coach and teach. I gained a new respect for anyone that has taught me. I didn't realize
I have played softball since my freshman year. Before I entered high school I never played a sport because that was the culture of my household. Growing up my parents didn’t want me to play sports because they feared I would injure myself, and they worried that my teammates would not accept me dressed in my hijab. Still, I wanted to challenge myself and find a group of peers. I discovered I had a talent for the game, and I worked hard to develop it, going to practice at 6 o'clock in the morning and staying after school until 6 or 7 pm. Eventually, I earned my teammates respect and have been captain of the team for the last two years. I was also selected as one of the top 20 catchers in the city. Players and coaches from opposing teams are constantly
Life is full of many struggles. One struggle i have experienced is being afraid to play softball, because i didn’t have as much experience as others and I wasn’t as good as others. I first started playing rec softball when i was in sixth grade, which is pretty late. Of course, because i started playing so late, i wasn’t as good as everyone else. I was scared to play at first, and playing with people who were better, than me was very intimidating. As the year progressed, I got better and learned how to play the game. I obviously wasn’t the best player on the team, but I could keep up. In sixth grade, I was a pretty horrible batter, but i knew how to play in the field.
This was a forced writing that my digital literacy teacher told us to. On November 13 it is world kindness day and on that day we celebrate by helping someone or someone helping you. My first season of softball was a good season because I had a coach that expaned everything to me because I was clueless on how to hit, catch, throw, and field a ball, but once I learned I started to get the hang of things and go with the flow.
My mom had convinced me by saying that my grandma “would have wanted me to do it.” She had passed away the year before. I was apprehensive about playing in a harder, competitive league. I made the youngest team; most of the girls were in the 7th grade. The man in charge of Chi-Town, Coach Mike, had once told me “Cassie Shanks, now that is a softball name.” I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by it, but I took it as a compliment. Chi-Town kicked my butt in the beginning. They taught me how to throw and catch correctly (both hands!), how to turn my body to catch a fly ball, how to pick up a grounder and immediately turn to my side in order to throw it. They taught me discipline and how to work hard to get the results I wanted. It was like what Tom always told me, “practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and feel the pulsing throughout my body as I weakly clenched the bat in my fingers. No one, including myself, thought I would be stepping back onto the field so soon. I was a bald girl fighting cancer, yet refused to give up softball for any more time than the doctors forced me to. Softball allowed me to have control of one aspect of my life. Even if everything else was hectic, I knew I could go to the field and everything else would fade into the distance. As I aged, I struggled with having a lot of homework and attempting to still play softball. Even though softball became a stressor, it also taught me how to manage my time and priorities. It may have destroyed my love for the game, but I was able to walk away being responsible and realizing how precious time is.
If softball hasn’t been my entire life, it’s played an extremely large role in shaping nearly everything that has made me who I am today. I started at the age of seven, made my way through middle school, high school, eight years of year around travel ball, and now I’m currently playing in college. I have coached recreation league teams and the middle school team, when I was in high school, and I want to continue coaching after I graduate with an MBA in Sports Management.